Superman Family
It's the year 3000 and it's time to get another Superman tale by the next writer of the Man of Steel after Future State is over and that's Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Hopefully, now that he's got his mission statement out of the way with the Superman: Worlds of War series we can jump into this future Superman story and actually get some Superman. Let's jump into this issue and see what the House of El holds in store for us. Let's check it out.
Where I was hoping for an actual Superman story this time around, it appears that even in the year 3000, we're dealing with Phillip Kennedy Johnson's mission statement to let you know that he knows that Superman inspires people. If you're reading Superman at this point...... I'm pretty sure you know this but the way we're telling you this time around is that we have a whole bunch of extended Superman Family members that somehow butt right up with the Legion of Super-Heroes time, who are fighting off the Red King and his hoards of Parademons, Doomsdays, and even the Black Racer and while his reveal might be surprising to some...... not that you'll know who he is, just what he is, this reveal ultimately just falls flat because he's immediately swayed to be better as soon as our Man of Steel shows up and then the story is over.
So yeah, here we have an oversized issue that's mostly fight scene after fight scene with Superman descendants you don't know, and while this is going on and even during the breaks in the fighting you just get to know that Superman and the tales of Superman mean a lot to people, including his distant family members who aren't even sure he was actually real. It's a pretty thin story that doesn't really jibe with me with the characters involved and what's going on around this time in the DC Universe, but I'm sure that for people who just want to know that Superman is a super guy, this issue will be right up your alley.
All in all, I did really enjoy the art in this issue but the story overall did little to impress me because we just have a lot of different characters that you don't know, with Superman shields on their chests fighting horde after horde of familiar monsters and in the long run it just isn't that interesting..... especially since I've been waiting this whole two-month event to get a Superman story and he's barely shown up in his own books and even when we do get to see him we don't have much context for what he's been doing. Yeah, we still have one more issue of Superman Vs. Imperious Lex at the end of March for some reason but to me this was the finale to our Superman tales of Future State and while I may not have gotten what I wanted out of it, it does at least stay consistent with what you'll get out of the other books featuring our Man of Tomorrow.
Bits and Pieces:
We continue Phillip Kennedy Johnson's mission statement of letting you know that Superman inspires people into the year 3000 and just like his Superman: Worlds of War book.... you don't get much out of the title character. Not much of anything really... Just a bunch of fights and people telling you that Superman means a lot to people....... and then it's over with no real fanfare for the villain of the story. Thankfully the art looks great throughout, I just wish the story felt bigger.
Thank you for the review. Phillip Kennedy Johnson's storytelling is frustrating to me here. It's clear he enjoys Superman but all he gives us are stories about Superman's influence, not the man himself. I agree with everything you said about the story, it's resolved way too neatly, and it raises more questions than it should. Especially about the villain's parentage. All in all, I hope his actual Superman stories are better than what we got in Future State.
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