Superman: Lois and Clark: Doom Rising

by Dan Jurgens, Lee Weeks (Illustrator)

Picking up where Lois & Clark left off—young Jon Kent is on the farm with his parents, learning about his abilities, coming of age…and battling the Doombreaker?!

How will Jon manage being a kid while he grows into his powers? How can Lois and Clark protect Jon? What does it mean to be a child of Superman—and how can Jon protect his father? Lois & Clark 2: Doom Rising collects stories from Action Comics #1051-1057 and The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special #1 that display a family dynamic unlike anything else!

Genres: Superman, Dc Comics, Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics

128 pages, Paperback

First published April 2, 2024

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Littered with good moments, but underwhelming narratively, the iconic family keep this from falling apart.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

For as long as it took me to read this, and as hard as I pushed to make sure I did (numerical continuity's sake after all), this ended up basically being a side story about young Jon learning that his father was killed by Doomsday. (As someone who had grown up with comics, I remember when this happened, and it was a HUGE deal.) We get the introduction of "Doombreaker", a guy who is seemingly possessed with the spirit of Doomsday (or the virus of, or something else entirely, I'm not sure) and Supes has to take him down to save his family and the world, though the stakes never really reach anywhere close to when it had originally.
Overall, it was an ok read. Back to the regular continuity...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm a little confused about where this takes place in the timeline. A few of the issues simply say "A few years ago" but that's about it, which is weird as it's pitched as a kind of direct sequel to the fantastic "Superman: Lois & Clark" but it's clearly set some time after that considering there's zero mention of parallel universes or multiple Supermen.

The story itself is fine, but it bangs on a lot about the Death of Superman, which is an arc I've never read and have little interest in and the follow up involving Jon and the space lady felt a little generic.

But that's okay, because I love Dan Jurgens' take on Jon Kent, the MVP of the DCU before Bendis ruined him.  And yes I will bitch about that until the day I die or the day they revert that dumb change.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dan comes up with a decent riff on Doomsday, although he never really develops Crayton, and it's interesting to see the Death of Superman through Jon's eyes.

The main story, a backup from Action Comics, is an interesting premise, but needs more space to be properly developed and get us emotionally invested. Also, for a "LOIS and Clark" book, Lois's time is sadly passive.

The artwork is mostly solid. Jurgens draws Doombreaker's intro himself - a bit stiff at times (Breeding's inks? Dan's looked better). Weeks draws the main story - the storytelling is clear, but the figure drawing is a bit inconsistent from page to page, but effectively moody (as the entire story apparently takes place just after sunset).

[Matty Dub · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nowhere near Jurgen’s previous work on the title. Story gets 2.5/5.

On the art side well, it’s 2023 and today we know the Breitweisers are hateful bigots and big factors in the hate group comicsgate. Len Weeks hasnt been vocal about it but he’s also CG friendly so fuck those twits and fuck this book.

[Will Robinson Jr. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad but Not as good as Jurgens last Lois & Clark entry. It should not come as a shock but to me DC comics current state is a bit of a mess. We seem to only be getting few good series and miniseries. DC Comics flagship characters like Batman and Wonder Woman are currently not great. Surprisingly the Superman series have been decent. Which brings us to Superman: Lois & Clark Doom Rising and what is ultimately a mediocre book. The first thing to point out is that this collection is just a gathering of back up stories from Action Comics with the Death of Superman Anniversary story included. This comes across as a shallow money grab and fans who have been collecting Action Comics will see this as a rip off. Very clever of DC to put this out as a new graphic collection. Also the main story is very short. What are the positives? Dan Jurgens takes us down memory lane with why readers fell in love with the Superman family. I have said once and I continue to say it again Jon Kent as a kid was the best thing that ever happen to the Superman series. This book shines when get the interactions with Clark, Lois and their son. I think it is a tragedy that DC comics editors let Bendis age Jon up. The Anniversary special I feel had the best artwork but Lee Weeks pencils on the Home again storyline wasn't bad. The colors were a bit different but unique. Ultimately the story was Meh. I many times do we get an alien princess is being threaten to loose her kingdom so she seeks out Jon for help. I will admit Glyanna's villain turn was a bit of a switch for the tired trope Jurgens used for this tale. My only gripe is that the Kent Family don't go on this space adventure together as the family dynamic is the strongest element for this book. In conclusion this collection is a bit forgettable and a head scratcher because it's like the leadership at DC comics know the fanbase want this version of the Kent family back but they refuse to give it to us. With that said you are better off reading the following stories that came before: Superman: Lois and Clark, Convergence: Flashpoint, Book One, Super Sons, Vol. 1: When I Grow Up..., and read all of Jurgens Rebirth Super run starting with Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 1: Path of Doom and read Tomasi run starting with Superman, Vol. 1: Son of Superman. To me this book is worth picking up from your local library and not a buy.

[Zach · Rating 3 out of 5]

My girlfriend bought me this comic the other day, so I decided to read it a day or two later. She knew I loved the art of Lee Weeks and she knew I loved Superman, so she decided to treat me special by buying me a fun little comic.
And I liked this one. It was fun, and even Dan Jurgens art throughout didn't bother me all that much. I liked the story for the most part, I liked the characters, and I love the way Jurgens wrote Superman (which isn't always the case). This made me happy and as I mentioned before, I loved Weeks art.
The book is pretty meh in terms of actual story, nothing too crazy that I haven't seen before. A human is being turned into a version of Doomsday and has no control over it. Superman has to now find a way to cure him and keep the Doomsday material that turned the rando into a four-armed Doomsday.
Afterwards, a princess lands in the Kent's field, the one they had originally during the Rebirth era. The princess claims that her people are treating her badly and she needs Superman's help before a revolt of her kingdom happens. This is obviously a warped story, the princess is a dictator and needs to be stopped.
I don't know, it didn't really reach at my heartstrings. Jurgens is good for action Superman comics, hence the reason he worked predominantly on Action Comics during the Rebirth Era. I thought it was perfectly fine for what it was doing, but when you have such immense talent from one of my favorite artists, I always hope for better.

[Ross Cudmore · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first story was a single issue to celebrate the anniversary of the Death of Superman. I wasn't a big fan of this particular story, something about the writing and recap of the original story felt dull.

The next story was a backup story in Action Comics, and was much better in my opinion. It felt like a great sequel to the original Lois and Clark story. The family dynamic is the best part of the story.

[Zach Rust · Rating 2 out of 5]

While I’ve enjoyed Dan Jurgens on previous Superman runs, sadly this story doesn’t live up to its predecessors.

While the characterization of the three leads (Clark, Lois & Jon) was spot-on, the newly introduced characters are sadly underdeveloped. Combined that with a meandering narrative, this mini unfortunately comes to an unsatisfying end.

[Will Cooper · Rating 2 out of 5]

A lackluster book with the Kent family. Felt like a lazy use of Doomsday.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel so maternal towards Jon. He is three apples tall.

[Cody Fitts · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first part is weird, maybe the dialogue. The rest of it is okay, predictable.

[Benjamin Kimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new version of Doomsday, Doombreaker, showed up in Metropolis to challenge Superman. After the battle they decide it’s best to return to California to decompress. There Jon finds an alien princess who needs their help. It was fun to see Jurgens and Weeks take the family back to the farm, but there wasn’t a ton of substance to this story, which makes sense as it was just a back up in Action Comics originally. What worked was seeing the enjoyable family dynamic that we saw when we were at the farm last time. I also really liked the colors done by Elizabeth Breitweiser, it added a very light feel to the story. But the plot just kind of happens, it felt almost like going through the motions. The book is enjoyable, but something’s holding it back. I’m interested to see what they do for Lois and Clark 3, which they set up at the end.

[Aidan]

Pretty much a let down. This lacks any of the tension and originality of the first series, as now it’s just basically about the family taking a trip as opposed to living in hiding. And will someone tell Dan Jurgens that no one has ever liked Doomsday?

The art’s the main appeal, Lee Weeks is past his prime but especially with Elizabeth Breitweiser on colors this is still one of the best looking books around. The Jurgens’ drawn issues vary in quality; the Breitweiser colored one really shines and shows he can still do good work, but the opening issue is really not it.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so good for real, I loved it!

Its a return to rebirth era and we see Superman and Lois trying to raise young Jon and the challenges of that and what that leads to and Jon learning about the death of Superman and Doomsday which is shocking and then the return of an enemy whose like Doomsday later dubbed "Doombreaker" and we see his origins and all and its interesting seeing this origin and who he is, and why he is targeting Superman especially on this anniversary and it makes for a fun mystery and fight and the way it ends is predictable, but its a nice read for real.

Then the next story with them moving back to Hamilton county and well Jon bringing that shard back with him and then an alien princess named "Glyanna" landing there in that zone and well a killer robot targeting her and she wants Superman's help, meanwhile Doombreaker chases them here looking for it here and then twists with this alien princess and what she wants with Superman and what she does to Jon and how DB ties into it, its fascinating examination of a father's love for his son, dictatorship and all and what Superman stands for, fun cosmic adventure and all.

But I feel like the page constraints really hurt the story and if it had been longer like proper 6 issue arc it would have been an excellent story and really fleshed out the villain and led to an even better cosmic adventure and a memorable one at that. I love the rebirth era and this era of Jon so I am giving it higher rating.. yep nostalgia and for fans of that era they will love this and the way it ends I am assuming there will be a sequel to this? If there is one, I am excited to read it!!

[Kym Masera Taborn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was an entertaining read tying the 30th anniversary of Superman's death and now having to tell his son about it. Could have used more Lois.