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Superman: Metropolis #9

Superman: Metropolis #9

Scheduled to arrive in stores: October 15, 2003

Cover date: December 2003

Writer: Chuck Austen
Penciller: Teddy Kristiansen
Inker: Teddy Kristiansen

"Urban Jungle"

Neal Bailey Reviewed by: Neal Bailey (bailey.neal@comcast.net)



Across Metropolis, crime increases as the lights go out...the B13 is on the fritz, as Rebecca Muldoon, Sledge, and Killgrave are fighting for control.

At the Planet, Perry wants to know what is going on...he seeks Kent, and when Lois indicates that she doesn't know where he is, he asks about Olsen.

Cut to Jimmy, bedside with Rebecca Muldoon's body. She's in pretty bad shape.

In his private lab, Killgrave interacts with a buxom AI to try and interface with the Metropolis B13.

In the hospital waiting area, Jimmy Olsen is startled by Creeper, who asks him how Rebecca is. Jimmy tells him, but Creeper reacts with his customary insanity. Creeper then hints that a good way to deal with the situation might be to have Rebecca use Lena's intelligence and the B13 tech. Jimmy walks off.

Meanwhile, Killgrave's AI informs him of Rebecca and Sledge's presence and offers to squash them.

Jimmy sits and waits for Rebecca to wake up. She doesn't. The watch starts to speak...it's Rebecca, and she doesn't know where she is. Jimmy explains, and encourages her to find a way to heal herself.

In the park, a couple makes out underneath a tree. They are about to go farther when three tigers approach them, released from the zoo.

In an apartment, a couple embraces near their child as evil looking men come to the door.

At the park, the man sends the woman away, not seeing the sense of having them both die.

Jimmy pleads with Rebecca to find the program, and Rebecca starts figuring it out.

The woman who ran away from the tigers sees her boyfriend murdered, and a bear approaches her from behind.

Muldoon starts to heal herself, but Killgrave comes through the watch, telling Jimmy that he has control of the tech and is deleting Rebecca. Her heart stops.

3Story - 3: This is still a top comic of the Superman mythos right now, but this issue had some problems.

Unlike its compatriots, save Superman/Batman, this comic is still consistent. There were no plotholes, there was nothing in there extraneous. This story was just a little stretched is all.

It was my complaint with one of the issues a while back. While it is good to extrapolate, let's not go a place we've been before or a place that is boring or irrelevant. ANOTHER crazy conversation with Creeper? I mean, I know he tips Jimmy off that he has to use the B13 with Rebecca, but did it have to take three pages? And why a whole page for Jimmy to wait on Rebecca? It made the comic seem like time was being wasted. And Killgrave and his crazy sexpot? Well, that was interesting, to be sure, but I'm not positive it couldn't have been more brief. One of these days, just for the heck of it, I'll have to condense the script on one of these and send it to Eddie. Or maybe fix one of the main titles, and actually make the Candidate interesting, eh? I think it can be done.

This issue goes from A to B, but it takes too long and it uses too many devices. I understand the need to show the severity of the situation in Metropolis, and it was neat to see the resuscitated baby again (I'm assuming that's who it was), but it took three pages to establish the lights were out and crime was rampant, and a whole full-on for Rebecca's condition, which we already knew from last issue.

Better than most stuff coming out right now, but this issue didn 't have anything particularly amazing. Average for a comic book.

2Art - 2: I know it's grim, gritty Superman, being Olsen and the trenches, and generally I've liked it, but this time we saw too many of the same images, largely because of the writing, I'm guessing, and the story it covered, but it suffered for it. Nothing really crazy. Even the lights in the city going out wasn't too amazingly dramatic, and nothing innovative really sprung out at me.

2Cover Art - 2: And the cover was just flat lousy, which is strange for this series as well. A big face doesn't really excite me, and Jimmy looks like some rough hewn Vulcan with the arch in his eye. And what's the point of Jimmy in Killgrave's eye, and a nearly blank cover. I mean, this is close to a no-backgrounder. I give one extra point because though there are words on the cover, they have a cool background. Check it out. It says madman underneath in the eyes of a madman. Subtle. And the logo? Still rocking compared to the other comics.

All in all, a general disappointment for the normally good Metropolis series.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2003

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

January 2003

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