Superman #657

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Title : Camelot Falls
Writer : Kurt Busiek
Penciller : Carlos Pacheco
Inker : Jesus Merino
Colors : Dave Stewart
Letters : Comicraft
Editor : Matt Idelson
Publisher : DC Comics

Wow.

Quite an opening.

The ‘nothing’s broken’ double spread certainly gives the reader due notice that this is a story where anything is possible. And also, the idea of Jimmy Olsen looking like a wild mountain-man is one for the ages.

The details of this post-apocalyptic world, into which we have been thrust with no warning, gradually become clear. However, the mechanism by which this occurs is open to question.

Essentially, scenes from this nightmare future are interspersed with a traveller warning our main cast of the horrors that this future will bring. The problem is that this device reduces the dramatic tension inherent in the scenario. If someone is warning the main cast of a possible future, then presumably they will be warned of how to prevent it, and will act on this advice. The sense of danger is hardly pervasive.

Having said this, the narrative is well-crafted. One fragment that was particularly appealing was the characterisation of Luthor. He doesn’t magically become a ‘hero’. Earth-3 this ain’t. However, he is certainly offended at the damage and danger to ‘his’ city, and willing to co-operate with those necessary to increase the possibility of survival.

My knowledge of Superman contiuity is less than expert, so I cannot say with certainty the impact that the multitude of minor characters reference here have had on Superman stories in recent years. I’m certainly impressed (as always) by Busiek vast knowledge of comic history and continuity.

The art is no less than superb. Pacheco excels himself, both in facial expressions (see for example Perry White near the start) and also apocalyptic images like the falling of Superman to earth. The final image of Superman is also a foreboding one.

Well worth a read, but I can’t shake my misgivings about the narrative device which is being used.