Review: Superman Vol. 5- Under Fire
Quick Summary
Pros: There are some fun moments and cool fights in the main story. The Lois Lane arc is interesting.
Cons: Portions of the fight scenes are very illogical. Parts of the main story are average at best. Half of this book is set-up for larger story arcs that never actually materialize.
Overall: If you were hoping that this would be the volume to turn the Superman series around you will be tremendously disappointed. The main story is lackluster all around, with only a few moments standing out as interesting. Then the volume sets about wasting reader’s time by meticulously setting up a myriad of storylines that seem to have potential but never actually come to fruition. With a series of problems undercutting an already poor book, there is little reason to recommend reading this collection.
Review Notes
The first issue of this collection is a piece of the “Krypton Returns” storyline. This is a crossover story spanning across the Superman, Superboy, and Supergirl series. Since the story flows from one series to the next without stopping, they really only make sense when read together in one cohesive order. For this reason, we will be reviewing this story separately in a look at the Krypton Returns story (found here). For more information on this crossover, including details on how to read it and where it is collected, view our “Krypton Returns” reading order (coming soon).
In addition, the last two issues of this collection form a part of the “Superman: Doomed” storyline. In a similar manner, we will be covering these issues in our review of Superman: Doomed (coming soon).
Thus, this review will be covering the material outside of these two other collections. Meaning it cover Superman #26-29.
Story
Within Superman Vol. 5- Under Fire, readers occasionally get to see a glimpse at what could be a lackluster but still passable Superman story. There are some fun moments and some not-so-fun moments, but the story as a whole isn’t too bad. That is until readers start to realize what a complete mess this story is in every other regard. Half of the storylines started in this collection go absolutely nowhere, meaning any excitement they create is completely wasted. Reading this book is like working hard at your job in the hopes of taking a nice vacation, only to be fired before getting to take a single day off.
(spoilers start here)
The collection starts out by detailing a battle between Superman and Parasite. This standard superhero fare has become typical of the Superman series so far, falling short of being worthwhile but not altogether terrible. There are good moments, like Parasite briefly getting psionic powers, and there are bad moments, like Parasite taking more damage from an exploding oxygen tank than Superman’s punches. Overall though, this isn’t a moment that will upset anyone but also isn’t a moment many fans will care about long after reading this book.
Alongside this, Lois Lane’s new psionic powers are teased here and there. This is the story’s most interesting plot point and a portion of the story that is tragically underutilized. Having a super-powered Lois Lane presents a lot of potential, something readers get a taste of when she travels through the astral plane or when she stops a gang war with her mind. However, this sub-plot is rather short and only makes up a small portion of the book.
From here readers witness the second return of Helspont, a character who’s recent appearances perfectly match his storyline in this issue, disappointing at best. A brief arc involving a team-up with Starfire sees the start of another Daemonite invasion, this time using willing human hosts. It is a story with some potential that ultimately ends up being far to short to raise any genuine interest. This story also appears to drop from comics entirely after this moment, reappearing nearly ten issues later in Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 7: Last Call (Review).
This is where the core problem of Under Fire comes to the surface, terrible editing. This volume is situated immediately before a major shift in the creative teams behind the Superman series, meaning most of the storylines here end up either not fully realized or completely abandoned. General Lane’s investigation into “The Tower”, Morgan Edge’s threats, and most of the Helspont storyline form a large portion of the book, yet end up never becoming what this volume promised they would become. It makes the story feel completely pointless and deals the final blow to what was already a below average volume.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The art here ends up being the best part of the collection, though not quite enough to save it. Every artist working on this book puts in some great looking pages and there is never a moment where anything seems drawn weird or out of place. In fact the opposite is more often true as there are some great looking moments in this book. Ken Lashley provides a great looking splash page showcasing Lois Lane’s new powers while Bret Booth provides an issue that just looks great all around. It is unfortunate that the story in this book is so poor because with art like this there could have really been something here.
Continuity
Superman Vol. 5: Under Fire occurs directly after the events of Superman: Krypton Returns (Review), however the events of that storyline play almost no role in this volume. Most of the events in this volume continue from everything that happens in Superman Vol. 4: Psi War (Review).
Part of the story then continues in Superman: Doomed, while the Superman series itself continues in Superman: The Men of Tomorrow.
This volume also references and continues the stories from many other comic books, all of which are detailed below.
- Morgan Edge brings up the fact that clarkcatropolis.com broke the story on Superman and Wonder Woman’s relationship. This happened in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Power Couple.
- Starfire’s current situation on Earth is explained in Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 1: REDemption (Review).
- Helspont was last seen in Superman Vol. 2: Secrets and Lies (Review), which teased his return.
- The Helspont story here disappears from the Superman series entirely and is only continued in the final two issues of Red Hood and the Outlaws Vol. 7: Last Call (Review)