Review# 23: Superman # 652

We are living in a post-post-crisis world. Back in the 1980's, The DC Universe went through some monumental changes in the Crisis on Infinite Earths miniseries, which actually re-wrote the history of these heroes. This was a little before my time, comic-ly speaking, so I was brought up in the post-crisis world that only had one color of kryptonite(green, duh), and no supergirl until 1988, who turned out to be a shapeshifting clone-bot or something. The real supergirl showed up just last year, i think, as supermans cousin, just as she had in the 1950's pre-crisis world. Anyway, the last couple of years have been immersed in Dc's Identity crisis and Infinite Crisis mini serises which both led to changes of the same monumental porportions. It all starts when Dr. Light, a second string Villan , rapes the wife of Elongated Man, a second-string hero...It all unravels from there...Even if I wanted to go into it, there are plenty of other resources, I'm sure, that could break it down for you even better. In a nutshell, the multiverse, which is an infinite number of alternate reality earths, is re-created and in the end, one earth remains: New Earth. Now at the end of all this, Superman has somehow lost his powers. After that all the core titles jump ahead one year. In this time Clark and Lois Kent have been adjusting to being a normal married couple and both have been quite happy with it. Superman #652 is part 5 of this "1 year later" storyline, and at the end of part four in Action comics #whateverthehell Clark is attacked by super-gangsters for an expose he wrote. Then he gets hit by a train...and survives. looks like his powers are returning. Discovering that Superman is back, Intergang, those super-gangsters, send five nutty villains after him, including Silver Banshee and Livewire. I'm glad to see Livewire still around. I only ever saw one episode of the Superman cartoon on the WB, and it was the one with her, and last year they introduced her into regular continuity. I kind of like her; a radio shock jock with a grudge against Supes who gets super electrical powers...and shes blue. Now Supermans powers are coming back slowly, so he's not at his peak performance, but still easily takes out three of the would-be assassins. Then Bloodsport decides to shoot Jimmy Olsen in the head. This is the jump that Superman needs to get all his power back as he lives up to one of his tag lines and is faster than the speeding bullet, plucking it from the air just in time. If you're into it as much as you can tell I am, which I bet you're not, it's pretty cool.