Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman #167

Superman #167

Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 7, 2001

Cover date: April 2001

2001 Shield No. 14

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Penciller: Ed McGuinness
Inker: Cam Smith

Return to Krypton [Part 1 of 4]: "Sliding Home"

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


Superman and Lois stand adorned in traditional Kryptonian dress, as determined by Professor Hamilton. The Prof tells the pair the risks of the Phantom Zone, but both still agree to go. John and Emil power up the particle beam and Lois and Superman vanish in a flash.

The two are instantly attacked by dozens of black, zombie Supermen. The two fight them off, but soon they realize that their struggle is futile. Just as the ghouls overcome Superman, Valor (a Daxamite banished to the Phantom Zone way back in Superboy #18) appears and starts to fight them off. Valor tells Superman to leave while he can, and Superman agrees with him. Lois and Clark speed away from the battle site.

Coming in for a landing, Lois is bewildered as Krypton materializes around them, exactly where Hamilton said it would be. They walk toward a building when suddenly a small dog comes bounding out of a portal in the door. The dog walks right up to Clark and begins to smell him. Superman's memory begins to return, and he recognizes his dog Krypto. Superman suddenly stands up and stares at Lara, standing on a balcony above them. Jor-el joins her as a rumble shakes the ground. The building begins to sway and a chunk falls from the roof and straight toward Kal's parents. Superman leaps from the ground and catches the stone before it crushes his parents. He welds it back in place as Lois arrives on the roof.

The two couples stare at each other before Clark introduces them as Kal and Lois. Lois and Lara head away together as Jor-el offers to show Kal his lab. The two women talk on the balcony, bonding instantly. They talk of everything, until Lara raises the topic of children. Lois suggests that they go find the boys. Inside his lab, Jor and Kal discuss Superman's incredible powers and their source. Jor then begins to inform Kal about Krypton's coming doom. Superman's asks if there is anything he can do to help.

Lois is shocked. Kal is volunteering to help move the planet. He tells her of Jor-el's planetary ion engines, and of how he can help. Lois and Kal embrace, before Kal heads off into the heavens.

Positioning himself behind the engines, Kal prepares himself and on Jor-el's mark, ignites the engines with his heat vision. Jor-el shouts ecstatically as he witnesses Krypton's orbit change. Lois calls triumphantly to Clark, but receives no reply. She continues to whisper his name into the microphone. In space, Superman drifts unconscious, smiling peacefully. 5Story - 5: Great story. I have no idea how the rest of the issues in this series will turn out to be, but this was a great start. We see Lois and Kal bond with his parents, as well as the marvels of Krypton. The story was a little short, but that was just because it was very fast paced. Plus, as an added bonus, last issue we saw the return of General Zod and this issue we see the first post-crisis Krypto. Terrific stuff.

5Art - 5: This kind of gets redundant month after month, but McGuinness continues to score. And just because I have never mentioned it before, Cam is a great inker. His early work on Supergirl was great stuff, and he continues it here. A couple of the pages in general stand out. I know that most of them were splashed, but if a comic can't have great art as well as a story then it isn't worth the paper it is printed on. Superman igniting the engines, saving his parents, and first arriving in the Zone was beautiful. Keep it up Ed.

3Cover Art - 3: A pretty bad cover, but just because the art style had a silver-age feel to me I felt it deserved a three. Otherwise, it is substandard art with a cheap gimmick (I believe that this month's issues all connect into one picture). It was too dark and moody for this story.


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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.

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