Superman #673

As Busiek enters his final issues of Superman, I have a heavy heart.  I have really enjoyed his run, I think Camelot Falls was one of the best Superman stories I have read - but this insect queen stuff - pretty ho-hum.  I enjoyed Jesus Merino's art for the most part, it is definitely servicable - I sure wish he had been on some of the early issues of Countdown when they seemed to be putting anyone that can hold a pencil on the art duties.  I think his Perry White looks an aweful lot like J. Jonah Jameson, but many of the shots of Superman looked great - I especially liked the last panel on the 3rd to last page, where he asks Chris to come with him... it reminded me of how Jurgens/Breeding would draw a determined Superman.

The arc itself seems very similar to the conflict currently occurring in Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters - two alien insect races causing trouble for Earth!  Overall, I think Uncle Sam's arc is a little better, but I wish it was as short as this one!

As for the story itself, this was a nice wrap up to the arc - some of the things I specifically enjoyed:

Lana Lang showing herself to be more than capable of handling her problems - no damsel in distress syndrome here - in fact she saves the day!

Superman's internal monologue showing just how much he fears losing Earth - and the horror that he imagines as the Insect Queen tries to break his will.

The Chris Kent sub-plot - the final couple pages where Superman tells him that he is part of the family and belongs almost brought a tear to my eye.  Sometimes I forget the fact that Superman is a outsider - I guess that is residue from the John Byrne re-boot, where he had plenty of time to feel human and didn't learn of his Kryptonian heritage until after he was operating for a while.  Today's superman always knew he was an outsider, so I guess that would affect him in different ways.

The Baseball stunning the queen - that was just clever use of the gee-whiz demonstration of powers that Superman did early in the arc

Things I didn't care much for:

Internal heat vision blast?  He can do that?  And then he sucked them out of his head somehow with super breath?  Kinda silly.

The cover - this cover is one that I wouldn't be too proud of showing off to the non-comic fans in the house (i.e. my wife) - it just looks silly.  Nothing wrong with the art, its just a silly cover.  Bring on the Alex Ross painted covers!

I'm giving the story a plus 1 from average to good for the internal Superman moments, and the art gets a 3 because its serviceable, and I would suggest it is above average.