Superman #43 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Gene Luen Yang
Art By: John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Scott Hanna, Dean White, Leonardo Olea, Blond
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: August 26, 2015

Chatty Cathy......Err...... Lois.

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Who's ready for more of the Truth?  So far, this prequel story to this crossover arc has been my least favorite, but it looks like we'll finally be getting something that resembles the rest of the story here.  In the previous issue, Superman, Jimmy, Lois and a blue haired girl named Condesa went up against an organization that claimed that it was going to reveal Superman's secret identity to the world if he didn't play ball and while this doesn't sound like that bad of a story, it was riddled with ridiculousness, like a flying bus that took you to a secret campus in the clouds.  Yeah, it all became Harry Potter out of nowhere, but after defeating the organization's leader Hordr_Root and destroying the campus with a solar flare, we saw something come up to Clark during his flare out and suck on him......er... um.... siphon his power.  So it looks like we finally get the de-powerment of the Truth story, let's see if we find out who let the cat out of the bag with Clark's identity here.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our story begins with Clark waking up in Lois' apartment, where everyone has decided to hide out since the Hordr destruction in the previous issue and man does it get weird because not only has everyone gotten a gander at what Superman says really makes him super during pillow talk, but it seems that Lois has a bit of a crush on our former Man of Steel and just really makes this whole, "my secret identity is on the line" moment a bit odd.  It's not only her admitting her feelings for him that does it either, after Clark shoots her down because he's dating Wonder Woman, Lois continues to hover inside his personal space and keeps touching his face.  It's almost at the point where I'd expect Superman to start saying "let's keep this professional" and to a degree it is because they both say that they're just friends....... but I don't go caressing friends' faces who happen to be naked.  Don't worry though, the awkward moment is put on hold after Jimmy gets sick because he thinks he's responsible for Hordr finding out Superman's secret, but really it's because he drank a foam latte from a stranger on Hordr's campus and it's just like my mother told me about taking candy from strangers........ "don't eat that candy Eric, it probably has a small robot in it".  Ma was really wise.  Anyway, the small robot activates Clark's phone and Hordr_Root comes on the screen, telling Clark that the game is still on and that he better still play ball.

Clark is given coordinates to where he's supposed to meet Hordr_Root and after a brief tizzy about Lois going, she gets her way and the two make their way to the new secret hideout of Hordr, which I appreciate a lot more because instead of it being a campus in the clouds, it's just a base inside of a mountain and while you all might be saying to yourselves that they're both ridiculous, I find this hideout way more believable........ and you don't even need a magic bus to get there...... maybe it's just the bus that got on my nerves...........Anyway, it's better.  Hordr_Root captures Superman, while Lois uses her Hordr mask from last issue to enter the facility unnoticed and I find this part kind of odd because it seems that Hordr_Root is really fascinated by Clark's solar flare power, but thankfully since last issue, Superman is at his current de-powerment level that we've come to know from the Truth and can't pull out any solar flares for Hordr_Root's energy sucking robots......... that kind of seem like one of them might have been responsible for sucking on Superman in the previous issue....... Even though Hordr_Root doesn't seem to know that Superman is without his normal powers...... it's all kind of weird.

In the end, a horde of energy sucking robots surround Clark and begin sucking on him to the point where Lois can't bear it any longer and so she decides that she's going to unleash Clark's secret on the world in order to save him from Hordr.......... Well, without the information to hold over Clark's head, Hordr_Root disappears and Superman frees himself of the robots, but as our issue closes we see that Clark is furious with Lois for her decision to use his biggest secret in order to save him because he feels that she had no right to do so....... so we see where all the hate on for Lois comes from, especially since right after they escape Hordr's mountain lair, General Lane is there with a helicopter ready to fire kryptonite laced bullets at Superman...... shit got real.......real fast.  

That's it for this issue of Superman and even though this issue is the best that we've seen from this title for the Truth story, it just had a lot of odd parts that really threw me off.  Lois not understanding personal space, having almost the exact same interaction with Hordr that we had in the previous issue and these energy sucking robots that may or may not have caused Superman's original de-powerment, but a horde of them here do little more than burn him................ I mean, why mention energy siphoning robots if they aren't a bigger deal?  It's just kind of odd, but like I said, this is the best this title has offered so far and besides for those few weird things, I liked the majority of it.  The art was great right out of the gate on this issue, but as the issue continued, it got worse and worse and by the end it doesn't even look like the issue we started with.  Hopefully the series continues getting better and better as we go along because we're finally in what feels like actual "Truth" territory and I want to see how this story matches up to the rest of the Truth series.

Bits and Pieces:

We've finally gotten to the Truth with this issue....... whatever that means and while this title feels like it hasn't been pulling it's weight when compared to other Superman titles, it looks like it finally got on track to deliver us a story that meshes better with the other titles in this story arc.  The art's kind of all over the place, but the beginning of the book looks great....... and probably the best that this title has looked for a long time, it's just too bad that it doesn't last very long.  So yeah, Superman has it's ups and downs, but this issue is the best it's been with the Truth.

6.5/10