Broken pieces.
The Phantom King’s endgame forces Superman and Supergirl
into a corner, as they face lies disguising the truth and loved ones turned
enemies.
Greg Pak concludes his first arc alongside Adrian Syaf and
it’s mostly successful. There are problems though; especially the rushed
conclusion and some unneeded comparisons.
SPOILERS FOLLOW……………
We first go into Lara-El’s mother’s altered memory – as she
remembers being less than happy with Jor-El, a fear mongering glorifying fool,
whose son kept her and her other daughter trapped in endless sleep where they
were in a state of permanent agitation….that is until their ‘savior’ the
Phantom King Xa-Du rescued them.
Clark and Kara are forced to fight family and friends, and
seem to be losing until Batman comes into the battle with an awesome line
(‘you’re not my grandma’) and a red sunlight generator.
Batman is apparently incinerated by Clark’s
brainwashed aunt, leaving Superman with no route but to use his powers to stop
his family. When Xa-Du breaks open the bottle containing Kandor and lets
sunlight in, Superman uses the red sunlight rod over a large area to negate
both himself and the rest of the Kryptonians.
The Phantom King is still at an advantage, but Batman (who
was shrunk to an atomic level) uses the Ant farm sphere to insert himself into
Xa-Du’s brain and destroy the physical projection of the Phantom King.
Most of the Xandorians are released of the mindwipe, but
over a million (including Superman’s grandmother and aunt and Kara’s friend
Tali) are still affected and placed in suspended animation in Kandor.
Superman visits one of the Phantom King’s intended targets
and regrets putting her in his cross-hairs. But Felicity mentions that faith is
more powerful than fear, and trapped in the Phantom Zone, Xa-Du agrees.
First of all, can we stop the forced comparisons with the
Joker? Batman and Joker are a more complex relationship and very different from
Superman and the Phantom King.
There is an underlying twisted love story there, with a
ying-yang component in the Joker/Batman dynamic. The attack on family thing
only happened recently. Meanwhile the Phantom King is more legacy villain, in
that he was a foe of Jor-El and then transferred it to Kal-El.
SPOILERS END……………………
Greg Pak concludes a promising arc well, though the
resolution feels a bit rushed. The theme of nature vs nurture is again brought
up. Could Superman have done more to help Kandor? Is he really turning his back
on Krypton by becoming Earth’s protector?
Adrian Syaf is great as usual, and while there are brief
lapses, overall it’s a very solid effort.
So, I give it 8.0 out of 10.
+The overlying thematic conflict of nature vs nurture
+Batman has some great moments
+The artwork is solid
-Forced parallels with the Joker continue to grate
-Rushed resolution
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