SUPERMAN #12 doesn’t exactly thrive on subtlety (for several reasons), but that’s not all bad, I suppose. Jurgens’s latest turn with the character has certainly been less dense than Perez’s before him, and that makes the book more generally readable. I think I still preferred Perez’s direction, warts and all, but Jurgens’s is – was – much more “for everyone.”

Even if Clark realizes more or less where he fits in the world of the New52, we as readers still sometimes need to be informed, even if the new status quo is basically the old status quo. That’s where Jurgens has been working, really, putting into place a few broad strokes about how the world sees the Man of Steel.

This issue concludes the Russian plot, and the tenure of Dan Jurgens on this book, and in the final analysis one could ask for a better (or, at least, grander) conclusion, but it could be a lot worse. This is a very competent Superman book, readable, enjoyable, and, in the end, kind of forgettable.