I've had a lot of patience witht this title, but I can't see me sticking with it much longer, despite my abiding respect for James Robinson.  My honest gut reaction is that when I pick up an issue I just don't fell any excitement at all.  I have a feeling I'd be much happier if they could manage to let the individual titles tell their own story for more than a couple of months at a time.  It's one thing if the story ran from title to title constantly, it's another to be self contained for 2 or 3 issues and then interrupt the flow again for another crossover.

As for this issue I honestly tried not to hold the crossover thing against it.  It's my choice not to have read Supergirl # 51, right, it's not DC's fault.  Still, it just didn't work for me.  It's made up of two plot strands which are, it has to be said, brought together nicely by the end.  First Superman is being restrained and interrogated by Brainiac and Luthor, and it's well written.  Unfortunately, it's the same old same old at heart.  We've heard it all before and not enough actually happens to transform it into something noteworthy.  Javier Pina draws this segment and he does deserve credit.  There's a couple of panels, particularly Superman's escape, where he's channelling Curt Swan and it's great!

The other segment, drawn by the also talented Bernard Chang, is about Mon-El fighting his way through hordes of aliens to help Supes.  I've really grown to dig Mon-El but, again, this is kind of dull.  It's a long drawn out brawl with lots of alien telepathy thrown in, I was just hoping for the end to come.

Maybe I'm just bitter that I won't read the rest of the story and therefore this feels like kind of a pointless read.  If this is DC's agenda for the Superman line, perhaps it's for me to just accept that and admit that I can't get away with reading just one title in this line.  I just think that the Batman plan works a lot better - a group of separate and distinct titles that are all satisfying but don't rely on each other.  Question is, do I bide my time til # 700 and see what that brings, or cut my losses now?