Superman #13 review

House of Brainiac continues, with most of the Super Family bottled by Brainiac and dragged into outer space. The conqueror from Colu sicced the last citizens of the planet Czarnia on Metropolis, along with his droid warriors, and the hit and run caught the heroes off guard. Superman, though, has an idea as to who can lead him to Brainiac.

The bar is Warriors, but owner Guy Gardner isn’t around – he’s looking for Lobo over in Green Lantern #10 – meaning that when the inevitable fight breaks out it’s one on one. They’ve not had a tussle for years and Lobo relishes the prospect, but the Man of Steel doesn’t have time to ‘play’.

All he wants is the location of Brainiac, something the Czarnian connection has him believing Lobo will know. The Main Man normally wouldn’t give a fig about helping Superman, but when he sees film proving several thousand of his people survived planetary genocide, he’s up for a road trip.

Meanwhile on Brainiac’s skull ship.

He’s right, Superman is far away, but with the help of Supercorp scientists he’s able to keep up with Lobo’s Spacehog.

And if we don’t soon have a Super-Cycle announced from one of those toy companies, someone’s not paying attention, because Rafa Sandoval’s design is all kinds of cool.

As is the rest of this comic. Like part one of House of Brainiac in last week’s Action Comics #1064, Superman #13 is choc-ful of great moments.

Chief among them is the feistiness of Supergirl; she’s never a pushover but it seems that being bottled up by Brainiac has pushed her to new levels of anger and determination. As a girl on Krypton, Kara saw Kandor shrunk and bottled by Brainiac and the experience left her traumatised, terrified. But no more.

Plus, Kara makes an ambiguous reference to Legion of Super-Heroes history that, as with the Brainiac and Kandor business, shows Williamson is picking the best bits from our heroine’s history. It’s an elegant moment and top fan service.

There’s also a moment with Kon-El that teases something of a power upgrade, or at least a new trick or two.

I’m about as big a fan of Lobo as is Superman – a little of the Main Man goes a long way – but I did enjoy him here, from the moment he quoted Casablanca. Lobo initiating a conversation about, first, anger, then family was unexpected, but entertaining and it added something to the story. It was sweet of Superman not to point out that there’s a reason Lobo was thought to be the last of his race, and it didn’t involve his planet exploding…

Brainiac is less intimidating this issue, as we see he’s not at 100 per cent. Luthor is more impressive, as his history with Brainiac comes into play.

Rafa Sandoval continues to carve out a place on the Mount Rushmore of modern Superman artists, with page after page of excellent storytelling. The opening at Warriors is high-energy fun that sets the artistic tone for the book – every page is a joy to look at. Sandoval’s Lobo is superb, especially as coloured by Alejandro Sánchez – the chalky, chiselled features, the freaky clown eye details… the Main Man has rarely looked better.

And his people again look superb, especially as they arrive to confront Superman and Lobo – the low perspective brings a sense of intimidation.

Sánchez looks to be having a ball, filling outer space with a cornucopia of enticing tones, making the void look truly wondrous.

Letterer Ariana Maher makes the dialogue sing with her treatments; I especially like how she letters Livewire’s dialogue.

Sandoval and Sánchez’s cover is, as I suspected when I saw the Action Comics opener, merely part of a whole. It’s pretty good, but is very samey (duh!) – goodness knows how I’ll feel by the time we get to the concluding chapter six. (A million points to anyone who recalls the last time the Superman books did connected covers – actually, I think it’s the only time.)

The issue ends on a marvellous cliffhanger, one that has me wishing the story chapters were being released weekly…there is a Power Girl tie-in next week, but let’s not.