Superman #18 Review and *SPOILERS*

Amber Alert: Hamilton County

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason

Art By: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: March 1, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, our first Superman crossover with Action Comics is here and even though it feels like we've waited forever for this Reborn story to happen so we can find out what the deal is with Mr. Oz saying that Clark and his family and even the New 52 Superman aren't what they think they are.  Even though it's been awhile, now that we're here....... it's weird to me that it's already happening.  I mean, I feel like we should have had some more hints and clues thrown our way up to this point, but maybe I'm just crazy.  So yeah, I don't know what Jon's little adventure into Deadman's Swamp in the previous issue of Superman will have to do with this if anything, but what I do know is that we're finally going to get to the bottom of who that human Clark Kent is and what his major malfunction is all about.  Let's jump into this issue and get this crossover started so we can stop pulling our hair out at all the possibilities.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins wherever Mr. Oz hangs his hat and we see on one of his big ass monitors that a large energy manifests in the sky and then dissipates......... signalling to Mr. Oz and apparently all of his current captives like Doomsday, Prophecy and Tim Drake that someone escaped.  Yeah, I don't know how the rest of the captives know about this because whoever it was that made like an egg and beat it seemed to be held in some kind of obelisk on the surface of wherever they are.  The last bit of this that we see is Mr. Oz inspecting the now vacant cell and finding out that whoever it was had made crude drawings of Superman and all things associated with Superman on the walls and floor of it and spelling out as well that Superman would save the person, but then spelling out in a question....... "Where Are You Superman?"

Over in Hamilton County, Lois and Clark Smith are celebrating their anniversary.......... where apparently Jon is only supposed to buy them gifts, which seems weird to me, but Clark cheats on their agreement and gets Lois a new sweater.  While this is going on there's a "ding dong" at the door and when Jon opens it, he finds a photo album laying on the porch as a familiar outline of someone walks away.  The family inspects the album and find that it consists of pictures of them, but from their original world, before Jon was born........... which should be damn well impossible and things really spring into action when we see the human Clark Kent still outside talking to Krypto, who doesn't seem to trust this doppelganger of his master.  With this, our Man of Steel hears and suits up to confront this double and that's when shit gets crazy as hell in this issue.

In the end, parts of the house start becoming engulfed in a sort of blue ghost flame that Superman can't seem to put out and this leads to Jon getting the flames on him, making him teleport first to the basement and then to the second floor.  At this point Superman is frightened for his son and tries to stop this from happening by wrapping him in his cape and then flying him out of the home, but by the time he makes it outside, Jon is disappearing in this blue flame as the house does behind them as well and we leave this issue with Clark and Lois crying at how helpless they are to combat against whatever it happening to them.

That's it for this issue of Superman and our first part of the Reborn story and I feel weird after reading this because while I'm interested in what's going on in this arc, I can't say that there's a lot going on in this issue.  I mean, we get some mystery person escaping Mr. Oz, human Clark leaving an impossible photo album on the Smith's doorstep and then ghost flames making Jon disappear.  Yeah, you can say that this is a lot of stuff thrown at us, but I'm at a loss in trying to explain any of it.  It's a good setup to really get our feelings going out to the Superman family for losing Jon and it looks great the whole way through, but there really isn't a lot to sink your teeth into and really have something that you can ponder over until we get the next chapter to this arc.  

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue will definitely get you interested in what's going on with the Superman Family, I can't say for certain that it's something that you'll be able to walk away satisfied after reading because while we get a decent amount of stuff thrown at us, everything seems to be completely random and without any kind of explanation given, I feel kind of empty after reading it.  The art in this issue is great though and it did get me interested in what this arc will bring, but at the end of the day it really just left me scratching my head to what the hell happened.

7/10