Posts Tagged Superman
Superman – Issue #698
Posted by Ryan Brewer in Superman, Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton on April 4th, 2010
This issue kicks off right where Supergirl #51 left off with a full page panel of the Brainiac ship hovering over a smoldering New Krypton while thousands of probes swarm out of the ship headed to wreak more havoc. General Zod is asking for a death count of his people. The answer is upwards of eleven thousand souls. Even as big a bastard as Zod is he is still moved by the fact that this onslaught has cost him a tenth of his population is less than an hour battle. Ursa points points out that they are standing up well to the probes, that their super strength is a huge advantage during this battle. Zod is not convinced that they are “holding up” instead this is somehow all a part of Brainiac’s plan, he fears something far worse is going to be coming. He then questions if anything is known about Kal-El. Word is that spotters saw him breach the ship (see Last Stand of New Krypton Issue #1) but other than that they know nothing.
We then are shown the inside of Brainiac’s ship. Superman being restrained by a large octopus looking prode, while Brainiac and Lex Luthor (still in that damn orange jump suit) are standing and staring while dozens of bottle cities hang from the ceiling. Luthor says, “I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m doing here.” To which Superman replies with a great line, “When I see villainy and horror anywhere… I’ve long stopped being surprised to find you or your had at the heart of it, Luthor.” Brainiac tells Superman I’m here to make Kandor mine again and he’s going to make him watch and in making him watch he’ll feel. Feel like he made Brainiac feel during their last encounter.
Now enter Mon-El. Flying through space toward the ship being guided telepathically by Tellus. In Supergirl #51 Tellus contacted Mon-El connecting him to Superman’s mind so that he could figure out how to find Superman and breach Brainiac’s forcefield. Once inside Mon-El’s mind is bombarded by many other voices that don’t belong to Tellus or Superman. Voices saying “save us” and “we’re here.” Mon-El is then attacked by silver haired beast that looks something like a cross between a wolf and an ape. He dispatches this animal pretty quickly as the voices scream “save our world!” Then he’s confronted with many many other beasts all hovering in the eaves in the ship ready to pounce. Mon-El then gives an “Oh boy” quote that would make even Scott Bakula proud.
Getting back to Superman’s predicament again he is now hooked up to Brainiac’s ship with some crazy pink neon looking wires connected to various points on his face and temples. Brainiac is now monologuing about how he is going to feel through Superman, learn his thoughts and the secrets of New Krypton. Superman’s starts to power up his heat vision and simply says “No.” Then back to Mon-El who really has his hands full now. On one hand he has now learned that a telepathic bottle city race has hijacked the connection Tellus established to Superman’s mind. They are known as Lanothian and surprise surprise Brainiac bottled them up and destroyed their sun and their planet. Then burst in a whole horde of crazy looking Brainiac henchmen with various powers and weaponry. Mon-El learns from the Lanothians that these are races that pledged allegiance to protect Brainiac and serve him in exchange for being free of their bottle prisons.
Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton Issue #1 of 3
Posted by Ryan Brewer in Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton on March 14th, 2010
This Brainiac guy just doesn’t quit! The 12 issue Superman: World of New Krypton has just ended with the appearance of the Brainiac skull based ship hovering over New Krypton and Rao help us all! This issue picks up immediately where SWNK left off. We begin of course with a quick historical narration from General Zod.
Explaining how Kandor was taken from Old Krypton and placed into the bottle on Brainiacs ship. That defeat planted a seed in the people of Kandor, one of defeat and fear. But the yellow sun that New Krypton orbits has changed things. This time the people of Kandor are ready and able to fight back.
The first few pages are panels of utter mayhem. A lot of heat vision flying around, robots being ripped in half and general carnage is the gist of it. Zod is in his command center with Ursa whipping up some scheme to take down Brainiac once and for all. What I really like about fighting Brainiac robots is that Kal-El doesn’t have to pull his punches. He has no compunction about ripping robots in half with his hands or putting a fist through a metallic skull (quite a difference from his standard method of operation.)
Zod tries his standard approach of firing first and planning later. To the detriment of many of his soliders and to no effect on the Brainiac ship. Kal-El can’t take it any longer and quits his post within the military guild. This is where we get to hear my favorite Superman quote (which I haven’t heard in well over a year of issues.) “This is a job for Superman” he states as he takes to the sky and rips off his Red Shard uniform to reveal the classic red and blue!
Supergirl finds her mother and they battle their way past the new Brainiac bots which are now firing red suns burst and are able to actually put some hurt on the Kryptonians. With an assist from Mon-El, Conner and The Legion of Superheros it looks like they might be able to turn the tide if Zod was willing to accept their help that is! He can’t handle it and decides to arrest the Legion instead of accepting their help.
Superman breaks into the Brainiac ship in orbit and is seeking out the main man when he is hit with a blast of kryptonite. But the blast didn’t come from Brainiac. It came from his apparent new partner in crime. The evil team up Superman probably never saw coming… Brainiac and Lex Luthor are partners in crime!
In total this is a great setup to what looks like will be a very fun arch in the Superman series. It was a great way to see Superman get back into the swing of things and pickup the mantle of Superman. Brainiac stories are always fun, and who doesn’t love a Luthor arch? So how could the two together go bad? One thing I was wondering about though in the last full page image. Why is Lex STILL wearing the orange prison jump suit? He’s a pretty egotistical guy and even though he’s running around on Brainiac’s ship I gotta believe he’d wanna stop off and make a quick wardrobe change.
Where is this going? Is Brainiac calling the shots? Is Luthor? Or is General Lane pulling the strings on this? Is someone we don’t know about yet doing? Where do you think this story is going?
- Issue: 1 (of 3)
- Story Arch: Invaded
- Writer: James Robinson & Sterling Gates
- Pencils: Pete Woods
- Color: Blond
- Letters: Steve Wands


