THIS WEEK: We scope out the new Superman crossover, Kingdom of Zod. Plus, strong new issues from Absolute Batmanand The Fury of Firestorm!
Supergirl #16
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Artists: Joe Quinones and Paolo Villanelli
Colorists: Joe Quinones and Arif Prianto
Letterers: Josh Reed and Becca Carey
Don’t you love it when a plan (or multiple plans) comes together? I know I do, especially in superhero comics, where we’ve got a big group of long-running titles playing together nicely and watering seeds planted months (or even years) ago. That’s what we get this week with the two-part debut of the new Superman Family crossover story,Kingdom of Zod.
The story opens inSupergirl #16,with an incredibly helpful summary page of what happened the last time Zod was regularly appearing in the DCU, which by my count was a while ago, back in the 8-part 2024 series, Kneel Before Zod. I read that, but even if I hadn’t, this issue’s two-page summary (which you can see here, from the Kneel creative team of artist Dan McDaid,colorist David Baron,and letterer Troy Peteri) does a really nice job of giving me everything I need to understand it and why it’s going to matter in this crossover.
I also liked how this opening chapter incorporated bits of the ongoing stories from so many of the other books that will be participating in this crossover. Kingdom of Zod is going to involve most of the Superman Family comics, with parts spread throughout August and September in Supergirl, Action Comics, Superman, and Superman Unlimited. With that in mind, it was great to see story elements from all those titles woven pretty naturally into this opening chapter for the crossover.
And while that sounds part and parcel for doing a big superhero crossover, in recent years advanced planning and coordination for this type of thing has often fallen by the wayside at the Big 2, in favor of just launching a big story fresh and then having it interrupt (or serve as a bridge between creative teams) in whatever title. So, that was welcomed.
I also think Supergirl was a great pick to start this crossover. Supergirl has lowkey been one of the best titles at DC Comics in the past year and a half, a consistently fun superhero book with a steadily expanding supporting cast and perfect throwback references (both in actual things and in vibes) to fun Silver Age comics. Writer Sophie Campbell (who often draws Supergirl as well) is penning one of the character’s best runs in decades — if not ever — and it’s nice to see the publisher center it within the Superman family here.
This issue also sees art duties split between Joe Quinones and Paolo Villanelli, with Quinones coloring himself and Arif Prianto coloring Villanelli, and it looks fantastic. The artists have different styles that play together nicely, segementing off into different elements of a pretty expansive plot here. Josh Reed and Becca Carey are two of the strongest letterers in comics, and their work is great here.
But what I think I liked most is how this issue not only lays out the crossover’s premise, but escalates its stakes in an interesting way that makes sense and doesn’t feel forced, leading into part 2 of Kingdom of Zod, which is also out this week in the pages of Action Comics #1101.
So yeah, all-in-all this feels like a throwback to the days when crossovers were higher effort (which some of you may not remember, and others of you may argue never existed), and it’s nice to see so much thought and planning put into one of these things.
The Round-Up
Put simply, The Fury of Firestorm #5 is this book’s best issue since it’s (fantastic) debut. Artist Rafael de LaTorreand colorist Marcelo Maiolo do such a great job with the flashback sequences, which genuinely look like they were culled from another era of comics. Jeff Lemire has also clearly written this book with a tight plot that knows exactly where everything is headed, and you can feel every moment in the book pulling the audience in that specific direction. It’s a great way to approach a character who doesn’t ever really sustain a long-running title, especially in recent decades.- Finally, Absolute Batman is such a juggernaut, that at this point (23 issues in!) you already know all that you need to about it, but I still think it’s worth pointing out that the book has remained interesting, bombastic, and liable to surprise nearly two years into its run. It’s so nice, too, that artist Nick Dragotta and colorist Frank Martinare still consistently drawing the book on a regular basis, maintaining the striking look it had at its start, which is responsible in no small part for it being such a sensation.
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