Review: Superman #28

by Derek McNeil
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[Editor’s note: This review may contain spoilers]

Writers: Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason

Artist: Scott Godlewski

Reviewed By: Derek McNeil

 

Summary

“ROAD TRIP” part two! As the Kents’ family road trip takes some strange and unexpected turns that will reveal a foreboding threat reaching out to touch their lives, you can bet that they’re gonna need a vacation after their vacation!

 

Positives

The Kent family meeting the Dowd family and learning the story of their ancestor who fought in the civil war was a touching story. Clark taking the time to recover the body and giving the family closure is typical of the kind of thing that Superman would do. It also shows that Superman does more than just save the world from supervillains and natural disasters. He also does smaller acts of kindness that improves the world by making peoples lives a little brighter.

 

Negatives

After writing my review for last issue, where I objected to the story beating us over the head with its celebration of all things American, I started to think maybe I came down a bit too hard. After all, it’s a book written in the United States by Americans and is about a character created by Americans (actually Joe Shuster was born a Canadian), so it should be excusable if the book celebrates America in an Independence Day story.

However, even allowing for this, the first half of the book reads like a history textbook, not a book meant to entertain. I can understand Lois and Clark wanting to make sure Jon knows a bit about American history, but it reads rather stiff – more like dialogue from a documentary.

Once they move on to their meeting with the Dowd family, the story is a bit more interesting. However, the detail about the soldier having both been born and dying on the fourth of July is a bit too unbelievable. One or the other would be a forgivable bit of dramatic coincidence, but both is just clunky writing.

Also, the DC’s solicitation text tells us that the story will reveal “a foreboding threat reaching out to touch their lives.” I saw no sign of any threat, foreboding or otherwise, other than the brief text on the last page that says: “Next Issue: Parallax!” Did the story get changed after the solicitation was written?

 

Verdict

Although, my review sounds like I thought this issue was a bit of a clunker, you might be surprised to hear that I really liked it. With a title of this caliber, even the worst issues are still pretty good. While I hope the book returns to form after the Kent’s conclude their vacation, it still is better than most other books being put out these days.

 

 

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