Superman Unchained #7 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (story), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Can a one-man army take down an actual army?

The Review: Happy Independence Day, everyone—yes, even you folks who have nothing to do with the good ol’ U.S. of A. So I think it’s appropriate that my first review of the day celebrating America goes to the comic starring that most quintessential all-American hero, the Man of Steel himself. It’s also important that here, we’re dealing with a Superman in his purest, most heroic form, as opposed to one struggling not to unleash certain death on all living things—we’ll deal with that hot mess later.

That said, Clark’s big heroic moment in this series has come and gone; what’s left is purely personal, with little opportunity for growth. He seems on the verge of it here, reflecting on Wraith’s challenges from #5: “The choices I make about when I fight, how I fight, how I live my life inside and outside of this…those choices mean that Superman, as I’ve created him, he can’t last forever.” But he never synthesizes these musings into a concrete conclusion as to what he should do. Instead, he dithers, pleading with Lois for understanding, which is preaching to the choir if you’ve ever seen it.

As moral support, Lois is of invaluable use to Clark, but I’m still troubled by the fact that solutions tend to fall in her lap rather than arise from her own ingenuity. Her saving Clark from the onslaught of the American army is a great moment, but it’s one brought about by narrative necessity than any true test of her character.

Speaking of American armies, it’s a pity, given today’s holiday, that we see our brave men and women at their least finest, directed by a bully who’s clearly in the fight to show off his mettle than to serve his country. General Lane’s unflinching ballsiness makes him easier to respect than ever before, but also easier to hate; you just can’t wait for the military hawk to be taken down a peg or two, especially when he utters such provocations as, “It’s us…the dogs of war…the screaming eagles of doom.” Or, “Give us what we want or I will bury you under a ton of burning ice! And I can make ice burn, it’s damn beautiful.” Or the topper, “I want it wrecked…ruined…make it look like war.” I also take back what I said about him shifting his anti-extraterrestrial stance; when Clark reinterprets Lane’s fable about two fighting roosters, Lane throws in this little slur: “Respectfully, I disagree, alien…”

It’s pretty clear that at this point, any intellectual undertones to the story will be buried under wall-to-wall action. The skirmish between Clark and Lane is great, of course, especially once Clark brings out the space-barbarian hammer and crackling hook. But the real good stuff comes from Bruce’s encounter with Wraith, in which Snyder proves that even when he’s writing a Superman series, Batman’s his star. Why else would he give Bruce the choicest one-liners? In response to Wraith crowing about how Clark can’t find him, Bruce says, “Good. Then he can’t come rescue you.”*

All the snappy comebacks in the world can’t disguise the fact that Bruce is outclassed here. He manages to evade Wraith for a while with a nice series of contingency plans, including one in which he launches his entire garage of Bat-vehicles on the alien soldier, but eventually, bigger guns are needed to bail him out. I’m only sorry that Wonder Woman doesn’t get to contribute more to the issue than flatten Wraith with Bruce’s giant penny—although, again, awesome—before Clark shows up to finish the job. But seeing as how Clark wants to teach a lesson about teamwork in all this, we’re likely to get the treat of the Trinity finishing off Wraith together.

I believe Lee was involved in the concept art for DC Universe Online, and it seems like he’s bringing that experience to bear here, allowing the characters free rein to knock about and tear up their settings like the backgrounds in your classic fighting games. By far the best thing to happen to Lee’s art is how clean it looks, the extraneous wisps and scratches mostly done away with except to give a little grit to the characters in battle.

Conclusion: The character work is somewhat flat, which is unexpected from Snyder, but it’s a marvelous bash-fest regardless.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: * My favorite has to be the groan-worthy, but no less fantastic, “Penny for your thoughts.” I’m sure many Batman writers have positively ached to use that line.

– Do I detect a rakish grin on Bruce’s face as Diana helps him up. Maybe Snyder-Lee support that pairing, too? I know I would! The only mortal man worthy of Diana would be Bruce.