Tag: Superman

(2025 Update: The original version of this review erroneously stated this miniseries was published in 2004, when, in fact, it was Justice League: Another Nail – the sequel to this series from ’98 – that was published in 2004.)

Justice League: The Nail is an Elseworlds miniseries from 1998 that features an intriguing premise; the Kents runs over a nail that causes one of their tires to go flat, thus preventing them from discovering the Kryptonian rocket carrying its last son and negating Superman. The idea of a Justice League without a Superman of any kind is somewhat interesting and there’s a way to go about it that makes it compelling stuff.

And at first, it seems somewhat promising. A world where metahumans and vigilantism are viewed upon far less favorably than usual, the paths of various heroes, villains, and supporting players taking different turns ranging from drastic to not so far from the beaten path, and just an otherwise darker slant on the narrative of the DC Universe. I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a part of me that wanted to see this initial set-up go beyond the mere three-issue prestige miniseries format.

Unfortunately, by the time you get to the climatic finale in the last issue, the central premise of the book is basically undone and things somewhat take a turn towards the standard fare. I’m sorry if that comes off as a bit spoiler-y – not that it would matter since we already have a sequel mini whose covers spoiled the whole thing anyway – but sadly, once The Nail introduces another central character late in the game, it all becomes clear how this ends up going.

It’s a bit of a shame because The Nail is a really good story up to that point and Alan Davis’s art only compliments the narrative; a vibrant, colorful visual presentation with classical depictions of these heroes contrasting the less-than-cheery world they live in. If not for the final moments of the story, this could’ve been an interesting take on the lore.

As it is, it’s still a really good story and probably one of the better Elseworlds stories I’ve read, but it could’ve been so much more if it had stuck the course.

When Superman (second series) hit issue one-hundred a few scant years ago, the best thing the ol’ crew at DC could come up with for a great anniversary story was The Death of Clark Kent… which was an interesting concept in theory, but was nothing more than a long, drawn-out story-arc that had Superman dealing with another second-rate villain (Conduit) that was created in the week following a second-rate Crisis On Infinite Earths event (Zero Hour). Blah.

This year, Superman reached 200 issues. Yay. How should we celebrate this momentous occasion? Let’s call it The Last Superman Story.

It’s a giveaway, but you’ve read right. The title of this anniversary Superman issue is called The Last Superman Story… but if you’ve been checking out issues of Wizard or Previews, you’d know better. Hell, if you’ve read comics since the dawn of time, you know that they tried to kill off Superman one time and even THAT didn’t stick.

Of course, the hype over Superman’s 200th issue (again, second series) seemed to be focused around time travel and a “shocking” ending. But imagine what a fuss DC could have made if they promoted it as the LAST Superman story ever, only to have him come back a couple months due to unforeseen circumstances.

So when someone presents me with a story and calls it the LAST Superman story, I can’t help but wonder about that. The title does not detract from the quality of the work, which is actually fairly good. The overall plot of Superman 200 is your standard “trip to the not-so-pleasant future” type of storyline, but it’s actually alright. Nothing mind-blowing or anything, but it’s not terrible. It’s the typical Superman quality that most of us is used to these days. The art style isn’t to my liking, but it’s pretty damn good and the selective use of colors is okay.

As far as the ending, it goes on a road that very few people go through with a Superman story, but it’s nothing “shocking” by any means. It’s a good way to cap off this supposed “Last Superman story,” but promoting future Superman projects defeats the whole purpose of Superman 200 being the last one and thus the ending’s effect is lost. Still, pretend it’s shocking and you’ll probably be amazed that this is happening in DC canon and not in some Elseworlds story.

There’s also a couple of pages of bonus material featuring a couple of sketches, but it’s nothing you can find in an issue of Wizard or anything else of that sort.

Overall, the two-hundredth issue of Superman (second series, again) is an alright story and worth a read if you’ve been following the whole Futuresmith storyline, and chances are the collectors would want to pick it up in hopes that it will raise in stock in the coming years. If you don’t know what’s going on here, I’d advise you pick up some of the issues that go before this one or save your money for the obvious collected edition which can show up in a few months time.

In the meantime, I’m anxiously looking forward to issue 300 (second series once more), where DC will probably promote a bearded Superman flipping pizza dough in a shop run by the mob. Then again, anything is better than Superman having electric powers and dressed up as Captain Planet.

Superman and Batman are stuck together in this new ongoing series. In all honesty, I’m rather split on the necessity to create another book for the Man of Steel or the Dark Knight, let alone one that features the both of them. It’s hard to tell if it’s really worth it to put these two guys together in an ongoing series. Of course, they did have an ongoing World’s Finest series a couple decades back, so a modern-day take on that idea probably wouldn’t hurt.

The first few pages is relatively simple. Half of each page dedicated to each of the two as their origins are retold in under 30 seconds, which is actually pretty neat. But then again, these characters don’t need five hundred different takes on their origin stories, even as an entry point because even most non-comic readers already know who they are. The story after that has the World’s Finest against Metallo, who’s causing trouble again. As a series opener, I have my reservations about the plot, but if leads to something bigger and better next issue, then it’s alright. Superman/Batman is fine color wise: the Superman moments are bright and colorful, while the Batman moments are dark and… not that dreary, but close enough. Ed McGuiness still does good Superman and his Batman is actually pretty good too, so no big surprise there.

The problem I have with this book is simple: it’s called Superman/Batman. That tells me it’s going to be mainly a Superman comic. That tells me it’s going to be a nice colorful book with a lot of bright moments. That doesn’t sit too well with me, because when you have a book that feature two opposites, there has to be some kind of balance between the two. It’s okay to have the colorful stories that fits Superman, but only if you can follow the dark tones that fits Batman. This first issue manages to balances things nicely, but it does still feels like a Superman book, not a Superman/Batman book.

Bottom line, Superman/Batman #1 is a good read that’s worth a look. I would probably recommend it to anyone who enjoys Superman comics, but wouldn’t go as far as recommended it to the Batman readers, because it is predominantly a Superman book… not that it’s a bad thing. Maybe the series will surprise me down the road, but for now, check this issue out. Worth your time.