Now that’s a throw down.
Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Buccellato
Art: Iban Coello
Colors: J. Nanjan
What They Say:
Superman and Bizarro Superman team up? It may take both versions of the Man of Steel to bring down the threat of Solomon Grundy.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
The use of Bizarro is something that I was curious about within the context of this separate universe because you have to wonder how it all fits in. With so many different Bizarro interpretations over the years, not quite as many as Superman interpretations, there’s plenty of room to go. What we learn with this series is that this is the first time Bizarro has made his way into the world and his first encounter with Superman as well. Suffice to say, things do not go well. Part of the appeal of Bizarro has been the way that he can, for the most part, go toe to toe physically with Superman while having slightly different goals so that he can get a little more rowdy. But in the end he’s just a somewhat distorted mirror of Superman so he tends to hew more towards doing the right things, though he misses the consequences of his actions from time to time.
This issue is largely just a giant throw down between some powerful forces and that works perfectly fine for me. While I do want to see more of the larger event that’s going on and how the sides are attempting to stop each other, a fun diversion here can go a long way, especially in areas of setup. Superman isn’t really of mind to take Bizarro too seriously since he understands quickly that he’s not exactly all there in a sense, so he just wants to finish things out quickly. Naturally, that isn’t how it goes and we get some really strong scenes of impact here thanks to Coello’s artwork. I loved his last issue in this year of the series and he’s in top form here again giving it the right kind of power as the two trade blows, especially with the flow of the panels and bringing it out to the reader. Once Superman realizes what kind of strength level Bizarro has, being able to cut loose a bit is definitely freeing and something he almost needs considering the problems he’s facing.
What makes things a bit more fun in a complicated kind of way is that Solomon Grundy is in the mix here, since that was where things started. Grundy’s an odd duck to be sure but there’s a simplicity to his being an angry brick for Superman to go up against. He’s almost like a plaything between Superman and Bizarro here as both are trying to deal with him and each other and that makes for some amusing moments. Hal gets involved along the way as well but I was more amused at how ineffective he was, reinforcing his lower position amid all of this. What I did like was getting some time from the grunt level regime guys that are watching all of this as they spend their time trying to avoid getting caught in it while also trying to actually help people. Superman does this at times as well but he tends to get caught up in the fight more than anything else. Having your rank and file normal human regime guys helps to show that it’s not all just a total black pit of evil.
In Summary:
Injustice has some fun things going on here and it sets up events that are to come with what Superman wants to do with Solomon Grundy. The bulk of the book is all about the action though and it succeeds well in this because Buccellato essentially just lets the power players here duke it out while trying to contain the fallout from it. Sometimes a slugfest is what you want and I definitely enjoy those in this series as the stakes always feel higher. His scripts are taken to the next level thanks to Coello here as he’s really great and giving this a strong and dynamic look with all the action. The designs are solid and feel truer to the core continuity that some of the other artists in this incarnation are, which is something I can definitely appreciate. It’s a fun book overall that I hope has some more meaningful impact down the line as we work through this final year.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: March 8th, 2016
MSRP: $0.99
