Written by Brian Michael Bendis
Art by John Romita Jr.
Published by DC Comics
This book has gotten slightly more interesting over the last couple of issues. Artist John Romita Jr. has come aboard the book and he is really bringing the scripts by Brian Michael Bendis to life.
This issue is nicely illustrated, although the story feels a little disjointed.
The issue starts off with a really great first page of Superman fighting against Lex Luthor and his Legion Of Doom. It is an exciting page and has a really great fight going on in it.
Then, on the very next page, we go into the past with Bendis taking us back six months to get a little backstory.
Robinson Goode is the Red Cloud. We get a chance to see just how she received her powers. This flashback happens right in the middle of a really interesting fight. It almost feels like Bendis was trying to sabotage his own story. The origin is overlong and rather misplaced and actually kind of unnecessary.
It really is a bit intrusive.
After that flashback, we are taken back to the fight!
Things are intense! Well, they are intense for about three pages and then we are thrown into another flashback when Superman sees Fire Chief Moore.
This flashback involves her and Clark and is frankly kind of trite. It also leads into the end of the issue with a big finale!
The big finale is rather overblown. There are all sorts of things going on. Hell, even Leviathan shows up because why not?
This is a schizophrenic issue at best. The art elevates it but it can only do so much. Once Bendis starts getting “clever” in this issue, it goes downhill fast.
RATING: B-
