Written by James Robinson
Art by Renato Guedes
For years Krypto has been a running gag of the Superman line. I mean, a super powered dog? Come on, that’s just dumb. Why would Superman need a dog with his powers? A dog that could easily kill most of Metropolis by accident while chasing after a truck or something. The concept is cute, but let’s be honest. It’s dumb. Almost as dumb as a Super Horse, or Super Cat, or Beppo the Super Monkey…..nothing is that dumb, though I do love the idea of a chimp dressed like Superman. It makes the man in me life. Men love monkey jokes, never forget this. If you’re a man and don’t, then check your genitalia. Monkeys rock.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=b9ULIoPHp7g
DRIVE, MONKEY! DRIVE!
On topic though, Krypto is a concept that’s been in the canon of the DC universe for years now, and has spent the majority of it off panel. Writers keep trying to do something with him, but it never seems to play out completely. He’ll be in the Fortress, or in Smallville with Superboy and the Kents, and then the next thing you know he’s in limbo again. You never really miss him, but part of you does wonder what the hell is being done with this furry barking being of doom. James Robinson has decided to address this with his run on Superman and, I have to say, I like it. Then again, this is James Robinson, how could I not? The man has a magical pen mixed with a Midas Touch, and yes, I am saying that because Starman is one of my all time favorite books.
This first arc has been criticized for feeling padded, flat, and somewhat by the numbers. New threat shows up, beats up Superman, beats up Supergirl, eventually gets stopped. Standard, right? Well, looking at the schedules, Robinson had four issues to himself before the New Krypton crossover kicked in, so why start fleshing out the meat of the run when you’re going to have another handful of issues where you can’t touch on your own plots? Instead he wisely uses the space to get a handle on the characters he’ll be writing, introducing a new threat, and giving every character a voice. Oh, and he makes Krypto lovable and completely awesome. No small feat, and yet Robinson handles it without much problem.
What’s his secret? He goes right in and figures out what matters most to this mutt of steel…..protecting his master. So when Superman is beaten into the ground, Krypto goes into instinct mode. Save. Hurt. Protect Man. Every last thing he does is for Superman, to protect his master, to save his master, to hurt the one that attacked his master. He’s a loyal dog, a good dog. And despite all of his powers, he’s just that. A dog.
One of the flaws I’ve found with the book is that it took Superman until about halfway in this issue to realize that he’s been getting the crap knocked out of him by a magical opponent for the past few issues. When you’ve only got two weaknesses, and you know the guy isn’t using the green one, you should be pretty sure it’s the abracadabra one. But hey, it works well enough, so it’s just a nitpic and not a complaint.
I was actually pretty intrigued with the man and the rooms that kept attacking Krypto for a few pages. Seems like an interesting little plot to build on if Robinson chooses to keep playing with it, as if he’s come up with a quiet villain with anti-Superman weapons that wont work on the Dog of Steel. I do hope that we don’t see Zatara again anytime soon, as his cameo irked me. Not anything Robinson did though, just that I personally don’t like the character.
How about the art? I can’t claim familiarity with the work of Renato Geudes, but I do like it. It’s clean, and his characters have their distinct looks. The battle is clearly defined and leaves little room for confusion, in fact, the same can be said for most of the issue. At no point are you given the feeling that the artist is struggling, rather you can see clearly that he’s enjoying his work. Maybe it’s just me, but the book looks like the guy liked what he was doing quite a bit. It’s very well done, and very easy on the eyes.
New Krypton is in a few weeks, and then this book gets sucked into crossover mode for a few months. But hey, at least Robinson gets to write his parts of it, right? He’s left me with high hopes for his run after just four issues, and it’s hardly just begun.
8/10
