Superman: Man of Tomorrow #15
Scheduled to arrive in stores: August 10, 2020
Cover date: August 2020
“Hero Envy” – Part 2
Writer: Robert Venditti
Penciller: Paul Pelletier
Inker: Drew Hennessy
Reviewed by: Craig Boehmer
The story opens with Metallo bragging about defeating Superman. Lois is than shown grilling her father about how he let Metallo escape. The conversation turns to Lane trying to convince Lois of the need for a government weapon to use against Superman. Lane reveals that he will evacuate the area and detonate massive explosives to kill Metallo. It is telling of her character that Lois is one of the only people that refers to Metallo as John Corbin as well as Metallo. We then shift to Parasite sucking the life out of Superman, but he notices it feels different, he has sucked the kryptonite radiation poison out of Superman. Superman than convinces him to join him to confront Metallo. Together they stop General Lane from detonating the explosives and talk to Metallo. Metallo releases a kryptonite blast that supercharges Parasite. Superman is then able to defeat Metallo and locks him up in a cell with Parasite, who is able to keep Metallo in line by leeching his powers.
Story – 5: This story was cool, it was a fun romp and makes me very hopeful that January this creative team is given one of the Superman titles. The climax to this little story was not what I expected. Turning Parasite into a limited ally for Superman built on the character work that Venditti has been doing since the beginning of his run on the character. It was a creative way to deal with Metallo, that felt fresh and made Superman appear innovative. It continued Venditti’s trend of showing Superman as a hero who thinks through his problems.
Art – 4: My quibbles with Pelletier’s art continue. But he is a strong enough artist that his wonky face work rarely comes across as distracting. His portrayal of Parasite sucking the powers of Metallo looks really cool. The battle panels look awesome and fun, which to me is essential to a good comic book artist.
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