Superman #39 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Dan Mora, Artist; Alejandro Sanchez, Colorist
Ray – 10/10
Ray: The work Joshua Williamson has done with Superboy Prime over the last year has been nothing short of amazing, turning him from a universally despised villain into a meta hero who is quickly becoming a fan favorite. But this issue is probably the crown jewel, as Prime is forced to confront his darkest moments courtesy of Manchester Black. The psychic villain was seemingly killed by Luthor, but his psychic imprint has survived and latched on to Prime. His strategy for breaking Prime and turning him back towards evil is to send him back in time to Infinite Crisis, and watch him try and fail to rewrite the past. No matter how Prime tries, things continue to unfold horribly (poor, poor Risk) and Black even unleashes the original Superman, Kal-L, as one last attempt to drive him to despair. It’s an incredibly compelling issue – and then it turns completely insane in the back half.
This is one of Josh Williamson’s best issues, but it’s also one of the best works of Dan Mora’s career. As the issue goes on, Prime is catapulted into different genres of comics as the world shifts around him. First he finds himself in the Dini/Timm cartoon world, where everything is a little brighter. Then he winds up in an old-school romance comic where he and Witchfire are caught up in a soap opera. From there, it’s a Vertigo/EC Comics inspired tale of horror, and then a slice-of-life comic with a disturbing twist, in the vein of Brian Michael Bendis’ earliest works. And a few dozen other worlds make cameos, each one shifting Mora’s style in a way that’s pretty amazing. The story is great, the art is stunning, and it’s a trial by fire for Superboy Prime that makes me more confident than ever that this character is actually here to stay. Just an amazing turnaround for this once-hated figure.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
