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Adventures of Superman #629

Adventures of Superman #629

Scheduled to arrive in stores: June 16, 2004

Cover date: August 2004

Writer: Greg Rucka
Penciller: Renato Guedes
Inker: Edde Wagner

"Battery" - Part Three

Reviewed by: Nick Newman


Clark gets ready for the day, showering and shaving, as he thinks about the email Lois sent. She is still waiting for her assignment, but she tells Clark that she will be as careful as she can be, and that she loves him.

On the other side of the planet, Lois tries to get some information out of a Major, before receiving her assignment... on the front lines with the 'Death Knights'.

Clark gets to work just as the Lieutenant and Jerry head off on patrol. Clark turns on the police scanner, hearing the SCU deploy.

Somewhere else, a shadowy figure grips controls, commenting that he's fighting the controls, just like his father did. But it won't do him any good either.

The SCU arrives at a battle zone to find vehicles thrown into buildings and people fleeing. They hit the ground just as an energy blast hits a building behind them. An officer tells them that it sounds like the same guy they fought the other day, Replikon. Coming down from the sky, Superman asks them to let him have a chance first. Superman tells them that Replikon had two children, this is probably his son.

Flying inside, Superman introduces himself to Xlim. Xlim asks Superman for help, telling him that he can't control it. The mysterious controller commands Xlim to attack Superman, and he punches the Man of Steel into the ceiling. Flying back down, Superman grabs Xlim and tries to remove the harness from his head, but Xlim screams in pain. He isn't wearing it; it's a part of him. As the controller presses a button, Xlim tells Superman to run before a blast of energy sends Superman flying out of the building. The SCU opens fire on Xlim, before Superman can get them to stop. Suddenly Superman crumples to the ground. Getting back to his feet, he says that he felt drained all of a sudden. While he was down, Xlim got away.

The next morning Superman lands in Lieutenant Leocadio's apartment. She calls from the bathroom for him to come in. As he walks towards the door, she tells him that she can't have him giving her men orders in the field. Walking into the bathroom, Superman finds Lupe in the bathtub. He apologizes for barging in and turns his back, but Lupe tells him she doesn't mind... and then invites him into the tub with her. He declines and she gets out of the tub. He politely ignores her innuendo, but she tells him that she's very patient when she sees something she wants.

Sitting down at her computer, Lupe pulls up a picture of Replikon. Superman tells her that whatever Xlim shot him with the day before, it completely wiped out his powers for about thirty seconds.

The cloaked figure tells Xlim that he doesn't like forcing him to fight Superman, and he'll let him go, as soon as he's finished.

Arriving on the scene, Lois meets the group of soldiers who she'll be traveling with, who promptly tell her that they're stationed fifty miles away from the front lines.

5Story - 5: This was a great read, and over the past three months Rucka has easily become my favorite of the new writers. Even ignoring the good storyline that he's given us, the dialog alone is great. There were so many good things in this issue. First off, we saw Clark shaving again. It's stuff like this that it seems we've been missing lately. The lipstick was a nice touch too. It shows that Rucka's return to the days of Clark hiding his identity won't just consist of Clark acting like a pushover. The confrontation (you can't really call it a fight) with Replikon was good this time around too, especially with Superman actually trying to help him. Lupe is shaping up to be an interesting character. Finally we have someone aiming for Clark outside of Lana and Diana. And Lois is actually doing something interesting. All around, this book is turning out great.

4Art - 4: With the exception of a few panels that looked a little cartoony, I thought this art was really good. His Superman looked great, as did Lupe. However, I do need to comment on the fact that three issues into a new creative team we already have a guest penciller? Now I realize that expecting an artist to do twelve consecutive issues can be excessive, but I didn't think three was out of the question.

3Cover Art - 3: I really liked Mahnke's art years ago when he first started on MOS. Over the years, however, his style shifted (as artists always do) and I liked it less and less. Which leads us to this cover. Lupe looks fantastic. The pose, her face, everything. She looks great. Superman though, he looks horrible. He's too wide and he has no emotion whatsoever. Add that together with lack of a background and you're left with a boring cover with a great picture of Lupe and a Superman statue. I suppose we got a good story and good art though, and two out of three ain't bad.


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