Review by Win Wiacek

After seeing off a global millennial threat Superman initiated a restoration process that somehow stopped short of Metropolis, which remains a literal City of Tomorrow. As seen to end Endgame, Luthor is taking advantage, having despicably sacrificed his baby daughter in return for technological patents.

The never-ending story resumes with ‘The Private Life of Clark Kent’ by Jeph Loeb and Ed McGuinness, wherein the exhausted hero heads to Kansas for a quiet break with his parents and finds unwelcome interloper Superboy already in residence. The Man of Steel has always been uncomfortable around his obnoxious, eternally juvenile clone.

Retreating back to Smallville in ‘A Tales of Two Cities’ by Stuart Immonen, Jay Faerber and Yanick Paquette, Clark debunks a case of eco-terrorism: clearing innocent kids and catching the real big business culprits, as in Metropolis Lex Luthor makes a play for economic supremacy.

Out of sorts and still avoiding Lois in ‘All That Dwell in Dark Waters’ (Mark Schultz and Pablo Raimondi), Clark then rescues childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and her husband Pete Ross from an aquatic spirit and receives a much-needed pep talk on responsibility. In Metropolis semi-retired hero Steel and his niece Natasha tackle a cult of electronic packrats dubbed Cybermoths from plundering future tech ‘In the Belly of the Beast’ by Mark Schultz and Doug Mahnke. The resultant struggle happily leads to a brand new extra-dimensional opportunity for the astounded and late-arriving Caped Kryptonian.

Still avoiding his irrationally irascible wife in ‘Quiet after the Storm’ from Joe Kelly and Kano, Clark talks over his marriage problems with his dad whilst saving a lonely old lady from death by despondency in Smallville. However when visiting the Martian Manhunter the invulnerable hero finally acknowledges that not all his problems are emotional after collapsing in a choking fit.

Loeb and McGuinness’ ‘The Tender Trap’ has Lois and Clark’s relationship deteriorate even further, a situation exacerbated when Daily Planet Editor Perry White hires Lana. Shaken, bewildered and increasingly wracked by coughing fits, Superman barely survives an ambush by energy – and now memory – leech the Parasite.

Desperate to repair his relationship with Lois, Clark organises a substitute hero team to watch Metropolis whilst he takes her for a vacation to a paradise planet in ‘Getting Away from it All’ by J.M. DeMatteis and Pablo Raimondi (sample art). Once again fate and duty conspire to ruin everything.

In ‘Creation Story’ by Schultz and Mahnke, a pocket dimension discovered by Steel is spectacularly filled and repurposed with the last Kryptonian remnants of the original Fortress of Solitude. Sadly the astounding architectural feat draws the rapacious Cybermoths and their anarchic queen Luna into action, along with a horrifying old enemy.

A bizarre change of pace features in Kelly and Kano’s ‘A Clown Comes to Metropolis’. Tragically the Joker’s idea of good times include humiliating Luthor and wanton mass slaughter, whilst all Harley Quinn can think about is beating his lethally effective bodyguard Mercy to death. With chaos and carnage running rampant it’s the worst possible time for Superman to be sick.

The concluding instalment opens with Clark reeling at the news that his wife is leaving him. Before that can sink in he then finds himself in super-powered combat with his spouse in ‘Superman’s Enemy Lois Lane’ by Loeb and McGuinness, a blockbuster battle that threatens to decimate the city.

To Be Continued in Critical Condition.

This captivating compilation pits the World’s Greatest Hero against insurmountable problems whilst examining the mere man beneath the steel hard skin. You’ll respond to the sheer scale, spectacle and compelling soap opera melodrama.