Superman Adventures, Vol. 3: Last Son of Krypton by Mark Millar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This collects the all ages Superman Adventures Issues 30-34.

The book kicks off with a cracker jack two part story, "Family Reunion" that finds Clark Kent having seemingly lost a year and the world having moved on without Superman and his parents died. Out of nowhere his biological mom pops up and says that Krypton's Capitol City was saved and invites him to come home. However, things aren't what they seem in this tale of alternate dimensions where no one's quite what they seemed. Grade: A+

"Sullivan's Girlfriend Lois Lane" finds Superman doing battle with a hypnotic criminal who hypnotizes Lois without giving her a suggestion, so the janitor Sullivan gives him one of her own-that Lois Lane is his girlfriend. A somewhat Lois-centric feature that has mixed results. Shows Clark/Superman's character that he gently deals with Sullivan rather than intimidating him. Grade: B

"Clark Kent is Superman and I Can Prove It" finds someone having guessed Superman's secret identity and it's no one you'd expect, but a dead end former rival from Smallville. The way he extricates himself is a classic throwback to the silver age as well as how he deals with the discoverer. Grade: B+

By far, the weakest Superman Adventures story I've read in the digest so far was "Sanctuary" which features the supernatural superhero Dr. Fate. The story doesn't focus on Superman as a character which I hate and in addition to that, Dr. Fate doesn't acquit himself all that well either. The writers were thinking of something, but this was just weak. Grade: D

Even with the weak final story, "Family Reunion" makes this whole collection worthwhile.




Superman Adventures, Vol. 4: The Man of Steel by Mark Millar

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the last of the Superman Adventures comics containing Issues 35-39 with five stories.

Lets take a look one by one: Don't Play with the Toyman's Toys: Someone has taken control of the Toyman's criminal toys while the evil midget is behind bars. A more "okay" story than good. The ending seemed a bit contrived. Grade: C+


This is a Job for Superman: No Supervillain in this one, just the Man of Steel out on a particularly busy patrol. Some great parts. somewhat disturbing part is the almost God-like expectations that some people have for him to solve every problem, and it seems to have rubbed off on him. Grade: B+

Clark Kent Public Enemy: Clark Kent is framed for a crime and locked up. It's up to Lois and Jimmy to clear him. This type of plot's been done before in Superman stories and much better than here. Grade: C

If I Ruled the World: Mxyzptlk shows up to hassle Superman and tries to warn off the parasite, but instead the parasite absorbs Mr. Mxyzptlk's powers getting some of the dangerous powers in the DC Universe. This is one of type of great stories that Superman Adventures did so well by mixing and matching two Superman foes. Mxyzptlk and Parasite both work because they are dangerous foes but are limited by very specific rules and to survive Superman has to play off those rules. Of course, whether anyone could do that to Mxyzptlk or whether Rudy's power's powerful enough to absorb it requires some extra suspension of disbelief. Overall, very good story. Grade: A-

Reunion: The one failure in Superman Adventures seems to be the overuse of Brainiac, as his shtick is the same every time. This time he's back with the help of a version of himself from Supergirl's home planet Argo. This version also borrowed appearance from Supergirl's mother. To put Brainiac on Argo requires some plotting gymnastics and Braniac himself is sounding a bit cheesy. Still, the story works on an emotional level as it's set at Mother's Day and finds Supergirl missing her mother and dealing with this Brainiac clone that looks like her. Grade: B

Overall, I'd give it a 3.5, but will round up.



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