No, no, you’re not the New 52 Superman.
Adventures Of Superman #12
DC Comics (June, 2014)
“The Demolisher” WRITER: Peter Milligan PENCILER: Agustin Pagilla INKER: Jose Aviles COLORIST: Nick Filandi COVER ART: Ed Benes & Kathryn Layno LETTERER: Wes Abbott EDITOR: Alex Antone
As fair warning, I’m going to spoil this comic more than I usually do for the new comics because I can’t explain my problems with this story otherwise. So now you know.
After Toyman escapes Superman while trying to kidnap some children, people start wanting him to get more proactive and even Lois wonders about relying on a vigilante, a new anti-hero shows up calling himself The Demolisher. After breaking Toyman’s fingers and beating up Intergang people swirl around him over Superman…except that it IS Superman, looking to let himself cut loose, and using a costume forged from a meteorite. However, “Superman” is slowly being lost in “Demolisher” as the latter does all the things he couldn’t as Superman, including kissing Lois (who seemed more interested in kissing Clark by the way). In the end, Superman breaks free of this new alter-ego and making him into a criminal.
You know, I’ve had a lot of praise for this project. While every writer is putting their own spin on Superman they’re usually pretty interesting and true to the character. This time, it really wasn’t. I get what Milligan was trying to do, or at least I think I do. Everyone has a “dark side”, even Kal-El, fine. But giving Superman a minor case of split personality just feels wrong. Put at least partial blame on the costume. It’s made from a meteorite so it could in theory have some space radiation that affected his mind and drew out that part of himself he held back because of his conscience. It’s like the Red Kryptonite on Smallville (and making me say positive things about that show isn’t helping your case with me) more than the Parallax bug that messed with Hal Jordan. Instead it’s all Superman and it just feels wrong to see him doing that.
Don’t get me wrong, not everything here is a negative. It was still a well-told story and with beautiful artwork. I’m not sure I like Lois acting all over the place but she served the story well at some points. I like hinting that Lois doesn’t even realize she has feelings for Clark. I’m not found of “kidnap kids to play with my toys forever and ever and ever” Toyman and why are the second batch of kids so stupid as to walk off with him when their parents were so scared they wouldn’t even send them to school. However, all of my problems really are because of the characters being used. Had this been original characters instead of Superman characters I might have liked this a bit more.
Recommendation: That’s why it’s hard for me to send people away but hard to recommend the comic, either. It’s not a bad story and still more Superman than Man Of Steel but it just doesn’t feel right as a Superman story, which is something I haven’t really said about the previous 11 issues.
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Speaking of Comicvine (the source of the preview in the second link), check out their review of the three-part story after the original digital release.
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