DCU Comic Book Reviews

SUPERMAN/BATMAN #39

Torment, Part 3:  Helpless

October 2007

Written by Alan Burnett

Pencils by Dustin Nguyen

Inks by Derek Fridolfs

Cover by Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

Synopsis

The Scarecrow has just found Superman, cowering in fear in a junkyard.  The Scarecrow then sends the Man of Steel through a boom tube to Dessad on Apokolips.  There, Dessad places a crystal into Superman’s brain.  On Metropolis, Lois Lane tells Batman about her husband’s recent, strange behavior and now he is missing.  Batman investigates Superman’s disappearance, tracking Scarecrow to his lair and the following him through a boom tube.  There, he sees Superman flying around, so he follows.  Batman eventually finds Superman talking to Desaad and Darkseid.  He also learns that Superman is under their control.  When they notice Batman, they send Superman to kill him.   Batman runs, hoping to escape via a boom tube, but Superman stands in his way.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Aaaand, I just lost interest.  What had been an interesting story with some potential turned into a standard cliché.  It is too soon after the events of the OMAC Project and the “Sacrifice” storyline to do another Superman’s mind has been brainwashed, even with the added bonus of Scarecrow (a nice little element to the story seeing a bat-villain going after Superman) breaking down Superman’s mind to begin with and then Darkseid being the one behind it all.  There has to a point where someone in editorial needs to stand up and tell the writer that, “yes, while it may be a good story and you may be eager to do it, but we’ve done it recently so let’s go in a different direction” (or something like that). 

The only thing that might save this story is the inclusion of Darkseid.  In the “spine” of the DC Universe, Countdown has been hinting at something pretty big coming and the architect of that event seems to be Darkseid.  So, it is possible that this story will be a small set-up for the looming Great Disaster, in which case I am intrigued to see how this will all connect in the next issue or two.  Or, and this is the more likely scenario, this story has no connection to Countdown, in which case Darkseid will come off like an idiot when he loses to the non-powered Batman.  Only time will, I guess.

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