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Mild Mannered Reviews - Superman Family Adventures Comics

Superman Family Adventures #9

Superman Family Adventures #9

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 30, 2013

Cover date: March 2013

"And Now... Brainiac!"

Writer: Art Baltazar and Franco
Artist: Art Baltazar

Reviewed by: Marc Pritchard

Click to enlarge



A man and his dog play Frisbee in the park. In the great city of Kandor. Miniaturized in its bottle in the Fortress of Solitude. Superman arrives, the man and the dog fly out of the bottle to speak with him, and they all agree that as soon as Superman can shrink himself to bottle size, he will visit the city.

Meanwhile, Brainiac has reached Earth and lands in Metropolis. He appears on the streets, strikes fear into all of the people and summons Lex Luthor from his secret underground lair. The two villains discuss the fact that Luthor has been using Brainiac's technology, which, according to Brainiac, will destroy the planet. Luthor, concerned that people will overhear them and "freak out," brings Brainiac into the lair, where Miss Tessmacher is none-too-impressed with the newly arrived conqueror, who also happens in certain curious respects to be Luthor's green and forehead-tattooed doppelgänger. It is soon revealed that Luthor knows about not only Superman but the entire Super Family, whereupon Brainiac gets excited, kidnaps Luthor for help and flies off in his ship to the Fortress of Solitude.

Over at the Daily Planet, Perry White has lost his mind in very suspicious ways, Lois Lane is looking for hamburgers at 9.00am and Clark Kent, at the sight of Brainiac's ship in the urban distance, dashes into action as Superman!

But Brainiac is not concerned: he blasts the approaching Man of Steel with a ray beam that turns our boy a periwinkle blue and compels him to ballroom dance with the coincidentally just-arrived Lois. When he snaps out of the moment, Superman realizes he was zapped with a new kind of Kryptonite, which according to Lois made him "temporarily fabulous." He disappears before she can complete the thought, though.

At the Fortress, Lara-El, lately released from the Phantom Zone, revels in her new powers, making all pinched cheeks and "you're so big" with Supergirl and Superboy until Bizarro does his version of the same with her. Then Brainiac arrives, Lara gives him hell for behaving so monstrously and tells him that Jor-El, Brainiac's creator and Superman's father, would be disappointed. Brainiac's petulant response is to fire his growth ray at her but she and the rest of the Family gets out of the way and it strikes the little Kryptonian bug, which promptly increases so much in size it smashes through the ceiling of the Fortress. They all fight, Superboy wonders aloud where Superman is, Supergirl agrees they could use his help and, just as Luthor is about to use the shrinking ray to defeat them all, Superman appears and punches Brainiac's ship so hard it crashes to the ground.

Brainiac is simply incensed and lets everyone know about it before Lara reminds him his "father" would not approve. That kind of talk gets the entire Family's quizzical attention but Brainiac isn't having any of it. He throws Supes into the giant bug, which pins our boy beneath one of its many hands and/or feet. The bug now has Lara, Superboy, Supergirl and Superman subdued, but along comes Bizarro to hoist the bug and shake loose the Family to allow them all to descend once more on Brainiac, who shouts to Luthor to hit them with the shrinking ray. But Luthor, more interested in being the person who destroys Superman than in Superman being destroyed, turns the shrinking ray on Brainiac instead! Two Kandorian law enforcement officers then arrive and take Brainiac into custody while he curses the Man of Steel and swears he will return.

Superman then busts into Brainiac's ship in search of Luthor, who is saved by the giant Kryptonian bug, with which he then vanishes. Superman then heads back to Metropolis and his life as mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent while the rest of the Family return to the Fortress for hot cocoa, leaving behind an overlooked robot that was last seen levitating its way out of Brainiac's crashed ship.

Back at the Daily Planet, Lois nonchalantly places a chunk of glowing blue rock on Clark's desk. Next thing you know, they're dancing the night away...

5Story - 5: I think that was the longest summary I've ever written for one of these. A lot happens. But Forrester loved it all, and I loved his loving it.

If the entire reason you read this book is the young child to whom you read it, you'll follow me: What more is there to say?

5Art - 5: No change in my view from every single month:

"This work is exactly what it's supposed to be - iconic, expressive and simple. And all of those things consistently.©"

5Cover Art - 5: Perfect again: no hiding what's in the book but no giving it all away or contradicting it, either.

Forrester's Final Word(s): "Call me Supermaaaaan Blue!" (Me: "Nooooo!!!").


Mild Mannered Reviews

2013

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

January 2013

February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013

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