Broken Frontier

Kal-El has left Earth. An arrangement made by his Aunt Alura means that he has left all he has ever known, all his loved ones so that he may be with his people on their new planet. He must deal with the games of his aunt and Zod if he is to survive this mission he has placed on himself. Fortunately for him, he has experience under a yellow sun while his adversaries do not.

Robinson and Rucka write a fairly flawed story here. There is solid characterization work done on Superman and the opening sequence that apes the opening shot in Contact is pretty cool and effective. However, Alura and Zod are playing an uninteresting game. They are either outright lying to our favorite Boy Scout who is on a dubious mission to find redemption for his people or they are following flights of fancy. Unfortunately, since we get no asides between the two foes or any regular characterization of them, it would appear to the reader that the latter is true. Robinson just seems to be making it up as he goes.

It’s kind of a shame too, because there are interesting developments. The selection of a guild for Superman being the most delicious choice for developing the Man of Steel in quite some time. However, the seemingly flippant decisions that lead to that selection mar any real dramatic element from the scene. Just as the random attack from Non hurts development in the script. If Zod is playing this type of game and Alura is in on it, why is she so reluctant to allow Kal to go there for the confrontation? If the two conspirators are really this transparent, why is Superman going along with it and if he is being trusting then what has happened to the real Superman?

This is certainly not an auspicious start for a year long series that will feature the totality of Superman’s journey for that time period. As much as the "New Krypton" prelude to this seemed to lose steam, this deflates more rapidly. Surely, Robinson and Rucka are capable of so much more and given the run that Johns had on Action , the readers deserve more than this story of convenience. Fortunately, Robinson’s first issue of Superman was just as shaky and actually aged quite well. Problem here is that this comic is boldly numbered 1, readers should know or not know who the real enemies are, not be left to conjecture that is at best highly speculative. Any new readers will see Kal as an idiot or the writing as poor. Neither is an acceptable outcome.

Having two writers together on a book can be a good thing. Superman saw a great story from the collaboration of Johns and Donner. Fans still discuss the brilliance of Brubaker and Fraction on Iron Fist. Here there obviously needs to be better communication. It is easy to see what the writers intended, if you have been following the story for a year, but to the new readers enticed by the number on the cover, it is all a mishmash, often illogical and ill conceived.

Woods is a competent storyteller, he even has a consistent line. He has a good sense of the iconography of the character set he is working with. Despite all this obvious skill, his pencils have always come off as less than they are. There is something just unpleasing about them. The art is not intrinsically unattractive, it just isn’t anything special. As a result, he comes off as a lesser artist than he is.

There are great ideas here, but like the prologue in the main Superman titles, this just falls short of their true potential. Fortunately, this is a Superman book and it can only go up, up and away from here.