Superman Unchained #2

I'm not the biggest Superman fan I find him a little too powerful at points, and well a little bland at points, but maybe that's just me, and I was maybe pre-judging him. Yet I enjoyed last issue it wasn't as great as some people were making out, but it was still good, and a promising start to the series, but I still feel a little apprehensive about this book because of how I feel about Superman, and some reviews for it have been fairly negative.

Plot

Superman attempts to save the worlds tallest building in 19 seconds while under attack from a Ascension controlled robot. Superman also meets up with Batman to find out what was going on with the satellite that fell in the ocean.

Review

Some people may disagree with me, but I personally think that this issue was better than the debut issue the first one failed to wow me enough as I expected, and the story for a book being hyped so much especially with better print quality I expected more it wasn't bad just not as good as I'd hoped maybe I just have such a high opinion of Snyder and Lee, but I felt a little disappointed. This issue however steps up the game, and I really liked this issue its just still not as good as was being hyped. This issue develops all the assembled plots that were going on last issue, and adds a bit more to them, as Ascension who were only mentioned last issue become a proper part of the story in this issue, and the plots with Lex Luthor, and Wraith advance a bit as well its a development issue that builds on what was before making it a lot more interesting and this issue grabbed my attention from the start.

The Good

• The covers better than last issue which was a little bland and nothing compared to the promo art (which will be the cover to 3) the image of Superman holding the tattered flag is powerful, and the destroyed tanks in the background send a message. Altogether a great cover that actually relates to the story.
• This book starts and ends with Lex Luthor I love how Lex is written its absolutely correct for him clever, but always obsessed with saving the world and doing what is right even though what he does maybe a little extreme, but hey he's a Super villain! Still he was a great part of this issue, and the way it ends with him is really clever.
• The first part of this issue is devoted to a fight with Superman and the Ascension controlled Apollodorus, which is all purpose building robot, and while he's fighting it he has to save the worlds tallest building 36,000 people in it, in 19 seconds. This fight is intense, and the fact that Superman is time pressured makes into all the more interesting, and I could really get into Superman's head which is an interesting way of writing him, as it shows Superman to be very open, so you can understand his thinking process in these situations also it shows how pressured Superman is, and how he always makes the right decision in the end.
• Superman meets Batman in this issue, and although there meeting only takes up a bit of this issue its interesting to see the two characters relationship, and the scene is most certainly written well, and it shows Batman being a detective at least, and toying around with new technology it's an interesting scene that plays around with the idea of how Superman could be stopped if he went rogue, and it ties well with that plot in Justice league. The detective apsect of Bruce's work was interesting, and its something I feel he may have lost in Snyder's main book at points, and how he begins to work out the power levels of the mark on the Satellite is clever.
• This issue's main story is also slightly longer by about 5 pages and the backups 2. I'm surprised knowing Lee's standard of turning out pages as he's been said to take 3 days to produce a page (he's got a lot of other stuff to do), but I like the fact it's slightly longer, and you get a bit more story packed into this issue so it's all good.
• One of the things I particularly liked last issue was the scene with Lois and Clark with some really bouncy dialogue that showed some great character work as Lois took apart his news piece while having a conversation with Perry White it was just really fun to read. This issue has less of that, but its still got a nice scene going on with Lois in a plane, and its still fun to read.
• I liked the Ned Ludd reference as that was a clever little idea by Snyder, and kind of fitting as well.
• The ending of the this issue is interesting it brings the military part of the story to a head, and the part is interesting, and the use of Superman's powers is pretty spectacular, but I have my reservations which I will talk about in a minute.
• The backups story is really interesting as its only two pages, but it gets quite a bit done especially with the plot from the last issue's backup, and the moment with Bruce in is pretty interesting as well.
• I had a few problems with Jim Lee's art last issue the first few pages just looked really murky especially the first few, but that may have been the inker, but in this it's pretty much perfect in every panel its not Lee's best work which I think it Hush as I haven't read his X-men stuff, but it hasn't reached that level of greatness yet, but the art and detail in this issue is outstanding as is some of the composition of panels as Lee is playing around with them a bit, and the use of Superman's powers look amazing in a few places. The double page at the start of the issue with Superman is probably my favourite bit as its such a impressive page, as is the rest of the issue and Lee nails Superman pretty well in this issue.

The Bad

• This issue's a little slow towards the end and in places it just develops the story, and while its all really vital to the story, but its slow.
• General Lane I've never read stuff with him in before, but he seemed a bit well sudden to jump to (Spoiler) shooting on Superman maybe that's what he's like, but I felt like the bit was very sudden, but this has not affected the rating, and I'm sure it will be explained it just bugged me a bit.
• Really, really minor nitpick but the appearance of Wraith felt a bit lackluster due to him appearing in one panel before and a small one and just being in a straight splash page would have looked better it just took some of the impact out.

Verdict

This in my opinion was better than the last still not perfect, but definitely a good read, and I like the development going on here, and this still is a very promising Superman series, and this is one of the best looking books on the stands. I highly recommend this series, as this is a book that looks to only get better and better.

4 stars