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Seventy years ago, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two high school students, created Superman for Action Comics. Shortly after that, Richard Donner and Geoff Johns released the first five parts of Last Son. Ok, it wasn’t that long ago--it just feels that way.  Truth be told, Part one of the story came out in December of 2006. Now a year and a half later, the conclusion of the story has been released.  The question is, was it worth the wait?  Unfortunately, the answer is: not really.

Once again, DC provides no recap page. This is troublesome.  Especially here where over nine months have gone by since the last installment. Admittedly, DC gets the closest they ever have to a recap through the clever use of newspaper headlines that highlight previous issues.  Still, I struggled a bit to remember who were who and what they were doing. The plot is simple: General Zod and the other phantom zone criminals have escaped and took over the world.  They have kidnapped all of the world’s heroes, which forced Superman to team up with Lex Luthor and the Superman Revenge Squad (consisting of Metallo, Parasite (isn’t he dead) and Bizarro.  I’m not sure if these events occurred on or off panel.  As expected, this rag tag team of heroes and villains face off against the invading Kryptonians in a last pitched battle for the planet.  Caught in the crossfire are Lois and Christopher Kent (Zod’s real and Superman’s adopted son), one of which may have made the ultimate sacrifice.

I really did not enjoy this book. It wasn’t the storytelling, which had fun dialog and great pacing. It wasn’t the art (although I have no idea who that woman they called “Lois” was supposed to be--she looked nothing like Lois Lane.) There were even some great glimpses into Lex Luthor’s character when he explains why he teamed up with Superman (although we have heard this before.  Finally, the flip Kryptonian/English cover was a brilliant idea. 

Despite all these good things, I had some major problems that bothered me so much that they took me out of the story. First, Superman was far to accepting of his villainous allies and their actions.  Page after page shows numerous Kryptonians being killed in different, but equally brutal, ways.  There is one constant in the DC Universe and that is: Superman does not kill.  I had trouble accepting that he would ally himself with killers, let alone allow them to kill.  I also thought Kubert’s art was not as strong as in previous issues and wondered if there was a fill in artist used to finish the story.

The other problem is more fundamental. When the heck does this story occur?  We have had fifteen issues of Action Comics and over eighteen months of Superman Comics since the beginning of “Last Son.” Things occurred in those issues that would be impossible given the events that take place in Action Comic Annual 11.  So, does that mean that the entire story took place after those issues? If that is the case, then other things would not make sense in light of those issues and Countdown.  I’m not a strict continuitist and I understand the need for some flexibility but the big stuff (i.e., whether some is alive or dead) should be respected. Figuring out with this issue fit made my head hurt. I do find it funny that in the 90s when DC had really bad continuity over all, the S books were an ideal (with triangles on each issue).  Now, DC has a tighter continuity overall, but the S books have fallen apart.  Hopefully, the new creative team will be able to maintain a tighter continuity. 

Who know, perhaps “Last Son” will read better as a trade.
Last Son Conclusion
Written by Geoff Johns and Richard Donner
Art and cover by Adam Kubert
Variant cover by Kubert
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Rob Leigh

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