After a very medicore experience with Robinson last issue, it's tough to sallow this 'New Krypton'. This team of Johns, Robinson, and soon Gates needs to have near perfect issues everyweek. Otherwise this event could get sour within the first half of the intended run. But with Geoff Johns now back on the whell with Action Comics, the results are good...but still have some problems.

Overall the issue worked because it is the Johns we all know and revere as a god. His entire run with Luthor and Lane discussing about Superman and Lois was near perfect. This is the moment we've waited, Johns writing Luthor, and it's perfect. On the other aspects, the Doomsday fight....whether it was Johns or Robinson's idea is not the point, the point is does this fight work? Yes in the long run it does, cause at least the fight didnt take one page to finish. The fight is brutal to say the least, and the way the Kryptonians killed Doomsday is very gruesome. (Again signaling how different this group really is from Superman). But to me, this fight and Doomsday coming in general felt like an excuse to make the issue. It feels like it was a way to lengthen the story and overall had no importance to the grand scheme of the plot. Again Johns handles the fight beautifully, and the new revelation of this Nightwing and Flamebird sounds intriguing. It just felt overall that Johns could've done more then have Doomsday apart of this.

As for the art, why the hell is Gary Frank not doing this? Probably because they dont want to risk a delay in schedule, but the quality of this series just dipped. Gary Frank was one of the huge proponents of why this title was getting recognized again, and not having him on is just plain puzzling. Pete Woods tries an admiral job of making this look good. His two page spread with Doomsday looks gorgeous and his layouts arent too bad. But look closely on some of the pages and it looks like a mess. Character faces get all sketchy and ugly, and that fight scene on the moon was hideous to look at. Plus if it wasnt for the outfits and hair (or lack of) I couldnt tell apart from Luthor or Lane in the beginning.

So is this worth to pick up? Yes and no. Johns once again has proven that even with a weaker partner by his side (ala Richard Donner) he can make the story readable. But as of right now this 'New Krypton' story is not making me excited. The first special was fantastic and I was really looking forward to the next 2 (and I guess 3 if you count that retarded Guardian Special) parts of this story. But Robinson's previous issue held little interest and Johns trying to clean up the mess doesnt work either. It doesnt help that the artist is very sketchy and most of his characters look like a mess. The next round goes to Supergirl, and if that doesnt make me want to scream and say this connective story arc of the Superman titles was worth it....Then it looks like someone is dropping all three of these until it's over.