Superman #32 Review and *SPOILERS*

Crossing The Line

Written By: James Bonny

Art By: Tyler Kirkham, Arif Prianto, Dave Sharpe

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: October 4, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Superman Vs. Deathstroke............ Yeah, while some of you out there may not think that means much because.......... Well, because it's Superman, we've seen in Rebirth that with Deathstroke's gravity sheath armor, he can take a lot of damage and dish out its equal amount and with Superman's "no killing" policy..... well, that makes Slade Wilson one hell of a threat.  Especially, where we left off last issue with Deathstroke having a gun pointing at Lois Lane's face and pulling the trigger.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Slade is upset about the story that Lois wrote about him or if he's in Metropolis with a few days to kill for another reason.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

So yeah, our issue begins with Superman arriving in time and taking the bullet for Lois as you'd all expect, but this is no mere hit that Slade Wilson is on, it seems that he's going to try to push all of Superman's buttons now that he knows that Superman loves Lois Lane, which he discovered last issue.  Yeah, he intends on taking Lois' life and makes it abundantly clear that the only way that Superman will be able to save her is if he kills him.  With that, the two tussle in Metropolis, where Deathstroke's gravity sheath keeps him from being taken down, but even with that cool piece of armor, it isn't a match for Superman for very long and Slade does what he has to keep Superman occupied so that he can make his escape.......... which involves throwing a grenade into traffic.

With the threat of Lois' life, Superman intends on sticking to her like glue, but Lois is getting a little antsy waiting on Slade to make his return because she's just spent days waiting for something to happen and there's been no sign of the Terminator.  Even with impending doom looming over her, she still has a job to do and is sent out to report on a fire at a propane factory, which obviously, Slade set up to not only draw her out, but to keep Superman occupied while he puts a gun up to her head.  

In the end, Slade tries to push Superman more and more over the edge with the threat of killing Lois and the realization that killing him is the only way to save her, but when the propane factory goes up, it's something that Slade didn't count on and it knocks both him and Lois into the ocean, where Slade takes Lois as he makes yet another getaway.  As our issue closes though, Lois signals Superman with her STAR Labs taser we saw last issue and the only sign of Slade Wilson is a message he left for the Man of Steel, "Game Over Boyscout".  As our issue closes, we see that Amanda Waller put Slade up to this so that she can determine what Superman's breaking points are in case she needs to exploit them in the future.

That's it for this issue of Superman and while this is a simple two-parter, it does set up a story down the line and gave us a whole bunch of bad ass Deathstroke action in the process.  Tyler Kirkham continues to kill it with his amazing art style and James Bonny shows us just how ruthless and cunning Slade Wilson is to get a job done........ even when it may kill him to do it.  Superman's been a weird disjointed series since the end of the Black Dawn arc with two-parters just filling in the gaps until the next big arc, but at least this one was satisfying in the depiction of the characters, the dialog and its amazing art from start to finish.  Hopefully, the next arc is able to stand side to side with this one.

Bits and Pieces:

Fight of the century?  Maybe not, but definitely a good time overall that gave us great depictions of not only Superman and Deathstroke, but also Lois Lane as well.  The art in this issue is amazing and I'm really sad that it's over so soon.  Hopefully, it's not too long before we pick up where the events of this two-parter leaves us off.  

8/10