Just so there’s no mistake, this comic is a reprint of issues one and two of the War of the Supermen mini series, that just recently finished. Since, I did not get a chance to read, much less review, any of the War of the Supermen mini series I though I’d rectify that by reviewing this reprint. Before I say anything about this issue let me say that it would be helpful to read the zero issue first. The zero issue was originally put out for FCBD so if you have it laying around in a stack of FCBD comics, that you never got around to reading, now would be a good time to read it. If you didn’t get the zero issue on FCBD you still should have no problem picking up a copy as a cheap back issue. Once you’ve read the zero issue then you can move on to this reprint and don’t worry the final two issues of the original mini series are going to be reprinted in a double feature comic in the near future.
The most important and the lamest thing to happen in this double sized issue happen almost right away. SPOILER WARNING A bomb planted by General Lane and activated by his agent, Lex Luthor, destroys all of New Krypton. Now, having one bomb destroy the whole planet is rather hard to believe but since New Krypton was artificially constructed maybe it had some fundamental flaw that made this possible. It would have been nice if writers James Robinson and Sterling Gates had specifically stated something along those lines; there by making the destruction of New Krypton seem more plausible. The destruction of New Krypton with most of it inhabitants does solve DC’s problem of what to do with 100,000 supermen and does shift the story into high gear right away. My one really, really big problem with New Krypton being blown to bits is that Supergirl survives, by being pushed into another room by her mother, just as the bomb goes off. Give me a break, this bomb is powerful enough to destroy the whole planet and kill everyone else but Supergirl survives because she is in another room! After the destruction of New Krypton things move along rather predictably General Zod continues on his way to destroy Earth, Lois continues her efforts to expose what her father, General Lane, has been doing and Superman, with the help of Supergirl, tries to bring an end to this war with a minimum of casualties on both sides. END SPOILER WARNING
This was not a bad issue and I do look forward to reading the next double feature reprint, to see how it all ends, but it could have been better. In fact, I think the whole New Krypton saga has been running out of steam for a while now. Again, I’m not saying that this whole saga has been bad I just think it would have been better if it had been a little shorter. I mean, the New Krypton and World of New Krypton arcs, along with there respective tie-ins, where great so I just wish the ending of this whole saga could lived up to the quality of the beginning and middle parts.
Keith Forney