Superman #4

Superman is terrified of robot ants.

So this is the 9th comic in a row that features Superman. I can't imagine I'll have a lot to say about it. But I've got to get through it so I can get to a totally different character: Superboy!

Maybe I shouldn't have decided to read them in the order they're presented in DC Comics Big Book of First Issues! Couldn't they have randomized it up a bit so I could be reading Animal Man already?!

One thing I definitely like about George Perez's Superman book is how dense it is. It's only 20 pages just like all the other comics (and when did comics lose the extra two pages?! Or was it 24 way back when?!) but he packs each page full of dialogue and panels. Many of the newer writers are utilizing pages with three or four full width panels and making liberal use of splash pages. The comic books are a very quick read (if you're not blogging while reading). George's Superman title probably averages about six panels a page and is loaded with character's speaking to each other. You can tell he's from the old guard!

I like it. A story with characters speaking with each other is far superior to a comic with lots of action poses where the omniscient narrator (in this case, the actual Super Hero who is speaking somewhere from the future) speaks in the first person and comments on what is going on. I'm really quite surprised how different mainstream comics are from just ten years ago.

Speaking of old school...



I guess I'm so used to thought bubbles that I almost didn't even notice I was reading them. This is the first time in the last 50 or so comics that thought bubbles have been used. I think. I say I think because I almost didn't even notice these as I was reading!

I think the thought bubble is important and serves a very different function than a narration box. Even if a narration box is supposed to be the character's current thoughts. The thought bubble puts the writer in a very specific place. He must make everything written within it from the point of view of the character in the present moment in time. The narration boxes afford a luxury to extrapolate and write as if the character were speaking to the reader. Maybe it creates opportunities for the writer to say things that don't quite fit in the action but it just brings the reader out of the moment.

I think both can be done well and I just don't see why the thought bubble had to completely lose the battle. Glad to see George Perez using them. Part of it is for plot as the alien creatures seem to be able to read his thoughts.

Clark Kent is getting in trouble because he's using his cell-phone while Superman and Jimmy's new friend Miko traced the GPS. And now Lois seems to be getting suspicious. And you know her nose for news!

Here's where Clark Kent was last issue when he should have been in Metropolis and where he answered his phone:


The people of Smallville can't spell.

And Lois has footage of Superman leaving that cemetery. And then there's a picture of her thinking! Uh oh!

Heather Kelly, the woman who became the ice alien, returns and stars on Billy McCoy's talk show. Then the other two aliens are found by the police and one of the aliens actually says something actual in his alien language! It must be because of the change in the creative team this issue:


He's saying, "Alien dialogue olie."

Eventually, Superman confronts the three creatures he's been fighting. They can now communicate with him via telepathy. They also seem to be made of some sort of nanobots which are trying to purge something inside Superman. At the end, Superman is being overwhelmed by these beings and their nanobots and they declare that he, Superman, made them.

Maybe he did make them. Maybe they're some sort of Kryptonian first aid kit. I think Superman has Kryptonian Syphilis and these things are trying to cure him but he keeps fighting back because he's going insane.

Also, if you take the 'U' out of Supe's name, he becomes Sperman! It's a clue!