Monday, April 20, 2009

Superman: World of New Krypton #2

The cover to this comic says that this is now a 15 part mini-series... 15 issues? That's a strange number to settle on... I was under the assumption that this series was going to run a year(12 issues). Well, you know what they say about assuming anything... OK, enough with the babbling, here's a quick review of this issue.

-We open with the Guardians on Oa realizing that the Kryptonians have created a new planet opposite of the Earth. The Guardians don't like that fact and fear what a planet full of beings with Superman's powers might do to the balance of power in the universe. The Guardians decide to send Hal Jordan to investigate New Krypton and gauge the level of danger there.

-On New Krypton, Superman and General Zod continue to bicker with each other and Zod assigns Supes a military unit to lead.

-Supes meets with his unit and finds them "initiating" a newer recruit by forcing the newbie to fight some kind of quilled creature. Supes halts the "initiation" and yells at the unit for the way they were acting. He then punishes the unit by forcing them to practice flying all day.

-That night the Kryptonians throw some sort of gala event where Supes meets with his Aunt Alura as well as Supergirl. Supes also speaks to a member of the lowly labor guild, who warns Supes that many members of the labor guild are upset about being treated like second class citizens and that they intend to do something about it soon. Supes tells the labor guild member to tell him if he hears anything else.

-General Zod winds up tracking Supes down during the gala and tells him to mobilize his unit because some rampaging creatures are tearing up atmosphere generator plants, which I guess is a bad thing. Zod tells Supes to take care of the beasts by any means necessary. Supes takes his squad into action, but forbids them from using guns or killing the animals. Instead, Supes has the squad burn a trench into the ground and leads the rampaging creatures into it.

-Zod meets with Supes after the creatures are corralled and Supes proceeds to get snarky with Zod once again. Zod begins to get upset with Supes lack of respect, and the two begin to argue some more. Zod and Supes wind up getting interrupted by a member of the Kryptonian army who tells them several members of the labor guild have taken Supes Aunt Alura(the leader of New Krypton)hostage and have barricaded themselves in a building, demanding that their guild gets treated the same as the other guilds. Zod and Supes arrive on the scene and they learn that a member of the military has rounded up 30 members of the labor guild and plans on executing them if Alura isn't released immediately. Supes finds that action to be reprehensible while Zod thinks it's a brilliant plan.

You know what? I really enjoyed this comic book! This was a great, fast paced book that was interesting throughout. You know what else? I'm slowly beginning to enjoy General Zod's character. He isn't the ranting maniac I thought he would be, he is a very savvy customer. I was expecting the "Kneel before ZOD!!!" character from the old Superman movies, but thus far Zod has been in control of everything occurring around him. He hasn't even allowed Supes constant disrespect to shake him. This comic is really changing my opinion of Zod.

Supes was highly enjoyable as well, with his repeated attempts to draw Zod into a confrontation, as well as the way he took command of his unruly unit. I really liked the job Greg Rucka and James Robinson did in this comic, and for a score, I'll give this issue a 9 out of 10. I will definitely be looking forward to the 3rd issue of this series next month.

No comments:

Post a Comment