Superman #626 ( DC – Robinson / Guedes )
“Following the startling events of “New Krypton” and the shocking occurrence in the Phantom Zone, Earth finds itself without its greatest protector! Luckily, Metropolis still has a few heroes, like Mon-El and the Guardian. But after years of knowing nothing but the solitude of the Phantom Zone, how will Mon-El acclimate himself to society? And the recently returned Guardian has his hands full with his new position in the Science Police. How can they fill Superman’s shoes? They’d better figure it out fast, because dangerous mysteries abound which will carry all the way into 2010!
The highly acclaimed writer-artist team of James Robinson and Renato Guedes continue their run on SUPERMAN with or without The Man of Steel!”
Superman has left for New Krypton and is leaving Mon-El to watching over his beloved city in his absence, but does the Man of Steel really think Mon is up to the task? I don’t think so.
Imagine if your old college friend who you talk to on a semi-regular basis, but actually haven’t seen in years, moves back into town at the same time you’re leaving for a year. Would you ask him to watch over your family and house while you’re out of town with no way to be in contact? No, you wouldn’t. Because even if you trusted the guy implicitly ten years ago…that was ten years ago. Oh, and your friend has been trapped in an inter-dimensional void where you left him because you can find a cure to his disease that you promised to get him. *awkward*
These are the same feeling that Superman is having in this issue. He’s leaving Mon-El the keys to the castle, but then calling in other friends to watch over him. Steel is back in a somewhat changed roll and once again the hero to newsboys everywhere, The Guardian, has taken Mon-El on in a big way. So much so, that the Superman book is now a story about a rookie hero and his (mis)adventures.
Other than the fact that this is the second issue in a row where Superman is turning over responsibility of Metropolis to Mon, it’s pretty solid writing and art. It’s almost like this issue got squeezed at the last second to flush out the story of Mon’s place in the book more. In issue #685, we saw Mon-El take the name Jonathan Kent and explain his accent ( Daxam must be in Northern England ), and get himself set up. This issue was a bit more of the same, but we did get to see that Mon-El is a bit inexperienced as a hero. Maybe the babysitters are in need after all.
Grade: B
