I was enjoying the first two episodes of Dying City, but in this issue it's taken a turn that I really don't care for. the artwork is an obvious pastiche of the style David Mazzucchelli assumed in Batman Year 1. This is bad enough for me: imagine if in the 1980s, they'd had someone working in the style of Dick Sprang in the mainstream Batman comics. it would have been unthinkable, and absurd, yet this is considered acceptable these days. what is worse though that this episode directly plagiarises story elements, character designs, and even panel layouts from Year 1. it's a shame because the first two episodes of this arc were excellent, but the change in tone from a contemporary Batman story to a pastiche of a forty year old story is jarring as hell. I get they have to rest artists, but the replacement should at least attempt to draw in a consistent style, nor should writers pander to replaying scenes from beloved comics from the past out of the mistaken belief that this is fan service. no fan service is giving fans original writing and art more

the story is really shaping up well. it has the feel of a Silver-age story with Superman somehow finding himself on Krypton and meeting his birth parents. the artwork is really nice and clean and perfectly suits the story. real Superman fans shouldn't want to miss this!

this issue builds well on the previous one. it's good to see Batman actually doing some detective work again. there's a lot of different threads and is fascinating to see how they are gradually been woven together. I'm looking forward to seeing what the outcome is. I have to say that the ending was a bit confusing. I still don't understand what was going on

jumping on board in the middle of this arc, I'm somewhat pleasantly confused about what's going on. set in the 19th century with characters from the 18th century, and George Washington is apparently the villain. the story pulls you along grippingly enough, so I don't have any real complaint apart from the Queen Mary being portrayed as the SS Majestic, which is sure to annoy ocean liner buffs like myself more

I really wanted to like this, but it's unreadable twaddle. Constantine is barely in it, and it's impossible to tell what's going on. It's a shame because it does have some potentially interesting ideas in it, but the writer seems to be trying to emulate Finnegan's Wake

This is an interesting start, but there's not a huge amount that happens in the story. There's an attack on Gateway city, but most of the book is origin exposition. the drawings are brilliant, however. the design for Diane is fantastic and there are some great visuals, particularly early on. the colors are a bit muddy, particularly on the cover

exploring the Phantom Zone seems like a novel idea to me, so really excited about how that's going to turn out. it feels like it has a lot of potential to spawn a ton of stories in the coming years. the artwork is really nice and clean and tells the story nicely. I liked the back up feature, but the theme of exploration seemed a bit too similar to the main story.

some great storylines introduced in this issue. I'm really excited to see where they will lead. the fake-out on the first two pages was very artfully done, and the story is gripping from there on in. Chip Zdarsky has taken his fair share of criticism from some quarters, and it looks like his run is going to be terminated early by the imminent return of Loeb and Lee, but if he continues like this, he'll at least be going out on a high more

the atmosphere is great, the drawings are great, the story is intriguing but it's super hard to follow. there seems to be two parallel narratives going on and it's difficult to tell them apart.

I enjoy seeing Superman and Zatanna together, but nothing really happens in this issue. They follow the map, only to emerge at the remnants fo the Fortress of Solitude where Lois just happens to be waiting for them, but nothing is really accomplished. I felt like I had wasted my time reading it.

My Comic Review Channel - https://youtu.be/x6KrheTHy6g

I've heard a lot of negativity about Absolute Power, but this made me want to check the rest of it out. job done, I guess! the main story was gripping, had interesting secondary characters - such as the corrupt general - and the narrative moved along swiftly from panel to panel with some good twists and turns along the way. the pencilling was strong, though perhaps the inking was a bit too stiff and academic for my tastes. (would love to see a Mike DeCarlo having a crack at Hawthorne's pencils!). more

The art is good, but we have to wait. I didn't think it was a great start.

picked this up after reading some rave reviews. the artwork is excellent, but the story was hard to follow. granted, you might have to have read the rest of the arc first. I'm always a bit suspicious of reboots - it's like they have an unfair advantage over long running series - so it will be interesting to see how the creative team develop the title going forwards

The best Superman stories, in my opinion, are the Cosmic ones; where he's in outer space fighting against alien beings with powers comparable to his own. This is a good example of this. The world building with an alien race who organise gladiatorial contests involving the peoples who they conquer, is fascinating. There's lot of great moments of selfless heroism by Superman, which is is what every Superman story needs. My only gripe is that this laid on just a little too thickly for my taste, and it's a bit saccharine. The back up story, Lois and Clark, tells what happens when Lois is promoted above Clark and a wedge is driven between them. It's actually an excellent little character study and I'm probably more excited to see how this resolves than with the main story. The artwork is strong in both stories, if a little academic. There's enough in this book to justify the cover price. more