DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN #668

The Third Kryptonian, Part One:  The Hunt

early December 2007

Written by Kurt Busiek

Pencils by Rick Leonardi

Inks by Dan Green

Cover by Renato Guedes

Synopsis

In the South China Sea, Superman breaks up a Dominator experimentation facility.  Although Superman saves dozens of human lives, his real goal was to find the Third Kryptonian.  With the aide of Batman, they have been searching all over Earth for traces of alien life, but so far have had no luck.  As he is flying home, Superman encounters his foster son, Chris Kent, also flying.  With his powers, Chris is having a hard time trying to fit in with the normal kids.  Superman realizes he needs to find a way to dampen his powers, so he takes Chris to see Batman.  The Dark Knight rigs a wristwatch that, when worn, will strip his powers.  Later, a disaster strikes a bridge, so Superman goes to save the people, with some assistance from Chris.  Watching the two in action from outer space is the Commander, an alien who paid handsomely for Earth’s location.  Before he strikes, the Commander is patiently waiting for Superman to find the unknown Kryptonian so that he can take them all.  Meanwhile, Batman learns of a report of drugged-up teenagers, whose blood contains extraterrestrial compounds similar to Superman.  If they follow the trail, they might be able to find the Third Kryptonian....

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Kurt Busiek is a good writer and he is able to infuse his books with good dialogue and action and excellent pacing of the themes and story into the plot.  Yet, for this issue, I find some of his choices in the construction of the story to be odd, even while I like the way the scenes are played out.  Take for instance the opening scene, in which Superman takes out the Dominators.  It is secondary to the main plot, so it needs to be done quickly and efficiently, which Busiek does well.  But, why Dominators?  It seems odd to introduce them, only to push them away so quickly.  I would think that if you are going to have Dominators in the story (and have them on the cover no less) then you wouldn’t want to dismiss them so quickly from the story.  Take for instance, Chris Kent.  I loved the scene in the Batcave, the way Robin treats the younger boy, the way Superman relates to his foster son, and the friendship between Superman and Batman.  It is well written, but I wonder why Chris has such a large role.  Yes, Chris is important part of the Commander’s search for Kryptonians, but frankly this focus on Chris takes away from the search for the Third Kryptonian.  In fact, the search occurs at the end of the book almost as an after thought as if Busiek spent so much time elsewhere that he didn’t have the space he should’ve taken for the search.  Basically, I suppose, I liked the issue, but after putting it down, I began to wonder what exactly Busiek is attempting with some of the choices he made.  Perhaps the second part will help, but at the moment it just seems like Busiek is all over the place when he should have a tightly constructed plot. 

After the original Crisis, DC revamped the Superman mythos to literally make him the last known survivor from Krypton.  To this effort, DC had to re-write Power Girl’s history and killed off the original Supergirl.  Now, 20 years later, so many Kryptonians have been introduced into the DC Universe, Busiek is actually forced to write exposition to explain why the term “Third Kryptonian” is valid (since, after all, there are more than three).  Of course, Busiek kinda contradicts himself by saying Power Girl is not the third, but having the Commander claim she is Kryptonian.  Yes, I know, the whole dimension thing, but it seems strange for this issue to first dismiss her as Kryptonian and then turn around and make her part of the group the Commander is searching for. 

Back in the early 80s, before the original Crisis, there was a character by the name of Kristin Wells, who was known as Superwoman.  Since the Crisis, she has not been seen or heard from again.  Thus, the final page of this issue is a nod to that character, although it doesn’t look like they are going to resurrect that character (who was not Kryptonian; she only gained Superman-like powers based on the suit she was wearing). 

Comic Connection

The Auctioneer appeared in Action Comics, beginning with issue #841.  The scene where he identifies the third Kryptonian appeared in the following issue, #842. 

 

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