Review by Karl Verhoven

Superman’s life has been inordinately complicated by the restoration of 100,000 Kryptonians on Earth, all with super powers duplicating his. Tensions led them to decamp to their own planet, New Krypton, accompanied by Supergirl as seen in Volume Two, and as seen in Mon-El Volume One, Superman’s chosen to accompany them, more to keep an eye on things. Among other concerns is General Zod being granted control of the military.

James Robinson and Greg Rucka co-write, and they present an interesting contrast. “There’s a fundamental fact all of you seem to have missed”, explains Superman to a bunch of Kryptonians, “You’re all new to your powers. But me, I’ve had a lifetime to master them”. He is more experienced and therefore more capable, but he’s also at a disadvantage within a society structured as the Krypton of old. He may be Kryptonian, but he didn’t grow up on Krypton, so his is an outsider’s perspective, and some traditions grate. It makes adjustment difficult.

Artist Pete Woods has no such problems in designing a society intended to impress as architecturally and artistically superior. He conveys the considerable emotional impact of events and there’s never any concerns about figuring out what’s happening, but the one small blemish is drawing Alura looking far too young. She’s meant to be Superman’s Aunt and Supergirl’s mother, but doesn’t have the look of a woman in her early forties in Earth terms.

Deliberately allocated to serve under Zod, Superman’s time is cleverly spent applying non violent solutions to military problems, yet aware there’s continuing manipulation occurring. There’s good use made of visiting Green Lanterns, both in showing more visual wonders, and in supplying more doubts for Superman, and all in all, this is a definite page-turner.

The cliffhanger ending is picked up in Superman: Codename Patriot, although you can just head straight to Volume Four, and there’s a nicely drawn epilogue by Rags Morales, illustrating a script from Geoff Johns with film director Richard Donner. That’s because it features the Kryptonian villains so memorably used by Donner in his Superman film, and acts as a form of prequel to the film. It’s another look at Krypton’s final days, but this time with an emphasis on social structures and explaining why Zod and two companions were exiled to the Phantom Zone. It’s a nice bonus, but not essential reading.