The most Awesome moment of Superman Unchained #7...

[alschroeder3]

It wasn't Superman in alien armor. (Looked nice, but...why? What could Superman gain from having armor, unless it had enough lead to stop Kryptonite?) But it was a fun issue, in a cathartic, action-filled 8-year-old boy watching a slugfest way.

No, the best moments was the Wraith fighting the Batman. We will ignore, for now, a fleet of Batmobiles, or a stealth suit that can fool super-senses, and get to the highlight.

Wait for it...

I love a ridiculously action-filled pun.

Second-best: What Superman's symbol REALLY stands for. Hope? Hah!

We will ignore the fact that Sam Lane has turned into General Ross. We will ignore the fact that the American government, which tends to have GOOD relations with Superman, has a huge bank of anti-Superman weapons. We will ignore the fact that the American government has nowhere near the type of weapons that could conceivably take out a Kryptonian.

Let the eight-year-old in you revel in the mindless violence. Plus the occasional pun.

Comments

[thatnickguy]

Two things:
1) Isn't Wraith the threat introduced in the first issue? And that's STILL going?
2) His design is still incredibly ho-hum boring.

[arbre_rieur]

Re: 1)

I'm not reading the series but that doesn't sound so strange to me. It's less common in comics now that I think about it, but plenty of TV shows will have a season-long or half-season-long big bad.

[alschroeder3]

Actually, it's weaving together. There's something about Ascension (the mysterious organization that they both fought) that seems tied in with Wraith's still-somewhat-mysterious origins. I do have to say, though, Wraith, until the last issue or so, was a lot more nuanced than the usual Superman opponent. He's very much like Superman, if Superman had been raised by the military rather than the Kents. He seems bent on doing "good"...

Although I don't know if the inhabitants of Nagasaki would call some of his actions "good". He's a good soldier, America-first, and bent more on the US military's approval--a living weapon to be used as a tool. He only showed any emotion when Superman beat him last issue with Batman's help, and is now trying to destroy Batman for "embarassing" him in front of General Ross.

Ooops.

I mean, General LANE. Grin

[mrstatham]

I definitely agree with your second point. It's like Lee made his version of Darkseid jet black, and then realised several issues in that he needed something to distinguish the character so he slapped bubblegum pink armour on him. And that is not the best contrast at all.

I mean, I can understand the design in terms of ambiguity since it's meant to be a mysterious character, but it just looks so dull.

[akodo_rokku]

I dunno about you guys, but I look forward to more Action Figure Variant Batman costumes.

[writeofway]

Wraith looks like if Darkseid and Ganondorf had a kid. Generic "big bad man with big red eyes go smash" design you see a million times.

[tugrul]

The entire time I thought "isn't that Darkseid, wouldn't Batman already be dead by now with one punch if he were?"

[espanolbot]

"We will ignore the fact that the American government, which tends to have GOOD relations with Superman, has a huge bank of anti-Superman weapons. We will ignore the fact that the American government has nowhere near the type of weapons that could conceivably take out a Kryptonian."

I think that the idea is that they consider it best to have anti-Kryptonian countermeasures just in case something causes Clark (or invading natives from his home planet) arrive and start tearing up the place. Not motivated by xenophobia, just a desire to be prepared fr the worst.

Like, in the DCAU at the end of Superman's solo series, Clark was brainwashed by Darkseid into conquering numerous worlds, including an attempted invasion of Earth. Even though Clark wasn't in his right mind at the time (and threatened Emil Hamiliton when it appeared that Supergirl was dying in such a why that the until-then heroic scientist feared for his life), this still effectively put the fear of god into the US military and made the public at large more jaded to Superman than they previously were...

Which was then continued into the Justice League/JLU series, where it seemed that a combination of Supeman's past-brainwashed actions and the League revealling who the Justice Lords were so that they could get Lex's help in defeating them lead to the US government funding anti-JLU countermeasures. This is the purpose of CADMUS in the DCAU.

They do eventually hash things out, with the JL managing to put things in place so that they wouldn't become like the Justice lords and CADMUS narrowly avoiding being sent to jail for their... less than legal efforts, but the justification was there.

[theflames]

yeah i think it was all handled in a very classy well executed way in the DCAU, it all seemed... reasonable.

[jlbarnett]

I would like for someone to suggest the US focus on taking out the villains before the heroes.

[michaelhealy]

It's all really for Zod?

[alschroeder3]

The US government is too busy drafting the villains for the Suicide Squad. (Gee, remember when Kirby had Superman know of a top-secret government project unknown to the public at large, because the government thought a world-moving, faster-than-light alien who fights the bad guys might be a good ally..?) I'd like to say they were simpler times, but that was the late sixties/early seventies, where distrust of government projects was if anything, stronger than it is even now.

[arilou_skiff]

Why? The Heroes do that well enough.

[zapbiffpow]

Heh, the hell you're ignoring Batman and his Batmobile Army. It's like that House Party Protocol from Iron Man, except Batman.

No, seriously, that Bat-Takedown was awesome.

[alschroeder3]

Oh, I agree the Batmobile fleet in action was pretty awesome. But that was a two-page spread, and if I did that, I would have to cut something from what I picked from a current comic, under SD's rules. But honest, people, that was ANOTHER ultracool moment. The moment Superman appeared in alien armor (with a suspiciously Mjolnir-like glowing thingee) was pretty awesome too. Lee isn't the perfect artist, by a long shot. But this issue played to his strengths as an artist---for big, illustrated comic combat of the superhuman kind.

[writeofway]

Here's the thing that bugs me when it comes to places like CADMUS and the US govt. having countermeasures. The guys running the places are so damn antagonistic as to make them unlikable. I mean, I get it, you got stuff in case they go rogue, whoop-de-doo, no need to be an ass about it. It's like they have the mentality of, "not if, but WHEN" and correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't there stories of folks deliberately trying to provoke heroes into going rogue so they CAN use the countermeasures and "proving their point?"

[thanekos]

Gotta justify your funding somehow.