Reviewed by Tad Davis

I'm a big fan of the idea of the DC Millennium Edition reprints. They give us mere mortals a chance to see some historically important comic books that we wouldn't otherwise have. They also contain well-written essays describing the importance of each book in the DC canon as well as each one's place in the history and culture of comic books.

Unfortunately, there has been a fair amount of controversy and divisiveness in some circles about which comics deserved to be reprinted. I know our editor, Alex, mentions some of the duds in the intro (to Part One) and there are certainly some spectacular examples out there. I don't think this book is the best choice in the Millennium series.

I know there was a (mostly) new staff led by editor Julius Schwartz, who took over from Mort Weisinger, who had run the show for 30 years. I know there was a new look with more slick and creative art. I know there was a new mantra around DC that the Man of Steel must be less invincible. Yes, it was a switch for Clark Kent to be a stylishly dressed TV reporter and with a new boss no less. And, yes, I understand that this was to be a "new beginning" for Superman.

But I have to say, at the end of the day, this was just another Superman book. There are bad guys. Clark Kent changes clothes. Superman thwarts the bad guys and saves the day. The end. There's this other plot about a Kryptonite explosion that changes the chemical construction of all Green K on earth and renders it useless to stop Superman. But there seems to be some as yet unknown Super shaped pile of sand near the explosion that has some woozying effects on Superman. But this book doesn't go into it.

I happen to know, dear reader, from looking ahead, that, in fact, there is a sandman (shaped like Superman) siphoning his powers and totally messing with him. It sounds kinda cool, but they don't get near it in #233.

If you must have this book for its place in the Super ouvre, you're gonna want to get the next 10 to read the whole sand creature series. (They bagged the whole "new beginning" idea after #242 and pretended like it had never happened.) So save your money on the reprint, because the originals ain't cheap.

Not Recommended

Tad Davis is new contributor to PopImage