Art by: Bruno Redondo, Caio Felipe
Colors by: Adriano Lucas
Letters by: Ariana Maher
Cover art by: Jamal Campbell
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: January 16, 2024
Superman #10 concludes Superman's unscheduled trip to the Old West when he and Marilyn Moonlight encounter an old Superman enemy with fancy tech.
Is Superman #10 Good?
How do you set up an opportunity to deliver a story and do everything but deliver the promised story? I don't know, but Joshua Williamson pulled it off in Superman #10.
When last we left Superman, he intervened in an attack on Marilyn Moonlight by Pharm and Graft attempting to get the enigmatic vigilante to join their vendetta against Lex Luthor. The attack inadvertently sent Marilyn Moonlight and Superman back in time as a perfectly telegraphed opportunity to learn about Marilyn's origins as one of Metropolis's first masked heroes.
Now, Marilyn and Superman ride the dusty trails of the Old West, biding time for Superman to recover from his Kryptonite poisoning and recover his powers while they search for a way home. One day, the duo stumble upon a massacred caravan where the weapons used come from the future. The duo traces the killer to longtime villain, Old West fetishist, and time traveler, Terra-Man. After an uneventful showdown, Terra-Man is captured, and the duo returns to the present just in time to be confronted by the Lex Luthor Revenge Squad.
Did you get all that? Did you catch what's missing? That's right. There's no Marilyn Moonlight origin story. Sure, Marilyn catches sight of her younger self, and we get a brief montage explaining how she was resurrected in the present (mostly). Still, we don't know anything about her powers, how she got them, what she did in the Old West, or anything else of substance.
In a bizarre twist, Joshua Williamson concocted a scenario to send Superman back in time with Marilyn Moonlight as the perfect setup to explain who she is and what she's about, and he doesn't do anything with it other than pull in a C-Tier Superman villain for a brief fight before sending the heroes back home. What was the point?
What's great about Superman #10? If you've got a hankerin' for Superman in Old West duds as a loose callback to DC's Elseworlds days, you'll get a nostalgic tickle from this issue.
What's not so great about Superman #10? Almost the entire issue is a wasted opportunity. Williamson invented a new character, set up a scenario to fully introduce the new character he created, and completely fumbled the scenario. Again, what was the point?
How's the art? It's fine. Fans of Redondo's soft action and Lucas's soft palettes from Nightwing get more of the same here. If you like their work on Nightwing, you'll like it here.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces:
Superman #10 promised big things with an opportunity to tell the Marilyn Moonlight origin story but completely wastes the chance with a mediocre villain fight. If you skip this issue, you'll miss nothing.
5.5/10
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