Superman #22 Review and *SPOILERS*

Hamilton County........ Of The Damned!

Written By: Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason

Art By: Doug Mahnke, Jaime Mendoza, Ray McCarty, Wil Quintana, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: May 3, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well goddamn, has this story been keeping us on our toes about what's going on with Cobb Branden and his granddaughter Kathy and also what they're connection to everything that this series has given us so far when it comes to Jon and his developing powers.  In our previous issue, we saw some mysterious man keeping an eye on the Kents through the eyes of Krypto and if that wasn't enough...... even with a big ass octopus fight in the middle of it, we also discover that Kathy has psychic abilities and that she's a part of something that's been keeping an eye on Jon since our Superman Faimly first moved to Hamilton County........ hell, who knows how far it's gone back, but one thing's for sure, we're never going to look at this quiet little hamlet the same way after this arc.  Let's jump into this issue and find out what Superman discovered in that creepy old mansion deep within Dead Man's Swamp.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Lois deciding whether or not she should do anything to help her husband, son and Robin find Batman because reports of their battle with the octopus is all over the news, but finally she decides that staying at home isn't an option, when she sees that the old oak tree that Jon can usually be found at is on fire.  After visiting Cobb and Kathy, who tell her that they don't know anything....... which is a complete goddamn lie, Lois heads into town, where she sees the editor of the Hamilton Horn out and about.  Now this would be fine if she hadn't just seen pictures online where Candice was injured by the octopus so with a mystery in front of her, Lois follows who she believes to be her best friend to the Town Hall, where Candice suspiciously goes into the back door.  Lois follows and after going down a number of flights of stairs, she finds a secret room with monitors depicting Superman and Jon and their secret identities. 

Yeah, shit's gotten real for Lois and it only gets worse from there.  Candice shows up behind Lois with a gun, which Lois figures ain't shit because she immediately kicks Candice down and takes off for home......... where she's immediately confronted by Candice and some other prominent members of the town.  Well, Lois is no dummy so she books it upstairs to her Hell Bat Suit glove, which she uses to blast the shit out of anyone who gets in her way and eventually it looks like she's going to make it away safe and sound when she's able to access the Batmobile thanks to the glove, but whoever Cobb is, it seems that the Batmobile is no match for him because he psychically takes the car apart, leaving Lois at his mercy.

In the end, we head on over to Dead Man's Swamp to see what progress Superman's making....... and apparently he's having as fucked up a day as Lois is because after descending some stairs and going through some high tech looking corridors, our Man of Steel comes across a room filled with stasis tubes, where he finds Batman, Robin, Frankenstein, The Bride, possibly the gang of kids he took down at the town fair awhile ago and a whole mess of fucked up looking things.  Oh yeah, shit just got real in Hamilton County........ if that's its real name.

That's it for this issue of Superman and I have to tell you, it's issues like this that make me a superhero comic book fan.  The writing is so good in this issue and really this whole arc so far because it's just not thrown in your face out of nowhere and if you've been reading the entire series everything has been laid out and plotted so that everything wraps around and gives you a bigger and more meaningful story in the long run.  Yeah, I've been down on this book in the past because of the stories that never seemed to go anywhere, but I see from reading this issue that Tomasi and Gleason can tell me to go fuck myself because they had a plan all along that I just needed to be patient.  The things thrown at us in this issue are so creepy, but add to the dynamic way that this story is being presented to us and I find myself hating that I have to wait two weeks to get to the next installment because not only is the story been fantastic, but the art has been too.  This is a great issue, even if it's a little light on our heroes and I can't wait to see what we get next.

Bits and Pieces:

Superman continues to be a great and exciting book that leaves me hungry for more after each issue and I'm scratching my head raw in trying to figure out how Tomasi and Gleason will shock us next.  I'm loving this arc and I'm loving the art that's depicting it and I can't wait to read the next issue.

9/10