DCU Comic Book Reviews

ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #647

Rack & Ruin, Part II

February 2006

Written by Greg Rucka, Nunzio Defilippis, Christina Weir

Pencils by Karl Kerschl, Renato Guedes

Inks by Karl Kerschl and Wayne Faucher

Cover by Karl Kerschl

Synopsis

Superman has finally found Ruin, who has been revealed to be Emil Hamilton.  Elsewhere, Lieutenant Lupé Leocadio has Pete Ross (who is dressed as Ruin) held at gunpoint, ready to kill him in retaliation for killing her men.  Across town, Ruin has hit Superman with a blast of Krypton’s red sun moments before Superman goes to stop Lupé from firing.  Ruin tells Superman he won’t make.  He finds Lupé seconds after she fired her gun, except she did not shoot Pete, only freed him from his bonds.  Ruin teleports to their location, determined to kill them all.  Superman tells Lupe to get the Ross’ to safety.  Ruin hits Superman with a blast of concentrated red sun of Krypton, draining him of his powers.  Lupé, however, shoots the ray, knocking it out.  Ruin then sets up a missile to kill the Rosses.  Lupé gets Pete and Lana to safety and then takes the full brunt of the blast, barely surviving. Angry, Superman flies with Ruin to the open air, suing the sun to recharge himself.  Ruin, however, has set off a bomb in his suit.  The only way to the bomb is to kill Ruin.  Superman, however, removes the suit with hyper speed and then flies to the sky, where it detonates safely.  Later, Superman tells Pete and Lana they need to disappear before they become a target again.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

And all’s well that end’s well.  Thus ends one of the best story arcs in recent memory, both in terms of the individual stories and issues as well as the overall story arc.  Part of me wishes that Rucka was able to write the final issue instead of just plotting, but with all that he is currently working, I can’t blame the man for handing off his work to others.  Regardless, this issue was done well and I feel satisfied with the ending. 

The one thing that surprised me about the entire run is that Ruin did not know the secret identity of Superman.  Maybe it was just me, but I thought Ruin knew, which is the reason he was targeting those he knew, as a way to mentally break him down before physically beating him.  Yet, Ruin did not know.  What I found odd was the Ruin mentioned an employer, someone who obviously knew Superman's identity or at least knew who in Superman’s life to target.  So, the question is:  who hired Emil?

Part of me is a little surprised to see Lupé survived.  I don’t really have feelings for her one way or another, mostly because I know that if another writer does use her for whatever reason, the characterization will not come close to what Rucka was able to achieve.  Because Rucka was the creator of Lupé specifically for this story arc, I half expected that she might die, especially when she decided to make up for the beat down she gave to Pete Ross (if it were me, I’d just offer to let Pete beat me up rather than stand in front of a grenade.  But that’s just me).

 

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