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!

Superman #699

Superman #699: Writer: James Robinson. Artist: Bernard Chang.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

Review: (You should definitely read Supergirl #52 before this comic)We start this issue off with Gen. Zod and his military men fighting side by side with the recently arrived Superman against Brainiac's robots. Supes expresses his anger at Zod for leaving Kandor aboard Brainiac's ship, just so he could attack Brainiac, but Zod gives no thought to Superman's whining. Eventually, Brainiac decides to see what all of the hubbub is about, and once Zod spots Brainiac, he makes a beeline for him and attacks. With Zod out of the picture, Superman orders the Kryptonian soldiers to hold the line against Brainiac's forces while he finds and rescues the bottled city of Kandor. Supes eventually finds Kandor and using his mental link with Tellus of the Old Legion, asks Brainiac 5 and Supergirl to report to his location. Meanwhile, Mon-El(who was trapped in some sort of Brainiac torture device)is reliving strange memories from his past, focusing on the time he was held captive by Gen. Lane and his monkey scientist. Mon-El goes over several conversations he had with Lane, the monkey and Metallo and begins to realize that while they were experimenting on him, there is a very good chance that they managed to acquire some of his DNA... Either that or the talking monkey has some sort of weird fetish concerning the reproductive organs of a male Daxamite... The more time Mon thinks about that situation, the closer he comes to regaining his consciousness. The Old Legion is still running around Brainiac's ship fighting robots, when an enormous robot strolls over ready to make them pay for their transgressions. Before the robot can make mincemeat out of them, Mon arrives on the scene(I guess he woke up)and tears the robot apart. By this point, Supergirl and Brainiac 5 have arrived at Superman's location, and he gives them Kandor and tells them to get off of Brainiac's ship and to head back to New Krypton. They go, and manage to re-enlarge the city back in the spot it was taken from. The Old Legion tell Mon that he has to go to the future with them and the bottled cities aboard Brainiac's ship. Mon is hesitant, but ultimately decides to go with the Old Legion. Superman finds Zod and Brainiac still fighting and adds his muscle to Zod, double teaming the mad Coluan. While all of this is going on, Lex Luthor takes the bottled city he stole in Supergirl #52 and begins to enlarge it, before abandoning ship. This issue ends with the rapidly enlarging city bursting through the roof of Brainiac's ship, causing it to begin to plummet towards New Krypton.

What I Thought: This issue was a little better then SG #52, but considering it was the penultimate part of the Last Stand storyline, I was kind of hoping for more. I think the problem with this story, for me anyway, is the fact that there is just WAY too much going on at once to keep the story cohesive. There's the TOTALLY unnecessary Old Legion, there's Mon and the back story(which I had all but forgotten)about him and the monkey, as well as Supergirl and Brainiac 5, Lex Luthor, Kandor, Superboy(who is hanging around for no reason I can figure), and the list goes on and on... All they really needed was Brainiac and Lex stealing Kandor, and then the Superman family responding in kind... Simple, no? Instead we get a big convoluted storyline with dozens of unnecessary characters all over the place.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.And this is the reason I'd never be a criminal in Metropolis... Imagine that sight coming at you with a full head of steam!

Supergirl #52

School's out for me!!! I am officially done with that place until July 6th, which is when I head back to take a few summer courses so I can graduate a little bit sooner. To be perfectly honest, this has been one of my best academic years since I've returned to college. I already know I have A's in two classes(including Accounting!!!), and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to pull down A's in my other classes(provided something strange didn't happen during my finals in those classes). So all in all, I'm in a good mood. After I post the three reviews I have ready to go tonight, I plan on sleeping a good 12 hours, and then either go to the store to do some shopping, or just lounge around my apartment for the day. That second option is really pretty appealing actually... Anyway, enough of my celebratory gloating, let's get to the first review. Just so you know, all three of these reviews tonight are Last Stand of New Krypton x-overs.

Supergirl #52: Writer: Sterling Gates. Artist: Ivan Rodriguez.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

Review: This issue begins with the General Zod and his newly freed Brainiac Revenge Squad leaving the bottled city of Kandor in order to find and kill Brainiac for all of the hardship he's given Zod and his men over the years. While Zod is tearing through Brainiac's robots, Supergirl and Brainiac 5 are wandering around Brainiac's ship hoping to find the shrunken cities Brainiac had captured. They wander around, bicker and fight robots for the better part of this comic until they discover the core of Brainiac's ship, which Supergirl proceeds to destroy, severely hampering the elder Brainiac's war efforts. With the core destroyed and Brainiac's force field down, Superman is able to get back aboard the ship, which undoubtedly spells trouble for Brainiac. While all of this is going on, Kryptonian Commander Gor is torturing Reactron in the shrunken city of Kandor in an attempt to get some answers out of Reactron as to Gen. Lane's plots against New Krypton. Reactron refuses to talk, and he winds up getting saved by Lex Luthor(!), who blows a hole in Gor's chest, killing him. Reactron is happy to see Luthor, figuring he was there to rescue him, but Luthor explains that nothing could be further from the truth, with that evil little Lex Luthor smirk of his. A little bit later, Lex leaves Kandor and enlarges himself back in Brainiac's room of shrunken cities. This issue ends with Lex grabbing one of the bottled cities and deciding that he has some sort of nefarious plan that he could use the shrunken city for.

What I Thought: There really wasn't all that much of interest going on here... Most of this comic consisted of Brainiac 5 and Supergirl bickering with one another until they FINALLY made it to the core of Brainiac's ship. The Lex Luthor stuff was good(as usual), but for me, the rest of this comic was definitely lacking.

Score: 7 out of 10.See, if I lived in the DCU, I definitely would have voted Lex Luthor for president!

Adventure Comics #10

Adventure Comics #10: Writers: Sterling Gates, James Robinson and Eric Trautmann. Pencils: A whole slew of guys!
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

Two stories in this book, so I think I'll start off by reviewing the first. That seems to make sense to me. We pick up from Last Stand of New Krypton #2 with Superman falling towards New Krypton after having his powers removed from him due to a blast of red sunlight, courtesy of Brainiac's ship. Before Supes goes splat, one of Brainiac's robot minions flies over and catches Supes, landing safely with the confused Man of Steel. The robot reveals that it is actually one of the Legion members who had infiltrated Brainiac's ship, and the two of them try to figure out a way to get back on Brainiac's ship. Meanwhile, on said ship, Superboy gets separated from his Legion allies and trapped in a large room. As he attempts to pound a hole into the wall of the prison room, Lex Luthor strolls in and begins to taunt SB. Ah Lex, what an awesome villain you are! SB goes to attack Lex, but gets blasted with a major dosage of green Kryptonite before Lex blasts him into unconsciousness. Upon waking up, SB discovers that he is now trapped within the bottle city of Kandor, along with all of the Kryptonians. Mon-El, who was apparently captured in Last Stand #2, is being forced to live through some of his worst memories thanks to some sort of apparatus Brainiac's robots had hooked him up to. Back in the bottled city of Kandor, Superboy manages to find Gen. Zod and inquires as to whether of not the General has any plans for escaping. Zod tells SB to get lost, and after some more words between the two, they end up fighting, which leads to Zod taking SB down with some funky Kryptonian martial arts. With SB out of his way, Zod reveals that he does indeed have a plan for escaping Brainiac's bottled city, and along with a select group of military personal, Zod exits the bottled city and prepares to attack Brainiac's ship from within, ending the first story. The second story deals with the Kryptonian who had infiltrated Gen. Lane's Project 7734. Lane sends for her and shows her the scene from New Krypton, with Brainiac attacking the planet. Lane gloats for a while before revealing that he had known all along that she was an infiltrator... D'oh! The infiltrator tries to fight through Lane's men, but Lane uses his anti-Kryptonian tech to slowly sap her powers, which causes her to race to the lowest levels of the Project to see what Zod had been hiding. Upon arriving, she finds two fellow Kryptonian infiltrators and she realizes that Lane had tortured them in order to find out about her. With her powers totally spent, she is captured by Lane's soldiers and after complimenting her inventiveness, Lane puts a bullet between her eyes, ending this issue.

Very good stuff here! The first story was pretty good, but the second story was great! The infiltrator story had been very strong from the first part, and it definitely ended on a high note. Once again, although Gen. Lane is obviously the bad guy here, it is very easy to understand his motivations, and to a certain degree, almost agree with them. It's that ambiguity that made the infiltrator story so good, because I could sympathize with both Lane and the Kryptonian. As for the first story, it furthered the Last Stand storyline, which is a nice change of pace, since the past two Last Stand stories in Adventure Comics had been more or less filler stuff with very little connection to the main LS story. We get SB defeated(twice!)and locked up in Kandor, Mon-El as a prisoner of Brainiac, Supes trapped on the outside trying to finds a way in and Gen. Zod ready to launch one final all-out assault on Brainiac in order to set his people free. Yeah, I know I said it before, but I'm still going to say it again; I can't wait to see how this x-over ends up!

Score: 9 out of 10.I'm a big fan of Superboy, but Gen. Zod thrashing him with that crazy Kryptonian martial arts was just beyond great!

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #2(of 3)

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #2(of 3): Writers: Sterling Gates & James Robinson. Pencils: Pete Woods & Travis Moore
Last Issue: 9 out of 10.

This issue gets started with Alura and Gen. Zod arguing over who has the right to lead New Krypton during a time of war. In the end, Alura wins out, but Zod makes it plainly clear that the conversation was far from over. Superboy, Supergirl and one of the Legions(I don't know which anymore...)try to break onto Brainiac's ship to assist Superman and Mon-El, but prove unable to. While they are trying to figure out a course of action, Brainiac 5 arrives from the future and offers to assist the group of heroes. Meanwhile, Supes and Mon-El are trying to battle through Brainiac and his robot army, but prove unable to, as the robots drag Mon away, which leaves Supes alone with Brainiac. Brainiac tries to get a hold of one of the bottled cities that Mon-El had disconnected from Brainiac's ship, but Supes beats him to it, so Brainiac teleports to another part of his ship along with his many other bottled cities. SB, SG and the Legion manage to gain entrance to Brainiac's ship(thanks to Brainiac 5)and decide to split up in order to locate Supes and Mon. One of the groups of Legionaries manage to find Supes, and they inform him that if Brainiac isn't defeated the future the Legionaries had come from would cease to exist. While Supes and the Legion are having their pow-wow, Brainiac begins the process and bottling up Kandor, and with no members of the Super-clan there to stop him, he succeeds in shrinking and bottling the Kryptonian city(again). Thanks to the telepathic member of the Legion, Supes gets wind of what was happening, and he rushes outside Brainiac's ship just in time to watch the city get pulled in to the underside of the ship. Before Supes can get back into the ship, he is hit by a blast of red sunlight, and he begins to tumble helplessly back towards New Krypton. This issue ends with Lex Luthor and Brainiac looking into the bottled city of Kandor smugly, while Gen. Zod stands inside the shrunken city, proudly proclaiming that Brainiac had lost.

I definitely enjoyed reading this comic. It was fast-paced and made sense for the most part. I could nit-pick about a few things(such as Brainiac 5 arriving from the future just in time to help the heroes break onto Brainiac's ship), but instead I'll simply say that once again this comic has exceeded my expectations, so bravo. With the endgame drawing ever closer, I'm very curious as to how the whole saga of Kandor/New Krypton will conclude.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Brianiac went up like 25 coolness points by knocking his own robots out of the way in order to attack Superman!

Adventure Comics #9

Adventure Comics #9: Writers: James Robinson and Sterling Gates. Artists: More then I'm willing to list here!
Last Issue: 4 out of 10.

Much like the previous issue, this issue follows three different plot threads. The first one deals with Brainiac 5 from... I think the Old Legion of Super-Heroes, but I'm honestly not sure anymore... Anyway, Brainiac 5 is trying to figure out a way to the 21st century so he can prevent the death of Superman at the hands of his ancestor, the original Brainiac. Ultimately, Brainiac 5 manages to concoct a machine that allows him to travel back in time so he can assist the other time lost Legionaries in their attempts at halting Brainiac's assault on New Krypton. The second story deals with Superboy and Supergirl as they try to unite the Kryptonians against the forces of Brainiac. See, the Kryptonians are a fractured society of guilds, and the guilds, even under the threat of extinction, refuse to work with one another.. Idiots.... Finally SG and Tellus, one of the aforementioned time lost Legionaries, combine forces and Tellus is able to use his telepathy to convince a few of the Kryptonians to join forces to launch an attack on Brainiac's spacecraft. The final story deals with one of General Zod's Kryptonian infiltrators... Um, infiltrating General Lane's secret government program. In order to gain Lane's trust, she betrays one of her fellow infiltrators, and Lane and his K Squad kill the alien. In the end, the infiltrator rationalizes her actions by continuously telling herself that she was doing what was best for her homeworld, even if it costs a few Kryptonian lives.

I was pretty pleasantly surprised by this comic, especially in light of how much I disliked the last issue. Storywise, nothing really happened to advance the New Krypton/Brainiac storyline, but the little stories that were here were pretty good, especially the last one about the infiltrator. In the end, if you didn't read this comic, you wouldn't be missing much in the Last Stand x-over, but for those of us following the Last Stand x-over, this comic was a worthy addition.

Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.Being a HUGE fan of the second Brainiac(Vril Dox), it was nice to see him and his son mentioned during the Brainiac family tree portion of this comic... Hmm, a Vril Dox week over at Uncanny Comic Book Scans doesn't sound half bad...

Superman #698

Superman #698: Writer: James Robinson. Artists: Javier Pina & Bernard Chang.
Last Issue: 4 1/2 out of 10.

This is the third part of the Last Stand of New Krypton storyline. While Brainiac's forces continue to soften up the Kryptonian defenses on New Krypton, Superman himself remains the prisoner of Brainiac and Lex Luthor aboard Brainiac's spacecraft. While Brainiac and Lex torment the captive Man of Steel, Mon-El manages to break onto Brainiac's ship, all to free Supes. While fighting his way through Brainiac's army of freaks and robots, Mon begins to hear telepathic cries for help from one of Brainiac's bottled cities. Using those cries, Mon begins to hone in on the location of Brainiac's command deck. After some struggling, Supes manages to free himself from Brainiac's torture device(which surprises Brainiac), and he prepares to launch a counter attack against the two villains. However, before Supes can make a move, Lex pulls a gun and aims it at one of the bottle cities, warning Supes that if he so much as twitches, he'll pull the trigger, killing however many millions of beings may be living in that city. Supes backs down, and Lex smugly tells Supes that he should know by now that he can never trust Lex Luthor! Before Lex can pull the trigger, Mon arrives on the scene and pulls the city out of harms way. With the threat to the city eliminated, Supes breaks free of his restraints, and Lex runs away to a safer part of the ship. This issue ends with Brainiac calling forth hundreds of his robots to put an end to Supes and Mon.

This was a very good comic. I have to say that I enjoyed it from the first page to the last. Of course, whenever Lex Luthor is around, that's always bound to make the comic a much better read! This issue was basically a lot of Mon fighting, and Supes being taunted by Brainiac and Lex, with the only real story advance being the fact that Supes was now free to renew his attack on Brainiac and his ship. So although nothing of real note happened, I still highly enjoyed Supes and Lex's interactions. This story continues in Adventure Comics #9, and as long as it's anything like this issue was, I'll be very happy to give it a read.

Score: 8 out of 10.If I could choose to be any villain, I'd definitely choose to be Lex!

Booster Gold #30, Supergirl #51 & Superman/Batman #70.

Only three more days of school to go before vacation, and I've managed to take care of most of my studying and papers due this week. I'll still probably squeeze in some more studying before tomorrow's big Accounting exam, but for the most part, I'm well ahead of my school based responsibilities. What that means is that I can spend more time reading and blogging about comics. As such, I have a trio of DC books lined up for tonight, and after tomorrow's Comic Gazing, I'll be tackling the Siege storyline that is running through Marvel at the moment, starting with Siege #3 and then moving along the various Siege tie-ins. Alright, let's get this show on the road.

Booster Gold #30:Writer: Dan Jurgens. Art: Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund.
Last Issue: 8 1/2 out of 10.

This issue opens with the grim scene of Mongul and Cyborg Superman bombarding Coast City with the bombs that would soon go off to eradicate the City. Booster is still torn as to whether he should follow his prime directive and do nothing, since Coast City has to be destroyed to protect the integrity of the time stream or whether he should do everything in his power to thwart Mongul and Cyborg Superman's plot. After coming across a small girl, who would undoubtedly die if nothing was done, as well as some more coercing from fellow time traveler Sondra Crain, Booster decides to attempt to halt the destruction of Coast City, time stream be damned. Skeets tries to change Booster's mind on the matter, but Booster is determined, and as such, he sends Skeets to get the little girl and Sondra out of harms way. Booster then launches an attack on Mongul's ship, but is confronted by Cyborg Superman, who makes quick work of Booster, knocking him out and letting him fall thousands of feet. Before Booster goes splat, he is blasted by a mysterious character, and the force of the blast brings Booster back to his senses, allowing him to land safely. Meanwhile, after shunting Sondra and the girl back to the future, Skeets realizes there were two other unidentified time displaced individuals in Coast City, and he goes off in search of them, finding Booster's sister Michelle, as well as her boyfriend, Drew. Soon thereafter, Booster arrives on the scene and is reunited with Michelle, who asks Booster if he is going to try to prevent the upcoming catastrophe, to which Booster says yes. Skeets alerts Booster that it was too late, and that Mongul had dropped all of his bombs, and that in ninety seconds, Coast City would be nothing more then a large hole in the ground. Booster tells Skeets to take Michelle and her boyfriend to safety, but Skeets informs Booster that Michelle's boyfriend is supposed to die in the ensuing explosion. Booster ignores Skeets, and activates his time platform with the intention of taking his sister and her boyfriend to safety, while he continues to try to halt the imminent destruction of Coast City. Before Michelle and Drew manage to get to the time platform, the mystery man from earlier blasts Booster in the back, knocking him onto the platform, while simultaneously knocking Drew off. Michelle, Booster and Skeets return to the future, while Coast City and Drew meet their predetermined fate. Upon arriving back at Rip Hunter's time lab, Michelle mourns her dead boyfriend, and Booster flies off, needing some time to clear his head. This issue concludes with the mystery man from Coast City arriving in the time lab to inform Rip that everything turned out the way it had to. The mystery man takes off his hat and reveals... Booster Gold!?! Or at least an older version of Booster. The two discuss events in time, and ultimately old Booster decides to head back into the time stream where he can continue to work on whatever he was working on.

This was an awesome comic! What a brilliant job Dan did capturing the terrible decision Booster was left to deal with here. Allow 7 million people to die, as was supposed to happen, or do the heroic thing and try to change the way things in Coast City turned out. I was glad to see Booster try to do the heroic thing, even though we all knew he was doomed to fail. The part where Sondra pulls the young girl out of her destroyed car and confronts Booster with her, asking him if he could honestly live with himself if he allowed her to die was priceless. The reveal at the end with old Booster was interesting, only in that it shows that no matter what Booster may be feeling now, in the long run he'll still be working with Rip well into his old age. I was debating whether or not to give this comic a perfect score, but after thinking about it, and recalling the great dialogue and story, the decision became pretty easy.

Score: 10 out of 10.Man was this a powerful scene!

Supergirl #51: Writer: Sterling Gates. Pencils: Jamal Igle.
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

This issue opens with Supergirl and Mon-El trying to destroy as many of Brainiac's evil robots as they can, before the robots manage to kill any more Kryptonians. While Mon and SG are fighting off hordes of robots, Superboy and the OLD Legion are trying to free themselves from Gen. Zod's military men, since Zod had branded them all terrorists. The OLD Legion's telepath, Tellus, informs Mon of what was happening, as well as alerting him to the fact that Superman had already fallen to Brainiac aboard Brainiac's spacecraft. Mon tells SG what he'd just learned, which confuses her, since she was under the impression that Zod was going to work with the OLD Legion. Mon then tells SG that he was going to try to rescue Supes from Brainiac's clutches, and that she needs to continue helping her people against the Brainiac robots, even though she wants to assist in the rescue of Supes. SG ultimately agrees to remain behind, and Mon flies up towards Brainiac's ship to see what he could do against the evil tyrant. Meanwhile, Superboy and Starman have managed to defeat the Kryptonian military officers they were confronted with(really?!?), but are soon attacked by a few more soldiers, as well as SG's mother, the acting head of New Krypton, Alura. Back in the streets of New Krypton, SG continues to battle until she hears her mother's voice demanding to be unhanded. SG flies to her mother's side, where she finds Superboy about to punch Alura in the face. Needless to say SG doesn't take kindly to that, and she nearly knocks SB into orbit. While SG tries to find out from her mother what the hell was going on, a small army of Brainiac's robots descend into the room and proceed to attack the two women. The robots hit them with a powerful blast of red sunlight, which de-powers them, before moving in for the kill. Before the robots can murder the two women, they are saved by SB, who uses his tactile telekinesis to dismantle the robots. SG helps her mother make nice with SB, and upon hearing from SB that the OLD Legion was only there to help the trapped bottle cities on Brainiac's ship, Alura decides to go against Zod's command and sends out a message that SB and the OLD Legion were not to be obstructed by any Kryptonian. Zod hears this and gets angry, but keeps his cool, declaring that he'd deal with Alura soon enough. This issue ends with SG, SB and the now free OLD Legion heading skyward to launch their own attack on Brainiac's ship.

I though this was a good enough comic. It furthered the Last Stand of New Krypton story, while planting some seeds of discontent between Alura, the head of New Krypton and Zod, the head of New Krypton's military. I'm starting to get the feeling that Zod is going to take Alura out in order to gain her job, and with it, complete control over New Krypton's political system. With Superman, Supergirl and all the rest of Supes allies about to board Brainiac's ship, Alura is ripe to be picked off by Zod, if that is his plan. Besides that, I liked SG and SB, I enjoyed Mon-El's parts, but I'm still annoyed by the fact that the OLD Legion is getting any page time here, but what can ya do. The next part is in Superman #698, and as soon as I get my hands on it, I'll be reading and reviewing it.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Ah Superboy... How do you get yourself in these situations...

Superman/Batman #70: Writer: Joe Casey. Pencils: Ardian Syaf.
Last Issue: 7 out of 10.

Once again, this story takes place just after the DC event, “Our Worlds at War” from a few years back. Batman and Superman decide to trick the Durlan who was hellbent on killing Superman by sending him a secret message that revealed the location of Supes Fortress of Solitude to him. The Durlan decides to send his henchman, NRG-X to the Fortress to kill Supes, and Supes meets him there, finally able to really tear into NRG-X since they were no longer fighting in a populated area. Meanwhile, the Duran discovers the location of a half destroyed Durlan ship hear the moon, and heads there to see what sorts of weapons he could use against the Man of Steel. However, unbeknownst to the Durlan, Batman was also aware of the ship, and this issue ends with Batman making his way towards the Durlan's crippled ship in his... Bat-spaceship I guess.

Eh, this was an OK issue, but it wasn't really anything I'll remember. Once again, I think my lack of knowledge on the, “Our World at War” storyline hurt my enjoyment of this comic, but it was readable, it had Supes and Bats in it, and it had a pretty decent battle between Supes and NRG-X, so what more can I say?

Score: 6 out of 10.Huh, who knew Supes was such a back fighter...

Batman & Robin #10, Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1 & Titans #23

I'm sure burning through the new books I ordered last week in a pretty rapid fashion... Luckily I placed another comic order this past Wednesday, so hopefully I'll be getting this week's books as early as tomorrow. Speaking of comic orders, since I'm pretty sure Blackest Night #8 is dropping this coming Wednesday, I'm going to see if there are any back issues I've been needing so I can place yet ANOTHER order to fill out my shopping cart. So yeah, that'll be three consecutive weeks of CB orders, which means after BN winds down, it's time to start to show just a little restraint... HA! Yeah right! So it's three DC reviews on the agenda tonight. Unfortunately one of them is written in Morrisonese, which means I probably won't have the damnedest idea as to what's going on... Might as well start at the bottom first, no?

Batman & Robin #10: Writer: “Mad” Grant Morrison. Pencils: Andy Clarke.
Last Issue: 6 1/2 out of 10.

This issue starts with Damian(he's only TEN YEARS OLD!!!)Wayne holding a meeting with the Board of Directors of Wayne Enterprises... Damian levels accusations of financial irregularities at some of the board members, and they ACTUALLY LISTEN to him!!! My god, I think my IQ just fell 40 points... I mean, I don't care how smart he is, he's TEN!!! While Damian is making me want to gouge my eyes out with a rusty icepick, Dick “I'm still Batman?!?” Grayson is meeting with some weird guy named Oberon Sexton, who tells Dick that he suspects that the Domino Killer(whoever the hell HE is)is probably targeting Bruce Wayne since the Domino Killer was hunting down members of the Black Glove(which the media insinuated Bruce to have been a member of... I guess). Dick acts confused and leaves, returning to Wayne Manor where he meets Damian and Alfred, who had shut down the Manor's electric systems since they are unsure of whether or not they had picked up all of El Sombrero's eavesdropping devices... El Sombrero? Really?!? So the guy's name translates to The Hat!?! Anyway, the trio discuss the fact that they now seem to believe that Bruce Wayne is alive and trapped in time, and as such they begin to search the Manor for any possible clues Bruce(while trapped in the past)may have left for them. Everyone wanders around, with Dick and Damian discovering some secret passage that leads them to a mysterious room of suits of armor. While this is happening, some goons try to attack Oberon Sexton, but he manages to get away. While Damian and Dick are searching the secret room, Damian begins to realize that when Bruce returns he'll probably lose his place as Robin, so he begins to get even more bitchy then usual. We then get a flashback to the last time Damian and Talia were together, where she was trying to sow seeds of doubt about the way the Bat-family felt about Damian. Back in the present, Dick begins to investigate a strange symbol on the floor of the secret room, as Damian grabs a sword from one of the suits of armor and takes a swing at the back of Dick's neck. Before Damian can connect, Dick falls through the floor, landing in a DOUBLE secret chamber! Ooo, Wayne Manor is sure quite the mysterious place! Damian seems to snap out of a trance and realizing what he almost did, runs away screaming about what his mother did to him. Dick wanders around the DOUBLE secret chamber and finds a strange alter with the Bat logo etched into the floor, as well as the word, “Barbatos” carved into the wall. Damian runs through the graveyard at the Manor(every home should have one!)and bumps into Sexton, who tells Damian to keep quiet, since the minions of the Domino Killer were spread all throughout the graveyard, ending this issue.

I don't even know what to say... What a mess! For me, the tone was set right from the start when Damian was heading a meeting with the Board of Directors at Wayne Enterprises. OK, I get it, Grant LOVES Damian, and Damian can do NO wrong, but come on, this is getting insane now! Are you really going to tell me that Wayne Enterprises, a multi-BILLION dollar company would even ENTERTAIN the notion of having Damian at one of their meetings?!? I mean there's suspending belief, but that's going TOO far! With that bad taste already in my mouth, I could never really get into the rest of this story. It was more of Grant's bizarre, nonsensical insanity. Knowing how crazy Bruce Wayne is(the guy built a multi-million dollar Batcave!)I can't believe that he would have been unaware of all of these secret rooms/passages hidden throughout the Manor. If I wanted to get REALLY nit-picky, I'd point out that those secret rooms should have been almost in ruins thanks to the Gotham City earthquake of a few years back... If you like Grant's Batman work, then I'd guess you'd probably like this issue. If you're like me, and can't decipher Morrisonese, then you're probably glad this issue ended when it did!

Score: 4 out of 10.Yeah, I'm sure this happens to all of the Fortune 500 companies...

Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton #1(of 3): Writers: James Robinson & Sterling Gates. Artist: Pete Woods.

We begin this mini where the World of New Krypton maxi-series ended, with Brainiac launching a massive attack on the Kryptonian homeworld. Unlike the first time Brainiac attacked the Kryptonians and stole the city of Kandor, this time around the Kryptonians are empowered by the yellow sun, and as such go about trying to defend themselves against Brainaic's robotic minions. Unfortunately, Brainiac's robots are equipped with weapons designed to neutralize the Kryptonians super-powers, which leads to Brainiac's forces pushing the Kryptonian forces backwards. While Superman and his Red Shard military unit are racing around the streets trying to destroy as many robots as they can, General Zod fires a massively powerful blast at Brainiac's ship, which kills several members of the Kryptonian military who were trying to attack Brainiac's ship, while doing absolutely NO damage to the ship itself. Supes, having seen what had happened, and witnessing the deaths of the military members, confronts Zod, who calls the incident unfortunate and calls the dead soldiers collateral damage. That does it for Supes, who quits the military guild, tears off his uniform and launches skyward back in his familiar red and blue. While Supes is taking the fight to Brainiac's ship, Supergirl assists her mother, who was being mobbed by robots and gets her out of harms way. SG drops her mother off with General Zod, where she figured she'd be safe, and heads back into the streets to try to fight off Brainiac's forces. Unfortunately for the Girl of Steel, Brainiac's forces hit her with a blast of red sunlight and prepare to kill her. Before the robots can finish the job, Superboy, Mon-El and the Legion of OLD Super-heroes arrive on the scene and rescue her. After cleaning up the robots, SG brings SB and company to Zod, and the OLD Legionaries tell him that he must not destroy Brainiac, because Brainiac still has several captive bottle cities aboard his ship, and destroying the ship would destroy those cities. Zod tells them that he understands, and he asks SG to go back out to help her people. Mon-El joins her, and after they leave, Zod commands his men to arrest SB and the OLD Legion, calling them maniacs. Back in space, Superman manages to bypass Brainiac's ship's force-field, and gets on board. After tearing through the few robots there, he runs into Brainiac himself in his room of bottled cities. Before Supes can launch an attack against Brainiac, Supes is struck down by a powerful blast fired by Lex Luthor(!). Needless to say, that ends this issue.

This was a VERY good beginning to this mini. The story was sound(Brainiac either wants to take back Kandor or destroy it), the artwork was good and everything blended together nicely. I was pleasantly surprised to see Lex standing with Brainiac, mainly because I had forgotten that they were working together... Whoops! Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, the addition of Lex can only help this mini, so it was great to see him here. The only thing that annoyed me about this one was the addition of the OLD Legion, but at least they were for the most part inoffensive. It should go without saying that I'll be collecting all three parts of this mini, as well as the other x-over stuff.

Score: 9 out of 10.Come on everybody, say it with me, "IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!"

Titans #23: Writer: Eddie Berganza. Pencils: Scott Clark and Ardian Syaf.
Last Issue: 7 1/2 out of 10.

This issue begins with a flashback that completely misrepresents what the original Teen Titans were all about, so I'm going to completely ignore it, lest I go off on some kind of a rant. After the awful flashback, we find Batman(Dick Grayson), Donna Troy and that OTHER Flash(Wally West)heading to Titan Tower to look at the new statue that was erected for their fallen teammate Tempest. While there, they get word from Cyborg that they should get to the bedside of Roy Harper since things weren't looking very good for him. We get a few more flashbacks detailing how much Flash hated Roy in the beginning because of the fact that they both had a thing for Donna, which would lead to tons of tension between Wally and Roy during their early years. Donna paints a different picture of Roy then the guys ever saw, stating that he was very sensitive with her. After the flashback sequences end, the three remaining original Teen Titans arrive at STAR Labs and sit at the bedside of the ailing archer. Dick begins to get upset and wants to leave(which would be the Batman way of doing things), but Donna convinces him to stay. Cyborg informs them that the doctors had finally halted the spread of the nanites that Prometheus introduced into Roy's system, which prompts Wally to run off to hug his wife and kids. This issue concludes with Wally having one final flashback where he finally buried the hatchet with Roy, mainly due to seeing how much Roy had grown over the years, and seeing the type of father Roy had become.

This was a good issue, although some of the flashback stuff ran contrary to my knowledge of Teen Titan history. I don't recall the original Teen Titans being a bunch of out of control kids, nor did I think Wally and Roy's relationship was nearly as bad as some of these flashbacks made it out to be. However, most of the rest of this comic worked well for me, and I was glad to see the Titans show some sort of emotion towards Roy's situation, unlike in the Rise and Fall Special. It was also a nice touch for Wally to rush off to see his own kids considering the fact that Roy had lost his daughter. Little things like that often go a long way with me, because they make sense in the context of the character(Wally in this case). While I still DETEST what DC did to Roy and especially Lian, this comic was good, and I'm cautiously looking forward to the recently released first part of the Rise of Arsenal mini-series.

Score: 8 out of 10.Wow, that's the longest string of profanity I think I've ever read...