Review: Superman #15

Quick Summary

Pros: The story is getting very interesting and is delving deep into some concepts that DC has ignored for years. The artwork is not only good but is also done in a way which actually enhances the story.

Cons: “Our” Superman kinds of takes over the story here.

Overall: Continuing the great story established in issue #14, this issue is another homerun for the Tomasi-Gleason team. It is a fascinating story that continues to rope in the entirety of the DC Multiverse into the fold. It is also just a great story overall, one that manages to be suspenseful and full of action while also having an incredibly deep plot to go along with it. This is an issue showing how great this Superman series is and that this Multiplicity arc is the one to watch.

Story

The last issue of Superman started off a story with a lot of hype behind it and made a lot of promises to be something great. This issue not only fulfills on a great deal of those promises but it adds even more on top of that. It is revealing secrets of the DC Universe while telling a gripping and suspenseful story at the same time. Not only that, but it is doing the job of an event comic in what is normally a simply series. This is a great Part Two for the Multiplicity event and gives a good indication that Part Three is going to be something just as good.

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The story here is simply great so far. In our previous review, we talked about how great it is that this arc is digging into a lot of the unfinished stories from Multiversity. Now this issue presents even more of this. It is beginning to feel even more like a successor to Multiversity than it was before and is doing a great job in contributing to the ongoing mythos of the DC Universe. I am incredibly excited to see who this new villain is and will be eagerly awaiting this next issue.

The real success of this story so far has been its ability to tell a multiversal story in a regular comic series. Typically these events are huge, grandiose, and involve the entirety of the DC Comics lineup in order to tell. This issue manages to take these larger concepts and make them available to a regular monthly series. This makes the story much less intimidating and much more accessible for your average reader but still present a level of depth and complexity that is usually not present in a comic like this. It is very reminiscent of Morrison’s New 52 run on Action Comics in this way, which is a very good thing.

The only complaint for this issue is a very small one. In Multiversity, President Superman of Earth-23 was incredibly competent and innovative and was able to lead the Justice League Incarnate very well. This was a great story because it showed that there were other great heroes out there that did not always need to rely on Earth-0 to save them all of the time. Now, “our” Superman seems to be the only capable one here and is instantly made the de facto leader. This just felt a little inauthentic to some of the story preceding this. However, this is a very small blemish on an overall fantastic issue.

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Art

While not as baseline beautiful as Ivan Reis’s art in the previous issue, I really like what was done with the art in this issue. This is a story featuring multiple superheroes from multiple worlds, many of which are extremely different. In this issue, the artwork switches up throughout in order to indicate a change in the world that is being shown. The changes are not large and mostly end up being very subtly done from page to page; sometimes it is almost hard to notice when it happens. The effect, however, is a subconscious impression of a different world and landscape for each of the worlds that are shown.

In addition to this, the art is also just very good in general. Each of the artists working on this issue are great in their own right and typically do very good work. All in all, this is a solid issue in terms of art.

Continuity

This issue flows out of the story established in Superman #14, which is a spiritual successor to the story established in Multiversity. So far most of the plotline has focused on the existence of the Multiverse and the various threats against it. This Multiverse seems to be the one created out of the wake of Infinite Crisis, as explained in 52. However the story behind the creation of the Justice League Incarnate starts in Final Crisis and is then continued in Multiversity. While none of these are completely necessary to understand this story, reading Multiversity is the best and most simple way to gain a background on what is going on.

• This is the first time that Earth-14 has ever been shown, previously it was labeled as one of the “Unknown Worlds” in the Guidebook issue of Multiversity. Everything known about it, so far, is shown in this issue.
• The first Earth that the team visit, Earth-13, is home of an Earth with a Justice League heavily based in magic. Their overview is briefly given in the Guidebook issue of Multiversity but they have never really been shown in action before this issue.
• Earths 10, 12, 16, and 18 are allow briefly shown in a montage where the Supermen approach their new recruits.
  • Earth-10 is an alternate Earth where Superman never landed in Kansas. Instead he landed in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia. This lead to the creation of the Nazi Superman, Overman, who lead the Germans to victory in World War II. Earth-10 had previously been introduced in a small cameo in the last issue of the series 52. Since then, Overman played a large part in the event Final Crisis. After this, the world of Earth-10 and its current state were highlighted in the Mastermen issue of Multiversity.
  • Earth-12 is very similar to the mainstream Earth featured in most DC Comics, Earth-0. The only difference is that this Earth is much further along in the timeline and features older versions of many DC heroes, and a cast of younger heroes ready to take their place. This is the Earth that is featured in the Batman Beyond series of related works.
  • Earth-16 is a version of Earth that has achieved a near perfect peace. However, this has left the world, especially superheroes, with nothing to do. Boredom reigns supreme and superheroes now mostly just reenact famous battles from the past. This Earth first appeared and was the featured heavily in The Just issue of Multiversity.
  • Earth-18 is an Earth frozen in the 19th century, with the majority of its heroes usually depicted as heroes of the wild west. Not much has been shown of this Earth as it has only appeared in the Guidebook issue of Multiversity. However DC has stated that it is very similar to the Earth featured in the Justice Riders one-shot, now collected in DC Elseworlds: Justice League Vol. 1.