Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #4
Chad Burdette
Recap
The team behind the critically acclaimed Ice Cream Man comic comes to DC to apply its singular storytelling style to none other than the Man of Steel! Four new Kryptonites have been discovered in deep space, and Superman needs to know just what, exactly, they do to him — lest the colorful rocks of his home planet fall into evil hands! With Batman at Superman's side, this DC Black Label Superman event explores the consequences of each never- before-seen variety of Kryptonite — all in the formal and boundary-pushing fashion that W. Maxwell Prince, Martín Morazzo, and Chris O'Halloran are celebrated for!
Comic Watch Review:
- Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #1
- Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #2 – Always Hit “Control-S” Every Few Minutes When Working In Excel
- Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #3: Tis Better To Suffer The Omega Sanction Than Be Subject To Copyright Litigation
Superman finds himself somewhere over the rainbow in this landmark issue — featuring the debut of a brand-new, canon-changing, sure-to-be-essential-for-all-time character! (At the very least, he's awfully cute!)
What never happened to the Man of Tomorrow? The answer awaits in a form-bending, head-spinning, myxed-up melee of mites, men, and multicolored meteoroids.
It's a major milestone for our magnificent medium — with two added dimensions for extra support!
Review
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #4 is the penultimate installment of this Black Label story that has put Man of Steel to the test and put him in situations that continue to test him in nee ways, and this issue is no different. Trapped in the 5th Dimension, Superman faces death if Batman, with the help of Bat-Mite and Mxy.
This adventure in the 5th Dimension allow Prince and Morazzo to cut loose and play with some of the more absurd and wacky concepts. Throughout this issue they revisit some of the characters and story plot points that they introduced while Superman was testing out the new forms of Kryptonite in a unique way that keeps the story fresh, even though there is plenty going on throughout the issue. Price also takes the opportunity to use a short prose section in the story, much like has been done in Ice Cream Man . Prince also doesn’t shy away from breaking the 4th Wall of the 5th Dimension, through the use of Mxy and the new character Kal-Elf, Superman’s 5D familiar, Step 5 in the Useful Instructions For Surviving Fifth Dimension, that he must creates in order to survive. There is plenty of unabashed Silver Age goodness abounding in this issue which sets it a part from the proceeding issues. There are also multiple references to William Faulkner’s Sound And The Fury as Lex has programmed the Bizarro-Bots to be highly eloquent.
The B-story follows Lex who has been experimenting with the new forms of Krypton to create a clone of himself empowered with Kryptonite. It will be interesting to see this new concept, that has been introduced at the end of the series plays out, but given what has been shown so far, Prince is more than up to the task to bring it home for a satisfying e ding next issue.
Final Thoughts
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #4 is chock-full of Silver Agey goodness and a cornucopia of storytelling devices that set this issue to be, perhaps the best of the run so far
Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #4
- Writing - 9.3/109.3/10
- Storyline - 10/1010/10
- Art - 10/1010/10
- Color - 10/1010/10
- Cover Art - 10/1010/10
