Superman: Chains of Love Special #1 review

Seeing the Electric Superman logo on a cover again after many years made me smile. As did the nursery rhyme style cover blurb.

Would it amaze you to hear there’s no killing of anyone by the Creeper or Livewire inside? It’s not really that surprising, as the literal shock jock has been on the road to redemption for years, and the laughing lunatic has never been a supervillain.

Except writer Leah Williams either hasn’t been paying attention, or doesn’t care how characters have been portrayed previously. Having suffered a few issues of her Power Girl series, I’m inclined towards the latter. Yes, she has Livewire – aka Leslie Willis – trying to stay out of trouble, but Creeper is treated as a supervillain being tolerated by the big heroes.

The issue opens with the Creeper’s alter ego, Jack Ryder, traditionally a broadcaster obsessed with finding the truth, operating as podcaster with perhaps a side of incel.

Not meanwhile, Leslie is still in prison.

Whether or not she’d have received parole we’ll never know, as Leslie is freed after stopping an attempted breakout by a fellow inmate, The Chained. She doesn’t get any support, but is slapped with an electronic tag to monitor use of her powers.

Soon after, she’s being harassed on the street by a pavement evangelist who, it so happens, Creeper has decided to harass, and film for his podcasts. It’s love at first sight – for one of them, at least.

Livewire counts herself lucky when she finds the radio equipment at an old hideout still works. She tries it out on the vague offchance old listeners are out there, and wouldn’t you know it, Creeper calls in. The talk just flows.

Jon Kent, apparently considering himself a talent spotter, uses his pull at the Daily Planet to get Livewire and Creeper an official TV show, and they decide to interview supervillains.

Things go well for months, until Creeper and Livewire fall out, resulting in a vicious fight that leaves Creeper looking like he’s been killed by Livewire. Hurrah, he’s OK, and the red carpet carrying character comes up with a plan…

… that I don’t understand.

Somehow a fight between two mobs brings the pair back together as a couple, Superman and Superman Jr Jon forgive them for being awful about them on the airwaves and the story concludes with a truly terrifying threat.

The art on the story, by illustrator Ig Guara and colourist Fabi Marques, is pretty good, bar Creeper’s skin inexplicably switching from yellow to green for most of the strip, Livewire’s hairdo changing between pages and both sporting horns in random panels. The emotions demanded by the script are well expressed, the action works, the costumed leads look kinda sexy (Jack Ryder is off-model) and Superdad and Son are great… it’s just a shame the artists haven’t got a better script to work with.

Williams’s stories really aren’t my cup of tea but as a massive Superman fan, and someone who enjoys Livewire, I was intrigued to see what this issue would contain. So I was very glad to see this comic appear day and date on DC Infinite Ultra. And having read it, I’m so glad I didn’t pay for it as a separate item.

The character of the Creeper is unrecognisable, and Jack Ryder is no better. The former forgets he’s a crimefighter while the latter is utterly vile. As for Livewire Leslie, she loses about 30 IQ points.

Why is this comic subtitled ‘Chains of Love’? Is it a reference to one of two pop songs? A Dutch TV show? Chain lightning? The villain known as The Chained?

While Creeper gives us his thoughts on why it’s good to let the little guys attack one another occasionally, Livewire shares her thoughts on men, in a pretty tacky way.

There’s also a lengthy talk about ants which I guess is a metaphor.

It’s true that a writer doesn’t necessarily share the thoughts they put into the mouths of their characters, but these are really weird ideas to put on the page.

As for the TV show, I suspect Livewire’s interviews with the minor supervillains are meant to be sizzling. They’re not.

I must accentuate the positive. Williams totally gets the character of Jon Kent as written by Tom Taylor in his shortlived series.

And, er…

This comic has a second story, not advertised on the cover. It’s by Dan Slott, a writer who has more hits than misses in my eyes, and it’s about a chap named Bill who has a truly horrible family.

Even a ridiculously young Perry White is awful to him.

I went to Google to try to unravel an apparently very US gag, but got something about ‘temporary protected status’ both times. Anyone?

One day, though, Bill wakes up and things are very different.

What’s going on is the kind of thing that likely happens quite often in the DC Universe, and Superman’s explanation to Bill is pretty satisfying. Slott has had a fun idea, makes the most of it, and hints that there may be more to come. Perry apart, artist Rosi Kämpe does a terrific job, selling Bill’s resignation at his miserable life and showing us his changing moods. The colours of Trish Mulvihill and letters of Dave Sharpe – who also works on the other strip – are also tiptop.

And Yasmine Putri’s cover illo is fine, though it fibs as much as the blurb!

Who’s this comic for? I don’t know if there are enough Livewire fans to make it a hit. Creeper aficionados should definitely avoid it. People with too much time and a low entertainment threshold? Probably.