Superman #8

Last official review of the week(more on that in my next post, scheduled to go up in a half an hour!), and it's a series that I don't normally purchase. The only two issues of Superman I've picked up since the reboot was the first issue(which was terrible, imo) and the prior issue, mainly because I like Helspont as a villain and wanted to see him make his DCU debut. It was underwhelming. Still, I figured I'd give this series another shot to see how the Supes/Helspont battle concludes. Hopefully that decision doesn't turn out to be a huge mistake.

Superman #8:

Summary: This issue opens with Superman being chased after by the army, who want to capture “it”. A confused Supes tries to avoid the soldiers but ends up getting blown out of the sky. He wakes up at his desk at the Daily Planet as Clark Kent, where he is met by... ugh... Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy tells Clark that he should stop writing articles that portray Superman in a good light, as it was pissing Perry White off and with the public hating Supes for being an alien, it wasn't good for business. Realizing something was drastically wrong, Supes concentrates really hard and finds himself back in Helspont's cavern, with some sort of mind controlling creature in his mouth. Supes spits the creature out and is naturally pissed by Helspont manipulating his mind, but Helspont tells Supes that he was only showing Supes the future, as humans have a LOOONG history of hating each other for differences in belief systems, pigmentation and lifestyle, so it was inevitable that they'd eventually turn on Supes for being an alien... Huh, Helspont makes a wonderful point there... In order to deal with the humans, Helspont offers to help Supes conquer the Earth, provided Supes helps Helspont take revenge on the Daemonites who betrayed him. Naturally, Supes turns that offer down, which leads to an all out fight between the two... A fight that is VERY evenly matched(!). Eventually the battle causes Helspont's mountain hideaway to explode, at which time Supes loses track of where Helspont went, figuring that Helspont teleported away before the mountain blew. With that, this issue ends with Supes, battered and beaten, returning to his apartment as Clark Kent and realizing that he had made the mistake of letting... ugh... Jimmy Olsen stay at his place.

Thoughts: Wow, this issue was GREAT! Helspont's logic was sound and he was portrayed VERY strongly. The battle scenes were AWESOME and the Clark Kent portions of the story were kept to a minimum. Seriously, I am shocked by how much I enjoyed reading this comic. I honestly thought I'd hate this comic, which is why it was so low in my comic pile. Instead, it turned out to be one of the high points of the entire week! I never expected that, so a HUGE kudos to Dan Jurgens and Keith Giffen for their work in this comic. Really, I'm kind of in a state of shock right now... This was easily one of the better Superman comics I've read since the WAY back during World of New Krypton and War of the Supermen... Color me impressed.

Score: 9 out of 10.

Helspont was a BEAST in this issue!