Credits: Written and drawn by Dan Jurgens, finishes by Rick Burchett and edited by Brian Agustyn.
Cast: Clark ‘Superman’ Kent, Jon Michael ‘Booster Gold’ Carter, Ted ‘Blue Beetle’ Kord, Tara ‘Ice’ Olafsdotter, Beatriz ‘Fire’ DaCosta, Guy Gardner, Maxima, Bloodwynd (no seriously, he was called Bloodwynd) and Cat Grant.
Plot: In Ohio, a humanoid (though not considered human) in green is tearing through the countryside leaving injuries and devastation and local emergency response has been assisted by the Justice League. The team try and track the creature down in the Bug, Blue Beetle’s flying machine. As this is going on, Superman is appearing on the Cat Grant show, answering questions from Cat as well as members of her mostly teenage audience. He goes through the whole league’s roster, talking about them in very non-committal way.
At Blue Beetle’s behest Bloodwynd and Maxima try to read the creatures mind and find only blood lust. Blue Beetle is frustrated that Maxima helped as he doesn’t know the full range of Bloodwynd’s power, or even anything about him. Ahead of the league, the green clad creature finds a deer and for his own amusement, kills it. He then throws it behind him, into the arriving Bug. The deer’s corpse punches through the cockpit and brings it to the ground. With a number of fliers on the team, everyone is able to bail out and land safely and they then go after the creature. As expected Guy Gardner goes in first with his Sinestro ring and is demolished in seconds, alive, but badly hurt. Fire and Bloodwynd arrive to help but don’t fare any better. Bloodwynd is punched through an oil refinery and is burning. Blue Beetle follows and sees something that answers some questions he had, but is almost immediately grabbed and horrifically injured by the creature. Booster Gold goes in to avenge his friend and on the Cat Grant show, the news about Ohio is shared and Superman leaves to go re-join his team and arrives just soon enough to catch Booster who has been punched into the sky. Booster exclaims that it looks like doomsday is here.
Notes: This is one of only two non-super titles in this era that tie in directly to the story. The fact that one of the super-titles’ creative teams are on here makes it seamless transition. The boring chat-show is juxtaposed with the brutal demolishing of the Justice League and brings how your day can change into dramatic focus. The chat does raise an interesting point in that there are two types of what we refer to as the Superhero, even though some fall into both camps. There’s the crimefighter (Batman, Spider-Man, Daredevil and Green Arrow) which are effectively vigilantes and then there’s the cat from the tree, world saving types (Superman, Green Lantern and the Flash falls in here) and they are pretty much law abiding. Superman is a character that relies on trust. He’s not from Earth, he’s ridiculously powerful and when in the strongman outfit and cape doesn’t answer to anyone. If he isn’t trustworthy, that is downright terrifying. But he counters that by being as open and as friendly as he can be. He comes across as everyone’s big brother, here to help and be something of an example. So you might never see Flash doing this, or Wonder Woman and Batman would laugh if you suggested it, but Superman would be exactly the person who would answer your questions. One thing about the Joss Whedon Justice League that worked was Superman doing an interview for two kids with a podcast. Okay the face was a cgi clusterf**k, but he is the guy who’d do that before flying off. With so many views of Superman being the fear based, or that whole “what if Superman went bad” which I am sick off by the way. It was nice to see that friendly big brother type of guy who wants people to trust him only because then he can help.
Verdict: Overall 8 out of 10:
I’ve put art and writing as one thing in overall, since the writer and penciller are the same person. Jurgens’ Superman is an iconic portrayal in the post crisis era. A position this non-super title confirms is earned. No one could do the Bwah-ha-ha era again, so Jurgens went the action heavy melodrama road and it works. The battle with the creature mixed with the interview is a nice touch, if not so smoothly handled. It built up Superman’s arrival quite nice and set the whole stage for what looks to be an epic first confrontation. It’s only 7 out of 10 because it’s all build and no bang and I can’t take the name Bloodwynd at all seriously. It’s not a character, it’s a worrying medical sympton. But I’m in this and this issue played a part in that.
Next Time: It’s a big E, but starts with S
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