I’ll start by saying that I’ve read some JMS I liked (Silver Surfer: Requiem), and I’ve read some JMS I didn’t (Thor), but all in all, I just found this story to be bad.

About four times while reading I found myself saying “Superman would never say or do a thing like that.” More often though, I found myself saying that the people of the DCU would never speak to Superman the way most of them did in this issue. Regardless of what happened w/ New Krypton, the man has still saved the Earth countless times (not to mention he could crush your skull with his pinky), but most of these citizens show him no respect (inexcusable, even if it is set in Philly). By the time Superman was giving his lecture on Henry Thoreau, I’d given up. I’ll be back when JMS is off this book.

As an aside, Eddy Barrows continues to produce solid, above-average pages. I used to consider him upper-third tier in the business, but now I’d have to put him in the second level of industry artists.