From Man of Steel to Man of Sanctimony. What pompous, self-righteous drek ... for the most part.

I do not have a clue what JMS is driving at in this issue and he is clearly trying very hard to say something profound. I believe it is true that trying to be profound is almost certain to ensure that you are anything but. The writing in this issue is a clear case in point.

I count at least three times here where Superman pauses to pontificate to some random person on proper morality. I am not sure that in any of the three cases his sermon manages to make much coherent sense. The thing to the kid about it not mattering if the drug dealers just move down the street because we just have to worry about here and not down there ... what the hell was that? That was Superman? And how does it make sense that he is so bound by respect for the law that he can't bust them or enter their homes yet he feels free to set their houses on fire? I am unable to see how this is making any senseor is telling something essential or innovative about the character.

I find it very interesting that again in three places Superman is depicted as being physically condescending to the people he meets and wonder if it was deliberate or is Barrows is just instinctively reacting to the tone of the dialog. The boy he is looking sharply down at and even pats on the head. The old guy with a heart problem and the dog walker he leans over, hand on chin while telling them what is good for them. (And by the way he tells the guy he needs to get immediate medical attention but then just walks off. Why wouldn't Supes just fly him to the hospital? Doesn't that sound like what Superman would do?)

I realize at this point of the review that I have asked a strangely large number of questions and I think that speaks to how little sense this issue made to me. The only thing that could make sense to me at this point is that Superman is in fact meant to be off the mark for some reason and this will develop and be revealed as we go. There are several pages here where the art might be suggesting that something is a little off kilter, particularly that last page. I am probably stretching on this point though, interpreting an artists attempts to draw a more dramatic image as foreshadowing in the hopes of finding some promise in this story.

Where there is some redemption in this issue is in the middle section revolving around a distraught woman on a ledge. It isn't the great thematic or emotional scene that it is likely intended to be but it is in this section where quality comics storytelling is going on. Here the art tells the best part of the story, the words don't quite get out of the way but they are somewhat more restrained and the dialog less strained than in the rest of the issue. Eddy Barrows delivers the best panels of the issue with Superman's face; earnest and caught in dilemma or turned and cast in shadow, the meaning reflected on the face of another. Also, Supes' decision to stay with the woman despite other concerns is also the issue's best moment to deliver on the premise of Superman walking across America putting the little people first.

And one last question ... in a story that seems to present itself as depicting Superman as a paragon of noble purpose and moral integrity, he uses his powers to terrify an obnoxious stranger over a petty argument, really? (BTW anyone else wondering if the reporter was meant to be a quite unkind stand-in for Marvel editor Tom Breevort?)