Review: “The Coming of the Supermen”

by Steven Brown
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Darkseid is here! The dark god of Apokolips has sent to Kalibak to Earth for invasion! Superman outnumbered is doing all he can against the monstrous hordes bent of destruction! However Superman has some unexpected help– three men from the miniaturized city of Kandor arrive at full size–all with the powers of Superman! Will this be enough to stop plans of a mad god?

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The Positives

“The Coming of the Supermen” written and penciled by Neal Adams is a very action packed read. Right from the very beginning of the story we see Lois Lane reporting live on TV about an alien invasion in Metropolis of massive proportions. LexCorp has its own metahuman private army to deal with such threats–however they are quickly routed. With Superman dealing with another conflict across the globe it falls on three beings of immense power, but with no experience to reign in Kalibak and Darkseid’s forces. Even with the powers of Superman this is no easy feat however when it seems that the Supermen are about to be overwhelmed–the REAL Superman shows up and puts his powers on display, showing that its the use of them that makes them effective. Neal Adams does a great job of giving us detail throughout the book, however the story itself seems to be lacking.

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The Negatives

The story seems a little confusing here but I trust that everything will be cleared up in the second book. Immediately as you open the page we’re thrown into conflict, which normally I don’t mind–but I don’t even get what the conflict is for! Does Darkseid invade once a month or something? Now we do have a few panels where Superman while in the middle east saves the life of a small child. An entity appears telling Superman to take the boy and care for him, because the child is in great danger. Is this all connected to Darkseid somehow? I have to admit there are some parts of the story that will make you scratch your head–but that’s not really a bad thing. I hope Neal provides us with some sort of clarification or backstory into the invasion and if it’s even tied at all to the child. The inclusion of the Supermen from Kandor makes things more complicated because there’s no backstory with them either–they just crash in a field in a ship and from there fly off to face Kalibak. I know they have good intentions as they mention their fascination of keeping the ideals of the Man of Steel–however why are they here? Maybe they were tracking Kalibak? Hopefully it was Neal’s intention to raise these questions because I’m eager to see exactly what it all means in the second issue.

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The Verdict

I thought that “The Coming of the Supermen” was a decent read. It has plenty of action and conflict as we’re dealing with an invasion in Metropolis on a large scale, however it leaves you wanting more in terms of a real story. I feel like I just got dropped in the middle of a war and have no clue as to what’s going on. Hopefully I’ll get the answers in the next issue, and that will make this first issue a better read.

3outof5

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