Trade Tales! - Superman: Godfall

Next up for the month, I decided to skip ahead to the 2000’s. I’ll get to the 90’s later. The early 2000’s is one era I really haven’t gotten to yet. Heck, I haven’t even re-read the Death/Return stuff yet. There’s always something else to do and read. Other than some things like Greg Rucka’s run, For Tomorrow,  and Birthright, this era is mostly a blank. So, I decided to jump right into this one with Joe Kelley’s last stint with Superman. Joe Kelley had been writing Superman since 2000. He was the one who wrote Action Comics #775 which featured one of the best Superman stories.

Since Kelley was leaving, he wanted to go out with style. He teamed up with Aspen Comics  which was headed by the late Michael Turner. Basically, Kelley wanted to see Clark on a bike like he was Kanenda from Akira… seems cool, don’t it? The arc, “Godfall,”  was contained in Action Comics #812-813, Adventures of Superman #625-626, and Superman #202-203.  Kelley and Turner handled the story. Talent Caldwell, who’s known for his work on Fantom, did the pencils. Jason Gorder did the inks. Peter Steigerwald and a couple of others handled the colors. Turner also did the awesome covers.

Superman: Godfall

Writers: Michael Turner and Joe Kelley

Pencils: Talent Caldwell

Inks: Jason Gorder

Colors: Peter Steigerwald with Grafikisismik and Christina Strain

Letters: Comicraft

Issue Covers: Michael Turner

SYNOPSIS

Before all of this, Superman had a major fight with Brainiac and somehow ended up lost in time. He ultimately ended up in a time where Krypton wasn’t destroyed and he was never sent to live on Earth. We start the story properly with Kal-El on Krypton married to an alien named Lyla. They even have a son together named Kon-Lar. Kal heads to work and gets attacked by some Dissidents who aren’t fans of Krypton’s new government. He struggles with them for a bit until he ends up getting hit with some yellow sunlight. This causes his heat vision to kick in and he’s shocked by the results. He then briefly intereacts with Krypton’s Citizen’s Patrol Corps, led by Preus, who come to clean up the mess.

I can imagine some Daft Punk playing during these scenes.

Later, he tells all of this to Lyla at home. They then get attacked by the Dissidants again, and this time, Kal starts to exhibit more of his powers. During the scuffle, he accidentally uses his freeze breath on some bystanders and Kon-Lar. This shakes him to his core and he disappears.  This causes Preus to send a manhunt after Kal-El. Lyla finds Kal later and she ends up doing… something to him. Through Lyla’s weird alien abilities, we find out that we’re actually in the bottle city of Kandor, not Krypton. It turns out that 100 years has passed in Kandor somehow. It’s even revealed that Superman was worshiped as a deity by some of the Kandorians.

Even though I figured he didn't actually kill anyone, this was a striking page.

It’s then revealed that Lyla somehow brought Superman to Kandor and has messed with his head in some way. Kon-Lar wasn’t even real. She (and most of Kandor) thought of Superman like a god, so she somehow drains Kal and then teleports out of Kandor. She (in a pretty revealing costume), then heads to Metropolis where Lois and everyone else is wondering where Superman is. Back in Kandor, the Dissidents find Kal and they help each other fight the Patrol Corps. He tells them what’s really going on, and they end up leaving Kandor as well. They all make it to Metropolis and try to take on Lyla who’s using her Empireth abilities to wrap reality. She tries to  fool Superman with fake constructs of his enemies, but he sees through them.

Preus... Zzzzzzzz....

Before Superman can help Lyla, Preus shows up in an armor that can control Empireths. He’s basically gone all-mental for little reason and attacks everyone. He uses Lyla to wrap Metropolis. Superman breaks free from his bonds and is able to help Lyla fix what she made wrong. Afterwards, she  and Preus disappear. The story ends with Clark heading back to normal life with Lois and trying to fix the political strife in Kandor. He promises the Kandorians that he’ll not neglect the city again.

OPINION

This was a weird one. I wouldn’t call it bad, but I can’t call it that good either. It really sits in the middle with me. This story does feel kind of like a weird version of “For the Man who has Everything” from Superman Annual #11. He’s on Krypton, works a regular job, and has a family. Of course, it’s different since this Krypton is Kandor, it apparently has other aliens, and his really gorgeous wife is one of them. He knows that something feels off, but he doesn’t put it together until Lyla reveals her true colors. It was also interesting seeing him react to using his powers in Kandor. The Dissidents were okay for the most part. Their looks and dialogue provided a couple of laughs.

Well, at least the arc ends with these two in a nice embrace.

The artwork is actually pretty good. I gotta admit that I was disappointed that Turner himself wasn’t doing all the artwork for the book. Judging by the awesome covers, you’d think he would’ve done the interior work as well. Luckily, Talent Caldwell does a pretty good job all-around. Kandor itself looked pretty cool. I also liked the different armored looks in Kandor. The action was pretty awesome and some of the smaller moments worked well. Unfortunately, the costume that Superman wears on the covers is only see for a couple of pages. By the way, that was a cool look. The only thing I got an issue with  would be some of Lyla’s wardrobe. What was up with her Metropolis look? also, some of the faces would look a little off.

"Ma'am... this is a Wendy's..."

As for any dislikes, I thought the idea of Lyla was kinda confusing. So, she’s an alien (an Empireth) who can wrap reality and sees Superman and the outside world as a sort of heaven? Okay… that’s weird, but I can kinda work with it. Then, we get to Preus who’s the overzealous head of Krypton’s police forces. He was kinda annoying. Whenever he was around barking orders and stuff, I pretty much didn’t care. Also, while the Kandor scenes were fun, the Metropolis stuff  was kinda “meh.” It all just comes to an end a little quick for me. Other than those things, Lyla’s fashion, and the fact that Preus was frickin’ annoying, this was fine. Oh yeah, I think this is where the Birthright origin started to show up since we get a lot of flashbacks from the mini. It’s not a bad thing (I love Birthright), but it was probably pretty confusing for longtime Superman fans.

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In the end, "Godfall" was a fine end to Joe Kelley’s run with the character. If you like any of Aspen Comics’ stuff, you might like it. If you want to see Superman go through something weird, you can’t go too wrong with this one. Next time, I’ll be moving forward a bit more with a pretty recent story about the New 52 version of Superman. Until next time, Peace, God Bless, and be careful out there.