Difficult choices
Greg Pak continues to explore a familiar concept but with a
new spin on it. Though the reveal at the end does cheapen it a bit, the story
upto that is solid enough to merit goodwill towards Pak.
Ardian Syaf’s artwork suffers a drop in quality, but is
competent enough to support the plot.
SPOILERS FOLLOW……………
The idea of Kandor has always been better in theory than
practice – Superman’s last bind to his birth planet, yet always distant due to
his inability to enlarge them to his size.
In the pre-New 52, he did manage to achieve that in the few
years before Flashpoint and the status quo being dialed back – with disastrous
results.
The problem is that unlike Clark,
they never had any interaction with actual humanity making them more despotic
and power-mad than they would otherwise be.
Pak’s focus on Kandor as the source of Kal-El’s current woes
isn’t new ground, but he approaches it in a fresh way.
The familiar points are all touched on, making this
immensely new reader friendly. Kandor as Krypton’s greatest city, home of
Supergirl, miniaturized into a souvenir for Braniac and rescued by Superman.
When Superman fought Braniac again, the Fortress and Kandor’s bottle were
collateral damage.
Superman, Batman and Supergirl enter Kandor with adapters
and are quickly faced with a brainwashing history lesson – where the Phantom
King Xa-Du (a B-grade antagonist of Superman trapped in the Phantom Zone by Jor-El) is glorified while Jor El is the villain who destroyed Krypton and
imprisoned Kandor, which his villainous son Kal El continues to this date.
It is revealed that Xa-Du is pulling the strings, using the
Kandorians’ resentment as a platform to brainwash them into becoming his
missiles against Clark and his extended
family.
While it is nice to see a familiar villain behind this (instead of a oh-a-new-guy-didn't-see-that-coming one), I
feel like it takes away a little from the overall theme of the arc – Superman’s
variation of the Joker, the Kandorians themselves independently attacking Clark for choosing Earth before Kandor.
And as expected (and seen before), Tali leads the charge
against Superman and Supergirl alongside Kal’s aunt and maternal grandmother.
SPOILERS END………………
With a better reveal of the major antagonist of the arc (or
is there still a twist in the tale?), this story could have been better.
Still Pak handles a vital portion of Superman’s history with
reverence and plays it against the current status quo well. Syaf’s artwork
sadly isn’t as spectacular as before, but he gets the job done.
So, I give it 8.0 out of 10.
+Uses a vital part of Superman’s history well
+Explores a familiar theme with deft handling
+Good artwork
+Highly accessible to new readers
-The reveal at the end is a little underwhelming
-The theme may feel too familiar for longtime readers.
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