I put off writing this review for a while today, because I was perplexed. I wasn't really feeling this Brainiac arc, but I'm (still) not entirely sure why. I've loved Johns' run up to this point, especially the last Legion story arc. I'm not a huge fan of Gary Frank's art, either, but I thought it rocked in the Legion issues.

Here are the only things I could come up with: I don't like it when Frank draws regular people, and Superman pulled a 'Wesley Crusher' in beating Brainiac.

First, Gary Frank. Brainiac looks badass. I'll give him that. Everyone else? Not so much. He has a tendency to put too many lines where there really don't need to be any. It ends up making everyone look about ten years older than they should be. And everyone just looks 'long' is the best word I can think of. The proportions seem just slightly off, and it bugs me. Plus, Superman looks like way, way, way too much of a nerd for my tastes. He should be at least a little intimidating when angry and friendly and approachable when not in his Superman persona, but he looks like someone I would just avoid at all costs were I to meet him at a party. I don't think this bothered me last arc, because Supes wasn't really the focus, and he was around all these other cool looking heroes. But in this arc, it was noticeable.

And then there was the way Superman beat Brainiac, through sheer force of will. It reminded me of those Star Trek Next Generation episodes where they'd be facing some huge dilemma, and young Wesley Crusher would suddenly use his 'genius' and solve the problem. A deus ex machina if I've ever seen one. It just wasn't very satisfying for me. After wrapping up this arc, the whole thing really just felt like a way to set up the New Krypton storyline. And to throw some extra baggage on Clark for not being able to save Pa.

Although, while writing this, I did think of one other reason why I may have disliked this storyline. I hate Supergirl. I mean, I HATE that character. With a passion. I hate any character that is a gratuitous female carbon copy of an established male character, in an attempt to draw in female readers. I'd feel the same way about a carbon copy of established female characters, but I can't think of any. And I am greatly upset that I have to pick up 'Supergirl' just to get the whole New Krypton story. Gross.

Overall, there wasn't anything particularly wrong with this issue or this story arc, but there wasn't anything special, either. If you missed it, you didn't miss much.