REVIEW: SUPERMAN: KING OF THE WORLD #1 -- The White Pages

From the Dark, Damp and Noisy World of Tony Caroselli:

Sorry. Thought I'd posted this a couple of days ago. But I didn't. So let's get this out of the way before I move on to this week's stuff.

SUPERMAN: KING OF THE WORLD #1

'King of the World'

Writer: Karl Kesel Penciler: Doug Braithwaite Inker: Joe Rubinstein Cover artist: Walter Simonson (both editions) Letterer: Steve Dutro Colorist: Glenn Whitmore (seps by Digital Chameleon) Editor: Joey Cavalieri (Maureen McTigue, asst.)

IN BRIEF: Superman crowns himself 'king of the world' and leads a worldwide quest to find Dominus, thereby forcing Lois Lane and Lex Luthor to form an alliance to stop him, which leads to the final confrontation between Superman and Dominus.

RATING: **1/2. A pleasant surprise based on my rather low expectations. Despite the gratuitous cover enhancement, some characterization problems, uneven pacing and unnecessary length, the story was entertaining enough and the art had such a classic feel that I found myself enjoying much of the book.

SPOILER SPACE:

GENERAL NOTES:

I expected to hate this issue, but as it happens, I was pleasantly surprised. Not only am I glad to see this storyline finally wrapped up, but the climax didn't repeat the same plot points and twists which the rest of the storyline kept using over and over again. While this wasn't as thrill-packed as it should have been given the concept, there was enough action and plot twists to make it worth a look.

I'm not fond of the overuse of special editions in the triangle titles, however. I cannot think of any logical reason why this should be SUPERMAN: KING OF THE WORLD #1, as opposed to SUPERMAN #145. I know that #1 issues are supposed to generate sales, but I don't see how that applies to one-shots. Anyway, remember that the best-selling Superman comic of all time was SUPERMAN #75, NOT SUPERMAN: DEATH OF A HERO #1 or something like that. Also, having a special issue for every turning point in Superman's life not only cheapens the developments which take place in the regular comics, but it cheapens the events in the specials THEMSELVES. Does anybody remember (or care?) that the first special triangle issue was SUPERMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM #1, which at least had good cause to be a special issue?

On the direct market cover, I would have liked to marvel at Simonson's gorgeous art, but I was blinded by the reflection from the gratuitous gold foil embossing.

SCENE 1 (pp. 1-6):

(Montage. A news report by Dean Phelps sets the scene for the issue. Superman rose victorious from his battle with Dominus, who apparently slipped away. Superman put together a coalition of the Justice League of America, Team Superman, the Supermen of America and his Superman robots to search the planet for Dominus while he commanded them from the destroyed U.N. building.)

This montage could have been cut in half if they had cut the unnecessary dialogue and restricted it to Phelps' caption voice over. (I know, 'show, don't tell,' but this being the prologue, greater consideration should have been given to ANOTHER rule of fiction writing: 'Enough backdrop. Get to the story, already.'

The inclusion of Batman with the JLA was confusing

*snip number 2*

Boy, I'll say. This bugged me to no end, and I usually try to ignore continuity nits, but it drove me nuts. Even if I could get around Batman's presence (okay, he leaves NML occasionally to help the JLA, weak but plausible), to show him catching the Joker (in classic Joker garb no less), presumably with the intention of returning him to Arkham (?!?), just pissed me off.

Although now that I think of it, it could have just been a Hypertime

Batman had some purpose, remember when he tried to kill super with the krypotnite? if he didnt do that evenone would be saying 'why didnt B-man try to stop supes with the Krptonite he had'?

~K-mare

Vist my People Aginst Jon Peters Page at

From the Dark, Damp and Noisy World of Tony Caroselli:

Yeah, he had purpose in the STORYLINE, but not in this ISSUE. In this issue, he was basically a three-panel cameo.

(And did anybody else notice how much the Joker looked like Caesar Romero?)

Tony Caroselli

'Louise, she's all right, she's just near/She's delicate and seems like the mirror/But she just makes it all too concise and too clear/That Johanna's not here/The ghost of 'lectricity howls in the bones of her face/Where these visions of Johanna have now taken my place.'