When Superman first arrived in Metropolis, he was feared. The citizens of Earth did not know what to make of the alien who had abilities far beyond those of mortal men, yet claimed only to want to protect them. Even after half a decade in which Superman slowly gained the trust of those people, there are still those who holdout and fear the day that Superman will go bad and attack. Those fearful predictions were all realized last issue. Superman was attacked by alien entities and, afterwards, he began eliminating people that he deemed threats… both to himself and to his chosen home of Metropolis.

As this issue opens, Supergirl arrives on the scene, saving the life of Billy McCoy, the man that Superman left plunging to his doom at the finale of ‘Superman’ #5. After McCoy is safe on the ground, Superman attacks Supergirl. The trading of blows between the two Kryptonians level parts of Metropolis. Meanwhile, General Lane calls in a military airstrike to take out the rogue Superman.

Before the story comes to a close, Superman is able to redeem himself and eliminate the threat. Of course, to tell how would be spoilers and I think it best to just find out for yourself. The first story arc of the relaunched ‘Superman’ title comes to a close. When it began, I was leery on writer George Perez’s dialog heavy story. As the series moved along, it became more clear that all of the background dialog that I initially thought was clutter were in truth key to the story that Perez was telling. As this issue closed, I find myself compelled to go back and reread the first five issues to get the full story in one sitting as it was intended.

It’s nice to see how much thought and planning DC has put into tying all of the New 52 titles together into a coherent universe. With this issue, the elements of the flagship ‘Superman’ title fall in like Tetris blocks, filling the gaps in other DCU titles like ‘Action Comics’ and ‘Supergirl’. I can’t wait to see how it all comes to a head when all of these heroes come together against the villainy of Darkseid in ‘Justice League’ #6.

Next issue, a new creative team (Keith Giffen and Dan Jurgens) steps in to begin the second arc with ‘Superman’ #7. Stay tuned for my review next month.

Verdict: Buy

SUPERMAN #6
Written by GEORGE PEREZ
Art by NICOLA SCOTT and TREVOR SCOTT
Cover by GEORGE PEREZ