Superman: No Limit! - Return to Krypton

[ExoKnight]

Anyone have a review of these tpb that came out a few years back? I'm interested in hunting them down, but wanted some opinion on how the stories, writing, and art are.

Superman: No Limit Vol. 1
Superman: Endgame Vol. 2
Superman: Till Death Do Us Part Vol. 3
Superman: Critical Condition Vol. 4
Superman: President Lex Vol. 5
Superman: Return to Krypton Vol. 6

[dancj]

Honestly none of them are that great. Some of the art is very good though.

[NotSuper]

I liked the first part of the "Return to Krypton" storyline (I'm not a big fan of McGuinness' art, though--no offense to him), but the second part was kind of a letdown.

I haven't read any of the other TPBs listed.

[PatrickG]

Anyone have a review of these tpb that came out a few years back? I'm interested in hunting them down, but wanted some opinion on how the stories, writing, and art are.

Superman: No Limit Vol. 1
Superman: Endgame Vol. 2
Superman: Till Death Do Us Part Vol. 3
Superman: Critical Condition Vol. 4
Superman: President Lex Vol. 5
Superman: Return to Krypton Vol. 6

I enjoyed No Limits as did a lot of people with the individual issues. Superman fights the Eradicator, goes on a global hunt for black market Kryptonite and trains with the new Mongul to face... Imperiex. Writing, art, colors, letters... All solid. Enjoyable.

Endgame introduced the new Brainiac and the (then) new Metropolis. Guest starring every high tech DCU character at the time and spotlight the Luthor family history. Another solid read.

Til Death Do us Part... More controversial. Good art. Snappy writing. And the last appearance of a major Superman foe. I enjoyed it and think outside of the uncollected Emperor Joker, this is one of the best runs from the era.

Critical Condition. Incredible Journey, Kryptonian style. Unless you're into the continuity of how things got back to normal after the last trade, less essential. Good writing. Fill-in art.

President Lex. Pretty much all the development Lex's Presidency got outside of a few worthwhile follow-ups. Word was that DC was scared of seeming too critical of Bush post 9-11 and so they wound up muting their plans for Lex a lot. By the time the Iraq war started, I think Lex became a tool of criticism against Bush. You can see some interesting stories in this one at least.

Return to Krypton. The first part (five issues) is AWESOME. Fun art, lighthearted adventure. Interestingly, one of the best selling Superman stories of the last decade. The second part (published a year later) is the result of corporate cold feet. It gets off to an interesting start and it has a touching finale but it's basically a clean-up job and I remember feeling disappointed that the ending wasn't something bigger. I know it contradicts what was originally planned and there's buzz that the sharp reversal was to wrap up the plotline for Birthright.

RTK may or may not be in continuity at all now (even though that raises questions about where a certain character comes from) but it's a fun romp through a Silver Age-inspired playground.

[ExoKnight]

I enjoyed No Limits as did a lot of people with the individual issues. Superman fights the Eradicator, goes on a global hunt for black market Kryptonite and trains with the new Mongul to face... Imperiex. Writing, art, colors, letters... All solid. Enjoyable.

Endgame introduced the new Brainiac and the (then) new Metropolis. Guest starring every high tech DCU character at the time and spotlight the Luthor family history. Another solid read.

Til Death Do us Part... More controversial. Good art. Snappy writing. And the last appearance of a major Superman foe. I enjoyed it and think outside of the uncollected Emperor Joker, this is one of the best runs from the era.

Critical Condition. Incredible Journey, Kryptonian style. Unless you're into the continuity of how things got back to normal after the last trade, less essential. Good writing. Fill-in art.

President Lex. Pretty much all the development Lex's Presidency got outside of a few worthwhile follow-ups. Word was that DC was scared of seeming too critical of Bush post 9-11 and so they wound up muting their plans for Lex a lot. By the time the Iraq war started, I think Lex became a tool of criticism against Bush. You can see some interesting stories in this one at least.

Return to Krypton. The first part (five issues) is AWESOME. Fun art, lighthearted adventure. Interestingly, one of the best selling Superman stories of the last decade. The second part (published a year later) is the result of corporate cold feet. It gets off to an interesting start and it has a touching finale but it's basically a clean-up job and I remember feeling disappointed that the ending wasn't something bigger. I know it contradicts what was originally planned and there's buzz that the sharp reversal was to wrap up the plotline for Birthright.

RTK may or may not be in continuity at all now (even though that raises questions about where a certain character comes from) but it's a fun romp through a Silver Age-inspired playground.

Nice write up. Who were the creative teams during this period? Was Jeph Loeb, Joe Kelly, Geoff Johns, etc.?

Also the Manchester Black stories included in any of them?

[PatrickG]

Manchester Black appeared in ACTION #775 (not included) and OUR WORLDS AT WAR.

All of the above TPBs include major contributions by Jeph Loeb and Joe Kelly and I think with Mark Schultz, you have the lynchpin of editor Eddie Berganza's Super-team. They really had one major flop (OUR WORLDS AT WAR), scattered and got reassigned within twelve months and Berganza's tenure as editor never really had a full recovery, for my money. I am eager to see what Berganza brings to Justice League as editor because the team books in his stable (YOUNG JUSTICE, TEEN TITANS, BIRDS OF PREY) have generally been the more solid titles that he was involved in. (To be fair, I think Jeph Loeb brought a lot to the table as more than just a writer and I've always heard that he and Joe Kelly were part of the overall creative direction of the books as well as talent scouts who brought in a lot of the artists.)

I think Rucka and Johns did some stuff on the Lex TPB and Johns co-writes the second half of the RTK trade with Kelly.

Johns sets RTK II off to a strong start but it's really Joe Kelly who saves the ending for me.

The first RTK (Loeb, Casey, Schultz and Kelly) was very spectacle based. It was like an Atlas of Silver Age Krypton with Superman and Lois running around having adventures. The ending is a bit annoying but, eh. The story itself is a nice romp.

The second RTK by Kelly and Johns doesn't have McGuiness or Mhanke on art. It has some nice human moments at the beginning and what I found to be a strong moment or two at the end but it just feels weaker to me. It's a Superman and Jor-El team-up.

Taken altogether, the story is pretty good. I'm just a bit let down by part two as it's pretty clearly an effort to wrap up part one.

Schultz's plot threads get lost in the follow-up as well, leading to a LOT of confusion about the Kandor in Superman's fortress.

The villain from the first chapter is just a stronger villain, IMO.

[Absalom]

I personally think Return to Krypton to be one of the most stupid and poorly written Superman stories ever. From beggining to end.

But, hey, that's just me.

[dancj]

The President Luthor TPB is quite annoyin because they didn't see fit to put the stories in order. The scene where the characters are waiting to see who won the election lacks drama when it comes after the scene where they tell you.

Return to Krypton is quite fun, but they annoyed me by never explaining to the reader or even to Superman exactly what he is visiting - whether it is a projection from the past, the real Krypton of the past, something from Supes's own mind etc.... I know you find out at the end, but you'#d have thought Dr Hamilton would have told Superman before he went off into the Phantom Zone

[jadegiant77]

can't belive they won't collect Emperor Joker.. :(

[PatrickG]

It's the #2 most demanded trade at DC.

My guess is that they'll time it for the week when Loeb's Ultimates comes out or maybe if/when a Bizarro project/storyline surfaces at DC.

[Loren]

It's the #2 most demanded trade at DC.

What's #1?

I still don't understand why they'd collected 'Critical Condition,' but not 'Emperor Joker.'

[PatrickG]

Blame the retail/Diamond sales model.

They collect stories that sell well often.

Sales took a dip after Critical Condition so they stopped doing sequential trades of the Loeb/Kelly teams there. They went back and did OWAW and Return to Krypton because sales were higher on those stories.

Retailers didn't order a lot of EJ and it's been in the last 1.5-2 years that demand for it has skyrocketed from readers who never got the individual issues.

I've spoken to Bob Wayne about this. My advice to DC was (and is) to market it under the SUPERMAN/BATMAN trade dress. It has Loeb and McGuiness and it has McGuiness' first published Batman drawing (even if it's only one page).

I think the demand, now, is there but releasing it under the trade dress of one of DC's top books should give it the boost it needs for retailers and DC to have the faith needed for it.

If they took this idea of mine seriously (and they seemed to) then maybe the plan is to release it simultaneously with the last Loeb SUPERMAN/BATMAN hardcover or (sigh) to wait until the current arc hits softcover a year and a half from now or so.

[YoungG03]

Anyone have a review of these tpb that came out a few years back? I'm interested in hunting them down, but wanted some opinion on how the stories, writing, and art are.

Superman: No Limit Vol. 1
Superman: Endgame Vol. 2
Superman: Till Death Do Us Part Vol. 3
Superman: Critical Condition Vol. 4
Superman: President Lex Vol. 5
Superman: Return to Krypton Vol. 6


What the Superman titles after this.
I know Im gettin Birthright and skippin that "hush" Superman trade...What others came out since those mention in the quote.

Oh

No Limit was the best. Endgame is decent. Till Death do Us Part got Bats in it and was cool. Critical Condition got to wrody and a lil boring but I liked. Prez LEX wasnt confusing to the point where I had to ask questions bout it here. And Return to Krpton sucks....Doesnt bring nuthing to the table.

[Loren]

Retailers didn't order a lot of EJ and it's been in the last 1.5-2 years that demand for it has skyrocketed from readers who never got the individual issues.

*checks eBay*

Hmm. If an EJ tpb is announced, I might just have to sell my issues.

I've spoken to Bob Wayne about this. My advice to DC was (and is) to market it under the SUPERMAN/BATMAN trade dress. It has Loeb and McGuiness and it has McGuiness' first published Batman drawing (even if it's only one page).

That's a really good idea. I mean, a really darn good idea. I hope they run with it.

And what's the #1 most demanded tpb?

[PatrickG]

Can't remember. Pretty sure it's creator based rather than storyline based.

Neal Adams Batman softcover or something?