My Week In Comics 1-5-11

Since I'm on a roll...and I still can't write about the Eagles just yet...


Steel 1 (of 1): This is a one-shot special that begins a new DC event, Reign of Doomsday. Doomsday is, of course, the monster that killed Superman. Temporarily. After the Death of Superman, but before he came back, was the Reign of the Supermen, when each of the Super-books at the time starred someone claiming (or thought of) to be the newly-returned Superman. One of them was John Henry Irons, who never claimed to be Superman but was inspired by his death to build his armored suit and become Steel. (A movie based very loosely on the character -- wiping out the whole connection to Superman and the comics -- came out in 1997. It starred Shaquille O'Neal. Let us never speak of it again.) The last time we saw Steel he was nearly beaten to death during the whole "New Krypton" storyline. All of these replacements are apparently keys to the Reign of Doomsday, who suddenly appears in Metropolis and starts tearing up the city until Steel arrives, the only one available to try and fight the monster. And therein lies a big problem with this issue: in this age of instant transmission of information, don't you think that, as soon as word got out about Doomsday's attack, Superman would interrupt his meandering walk across America and return to Metropolis? Hell, in the last issue of "Superman" he flew back from the Midwest to talk to Perry White about a photograph. Seriously.

Superboy 3: While some of the still-unsolved mysteries from the first two issues are put aside for a moment, there are new arrivals in Smallville causing havoc for Superboy. The issue jumps back and forth, which is a little too silly. From the second pages, which takes place "Then." (Which is apparently earlier in the morning.) "Now." "Then." "Now." "Then." "Now." There are some fine character moments between Conner and (in order) Ma Kent, Bart Allen and Simon Valentine, though, which continue to make this a good read.


Simpsons Super Spectacular 12: Both stories in this book star Bartman, but they find room to spoof, among others, the Metal Men. Maybe it's because it's not a monthly series, but I don't think this book has failed to entertain me yet, between the typical Simpsons humor and the comic geek nods.