Review:
Superman - Last Stand on New Krypton

Superman: Last Stand on New Krypton (LSoNK) is the concluding miniseries to the World of New Krypton (WoNK) twelve issue crossover series. In LSoNK, the now Earth-orbital city of New Krypton has come under attack from Brainiac and the New Kryptonians – who are all superpowered thanks to Earth’s yellow sun – must now fight for their lives or face a second extinction. In this world of supermen, Clark has chosen to join the military guard under command of General Zod and serve is people as Kal-El of Krypton, and not Superman of Earth.

However, unlike its predecessor, LSoNK only has three issues to tell its story. This has a severe impact on the pacing of the plot, and not for the better. Whereas in WoNK we spent twelve issues getting ourselves familiarized with a more progressively minded General Zod, LSoNK spends a single page throwing that all out the window and returning Zod to his megalomaniac roots. Still, it’s not like we didn’t see it coming really. This is Zod we’re talking about after all. He’s about as likely to turn a new leaf as Luther at this point.

If there was one thing that I felt LSoNK did perfectly, it was its lowered barrier of entry. You can pick up this miniseries without having read anything that came before, and while you certainly won’t be privy to every nuance of the story, you won’t feel lost either. It’s pick up and read.

In that vein, LSoNK is pure comic book spectacle. It has massive superpowered showdowns, Kal-El tearing off his shirt with the classic “this looks like a job for Superman” shtick, pop culture shout-outs galore (Brainaic’s minions look like a cross between Terminators and the Borg), and of course the now good bad guy going bad again, and an overall return to classic comic book butt-kicking form.

If you grew up with these types of stories or are just looking for a good beatdown staring the Superman family then this issue delivers. If you’re looking for something a bit more existential, you won’t really find anything of merit here, other than some popcorn fun.