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Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman #205

Scheduled to arrive in stores: May 26, 2004

Cover date: July 2004

Writer: Brian Azzarello
Penciller: Jim Lee
Inker: Scott Williams

"For Tomorrow" - Part Two

Reviewed by: Nick Newman

A waitress in a diner reminisces about the time Superman saved her from an escaped monster. She knows that Superman wasn't there just to save her, but that's how it felt. He made her feel like she was really important, and she'll never forget that.

Father Leone walks through the streets of Metropolis and stops at John's fruit stand. He asks about John's son Randy, but John tells him that Randy is confused with everything that's been in the news lately about priests. Father Leone tells him that Randy is always welcome back as John hands him a bag of peaches. Returning to the church, Father Leone pulls out a fruit, and swearing, hurls it at a wall.

Descending from the sky, Superman catches the peach and asks Leone if something is bothering him. The Priest tells Superman that it's nothing he can't live with. Father Leone tells Superman that better men than him have tried to save the world and failed. Superman asks why they failed, and Father Leone tells him that no matter how many people a man saves, his own life will always be the most important. Tossing the peach pit into the fountain, they watch the waves spreading out in circles. The vanishing looked the same way from the sky, ripples spreading out across the globe. They originated from the Middle East.

When Superman got there he found a city at war. He took their guns, along with every other weapon, and he destroyed them. Hovering in the sky, Superman told them no more. Most of them ran away, but one boy picked up a rock and hurled it at Superman. It bounced harmlessly off his chest, but it only took one to start it. The rest of the crowd rushed to attack each other with rocks and bricks, one catching the boy across the head.

Crushing a stone into a tiny diamond, Superman hands it to Father Leone, who tosses it over his shoulder into the fountain, commenting that even a perfect stone creates ripples.

Superman cradles the dead boy in his arms. From a mountaintop in the distance, a man looks through his binoculars at Superman, before turning back to his helicopter.

Story - 4: For Tomorrow is striking me as a story that should be read in its entirety rather than in monthly installments. The reason? Barely anything happened in this issue. Azzarello's storytelling is fantastic. The dialog is some of the best that we've seen in a long time, but we've seen very little of the overall storyline. As such, there's really not much I can say until we see more of the story. Regardless, great storytelling and an interesting story still makes this one a winner.

Art - 5: This art is absolutely beautiful. Lee's Superman in Batman: Hush really didn't appeal to me that much, but he's made a few changes and now he looks great. The shots of Superman hovering above the Middle East city were just fantastic, especially the "No more" page. The man at the end of the book did strike me as looking way too much like Commissioner Gordon, but that's the only negative I can find in the whole issue. There's really not much else I can say, other than it's about time Jim Lee is doing a Superman story.

Cover Art (Jim Lee) - 5: I really like this cover. A great picture of Superman looking a little mean and a cool image in general. The trails on the bullets in particular really made this cover for me. It showed a level of work that Superman covers normally lack. This one really jumps out and grabs you... exactly what a good cover should do.

Cover Art (Michael Turner) - 5: When DC first released this cover image a month or so ago it immediately became my desktop background. This just a fantastic image of Superman. Sure, it has absolutely nothing to do with the issue, but it's a variant cover, so I'll ignore that. This should be a poster, and that's about the best thing I can say about a cover.

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Mild Mannered Reviews

2004

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

January 2004

February 2004

March 2004

April 2004

May 2004

June 2004

July 2004

August 2004

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October 2004

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Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Superman #205

Mild Mannered Reviews

2004

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