Superman: O Reinado De Apocalypse - DCGN Sagas Definitivas

Superman Post-Crisis #103

by Paul Cornell

A Coleção DC Graphic Novels - Sagas Definitivas reúne as principais sagas da DC, com o rigoroso e reconhecido padrão de qualidade editorial e gráfica da Eaglemoss. A força suprema de destruição está de volta! Apocalypse, o kryptoniano hiperevoluído que matou o Superman uma vez, retornou. Seu alvo? Qualquer um com um “S” no peito. Todos os envolvidos no massacre original sentirão sua vingança, incluindo Aço, Erradicador, Superboy e o Superciborgue. Também entrarão na briga a Supergirl Sombria e o novo Batman (Dick Grayson). Poderá o Homem de Aço original descobrir quem realmente está por trás dessa trilha de destruição antes que seja tarde demais?

Collecting ACTION COMICS #900-904.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Superman, Dc Comics, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 8, 2011

About the author

Paul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.

via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entertained reading but it could be far better


The overall rating is an average result from the individual ratings of the contained stories.

REIGN OF DOOMSDAYS!!!

Action Comics #900 - 904

Writer: Paul Cornell

Illustrators: Kenneth Rocafort, Jesus Merino, Pete Woods, Axel Giménez, Ronan Cliquet, Dan Jurgens, Gary Frank, Rags Morales, Norm Rapmund, Ardian Syaf, Jamal Igle, & Jon Sibal

Rating: *** ( 3 stars )

This storyline started on the issue 900 of Action Comics with a quite great dialogue between Superman and Lex Luthor, and only for that issue, could be a material of easily 4 stars, however, that issue is tied to the rest of the storyline involving the Reign of Doomsday that it was a constant 3 stars product, therefore, the general rating for this, the main storyline fell to be a 3 stars reading experience.

Lex Luthor is now empowered with the godlike abilities of the first and indigenous being of the dimension called by the Kryptonians as "The Phantom Zone", and of course, Lex wants to do his new powers to kill Superman. He was behind of the attacks by Doomsdays to Steel, The Eradicator, Cyborg Superman, Supergirl and Superboy. Now, with Superman isolated, Lex will destroy Superman with his new godlike powers. But, there is a catch...

The Team Superman is battling for their lives in a prison-like spaceship full of Doomsdays, each of them designed to counter-attack their signature powers.

Superman will unite to the battle and trying to figure out the secret behind this spaceship since it's indeed more than it appears.

Later, this "reign of Doomsdays" will move to Earth, where the army of Doomsday (they are actually three, but about beings in Doomsday-level, three is indeed an army) will attack several key sites around the globe. Team Superman will have to receive back-up of several meta-humans and superheroes and to engage each Doomsday.

In the big prologue Return of Doomsday, it was said that not all can be Superman. But in this storyline, it will be shown that that's not true. Superman isn't about having a collection of superpowers. Being Superman is about to protect those who can't protect for themselves, and always willing to do the ultimate sacrifice for others.


ADDITIONAL STORIES

Celebrating the 900th issue of Action Comics, this TPB include short stories appearing on the mentioned issue which begins the event of Reign of Doomsday.


Life Support

by Damon Lindelof (writer) & Ryan Sook (illustrator)

Rating: **** ( 4 stars )

A moving story about priorities, hard decisions, and the last chance of the survival of the entire legacy of a civilization, through the life of a baby.


Autobiography

by Paul Dini (writer) & R.B. Silva (illustrator)

Rating: **** ( 4 stars )

Curious tale between Superman and another alien, about how far, beings like them, should interfere in the fate of an alien civilization.


Friday Night in the 21st Century

by Geoff Johns (writer) & Gary Frank (illustrator)

Rating: ** ( 2 stars )

Cute little story about Lois wanting to have a "normal" party with the "friends of childhood" of Clark Kent.


The Incident

by David S. Goyer (writer) & Miguel Sepulveda (illustrator)

Rating: ***** ( 5 stars )

Significant story of how Superman realizes that he shouldn't have an US citizenship... Earth is just too small to represent only one political citizenship... Since any action who may decide to do, it shouldn't be seen as an action of a particular government... He is Superman and his actions should be seen for his own judgment... And even if he doesn't say anything, he doesn't move, just being present in a place... it can inspire to unexpected and brave actions.


Only Human

by Richard Donner and Derek Hoffman (writers) & Matt Camp (illustrator)

Rating: ** ( 2 stars )

Well intentioned but limited idea. It's a fair script but present such as, in a screenplay form with a guide of sketches. While original, it couldn't reach its full potential.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading some of the other reviews of this, I've come to the conclusion that not very many people actually like Superman. Even though he is also probably considered the most iconic and recognizable superhero out there. You'd think he'd get some love just for that alone, right? Ehhhh. Not so much.

After much soul-searching (approximately 5 minutes), I think I've come to a deeper understanding as to why so many people love to slam the Blue Boy Scout. According to every self-help guru out there, it's our childhood that shapes our subconscious reaction to things as adults.
Personally, I subscribe to this kind of thinking so that I don't have to take any responsibility for my decisions. I find it's much easier to blame my parents.
*takes a deep cleansing breath*
Ahhhhh. Feels good!

Where was I?
Oh yes, it's our parents' fault that we hate Superman.
And here's why...

He's That Kid.
You know, the one your parents were always yammering on about.
As in:
Why can't you be more like That Kid? He/She is a straight A student, the star of the (insert random sport here) team, plays the piano for the church on Sunday morning, and still finds time to tutor blind orphans! I'll bet That Kid doesn't embarrass their family at dinner parties!

Yeah, we all hated That Kid. And if they would have just had the decency to get busted smoking weed with the preacher's daughter, it would have made everyone's life a whole lot easier. Unfortunately, That Kid really was nice, and kind, and generous, and blah, blah, blah...
Whatever.

That explains why so many of us (secretly) cheered when Doomsday originally pushed Superman's face in the dirt.
*cackling with glee*
How you like them apples, Clark?!
And it also explains why everyone usually prefaces even their 5 star reviews of his comics with something along the lines of,
While I normally find Superman boring...

With all of this rattling around in my head, I decided to up my rating of Superman: Reign of Doomsday. Partially because I felt guilty about wanting to see a joint hanging from young Clark's lips, and partially because this was a decent story. Well, the parts that I understood, anyway. I also realized that I was probably missing some pretty pertinent back-story, and I couldn't really blame anyone other than myself for that.
Although, it could be my parents' fault....

[James DeSantis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow what a pile of horse shit to end the Pre-New52 superman line.

What's worse than 1 doomsday? MULTIPLE.

This has all the heroes kidnapped from the previous volume now having to work together to take down Doomsday. A new and improve Doomsday who's smart and can speak. But before we can get to that jumble of fun we deal with Luthor being a giant force of cosmic shit. He's just big giant red and angry and can do weird shit. What's happening? I have no damn clue.

Anyway this shit is just boring. We have our heroes doing the same shit with little to no consequences when fighting multiple different doomsday. The worst part is this was supposed to be the last Hooray for our Original Superman run but it was kind of dogshit...

A 1 out of 5.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found Cornell's Superman finale to be somewhat disappointing. He does offer an interesting alternative take on Doomsday, and has some fun with it, but there's not a lot of meat to the story. The best element is probably getting to see this version of the Superman family together for one last time.

The short stories that finish the volume are actually more interesting, as each of them is a fun vignette.

Overall, though, this volume is entirely missable. You might as well stop at the end of the Black Ring.

I also found DC's editing of this volume and the previous one very annoying, as they both contain large parts of the same main story from #900.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess they wanted to go out with a bang before the New 52 rebooted the Superman universe; thus, I guess it is fitting to bring back the one enemy that actually "killed" Supes.

This volume is nothing compared to the issues that introduced Doomsday though. This whole story arc fizzled for me. Sad to see. Not sure if I will even follow superman in the New 52 now.

2.5/5

[Jesse A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off well but went off the rails and got overly convoluted by the end. Disappointing.

[Olivia Plasencia · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I had not read this but being a huge fan of the original Doomsday story line by Dan Jurgens I was happy when I found this book at the Goodwill. After reading it I know why I found it there. The story was awful! For some dumb reason the fight of multiple Doomsdays seems like an interesting idea right? WRONG! The writers put the fight in a ship in space and somehow the heroes were not overwhelmed. I stopped reading Superman religiously back in 1997, (don't get me started!) due to bad writing and then the bubbly way the artist drew him offended the human eyes sight. The fight scenes were lame (even when the fight made it to Earth), the panels were slightly confusing, and whoever thought it was a smart idea to overlap action words over the drawings was dumb. Not only that but the writing was just terrible! Clearly the writers at DC don't have a clue why Superman is so loved, they keep trying to evolve him into something he is not, maybe "modernize" is the word but really they are just forcing him to follow trends which only wishy washy people do anyway, not a freaking super hero.

At the end of the book are short stories. And of course the writers again did the dumbest thing and had Superman claim he can no longer be American. Yeah cause that's the way his parents raised him. I regret picking this up at all and wonder what the heck is going on at DC to let these crappy writers go off on personal rants using an iconic America character. Long story short, must miss. Do not read.

[Lee Battersby · Rating 2 out of 5]

When it comes right down to it, there just isn't any way to make Superman actually interesting, is there? As a character he's sadly two-dimensional, and his supporting 'family'-- Steel, Superboy, The Eradicator and Supergirl-- are unutterably lightweight, both as personalities and as heroic characters. Nobody really believes they stand a chance against an antagonist of genuine power, and the problem with Superman is always that he is so damned powerful himself that his antagonists have to be consistently ramped up beyond believability to present any feasible threat. And in that regard, doomsday is a one-note drum: if he didn't have the notoriety of the 'Death of Superman' story behind him he'd be no more noteworthy than Parasite, or Atlas, or any of the other characters who only serve to provide one or two punches before the inevitable victory.

So what we end up with is another in the never-ending parade of world-killer strength bad guys, trashing all of Supes' second-rate imitators until the big guy can defeat him. And because Superman simply punching someone out has become a giant cliche, we end up with the mirror-side cliche: Supes can't beat the protagonist physically, so has to outsmart him, using some arbitrarily introduced random element that doesn't belong. In this case its a spaceship that exists as a tesseract, a four-dimensional object in three-dimensional space, with the result that all of its corridors are never-ending. But really, who cares?

It's all paint by numbers, and not even Paul Cornell can give it life.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

The final Superman crossover event before the rebooted New 52. A collection of cloned Doomsdays attack Steel, Superboy, Supergirl, Eradicator, and Cyborg Superman, defeating the collective "super family" and imprisoning them. Meanwhile, Superman defeats an overpowered Lex Luthor and rushes to the aid of his allies.

Rather than a typical divided love/hate split, the ratings for this volume are mostly average (40% are three stars). I guess I get it. The setup for a couple of the characters is unclear and the story is mostly a series of large scale fight scenes. Some of the exact motives for a couple characters is also buried in there somewhere. But overall, this felt like a fun and quintessential Superman story with a trio of his worst enemies, all of his closest allies, some really appealing art by Kenneth Rocafort and Axel Giménez, and a few brief examples of why Superman is worthy of his name. It does boil most of the elements down to their essential bones and doesn't offer much in the way of nuanced character or plot, but it seemed like a good way to send Superman into a new age.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The main story is awful beyond belief, but the collection is worth it just for the all-star back-up stories.

[Keith · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Doomsday story didn't do much for me: too extreme, too fast-paced, and lacking emotional or thematic heart to raise it above the level of slug-fest. It was one of those typical examples of how the character of Superman (and his Super Family) is so powerful the writer has to come up with insanely powerful villains to even suggest a challenge. Ah, but then of course, who has any doubt that Superman will overcome? I didn't buy that Jimmy Olsen was worried. Yeah, one of the Super Family appears to have sacrificed his life, but there is no body, no funeral, no burial so we get no real sense of loss. (In other words, the character is not actually dead!) So if you love wild battle scenes, sure, this might please you, but if you want characters you care about and themes to make you think that's not in this main story.

What was amazing and actually quite worth my time was the series of short stories in the back of the book. Damon Lindelof's short was heart-wrenching and powerful. And Richard Donner's cinematic story was highly entertaining and playful.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

The main story was not good. I read the prelude and hoped this volume would clear things up, but it was just as confusing, if not more. I don't know if it's just that I need to read more stories leading up to this one, or if it was really just that nonsensical. It just never made any sense to me. Some pocket universe with multiple Doomsdays, and then one main Doomsday called the Doomslayer or something. Weird.

The back up stories were pretty cool, however, and managed to save this volume, at least somewhat.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doomsday, resurrected by nefarious means, is targetting all heroes with an "S" on their chest. Working together, Superman must lead his team into a spaceship which threatens to wipe out the Earth to destroy Doomsday once and for all.

Cornell's story is great, assisted by some excellent artwork and is a nice call back to the 'Death of Superman' storyline.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reign of Doomsday is marginally better than Return of Doomsday, but unfocused and lacking any heart or depth. As much as I enjoy Team Superman, Cornell doesn't give any of them any characterization (and doesn't even really give Superboy or Supergirl much to do to help). The art's unexceptional. Superman's confrontation with Lex Luthor is the opening chapter (the finale of Cornell's earlier, also mediocre, Lex Luthor-focused arc, "The Black Ring"), is the only solid moment, as we get to see Superman's heroism and selflessness truly shine.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I won Superman: Reign of Doomsday through goodreads first-reads. Now, I'm not much of a fan of Superman to begin with, he's not my type of superhero. But that being said, I thought this book was good even though I didn't know the story leading up to this point. Some parts were hard for me to grasp, but I imagine that's because I'm not that familiar with the characters. All in all, I give this book three stars. Happy reading everybody. :)

[Eddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Right before New 52 but I never read It. Cause me to miss the old boy, Superman wanting to make a plan, study something and put other people 1st? What is up with this guy. The short stories were excellent.

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

You could tell that it was down to this book or "Flashpoint" as the event book that year for DC. Sadly, "Flashpoint" won.

[Ryan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was yet another gift received from my coworker.

This book sees Superman join several members of the Super Family (including Super Girl and Steel, among others) in dealing with two threats: Lex Luthor who has gained a staggering quantity of power by fusing himself with a godlike being that was born in the Phantom Zone, and four clones of Doomsday, arguably Superman's greatest foe, who are on a spacecraft that is hurtling towards Earth. There were also two short stories at the end of the book: one that dealt with Jor-El (Superman's father) hiring a fellow Kryptonian to build a device that would save his son in the dying days of Krypton, and one that involved Superman having a conversation with an agent of the US government regarding a recent trip to Tehran, which is in the middle of a massive protest against its leadership.

This is a really odd story. The stakes seem massive as Superman was, rather famously (even a mostly comic-illiterate person such as myself knows this), killed during his initial conflict with the original Doomsday. It seems that there should be no way that Superman, even with four members of the Super Family, should be able to deal with this particular threat. The Luthor storyline makes sense because he is, as usual, undone by his own hubris, albeit in a rather hamfisted way. Granted the Super Family is joined by a number of other heroes later on in the book but it still seems like the matter was resolved a little too quickly and cleanly. This story (or at least this collected version of it) was released 14 years ago so for all I know there was a follow up that undid much of the events of this book, as is typical of the genre. Moreover, the people of Earth figure out that, when the craft hits the planet, its size and speed will cause the impact to wipe out all life. Superman et all end up having 10 minutes to save Earth from the initial impact, and then have to fight four Doomsdays. Again, it just seemed to wrap up too cleanly and quickly, but also again, I recognize that this is a comic book and that retconning storylines is pretty much a necessity as some things just can't be written around. I will say that I liked the art and the two short stories at the end, though.

[Guilherme Smee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Este foi o primeiro exemplar da coleção de graphic novels DC Comics Sagas Definitivas da Eaglemoss que eu adquiri em uma promoção com mais outros dois exemplares da mesma coleção. Esta é uma saga que aconteceu um pouco antes da saga Ponto de Ignição (Flashpoint) que decretou o fim da velha DC e abriu as portas para Os Novos 52. O Superman e suas revistas eram um dos grandes problemas da editora, segundo o corpo responsável por elas. Esta saga, que foi encabeçada pelo competente escritor inglês Paul Cornell, além de contar com uma equipe de variados escritores e artistas de títulos que tangenciavam a saga como Aço, Superboy, Superman/Batman e Liga da Justiça. O resultado é que as partes mais interessantes são os títulos que não são Action Comics, o principal da saga, principalmente por oferecer a origem da história de perspectivas diferentes. O que ocorre na Action Comics vai mais no estilo de "batalha épica sem sentido" do que no desenvolvimento da história propriamente. Definitivamente, Superman: O Reinado de Apocalypse não é uma Saga Definitiva da DC Comics. Você pode passar incólume por ela.

[Sean · Rating 1 out of 5]

DC Comics once again proves it has no idea how to collect stories or edit books. This book starts with the finale of another storyline/series. Insane. Then is collects one of the worst Doomsday stories ever (bold statement), and then throws in a handful of short stories from the anniversary issue. The main story, The Reign Of Doomsday is awful. Zero redeeming qualities. Terrible story. Terrible dialogue. Terrible art. Nothing. The anniversary short stories varied anywhere from very good to just okay but they are an afterthought here. DC had no idea what to do with Superman before New 52 and its obvious in this book. Overall, pay someone to make sure you don't read this.

[Courts · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is actually a review for Superman: Return of Doomsday and this book, as the hardcover collection I read contained the issues from both books.

The story was a bit repetitive but it had some good SuperFam moments, and a few sweet Lois & Clark moments at the end.

What whiplash though going from Kenneth Rocafort's gorgeous art to Axel Gimenez's "breasts are always perfectly round" style.

[Aidan]

Paul Cornell writes a great Superman, but no one on earth can make Doomsday interesting, so this ends up being a bit of a bore outside of a couple good character beats. The finale of Black Ring would have been a much stronger note for post-Crisis Action Comics to go out on, but alas, there were 3 more months left to fill

The Damon Lindelof story felt like an unnecessary addition to the lore, but was executed so well that I quite liked it

[Andy Dainty · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Steel issue and the conversation between Supergirl and Dr Fate in Superman/Batman were the best parts of this event, unfortunately after this it was just smashy crashy splash pages with no heart and no originality.

[শুভঙ্কর শুভ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Emre Arifoglu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm glad to read it at a time when I didn't write comic book reviews anymore.

[Pochodnia fandomu · Rating 4 out of 5]

ogólnie to jest takie, eh, 2,75, ale rzeczy z ac 900 są majstersztyk

[Zachary King · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up because Paul Cornell really grasps who Superman is and what truly makes him super.

[Nicolas Hoffmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am really trying with Superman, he is a struggle for me. This one feels like nonsense. However, beautiful art.

[Natisfea · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s okay really just straightforward and Doomsday doesn’t really feel like a big threat, the art is really nice and there’s some nice Superman moments.

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts off really great but then loses steam with all the convolution in the end.