Superman ‘78: The Metal Curtain #2 – Robert Venditti, Writer; Gavin Guidry, Artist; Jordie Bellaire, Colorist
Ray – 9/10
Ray: The first Superman ‘78 miniseries introduced Superman’s most powerful villain yet in Brainiac, and I was a little skeptical after the first issue here if Metallo could live up to that. This issue makes clear that while Brainiac was a bigger-scale issue, Metallo will be a much more personal one—and he’s coming for everything Superman loves in the name of the Soviet Union. As this issue opens, Superman escorts Lois to the Arctic for the interview of a lifetime—at the Fortress of Solitude. Not only does he show her his inner sanctum and introduce her to his parents (in the bottled city of Kandor, a major change to the mythos), but he’s getting ready to reveal his secret identity—until he gets an alert that a plane has gone down overhead. Leaving Lois safely in the Fortress, he flies off to save the pilot—only to fly into an ambush carefully orchestrated by the Soviet human-machine hybrid.
Metallo in the main DCU is a pretty petty villain, a former romantic rival for Lois who was turned into a freak and is out for revenge against Superman. This character is not that. He’s a cold-blooded, businesslike soldier who has given up his humanity for a chance to strike a blow against the United States by taking out its strongest soldier. It’s clear from the first page of their first that Superman has underestimated this enemy—Metallo fights with perfect precision, deploying his Kryptonite heart as needed to weaken his enemy, and eventually leaves Superman vanquished in the Arctic. The first half of this issue is pretty whimsical, and then there’s a loud record screech as soon as this ruthless enemy shows up. What makes Metallo scariest, I think, is that this is a villain with no motivation besides loyalty and patriotism—and that’s something much harder to defeat.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
