Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Superman #4 Review and *SPOILERS*



Ghost Face Killa


Written By: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason
Art By: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 3, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Clark can't seem to catch a break since he decided to take up the mantle of the New 52 Superman because there he was for years and years with his family, keeping it low key and now he's face to face with the Eradicator in this story, who wants to suck off his son.......... or something like that.  Yeah, it seems that the Eradicator is all about things being pure and since Clark and Lois went and mingled their genomes to make Jon, Eradicator wants to purge the human part of the boy.... and ended up eating Krypto in the process.  If there's one thing you don't do in this series since Jon's traumatic experience with his cat Goldie, is hurt another animal, so it's time for a little father/son ass kicking bonding time.  Let's jump into this issue and see how the super family fares in the face of the embodiment of Krypton itself.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Superman just giving Eradicator the business and Jon wanting to go against his no killing policy since Goldie went and kicked it, but Lois talks Jon down from this rash line of thinking, which leads to an awesome scene of Jon suiting up and heat visioning his cape to his shirt....... I loved it, it looked amazing and it got Jon in the fight with his father, where they straight up killed Eradicator........ or at least would have if he was a normal being because they separate his upper jaw from his lower one and his neck bends all the way to his back....... it's pretty fucking gruesome and the whole scene becomes Ghostbusters, when Walter Peck shut down the protection grid on the containment unit.  The spirits of Krypton explode out of the Eradicator and I become completely lost.


The reason for me being lost is because we were at the Fortress of Solitude when Eradicator blew his top and then out of nowhere we were at Bibbo's Ace O' Clubs in Metropolis.  I understand wanting to get Bibbo, the Superman super fan into the story, but the reasons behind it just seem so disjointed from what we were dealing with.  It seems that Bibbo just acquired what he believes to be a moon rock and Superman, Lois and Jon just fall out of the sky and onto Bibbo's pool table, as the ghosts of Krytpon swarm the bar.  Lois does her whole investigating thing and deduces that the supposed moon rock is actually a piece of Krypton and that's what drew the spirits here.........and it actually has kryptonite inside of it........... which seems weird as hell, since we never see that familiar green glow, but Bibbo chucks the rock and Superman becomes....... well, super again....... and the book continues to be weird because for some reason Jonathan Kent, from Superman's own universe appears and gives Clark the confidence and the insight about how the spirits just want to be free from the Eradicator......... And speak of the devil.  


In the end, the Eradicator shows back up, with his head back where it's supposed to be and tries to continue his purge of Jon, but the ghosts aren't about to go back to their prison....... and I guess they cause the Eradicator to be blown back into the bay.  Superman uses this time to load his family into Bibbo's mini-sub and we close this issue out with what looks like our hero taking his family to the moon, while he deals with Eradicator...........weird.


That's it for this issue of Superman and man, I thought the last issue was weird, but this one takes the cake because I don't know what's going on here.  We've got ghosts teleporting our heroes, the ghost of the Pre-Flashpoint Jonathan Kent showing up for some reason and Superman thinking that Jon and Lois will be alright on the moon in a mini-sub for a few days.  Boy, I hope they're able to hold it........ and where the hell is Krypto?  Poor pooch.  There is so much that I don't understand about this Eradicator and everything going on inside of him, that I hope we get some explanations about, but with Superman getting his family out of the area, it seems that we're on our way to a slug fest pure and simple and I hope that's not the case because man do I need some exposition at this point.  I did love seeing Patrick Gleason back on art this issue, but the previous issue's art was pretty solid as well and I kind of hope that we get to see more of that in the future.  This is just so goddamn weird and the way Bibbo was forced into the story was just adding to that.

Bits and Pieces:

This issue of Superman is weird as hell in that not a lot of explanation is given to all the strange ass things that go down in this issue........ and I don't need much, but something, anything would have done me some good while reading this.  We do get Patrick Gleason back on art this issue, but the overall story just felt really forced to get characters and locations in this issue and because of that I was just left scratching my head.

6.5/10

3 comments:

  1. I completely agree that this issue was confusing and weird overall, but I think I liked it a little more. To compare it to Action Comics it could have been similar and just some fighting with Eradicator(God I can't help but think of the Kids in the Hall sketch when I read this name), but it ended up moving a little bit even though it didn't offer much explanation.

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  2. I'm with you guys. I thought it was weird, but I did like it. I would give it a 7. I was bothered by Lois and her being ok with Jon attacking Eradicator, but is the exact opposite it Action Comics. I also think the dialogue was a little hokey and forced. The art was good in some panels and below average in others. With all of that said, I do like this book and I like where this book is going and what it's building to. I feel like there's going to be an awesome pay off at the end. I give it a 7 primarily based on that hope and I do like the character growth that is happening with Jon.

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  3. I liked how I liked that before Jon went into the fight, he used his heat vision to attach the cape. Got to look cool, and just like dad, for the fight.
    I liked the way they both punched the Eradicator in the face and he had that destroyed Terminator look, and later they reference the Terminator.
    Hacken has the most bizarre prosthetic I’ve seen.
    I also appreciated the Ghostbuster reference.

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