After a fairly mediocre turnout elsewhere, Truth finally arrives to this title.  This story arc/crossover is one which takes everything that we know about Superman and turns it on its side, as the still super Superman has to learn to deal with powers that aren’t as impressive as they once were.  Looking a lot more like the character from Action Comics #1 (the original), the character is seemingly meant to appeal more to the street level fans of comic books as he can now bleed and be hurt, and as his super strength is not quite what it once was.  At the same time it helps to highlight just what Superman does as a hero, that he won’t stop despite the odds, and while the story has been a bit cliched in this manner, it also hasn’t been a complete disappointment.

This issue is perhaps one of the weirdest as to how this all works out.  Superman has confronted Lois elsewhere as well as the stand-in Batman, but this issue is the first to show this non-powered Superman with Wonder Woman, who is arguably at her most powerful level ever in her publication.  Six months ago she was arguably more powerful than Superman, now it is without question, at least until he inevitably goes back to full strength.  This changes the dynamic a little bit for this series, but also surprisingly doesn’t as Wonder Woman as usual in this series takes the passenger seat to Clark’s adventures as they are drawn into a government cover-up/mystery in Smallville.  The reader is introduced to things which would likely have been part of the Superman mythos if they actually did exist before in comics, but the way in which they are introduced here is kind of sloppy as plot developments that don’t really follow, and as the cover-up gets to be weirder and weirder.

There are those that like the idea behind this series as they have always wanted to see what Superman and Wonder Woman would look like together, but in order for this to be more than a stunt and fanboy service they would also need to provide a story line that is worthy of the union, and so far in this series there hasn’t been one.  That this series is thrown into the mostly mediocre Truth crossover from Superman doesn’t help much either as it once again doesn’t give this series much to build on.  Instead the story here is about par for the course for this series, if not a bit worse, as Truth drags down a little bit what has mostly been an average series.

Story: Peter J. Tomasi Art: Doug Mahnke
Story: 6.5 Art: 7.5 Overall: 6.5 Recommendation: Pass