Superman by Josh Williamson and Jamal Campbell Discussion & Spoilers

[Hypo]

That's a pretty great preview.

[Mantis-Ray]

Heh Lex is hilarious

[Vordan]

SUPERMAN #4

Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

Art and cover by JAMAL CAMPBELL

Variant covers by GABRIEL RODRIGUEZ, RAMONA FRADON and SANDRA HOPE, and NATHAN SZERDY

1:25 variant cover by PAMELA HOOGEBOOM

1:50 variant cover by MICO SUAYAN

1:100 foil variant cover by JAMAL CAMPBELL

$4.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 5/16/23

Introducing the Kryptonite Klaw!

Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite, but what happens when other dangerous superhumans are exposed to it? If Superman wants to stop Metropolis’s newest enemies, he must uncover Lex Luthor’s secret past!

Guessing this is that “Kryptonite Killer” arc that Williamson teased way back when. Sure, seeing how Kryptonite affects non-Kryptonians (other than giving them cancer) sounds like fun. I’m still hoping for Kryptonite Man aka Clay Ramses to be involved in some way.

Superman #1 Preview
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Jamal Campbell

Heh well this was a fun read, I’m excited to get my hands on this next week! And goddamn is that art so good.

[Quinlan58]

- First things first: That "To Bibbo" cover is magnificent.
- I gotta say, Jonathan replying to Martha's request that Clark turn down the volume of his music (What was he listening to, Joshua? What was it?) with a "but think of how important he's going to be as an adult" speech was the most hilariously awkward escalation it could have been. Can you imagine being in Martha's position right then? I understand the Kents have always been very conscious of their adopted son's potential future since they were introduced in Superman #1, but I didn't it fit well with the situation here.
- The title page is breath-taking, including the lettering.
- So in that splash page, we got Doomed Planet, Desperate Scientists, Last Hope, Kindly Couple... Doomed Friendship? Finding out who you want to be? Leaving Home? And finally Superman. As a brief "This is what I think is the core of Superman's backstory" from Williamson, Lex obviously works given the plans, and Clark leaving Smallville is something I agree is as important as anything else, so that leaves "trying out the costume for presumably the first time" as the odd one of the bunch.
- Like Livewire a lot here, and the idea that she's doing this because they pulled her podcast from the streaming platforms is hilarious. Now I really want to know what that podcast was like.
- That said, the fight was... Lex is making a lot of suggestions, too brutal for Clark to ever consider of course, but nothing in what little we see of the fight is as fun as "Use your ice breath to create a fog that obscures her vision". Like, this one line immediately diminishes the fight by mentioning something that's way better than what we actually see. I understand this isn't an "important" fight or whatever but maybe don't make it look worse like that?
- You can just hear the unspoken "it tickles" from Clark while he's dusting himself off after being struck by Livewire.
- Which is a nice bit of parallel arrogance from both of them, in either end of that page. Clark clearly doesn't think Leslie's a serious threat, Lex clearly doesn't think much of Clark's way of dealing with her.
- You just know Lex could make those power suits suddenly work for him at any point if he wanted to.

[Vordan]

I just took it as Clark spitefully refusing to take any of Lex’s suggestions for how to use his powers, even the good ones, just so he wouldn’t give Lex any satisfaction.

I hope we get some interactions between Clark and Mercy. I don’t think there’s ever really been an issue where the two of them have spoken to each other without Lex in the room. Would be good to get her opinion on Clark separate from her boss.

[Zagre]

Wow. I'm impressed. I had no problem admitting I was wrong about Campbell's artwork and I have no problem eating crow when it comes to Williamson's writing. That was an awesome intro and I can't wait to see these two working together

[Frontier]

I just took it as Clark spitefully refusing to take any of Lex’s suggestions for how to use his powers, even the good ones, just so he wouldn’t give Lex any satisfaction.

I hope we get some interactions between Clark and Mercy. I don’t think there’s ever really been an issue where the two of them have spoken to each other without Lex in the room. Would be good to get her opinion on Clark separate from her boss.

This is like a reaction to the "guy in the chair" trope where said guy is constantly telling the hero what to do, only now they deliberately do the opposite because they're annoying .

[Vordan]

Issue 1 is finally out! Thoughts:

-Loved Livewire’s brief appearance here, Williamson has a good handle on her and Livewire flipping out over getting “cancelled” is great
-Lex is such a prick and it’s hilarious seeing how arrogant he is. Man actually makes a fucking a Jor-El esque hologram of himself he intends for Superman to go see for advice:



-Couldn’t stop myself from cackling, the absolute gall of Lex to do this. He even calls him “son”!
-Lot of great little Superman moments here like him stepping in to officiate the wedding. I love Williamson having Clark use music to tune out the “noise”, that’s been a headcanon of mine for ages
-Ok so the pitch for the other mad scientist villains is that they’re Lex’s foes that he kept in check, and now with Lex in jail they’re making their plays
-Speaking of other villains, it seems Brainiac is the Big Bad that Williamson is building towards. Cool, guess that Brainiac tease on Dawn of DC was for Superman. Brainiac seems to be in line with the Morrison/Venditti take where he wants to save the Earth rather than the Johns take of just being out for knowledge and power. That will make a nice contrast with Lex’s desire to “save” the world if Williamson handles that right
-Not too much Lois and Jimmy but I liked what little we’ve seen from them so far, although that might just be me being distracted by how hot Campbell Lois is lol
-God I’m so pissed at Taylor for stealing Maggie Sawyer, she SHOULD be here! I’ll give the new guy a chance but I’m still mad about it
-Campbell’s depiction of Parasite looks awesome, and the horde of mini Parasites is a fun opening threat for Superman

[The Frog Bros]

Issue 1 is finally out! Thoughts:

-Loved Livewire’s brief appearance here, Williamson has a good handle on her and Livewire flipping out over getting “cancelled” is great
-Lex is such a prick and it’s hilarious seeing how arrogant he is. Man actually makes a fucking a Jor-El esque hologram of himself he intends for Superman to go see for advice:



-Couldn’t stop myself from cackling, the absolute gall of Lex to do this. He even calls him “son”!
-Lot of great little Superman moments here like him stepping in to officiate the wedding. I love Williamson having Clark use music to tune out the “noise”, that’s been a headcanon of mine for ages
-Ok so the pitch for the other mad scientist villains is that they’re Lex’s foes that he kept in check, and now with Lex in jail they’re making their plays
-Speaking of other villains, it seems Brainiac is the Big Bad that Williamson is building towards. Cool, guess that Brainiac tease on Dawn of DC was for Superman. Brainiac seems to be in line with the Morrison/Venditti take where he wants to save the Earth rather than the Johns take of just being out for knowledge and power. That will make a nice contrast with Lex’s desire to “save” the world if Williamson handles that right
-Not too much Lois and Jimmy but I liked what little we’ve seen from them so far, although that might just be me being distracted by how hot Campbell Lois is lol
-God I’m so pissed at Taylor for stealing Maggie Sawyer, she SHOULD be here! I’ll give the new guy a chance but I’m still mad about it
-Campbell’s depiction of Parasite looks awesome, and the horde of mini Parasites is a fun opening threat for Superman

I don’t usually get my copy till Thursdays (which is a brutal wait sometimes, ha) but which Lois is hotter I wonder? Campbell or Jimenez variant cover?

Speaking of variants, may have to pick up a few myself, love the Jimenez and the Bibbo one. So good.

[Vordan]

I don’t usually get my copy till Thursdays (which is a brutal wait sometimes, ha) but which Lois is hotter I wonder? Campbell or Jimenez variant cover?

Speaking of variants, may have to pick up a few myself, love the Jimenez and the Bibbo one. So good.

Campbell has the hotter Lois but Jimenez has the hotter Clark I’d say.

[Frontier]

Issue 1 is finally out! Thoughts:

-Loved Livewire’s brief appearance here, Williamson has a good handle on her and Livewire flipping out over getting “cancelled” is great
-Lex is such a prick and it’s hilarious seeing how arrogant he is. Man actually makes a fucking a Jor-El esque hologram of himself he intends for Superman to go see for advice:



-Couldn’t stop myself from cackling, the absolute gall of Lex to do this. He even calls him “son”!
-Lot of great little Superman moments here like him stepping in to officiate the wedding. I love Williamson having Clark use music to tune out the “noise”, that’s been a headcanon of mine for ages
-Ok so the pitch for the other mad scientist villains is that they’re Lex’s foes that he kept in check, and now with Lex in jail they’re making their plays
-Speaking of other villains, it seems Brainiac is the Big Bad that Williamson is building towards. Cool, guess that Brainiac tease on Dawn of DC was for Superman. Brainiac seems to be in line with the Morrison/Venditti take where he wants to save the Earth rather than the Johns take of just being out for knowledge and power. That will make a nice contrast with Lex’s desire to “save” the world if Williamson handles that right
-Not too much Lois and Jimmy but I liked what little we’ve seen from them so far, although that might just be me being distracted by how hot Campbell Lois is lol
-God I’m so pissed at Taylor for stealing Maggie Sawyer, she SHOULD be here! I’ll give the new guy a chance but I’m still mad about it
-Campbell’s depiction of Parasite looks awesome, and the horde of mini Parasites is a fun opening threat for Superman

Mercy seems to be enjoying herself .

[CosmeticSkull]

Superman 001 (2023) (Webrip) (The Last Kryptonian-DCP)-019.jpg

Wait, LexCorp is called SuperCorp now? Gee, I wonder if that's a coincidence.

[Waldo]

It was a nice #1.
Williamson has flaws and is not an architec but he try hard , and this time I think he succed unlike his Batman run

[Sacred Knight]

Love the fury in Superman's eyes over the disrespect to his father and their posthumous relationship.

[Prime]

Can't DC pico a consistent look for Joe-El and Lara ?