Superman #25 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Dan Mora, Eddy Barrows/Eber Ferreira, Jamal Campbell, Artists; Alejandro Sanchez, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Josh Williamson has been writing the best Superman book for several years now, and while he’s about to face a new challenge from Dan Slott, he’s set the bar very high. This title has heavily centered around Superman’s very complicated relationship with Lex Luthor – who has lost his memories, but not his genius, and seems to have rededicated himself as a good person and possibly a good father and friend. Everyone’s starting to embrace this new Lex – except for Mercy Graves, Lex’s assistant and possible lover. She misses the old Lex, and she’s taken it upon herself to recreate him – in the form of X-El, a clone of Lex with the original’s memories and all of Superman’s powers.
From the second this new villainous Lex emerges from the tube, he shows just how little good there is in him – violently shoving Lena aside and immediately dedicating himself to killing Superman and Superwoman. What ensues is one of those battles that rips Metropolis apart, and the threat level is so high that the real Lex is forced to escape from prison, cutting a deal with the mysterious Marilyn Moonlight for transport to the battlefield – for an unknown price she wants to extract from him. This is all pretty intriguing, but we all know that clones in the world of Superman usually don’t have a great history – and this one starts going bad pretty quickly, which might just up the danger level even more.
One of the most intriguing parts of this book has been the question of exactly how much of the old Lex Luthor is still hiding inside the new one’s mind. But while this Lex is heroic, and risks everything to save his family this issue, it also shows that he can be just as ruthless as he used to be if the things he loved are threatened. This could spell the end of the new partnership between Lex and Superman, but the end of the issue gives Superman much more to be worried about. The stories in this book continue to be of a scale that you rarely see, even in superhero comics, and it looks like Williamson is just getting started – the recent Summer of Superman special teased one of the biggest returns yet.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
