Superman #3

Title: Superman
Issue: 3
Date: January 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: George Perez
Artist: George Perez, Nicola Scott, Trevor Scott
Colorist: Brian Buccellato, Brett Smith, Blond
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Will Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: George Perez, Brian Buccellato

The latest in a series of attacks on Superman involves a sort of ice-elemental with similar powers to the fire-creature of the first issue. This time, however, the human host for the monster is a friend of Clark Kent's, and Superman must risk her life for the sake of saving Metropolis.

Around the battle scene is some intrigue between the staffs of Galaxy Broadcasting and the Daily Planet as Lois Lane must decide whether to run an investigative feature on Superman. It's not quite a J. Jonah Jameson "Threat or Menace?" type of story, but it's not exactly a fluff piece either (and it functions as an introduction/recap for this issue).

There is nothing terrible here, but there is an awful lot of repetition. I'm not sure a major recap was needed. We're only in the third issue. And on a similar note, the threat of the ice-monster is so similar to that of the previous fire-creature from the first issue, that this felt mostly like retreading old ground. The fact that Superman was aware that a person was being possessed by the creature added a bit more dynamic to the fight, but the clear threat to the city made the outcome inevitable.

There are some nice little touches here, including Clark visiting the grave of Ma and Pa Kent, and the supporting cast gets some good additional development, but that still left too much of this issue feeling like just more of the same.

Rating: 5.5/10