Power Couple

Superman and Wonder Woman make a really cute couple, I just want to put this out there now.

A couple of days ago, I read my first Superman comic, having had the above pair waiting on my shelf for about a year now. What Price Tomorrow? is the first volume in the New 52 series for the Man of Steel, and I have to say, I felt a bit bored by it overall. We see Superman take on three separate threats to Metropolis, which coalesce into a Superman clone or something, and it takes this clone beating up Supergirl to bring him back to himself and defeat this evil alien clone. Something like that, anyway… However, that was probably the more interesting part of the story. A lot of this book is taken up with the inner workings at the Daily Planet, which has now been bought out by a bigger news corporation, and there is a bit of a tug of war over printed news versus the more visual media of television and the internet. It all seemed highly strange to see in a superhero comic book and, while I suppose it’s pretty on-point for the world at large, I’ve kinda been put off investigating any further Superman comics because of it.

It was with some trepidation, then, that I picked up Power Couple the same day. Superman and Wonder Woman have something of a budding romance in the Justice League books that I so enjoyed last year, so it was interesting to see these two characters come together. We start off with the power couple facing off against Doomsday off the Norwegian coast, before the big brute just weirdly disappears. Superman believes that this indicates the barriers around the Krytonian Phantom Zone are devolving, and when another Kryptonian, General Zod, shows up in the Sahara desert, this seems like proof. The Justice League of America (Martian Manhunter, et al) attempt to contain him, but Wonder Woman lassos the general and she and Superman manage to haul him off to the Fortress of Solitude. Zod flatters Superman into revealing he has a Phantom Zone lens, which Zod uses to bring his lover Faora into the world. Wonder Woman has commissioned Hephaestus to make some armour for her and Superman in order that they might fight Doomsday, and during their time in Mt Etna, Apollo shows up and insults Wonder Woman, causing Superman to launch him into orbit. In revenge, Apollo assists the Kryptonians in gaining the strength they need to fight Superman and Wonder Woman, before Zod puts his plan to open the world to the Phantom Zone, and usher in the armies of Warworld. In desperation, Superman and Wonder Woman manage to set of a nuclear explosion that destroys the portal before anything can come through, nearly killing themselves in the process. Of course, two such powerful beings won’t go down easy and, after some rest and recuperation, they’re back together and enjoying each others’ company while Doomsday awakens in the Mariana Trench…

I really liked this story. Maybe it was because it had a lot more of a superhero vibe to it than merely reporters chasing ratings, I don’t know. Wonder Woman is such a refreshingly direct character, though, I really like seeing her in these comics. The storyline was also pretty epic, though there were a couple of parts that I thought could have benefited from a little more explanation, as we seem to jump a little too much. But it’s not entirely detrimental to the storyline, and I’m willing to overlook them. The only serious bug for me was that Wonder Woman used her lasso to bind the gates of Tartaros in one issue, and then the writers made a point of saying she didn’t have it during the showdown with Zod and Faora, then the next issue it’s there, dangling from her hip again. But if that’s my one serious bug, then you can hopefully see that overall I really enjoyed this book! Even if it was designed to fit in with the Twilight audience, or somesuch!

The book is also pretty important as it sets up the Superman: Doomed crossover event, which will be featured in another blog soon…