The last issue of this title really got me at my bad side. It was clearly filler and not good filler either. Grant Morrison is one of the most imaginative and creative minds in comics today and what did he give us? Just the same old origin with very little to add. Plus he also ended last issue with a very bizarre tie-in to the modern day Superman which this issue continues that adventure here. Considering this is suppose to be about the early days of Superman it’s a bit weird Morrison is already abandoning that plan to tell ‘recent’ tales.

For the most part, this is a solid story and I can’t find much fault with it. But that doesn’t mean it didn’t really confuse me in that: I have no idea why the hell this was needed. So the story is that a group of Superman haters got a hold of his Kryptonite powered spaceship engine and the Legion has decided to help Superman stop them from using it. Again there is nothing wrong with this story and it is quite exciting in a few spots. I love the idea of Erik the ‘Evolved Human’ and the twist of where the villain’s hideout is pretty unique. But again it baffles me on why this was certainly needed. Why wasn’t this an issue of Superman because this clearly takes place during the ‘present’ where Superman is an established hero. Maybe Morrison is hinting at the future of this series but that’s pretty presumptuous considering he is no where close to getting this far in Superman’s life. He pretty much spoiled the end of the first story because of what Superman’s first ‘Fortress’ is. (Yes, Superman winning might not be much of a shock but how he does it now seems pretty obvious and loses all the drama for the next arc) The art by Kubert is pretty damn good and there isn’t much to say about it really. Like last issue there is a lot of beautiful looking pages and character designs. If anything these designs get me interested in the future lineup of villains Sups will be facing in the near future.

What makes this issues even more confusing is the back up because it’s exactly what the main story SHOULD have been. Clark is reliving his life at the farm before he lives and if anything this back up shows is that Sholly Fisch is a damn good find for DC. He gets the emotion just right and the characters mindset right as well. In fact, this puts a lot more different aspects into Pa Kent into this back up that Morrison only slightly hinted at in this issue. Clearly Pa has a more ‘Batman’ mindset when it comes to dealing with justice and that feels really original and I would love to see it expanded. The art by CrissCross though absolutely ruins the story because the character models are truly hideous. Ma Kent looks like a fucking monkey several times and I don’t know what he was going for in some of the panels.

At the end of the day, if I was an editor, this is how the issue should have went. Take the superior back up issue and expand it a bit to make it the main story. Then makes Andy Kubert take over as art, ditch CrissCross’s horrible pencils, and you got a damn good story here. But as it stands it’s a ‘diversion’ of an issue that is mildly fun but ultimately confuses the hell out of me. Not confusing as in ‘Grant Morrison gave me a mindfuck today’ but as in ‘Why the hell did I need to read this?’ type of confusion.