Superman issue #2 (2023) by Joshua Williamson & Jamal Campbell

Issue #2 of the relaunched series of Superman was released on Tuesday March 21st 2023. It’s written by Joshua Williamson with art and coloring by Jamal Campbell. Sadly, DC Comics have kept the $4.99 price point despite this issue containing fewer story pages than issue #1. I counted 22 pages of story plus a double page spread of credits. That’s a lot less bang for your buck, as they say. I am not happy about this and will probably drop the book after this issue. That’s a real shame because this is another enjoyable Superman comic continuing the entertaining story begun last issue. The quality is there, but they are asking readers to pay way too much for it.

Extract from my Story Summary

We open with Superman down on the ground. He’s being drained by not one but THREE Parasites who appear to be fighting over the Man of Steel. At the same time, Superman can hear Lex Luthor’s voice telling him, “You need me!”

Superman issue #1 (2023) by Joshua Williamson & Jamal Campbell

DC Comics has just launched a new Superman comic book series as part of their year-long “Dawn of DC” initiative. It is written by Joshua Williamson with art by Jamal Campbell. You get 32 pages of story for the higher-than-usual retail price of $4.99. (I don’t know if this price point is just for the first issue or not.) The story’s title is “Chapter One: Voices in Your Head” and the good news is Superman #1 is a great opening issue. It’s a bright, hopeful and optimistic comic book, a refreshing change from some of the more recent fare from DC Comics.

Thankfully there is only a brief nod to Superman’s origin story and we jump straight into the action. The man of steel is fighting Livewire–a villain first introduced in the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Livewire” back in 1997. During the fight, he can hear Lex Luthor’s voice advising him on how to defeat Livewire. I wasn’t quite sure how Luthor was able to see the fight from prison, probably on the Live News. But what is revealed is that Clark can listen to any voice he chooses to. As you can probably guess, Luthor’s advice is brutal and lacks any kind of compassion. Superman ignores him and the fight is quickly over.

Chip Zdarsky Becomes the New Batman Writer

Art by Jorge Jimenez

After my recent rant about the terrible ComiXology Amazon update, here’s some good news from the world of American comics; well, for me anyway. Current Daredevil writer Chip Zdarsky will take over the writing duties of DC’s flagship Batman comic book from issue #125 due out in July. I like Zdarsky’s work, especially his run on Daredevil, so I’m pretty excited by this news. Joshua Williamson has been writing the comic after James Tynion’s 31-issue run ended with issue #117. Despite Williamson sharing his good wishes towards the new creative team on Twitter, you have to wonder if this was always the plan. He claims it was, despite only getting to write seven issues.

Here’s my video reaction to the news. It’s only 8 minutes long.

Batman Issue 118 Review | A New Creative Team Takes Over!

Batman #118 is written by Joshua Williamson with art by Jorge Molina. It was released on December 7th 2021 for the rising DC Comic’s price of $4.99. For that you get 30 pages of story.

Cover Art by Jorge Molina

I’m happy to say that this felt like a breath of fresh air after James Tynion’s road-to-nowhere-fast run on the title. Tynion took over after Tom King had penned 85 issues of a very mixed run on DC’s flagship title. Tynion started well with a return-to-basics style of a Batman book. Unfortunately, I felt like he was stretching three or four-part story arcs into double the length actually needed. How many parts made up “Joker War” or “Fear State”? Too many, that’s for sure. Not to mention his penchant for introducing too many new characters who struggled to catch this reader’s attention or memory. Seriously, I can’t remember half of them.