Superman: New Krypton, Vol. 1

1 rating: 3.0

DC Comic written by Geoff Jones and James Robinson

New Krypton" is a Superman story arc written by Geoff Johns, James Robinson, and Sterling Gates with art by Gary Frank, Alex Ross, Renato Guedes, Jamal Igle and Pete Woods and published by DC Comics. The arc is an inter-title crossover, published … see full wiki

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I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your door down earthlings!

Mar 5, 2012

by Madpenguin
posted in Speech Bubbles: Comics & Graphic Novels

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Superman's best friend Jimmy Olsen is on to a big story that sends him away from Metropolis for awhile. This lands him in a chase for his life as he searches out a man for answers. He soon makes a discovery that involves Superman, and he hurries back to Metropolis in hopes of getting the word to him. But Superman has his own issues to deal with. -summary

When I first came into this story arc I was immediately intrigued, and the last time I could remember being overly interested in a Superman arc was when I came into Our Worlds At War. Now that's quite a large gap right there. The premise for New Krypton had room for major potential, but whether it truly reached it is a topic for another day. In any case, the ground work is being well laid here and I have to say that this first volume pretty much kicked things off with a bang, at least by the second half anyway. New Krypton Volume One picks up where Superman: Brainiac left off. This time around, the writing duties are shared between Geoff Johns and James Robinson, something I was never really too crazy about since I'm not a fan of Robinson's work. He normally just puts me to sleep. This TPB collects Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen Special 1, Adventure Comics Special Featuring the Guardian 1, Superman: New Krypton Special 1, Superman 681, and Action Comics 871.

The first act follows Jimmy Olsen as he plays reporter/detective and uncovers some plot to kill Kryptonians. This creates a couple of sub plots that are cleared up later on in the story arc. These first two chapters are written by Robinson and they suffer from some bad pacing, as they are very dialog heavy, and unless you're a fan of Olsen, in which I'm not, it can only drag and feel a whole lot longer than what it really is. In fact, I remember having to stop and take a look at the cover art, to make sure it was the New Krypton saga, because it sure as hell didn't feel like it. I feel this story took a lot longer than what it needed to, but it's not a complete waste since it does play into the overall story.

The second half is when things become interesting. At the end of Superman: Brainiac, Superman was able to liberate the bottled city Kandor, which was previously in Brainiac's possession. Along with the city, Superman set loose 100,000 Kryptonians with not only Supergirl's parents being accounted for, but also loyal followers of General Zod, a power mad Kryptonian. In this story, they begin to develop their powers, and Superman hopes to blend them in with Earth natives and bring them up on the cultures and customs. This is obviously a power keg just waiting to explode, as the people of Earth are less than happy about 100,000 Superman's flying over them. This also includes the JLA and JSA, who quickly point out that a group of Kryptonians leveled Metropolis before. On top of this, some of the Kryptonians themselves are not too crazy about embracing a culture that's not their own. Superman realizes this is a difficult situation, yet feels obligated to help them to atone for the death of his adoptive father Jonathan Kent.

The reader knows that something is amiss, and it's only a matter of time before bullets start to fly. Plus General Lane is revealed to be alive and well, so things are going to get ugly. This volume is heavily story driven as there is barely any action at all, but the writing is so strong at least for me, it overshadows the lack of action. Not to be alarmed though, there is a brief moment of action that actually helps develop the story, when Doomsday is sent into battle against the Kryptonians with disastrous results. One thing is for sure, the story is working very well with its suspense build up.

One of the major lows of the story arc is the inconsistent artwork concerning the character designs. There are times they are drawn pretty well with some decent detail to them, other times, it can be just downright bad with vapid character designs. The facial features can be a little too ugly and lacking detail. Do not come into this expecting Gary Frank's work from Superman: Brainiac.

In closing, although the story ends with a cliffhanger it can leave the reader wanting more. The idea of Superman, quite possibly the most powerful being on Earth, looking completely normal next to his own people isn't only a very interesting concept, but scary for the people of Earth as well. They share his powers and the possibility of a takeover is inevitable. Let's see where things go from here.

Pros:
-Story, very strong second half

Cons:
-Artwork, first half

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