Reply With QuoteSuperman 80-Page Giant 2011 - 6/10These stories are always a mixed bag, but at least this one has a few that really justify giving it a look. It's pretty odd that they manage to do a Superman 80-page giant with only a few glimpses of Superman, but it's a nice look at his supporting cast.
We open with a suspenseful, dark Jor-El story by Beau Tidwell and Cafu, as Jor-El attempts to make a last-ditch effort to save Krypton from its upcoming destruction. It's obviously not going to end well, but it's a great look at the El family before its greatest champion.
The absolute highlight of the book is Neil Kleid and Dean Haspiel's Perry White story, in which he has a beer in an old bar with Wildcat. Not only does this story use some pretty cool old continuity (they remember Perry's adopted son Keith!), but it's beautifully illustrated and there's a great golden-age flashback. This one is almost worth the price of admission by itself.
Unfortunately, what follows isn't nearly as strong. Abhay Khosla and Andy MacDonald do a very strange Jimmy Olsen story about hundreds of Jimmy clones with only a day to live. Steve Horton and Dan McDaid's Bizarro story is a bit of a send-up of Grounded, but the dialogue is annoying and I find Bizarros annoying as fuck.
Joe Caramagna and Trevor McCarthy's Supergirl story is fun, as she goes to a fair and fights an alien squid in the freakshow, but it sort of feels like it's from a missing part of Gates' run - Kara is going to Metropolis U. and has a sort-of-boyfriend named Brendan - and that makes it kind of confusing.
Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover do a really fun story teaming Lois and Lana as they try to unravel the mystery of an Intergang scion with a secret. And the story ends with a Superboy story by Aubrey Sitterson and Eddy Barrows, as Superboy chafes under life in Smallville and meets a werewolf. It's random and strange, but Superboy is written pretty well.
All in all, a mixed bag, but enough to warrant a pickup.
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