Superman: New Krypton Special Cover

Damn you Geoff Johns! DAMN YOU! You’re such a talented writer, you just had to suck me into Superman, didn’t you? I realize there are a TON of people that absolutely love Superman. I get it; he’s a icon. I mean, if you ask someone to name a superhero, Superman will probably be the first thing out of a lot of people’s mouths. I mean, he has “super” in the title. But I tended to agree with the people who said that Superman is just this boring, do-gooder, with no real depth. And to an extent, that’s true. But while Superman may be the perfect person, there’s still a lot of great stories, filled with drama, to be told about him.

This is where New Krypton comes in. And to kick-off New Krypton, Johns teams up with fellow Superman writers James Robinson and Sterling Gates and artists Pete Woods, Gary Frank and Renato Guedes to bring us Superman: New Krypton Special. This one-shot spins directly out of the events of Action Comics #870, New Krypton Special is mostly about the Kents struggling with the death of Jonathon Kent and how Superman and Supergirl are adapting to the introduction of the city of Kandor at the North Pole. In addition, we get some lead up to what is sure to be the main conflict of the New Krypton arc that spans all the Superman books in the next couple of months.

Continue reading below for my full review.

I’ve been looking forward to New Krypton since I started reading DC comics a few months ago. As soon as I heard about it, I said, “yes, that’s going to be an amazing story.” So far, I’ve been correct. New Krypton Special does a great job getting you excited for what is to come in New Krypton. I wasn’t expecting to see the “bad guy” revealed so early, but I am impressed with how much just that makes you want to read the rest of the series. Johns’ work is especially noteworthy in this issue. You can’t tell who the writer is on each section, but I am making an assumption that Johns wrote the beginning. He does a great job allowing the artist to really tell a lot of the story. There’s some great writing when Superman is talking to Zor-El and talking about how they need to learn about and respect the humans. There’s also a great touching sequence when Supergirl is reunited with her parents. In general, there’s some good writing. The only disappointment is that it seems to jam too much into this one-shot. There’s a lot going on. Probably could have been dealt with in the Superman books and just made the New Krypton arc longer. Still, despite having a lot of stuff in it, this issue feels quick and tightly written.

The art in this issue ranges from the awesome to the “urg”. Like the writing, you can’t really tell who the artist is on each page. The first artist does an amazing job. Based on the art of Action Comics, I think this is Gary Frank. I really can’t say anything other than that it is beautiful stuff. Things head slightly downhill around the 1/3 mark of the issue. The artist that takes over has some of the good quality of Frank’s art, but less detailed and more cartoony. Not terrible, but not outstanding and really makes you cringe when the transition happens. And then things get really bad. The third artist just misses completely in my book. Facial expressions are particularly bad. They seem really unreal. Actually, I’ll give the guy credit cause his scenery is beautiful. But his characters are so awkwardly drawn that it takes you out of the story. And since you look at the characters most, it is really horrible.

All in all, I am excited for New Krypton. This one-shot set things up nicely, so if you are looking to read New Krypton, pick this up. Otherwise, don’t bother.