I have been so impressed by this comic book. The art in it is ridiculous, I mean I am just blown away by every aspect: penciling, inking and coloring, which is unusually good. Beyond that, there is one central moral issue that dominated throughout, and here in issue number six we have those themes brought even more to the forefront.
Superman has been working in alternating states of conflict and uneasy truce with a being known as Wraith. Wraith is an alien from a world much like Krypton who came to earth and gained powers comparable to Superman's. Because Wraith has been here longer and so absorbed more solar radiation, he is actually at a higher power level than Superman. Both beings are seeking to take down an international cyber-terrorist group known as Ascension. In so many ways Wraith and Superman are cut from the same mold: both are orphans of alien worlds, both have similar super powers, and both have a strict moral code.
Yet Wraith has not decided to stat politically neutral, as Superman has. He has chosen sides in world conflicts, allying himself with the US government and specifically with General Lane, Lois Lane's father. Wraith is dedicated to either convincing Superman to join with him as an acting branch of the US government or destroying him for that same government. Superman believes that his powers obligate him to remain above international politics, and refuses to pick particular sides, seeking a moral perspective beyond particular political and national commitments. This conflict comes to a head in this issue, when Ascension manages to fire every nuclear weapon on Earth simultaneously. Wraith seeks to set up a perimeter to protect the US from incoming warheads, while Superman seeks a way to stop all of the weapons. He manages to do this, and simultaneously finds a way to atomically disarm the entire planet.
There are some great moral exchanges between these two godlike beings. Does God take sides in national conflicts? At what point does a person have to subvert their highest ideals to ensure the survival of those who hold those ideals? Wraith makes some good points about the need to get one's hands dirty from time to time. But Superman is keeping tightly to the trope of a messianic figure. Nations crucify Christ anew when they turn the God revealed in Jesus into a particular national symbol. In the World Wars, the One True God, who initially replaced the particular tribal gods of nations, became himself for those nations another tribal god. This was a most sinister idolatry, as it maintained in it the air of the transcendent being that Christians originally claimed allegiance to.
Yet one must be morally blind to deny that Wraith has a point. Sometimes the lesser of two evils must be chosen and fought for as if it were a good, to avoid complete disaster. This entire comic has been so interesting in part because Wraith is very much in the vein of the original Superman from the 30s, 40s and 50s... a kind of American secular Christ. DC has found a way to have its earlier symbol of particular American hope have a conversation and even a battle with its later symbol of more universal human hope. The results have been stunning.
On an aesthetic level, this issue of this book had everything. The pacing was great, the dialogue was believable and the storyline was exciting if not completely original. This is a great book, and I particularly like it because it is one self-contained Superman story, and not part of some giant story arch which dominates the pages of comics, especially DC comics, nowadays.
Storyline: 4 Stars
Dialogue: 4.5 Stars
Pacing: 4.5 Stars
Art: 5 Stars
Overall: 4.5 Stars
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