It’s the penultimate part of the nine-part crossover event and things are cooking. The Green Kryptonite plague is over, giving the Superforce – Supergirl’s ad hoc allies – a chance to escape the dungeons of El Caldero. Princess Shark is first to take her chance.
Superman returns from his golden voyage and learns that the Zod he knows is dead.
As Superman, Tomorrow Man and Lena Luthor strive to learn who the killer was – psst, it was Ursa – Superboy Prime pops up with an apology.
While Superman doesn’t question Prime – who prefers CK – too closely, fellow Superboy Kon-El doesn’t look thrilled at the easy acceptance of his onetime killer.
Booster Gold, trussed up by Zod, calls out for help and is freed by Superman. The Justice Leaguer reveals that Ursa stole his time bubble and zoomed to the past in a bid to save Krypton from destruction. As everyone is trying to get their heads around this, said time transport returns, with the aforementioned trio.
And the younger Zod from Krypton’s final years.
Superman’s response to the arrival of his young old enemy is surprising, but makes sense in the circumstances. Rather than instigate a fight, he opens dialogue. But he’s never going to give Zod what he wants…
There are some nice moments this issue – as well as the scenes with Prime and Booster, Princess Shark‘s enthusiasm and Kon-El’s attitude to CK, there’s good use of Lena, an understandably snide comment from Lana, and my favourite line, as Superman responds to J’onn J’onzz’s frustration.
Once again, writer Joshua Williamson shows the faith Clark has in his cousin.
There’s not a lot of story movement. It’s mainly reunions and explanations, with all the big stuff saved, presumably, for the upcoming crossover-concluding Kingdom of Zod Special. So, concentrating on what we do get, I’ll say Williamson’s dialogue sizzles, the art by the teams of Eddy Barrow & Eber Ferreira, and Eduardo Pansica & Júlio Ferreira is classy. The two-thirds drawn by the first team is powerful yet nuanced, while the hyper-energetic rest is perfect for the climax, as things really kick off.
The colouring throughout by Ulises Arreola is bright and beautiful, the letters by Ariana Maher emphatically good, while the final section of Lucas Meyer and Giuliano Peratelli’s triple cover image is a winner.
So, not the most significant chapter in the Kingdom of Zod crossover, Superman #42 is always entertaining.
It’s a waste of an issue, just padding to fill the pages. It didn’t help that I found the art dull on top of that. We should have had the (probably not very) Special this week and started a new arc here that couldn’t have been as boring as this.
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That’s pretty fair comment!
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I let my usual “no crossovers” rule go (or didn’t realise these were going to be Kingdom of Zod chapters) It’s been interesting to see what happens here and in Supergirl, but it does remind me why I don’t enjoy this approach to crossovers. It always feels like the story is stretched to legitimise taking over the whole range of titles for a month, and the shifting focus on story leads make the stories feel very stop start. It’s funny that it seems like the whole purpose is to reset Zod with less baggage, and presumably none of that complicated relationship to Kal-El from the Bendis era. I haven’t hated it, but I think I’ll continue to opt out.
Stu
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That’s fair enough, Rik, you tried! I hope this is the last Zod story for a couple of years, he’s overexposed. I am so sick of ‘Kneel before Zod’ variations. As for whether it’s set up a new status quo for Zod, it certainly has. Just not a very active one.
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I enjoy Booster complaining about being trussed up a lot. You’d almost think he was a Golden Age Amazon…
For me, this crossover has been a better whole than the individual issues. each of them has had various problems, but overall it’s telling a fun story. I’m looking forward to the conclusion!
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Ah, but you know the Golden Age Amazons wouldn’t be moaning!
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