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Superman #40 - Powerless

2

Superman gets help from the Justice League to help understand his new power.

The Good

Coming out of the last arc, Superman gets help from the Justice League to help figure out what's going on with his new solar flare powers.

The first half of this book shows a lot of promise, when Superman and the Justice League are working together to figure everything they can about Clark's new power. If you've read the last arc, you're going to want to learn more about what's going on with him, and we get a little bit of that before the book takes a turn.

The art team of John Romita Jr, Klaus Janson, and Dean White do a solid job on this issue and there are some fantastic, stand-out pages. The opening two pages is pretty fantastic and as the issue goes on, there are some great moments of Superman testing out his powers. Janson and Romita work insanely well together and White gives the book a nice pop.

The Bad

These characters feel very flat. Their dialogue is interchangeable and those elements of their personalities that fans fell in love with is simply not here. Although it's Kal, Bruce, Barry, Arthur, and Diana drinking at a bar, it could be anyone.

Continuing on with the dialogue, Superman talks to himself quite a bit and it has a very dated feel to it. Every moment we see he's describing, which is frustrating because John Romita Jr is more than capable of showing us what's going on. Show us. Don't tell us. SUPERMAN #40 wants to do both, apparently.

Dialogue aside, the second half of the book is rough. From the dinner scene to the Superman hungover scene to that final battle Superman has with those crooks, the book simply isn't interesting. It starts to show a lot of promise and it simply fails to deliver in the end.

Tonally, this is supposed to be a fun book, as that is how Romita Jr presents it but it really misses the mark. The quips between Justice Leaguers don't hit their mark. Romita tries to build a friendship between these heroes here, but it feels forced and completely out of character.

The Verdict

As a whole, the idea for the issue, along the lines of Superman trying to understand his new powers and getting help from the Justice League, shows a great amount of promise. The problem is that the execution isn't there. These characters don't have their essence here and having the Justice League trying to bond over beers feels really forced. The art team does some great work, but the dialogue and second half of the book simply do not work.