Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3(of 3)

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #3(of 3) Writers: James Robinson and Sterling Gates. Artist: Pete Woods.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Review: (This is continued from Superman #699)Picking up from Superman #699, Brainiac's ship is rapidly falling towards New Krypton thanks to Lex Luthor's treachery. Mon-El, who was working with the Old Legion, wants to help Supes halt the ships decent, but the Old Legionnaires try to convince him to stay with them to get the bottled cities aboard the ship to safety. Mon still refuses to help the old Legionnaires until Superman rushes over and tells Mon that his place is with the Old Legion and the bottled cities, and that he'll save Kandor from the onrushing Brainiac ship. With that, Mon and the Old Legionaries grab a few bottled cities and leave. Supes flies outside and gets in front of the runaway ship in an effort to halt it's downward spiral, but alone he proves unable to. Supergirl and Superboy, who were in New Krypton and were watching the ship head towards them, fly up and try to give Supes a hand, but once again, they are unable to halt the ship's fall. The ship ultimately crash lands smack-dab in the middle of Kandor, killing several Kryptonians. With the ship down, the bottled city inside of it(the one Lex Luthor activated in Supes #699)is still growing, and if allowed to continue it would eradicate Kandor. Brainiac 5 manages to reverse the growth of the city, but upon looking around the rubble, Brainiac 5 and Supergirl discover Superman impaled on several pieces of metal, looking quite dead. Brainiac 5 orders SG to locate Superboy and bring him over as soon as possible. Overlooking the death and destruction in Kandor is Lex Luthor, who is proudly admiring his handiwork. Brainiac comes up from behind Luthor and demands to know why he betrayed him and destroyed his ship. Lex spits in Brainiac's face and tells him that he'd never willingly side with an alien, be it a Kryptonian or a Coluan. With that, Brainiac snaps Lex's neck, killing him(!!!). While taunting Lex's dead body, several angry Kryptonians begin to approach Brainiac, intent on avenging themselves on him for all of the death he had brought to their world. Gen. Zod steps between the Kryptonians and Brainiac and tells them to stand down, since dealing with Brainiac was his duty. Brainiac tells Zod that the fight would be far from fair since Zod had his superpowers while Brainiac didn't, so Zod shoots himself with a red sun radiation gun, which de-powers him and he charges Brainiac. Back with Supes, Brainiac 5 has managed to give Supes a blood transfusion from Superboy(well, I guess it's pretty useful having a readily available clone present!), and after blasting Supes with some yellow sunlight, Supes is healed and back on his feet again. Zod and Brainiac continue their street fight, and eventually Zod manages to beat Brainiac to his knees in front of the cheering Kryptonians. Zod then pulls a gun and aims it at the fallen Brainiac's head(sideways, which makes him even more awesome in my book!)and fires off a shot... That is intercepted by the timely arrival of Superman. Supes begins to tell Zod that he can't simply murder Brainiac, blah, blah, blah, and Zod ignores Supes, ordering him arrested by the Kryptonian military. Before the military can step in, Brainiac 5 arrives and teleports over and grabs Brainiac, teleporting away with his ancestor. From there we get a few epilogues... Lex Luthor is discovered alive and well on Earth, where it is revealed that the Lex Luthor who was killed on New Krypton by Brainiac was simply a robot crated by Toyman. Gen. Lane thanks Lex for his help, and gives him a full presidential pardon for his crimes, as well as promising him something more down the road. Brainiac 5 is flying through space with Brainiac heading towards... somewhere I guess, while Mon and the Old Legion are doing the same with the bottled cities they had annexed from Brainiac's ship. And finally, Gen. Zod basically names himself as the new leader of New Krypton, since most of the ruling council had died in Brainiac's attack, to the gathered citizens of New Krypton. This issue ends with Zod declaring war on Earth, who he was accusing of collaborating with Brainiac, all while the people of New Krypton cheered his every word.

What I Thought: Wow, that was a pretty long review... Anyway, this was a lousy end to a storyline, but an awesome set-up issue for the upcoming Superman crossover, so take that for what it's worth... Yeah Brainiac was defeated, but that was really the only thing that ended here, and even that didn't really end, since Brainiac 5 had left with Brainiac heading for parts unknown. This comic was more like a prologue for the War of the Supermen story then the end of the Last Stand story. With all of that said, I did like this comic for the most part. The constant, “He's dead, no wait, he's not.” parts of this comic did tend to bug me, as Lex Luthor(by Brainiac), Superman(by Brainiac's ship)and Brainiac(by Zod)were all killed or practically killed in this comic, and every character managed to cheat death in one way or another. Of course if Lex would have died here I'd be frothing at the mouth, but still, killing and then un-killing THREE major characters in one comic is a bit much... So the next step is Supes against Zod, who has his sights set on Earth. I know I'm definitely looking forward to big things in the upcoming months from the Superman family of books.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Since I couldn't decide which scene from this comic was my favorite, I went ahead and posted them all!