New Super-Man #13 Review and **SPOILERS**

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Two I-Chings Are Better Than One

Writer: Gene Luen Yang 

Pencils: Billy Tan 

Inks: Haining 

Color: Gadson 

Letters: Dave Sharpe 

Cover: Philip Tan/Elmer Santos 

Cover Price: $3.99 

On Sale Date: July 12, 2017

**NON SPOILERS AND SCORE AT THE BOTTOM**

It’s Neewww Suuuper-Maan week! It’s Neewww Suuuper-Maan weeeeek! Boy, when this comic comes out, everything is just a little brighter. Of course, it helps if you read this before Dark Days: The Casting, because that book is creepy as hell. But not New Super-Man! Let’s dive into my review of issue #13 and wallow in the viscous sludge of a good comic book. Maybe “viscous sludge” wasn’t the best phrase to describe something pleasant, but you get the idea.

Explain It!

Now that Dr. Omen’s said she is Kenan’s mother, he feels compelled to save her from falling to her death, despite the fact that she’s been a total bitch to him. Before he can grab her hand, Super-Man Zero—now wearing an awesome ancient Chinese warrior’s outfit and calling himself the Emperor—snatches her away and tells Kenan to buzz off. He’s so dejected and panicked that he falls out of the sky and begins to lose his invulnerability. Not his chutzpah, though, as Kenan demands that the Emperor let Dr. Omen go. The Emperor responds by using his super breath to freeze Kenan on the spot and take off. Avery uses super speed to chip Kenan out of the ice, and now that he’s free Kenan wants to check in on the spot Baixi showed him in a video last issue, of his supposedly dead father being kept alive in a big vat at the Loess Plateau, against I-Ching’s suggestion. Kenan zips over there, and Avery picks up I-Ching and follows, to find that the vat once containing his dad is broken open, and there’s no dad nearby. Avery tells Kenan to stop dicking around with this mishegoss and get to saving Shanghai from the Emperor like a good member of the Justice League of China should—and that’s when Kenan snaps out, his eyes go white, and he punches the broken tank in anger. I dunno what exactly happened there, but I-Ching defuses it by touching Kenan’s forehead and going back to that Quiet Place.

In that Place, I-Ching breaks down Kenan’s selfish anger, and advises that he get the Justice League of China together and do his damned job. At that same moment, in the Fortress of Sovereignty (formerly the Shanghai Tower) the Emperor tells Dr. Omen to free all the supervillain prisoners in the underwater Crab Shell Dungeon facility, and even Ghost I-Ching shows up to advise Dr. Omen to do so, or they will kill her husband. He gets wheeled out in a transparent cube partly filled with a green liquid, I guess this negates his powers? The Emperor starts to boil this liquid, and threatens to boil Zhongdan alive if Dr. Omen doesn’t do as she’s been asked. She pensively considers the situation.

And for some great, nicely-paced storytelling, the next page reveals the supervillains emerging from the sea, wrecking shop. No hemming and hawing, no extended scenes of Dr. Omen mulling things over while her husband slowly dies. Off-panel, she frees the prisoners and saves her husband, and that’s that. And by the way, these supervillains? Amazing. I must collect them all. I am fully prepared to see the Rogues of China start operating. The Legion of Doom of China? Sure. There’s a Chinese version of Bane, a Chinese version of Poison Ivy—and a bunch of villains that don’t seem to be direct analogues of American criminals that are equally or more awesome. Whatever you have to do: cartoons, action figures, Funko Pop toys…I want to see more of these characters. The Bane of China is actually Rongpei, Baixi’s nemesis from the Academy of the Bat, who discovered some Venom is now calls himself Anathema. He even tries to break Baixi’s back, but he’s thwarted by Kenan Kong, who now wants to be a team player. He used Robinbot to track Baixi down, and now it’s time to round up Deilan and get the whole Justice League of China together to fight the Emperor and every-fucking-supervillain on the Asian continent! Yeah!

Holy moley, did I have a great time reading this! So much intrigue, so much action, terrific plotting and storytelling…this is a great comic book! I wish I had more to say, but it’s a lot easier to pick something apart than to praise it. I wonder if that’s a deficiency of the English language? Well then, every red envelope, every double happiness knot, all the Mo Mo dumplings for this book! If you’re not reading it, you are surely missing out!

Bits and Pieces:

I don't know what more I can say. This is the best comic book currently being put out by DC Comics. If you're not reading it, then you should start. Volume one of the trade came out a few weeks ago, that's a good place to start. Because if you jump in on this issue, you're just going to wish you'd read the earlier comics anyway.

9/10