DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN #691

Codename:  Patriot

October 2009

Written by James Robinson

Pencils by Renato Guedes with Eduardo Pansica

Inks by Jose Wilson Magalhaes with Sandro Riberio

Cover by Andrew Robinson

Synopsis

[continued from Supergirl #44] Mirabai, in disguise as Supergirl, leads Mon-el back to Metropolis and the sewers.  There, Reactron and Metallo (disguised as Nightwing and Flamebird) attack Mon-el.  Supergirl also attacks Mon-el, yelling “For Krypton” as she hits him.  Mon-el is left alone in the sewers moments before it explodes, rocking the city.  Meanwhile, the entire fight is filmed and the footage of Supergirl’s attack on Mon-el reaches the news.  In Markovia, the President is about to sign a treaty with the Markovian government.  However, Ral-Dar, erroneously believing the President is about to make a pact to attack Krypton, tries to stop the treaty.  Superman stops Ral-Dar.  And then General Lane, along with soldiers armed with Kryptonian weapons, stops both Superman and Ral-Dar.  Superman is shocked to see Lane alive.  Lane orders the troops to fire and they kill Ral-Dar.  Superman wants answers, but before he can get them Alura asks Kal-el to return to New Krypton.  Superman leaves, telling Lane it is not over.  Later, Lane is pleased with the way events occurred.  Lane will now be the military leader Earth needs.  And if Superman returns, he has Mirabai’s magic and her world, where Project 7734 is now headquartered.  In Space, Superman returns to New Krypton, but he can hear the news that Kryptonians are considered to be adversaries.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Damn.  When the hammer falls, it falls hard.  I don’t know what I was expecting with the end of this particular storyline, but this was not it.  Actually, this isn’t so much an ending as it is another chapter in the continuing escalation of the DC editors attempts to make Superman’s world a living hell.  And I may be a bastard, but I am loving every minute of it.  I loved how Lane’s plan worked to perfection and how all of the plot pieces from the previous issues fit perfectly.  I loved how Lane engineered everything to put him into position as military leader while discrediting the Kryptonians (and has surrounded him with the right people to battle Superman).  Moreover, I like the fact that Mon-el is reported as dead, but since we know he isn’t going to die, we know that part of Lane’s plan didn’t work the way it should’ve.  And we also know that Lois isn’t about to take the news of father’s return very well.  Overall, I thought the crossover worked well, building a lot of tension until it reached this excellent ending that certainly changed the current status quo.

I do have one problem:  how is it Superman survived the blast of Kryptonian weaponry and Ral-Dar died.  I suppose you could argue that the bullets missed Superman but hit Ral-Dar, but the art shows the hail of bullets and a mass of green smoke.  Superman was bathed in green smoke or green Kryptonite and yet it didn’t seem to bother him at all.  But Ral-Dar died. 

This has nothing to do with the current issue, but I happened to notice it when I went to do this review.  Usually, I start with a copy of the previous review.  I then delete what I wrote before and then start anew.  This time, I happened to notice a lot of written material on some aspects of the last issue that have yet to be addressed, such as Atlas turn on Steel, or Mark Merlin and Zatara, or Parasite.  There are a lot open-ended threads that Robinson needs to return to.