J. Michael Straczynski and Eddy Barrows return to the "Grounded" story arc! As Superman walks through Mt. Prospect, Illinois, Superman gets involved with a ever growing evil! The human heart turned against itself! With Superman continuing to walk across America, he encounters all sorts of people that would hurt one another, or even hurt Superman! So with JMS returning on the series he is continuing to tell the story of Superman trying to find "real" America!
The Good
Superman's "Grounded" stories are getting more-and-more involved! From a couple of issues back, Superman wasn't really encountering abused children like past issues. However, now I think J. Michael Straczynski is getting closer-and-closer to revealing a big surprise for readers and Superman! In this story, Superman meets an abused boy whom gets beat by his father. Original Yes. That is I think it is original in a Superman story, however that's not the point. I think J. Michael Straczynski did an excellent job at making Superman a more relatable character. That is the "main" key in creating this story. Eddy Barrows' pencils are always amazing. His artwork for Superman being all casual, is different from when he gets angry. You can really see the difference if your paying attention to the artwork. The story is short lived, and is possibly my favorite Superman story yet, however what's to come in Metropolis is what I'm really looking forward too.
The Bad
While this Superman story is good, I don't really see how JMS works this in with the other "branching" story lines. For example, in Return of Bruce Wayne. Superman is part of the team that Rip Hunter formed called, The Timemasters. During the events of issue 1 and 2 of that series, we see Superman helping that team. However, once this story was released it seemed that JMS had a entire different timeline for Superman. I don't really know how that fits in with other Story lines, however it does get annoying.
The Verdict
Superman #705 is a great jumping on point! For those who've dropped reading Superman books can feel a little bit more sure about reading this story arc. Overall this is a 4.5 out of 5.
Your the only one that seems to still be liking grounded. Part of the reason why I think I will love this in trade, is because it is not tying in to the branching stories. I have a feeling DC gave JMS full creative control on both Superman and Wonder Woman, so he can rehab them and give them new life, may be trigger new fans in trade, since many fans are becoming trade readers.
I enjoyed this more positive view, since most people seem to of lost love in this arc already.
I've been really enjoying JMS's run on Superman. Really.
also my advice is try not to think about characters appearing in two books in the same month...I've pointed out before that often times these adventures and huge battles they take place in may last months to us it's really only lasting a day or two for them...like Blackest Night...all of that took place in one day but for us it was stretched out over 9 months of books...so there's a lot more time for these characters to do other things
If you're not enjoying JMS' take on Superman, you're far from the minority. Grounded was redundant in that the man of steel who left his wife to be with his own race for a year would come back, only to walk the Earth like Cain from Kung-Fu. If you didn't know this was Superman, you'd think a super hero/husband was making a statement about his marriage.By the 4th chapter of this un-necessary arc, Superman walked his way to Chicago with a media entourage much like the scene in Forrest Gump w...
In a story arc that is already taking some criticism for being a waste of both Superman's and readers' time, this issue comes along to dump a whole barrel of fuel onto the fire. No one needs to read this issue. As anyone can plainly see from the cover, this is the abusive father/husband issue, and it plays out exactly you expect it to. There is nothing more going on here. There is no twist to the story. It is your textbook child abuse story that you have already read or seen dozens of time. Wha...
4 out of 8 found this review helpful.
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