Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman: The Man of Steel #115

Superman: The Man of Steel #115

Scheduled to arrive in stores: June 20, 2001

Cover date: August 2001

2001 Shield No. 32

Writer: Mark Schultz
Penciller: Doug Mahnke
Inker: Jose Marzan Jr.

"Metropolitan Rapture"

Reviewed by: Nick Newman (NNewman8283@yahoo.com)


The people of Metropolis sleep surrounded by an eerie light. Clark opens one eye, is shocked to find himself surrounded by dozens of people packed together. As he looks around trying to get his bearings, the other citizens start to wake up... and panic. Spotting a column, Superman uses it to climb up (trying to avoid exposing his powers) and takes a look around. He sees the entire population of Metropolis, and quickly searches out Lois, Maggie Sawyer, Jimmy, Perry, and Pat Dugan. Climbing down, Superman heads for Lois and the two unite amidst the chaos. He tells her how to find the others then heads away. As Clark leaves, huge creatures begin asking all meta-humans and city officials to present themselves. After a while, Superman finally finds a wall and, tearing through it, finds a tunnel.

Kal finds a lone alien watching a screen. He quickly subdues the extra-terrestrial and dons his uniform when a bulkhead slides away exposing a window to outerspace. The room is suddenly filled with aliens, bearing down on Superman.

Back with the Metropolis population, Lois approaches the aliens and tells them that they are humans, and they have certain needs to attend to. The aliens regard her as the first reasonable voice, and ask her what they need.

Superman battles the aliens, but they just keep coming. Attempting to draw the battle away from the ship, he heads outside. The aliens follow but then quickly begin to fire on him. Most of their shots, however, hit the ship instead. He quickly spins and begins to repair the ship, but is stopped by the ship's masters. Superman is confronted by Maxima, Massacre, Grayven, Mongal, Starfire, and Adam Strange. They quickly begin to argue, but Adam steps in and teleports himself and the Man of Steel from the ship.

In deep space, Adam Strange shows Superman the area that Imperiex has already conquered, a huge black void amidst the stars. He tells him that the people of Metropolis have been moved because Metropolis will be needed in the coming war. Superman understands and tells Adam to tell the people of Metropolis that he is watching out for them and 'Beef Bourgignon with ketchup'. Adam then teleports Superman back to Metropolis.

Superman is shocked to see alien ships traversing the skyline. Metropolis is under alien control. He heads skyward when suddenly a booming sound fills the air. A tell-tale sign of a boom tube fades away, Apokolips looms in the heavens. Darkseid tells Superman to hold his attack, for the ruler of Apokolips has come to save Earth, not destroy it.

4Story - 4: Another good intro to "Our Worlds At War", but I am really wanting the actual storyline to start. Too much intro can ruin the actual point of the story. I liked the appearance of the alliance, and Massacre's appearance was certainly a surprise (has he appeared since 1994 when he disappeared?) [Editor: Massacre appeared with Maxima soon after Superman's first battle against Imperiex back in Superman #159]. The mix of aliens in the group was nice. I also liked Darkseid finally showing up. He has been out of the Superman books for far too long. I liked it, but I would really like the story to get going.

4Art - 4: I feel like Mahnke stepped his style down a notch this issue and I appreciated it very much. The characters looked slightly more 'normal' than they have been. The aliens were well done, as Mahnke's always are, and Darkseid looked very nice, as did Apokolips.

3Cover Art - 3: Superman looks horrible, his face in particular, but other than that I like the cover. Darkseid is there and Apokolips looks good. I would like it more if the alliance leaders were on it though.


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Mild Mannered Reviews

2001

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

January 2001

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