Adventures of Superman #46 Review

Written by: Joe Keatinge
Art by: Ming Doyle and Brent Shoonover
Cover Price: $0.99
Release Date: March 10, 2014

Strange Visitor part 1 of 3

Every week I can't wait for the new Adventures of Superman.  Obviously, when I am in the middle of a multi-part story I want to see what happens next, but the biggest thrill for me is when a new story begins. What will the story be about?  Who will be in it?  It's a little bit of Christmas morning showing up on my computer.  You may think I'm going overboard, but I'm really not.  The mystery and promise of a new story is so good.  Yes, some of the stories haven't been the best, but with this book, anything is possible.

This chapter is the first of a three part arc by Joe Keatinge and I'm pretty impressed so far.  The cover by Jon Bogdanove is so good, the art by Ming Doyle and Brent Shoonover is excellent and the story features Kamandi.  Yes, Kamandi!  He isn't the Last Boy on Earth anymore, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Joe Keatinge gives us a story told by Kamandi, the last astronaut off Earth.  Yes, Earth is dying and instead of playing a fiddle, he's telling the story of Superman.  The story begins with a young gun wielding Batman and Vlad the Impaler joining Superman to fight Frankenstein's unholy army.  It is as awesome as it sounds. Superman's never say die attitude may be frowned upon by Batman, but he still won't give up. 

It then shows the inspiration Superman gave the human race and how it made them reach for the stars. However, not everything goes right and Superman has to deal with his first failure as a kryptonite powered rocket ship "vanishes".  What starts as a nice little flashback story develops into something a little darker.

I really enjoyed this beginning chapter and love that Keatinge is exploring the history of Superman without everything being sugar coated.  I can't wait to see what stories are told in the next two chapters.

The art of Ming Doyle and Brent Shoonover is so good.  I'm a sucker for any art that looks "out of time" and we get it two-fold here.  We get the clean and classic look for Superman's early days (with classic symbol to boot), but what I love best is the 70's look of the Kamandi parts.  It's a perfect fit.

Bits and Pieces:

Adventures of Superman #46 is a really good start to a new arc by Joe Keatinge, Ming Doyle and Bent Shoonover.  The story is unique and I'm looking forward to see how it develops.  The art pays homage to the source material and compliments the story so well.

8.0/10