The brilliant Superman argument killer

I'm loving the SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON series. James Robinson and Greg Rucka are knocking this story straight out of the park with every issue. Pete Woods is freaking killin' it on the art. I'm loving this book.

For those who have not picked it up yet, we're three issues deep into it. It spun out of of the recent events of SUPERMAN and ACTION COMICS. Superman confronted Brainiac and saved the bottled Kyptonian City of Kandor and resorted it to normal size in Antartica. So now you have 100,000 Kryptonian on Earth, all of which with the same powers as Superman. This did not go very well and Earth and the Krytonians were on the verge of war with Superman stuck in the middle. The Kryptonians left taking their city with them and formed a new planet on the other side of the Sun. Superman left Earth to live there suspecting there was something seriously wrong going on behind the scenes.

Here's the part I am absolutely loving. This book is attacking one of the key arguments of the Superman detractors. It's not attacking it directly. This is a subtle thing. The argument is: Superman is too powerful, he's nothing without those powers. Now you have Superman in a world where he is on a level playing field. The only advantage he has in terms of power is his experience using them. This truly lets the character shine. We see it's not the powers that make him the hero he is.

The latest issue also puts done one of the other arguments about Superman, that the guy can't fight. Superman get's challenged by a rival, Commander Gor, in the latest issue. Gor is just as powerful as Superman and a trained fighter. He get's some good shots in. Then Superman reminds his opponent that he "was taught hand-to-hand combat by Earth's greatest proponent" and drops Gor like it was the cool thing to do. Nicely sequenced by Woods too. Major credit there. They wisely stay vague as to who is the 'greatest proponent'. My money's on Wonder Woman.

With Batman still on hiatus from being interesting, this story has been my major DC geeking point. Next month we get Morrison and Rucka returning to the Bat-verse. It's going to be a good summer.