Facing mortality.
Creative Staff:
Story: Stephanie Phillips
Art: V. Ken Marion
Colors: Emilio Lopez
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
What They Say:
A hostage situation at a hospital calls for Superman to negotiate and bring an end to the dire setting. But when he learns why he’s been called, he’ll need to make a choice to give in to the criminal’s demands or risk everyone’s lives in the process!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
There are amazing things that you can do with Superman as a writer. We’ve seen eight decades of stories about him and the worlds, people, and villains that he’s dealt with. But it’s those human moments that are the best remembered. Stephanie Phillips taps into that here in a way that, for better or worse, reminds you of All-Star Superman a bit. She brings us a slightly younger Superman than we usually get which is a nice change but that’s partially because of how V. Ken Marion brings him to life here. I really like the way he feels more dynamic and energetic, full of the get-go and all that, with slightly wild hair and a leaner design overall that makes for a good interpretation of the character.
The premise here is that a hospital is under some sort of psychic attack where it’s contained within a purple haze. It’s presumed to be a hostage situation and that has Superman stepping in to help out with the Metropolis PD on standby. Learning that a psychic named Dax escaped from Strykers earlier in the day and that Superman had put him in there previously, it’s an easy enough thing to put two and two together. Especially as Dax opens a portal for Superman to step through and find him inside where he’s got the doctors under his mind control and speaking through them. It’s all appropriately creepy and the like with the mood lighting and the oppressive atmosphere, plus the mind control, but it all comes down to the two men facing each other.
The story that we get is one that is particularly American in its tragedy as Dax has come because his mother is dying of cancer and he wanted to be with her. And he believes with all the feats that Superman performs that he should be able to help her here in these dark moments. Sadness, anger, fear, loss, all the emotions populate Dax as he talks about how he turned to crime in order to pay for her care due to a lack of insurance, which reinforces the infuriated feelings. This is the time where Superman is hist most human and empathetic, taking Dax into his arms and commiserating with him, and it works well to show how he brings him into his own life going forward to help in some small way. It’s all good and uplifting even if it doesn’t dig into the reality of what’s going on and just how tragic it is.
In Summary:
Though there are easy allusions to make toward an All-Star Superman sequence here, this one plays out in its own way with its own intent and does it well. I’m not surprised it didn’t dig more into the true “evil” of what was happening but such is the case in trying to walk a fine line sometimes. Phillips script works well to get into things as you can with a standalone installment like this and I really liked Marion’s take on Superman which felt a bit younger than what we’ve been getting in this run so far. It’s got the right uplifting moments and knows when to use them while also playing to a few other areas.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology and Kindle
Release Date: October 15th, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
