Graphic Novels: Superman, Supergirl, Batman, Astro City

Superman: Shadows Linger
Superman: Krypton Returns
Astro City: Through Open Doors
Batman/Superman: Volume 6 Universe's Finest

Walking through the library, I came to the shelves with all the graphic novels and manga. Sure, I checked if they had the next volume of One Piece (they didn't). But they also had regular graphic novels from DC and Marvel. I picked up the four books listed above. Something to read while floating in the pool in an inner tube.

First off, none of these books originated as a graphic novel. They are all reprints from the comics, which causes some odd breaks in the narrative and empty pages with filler art.

That, in itself, wouldn't be so bad, if the collections made any sense. Most of these do not.

Of the ones mentioned above, Shadows Linger was five consecutive issues of Superman and is composed of two separate stories, the second of which is "Shadows Linger". Both were good reads. It was interesting to see Lana Lang's evolution. I'm old enough to remember when an adult Lana Lang was brought into Galaxy Broadcasting, pre-Crisis. In this comic, Lana is now running Lexcorp, now that Luthor is missing. (Where he is or why he's missing is another story, and that's fine.) This works as well as having Lex's sister running the show on the Supergirl TV Show.

On the other hand, Krypton Returns is a hodgepodge collection of parts from multiple sources, and they don't flow together to make a cohesive narrative. Maybe if you read all the original books, you might like this summary of the plot line, but the parts from Superman, Supergirl and Superboy don't work. Also, Supergirl's outfit is horrible.

The Astro City book turned out to be the first six issues of a comic with a 12-issue run, the remainder of which were not available. I thought it was an independent comic trying to have a Justice League feel to it, but it turned out that it's put out through DC Comics. The better stories are the ones told about the people was support the heroes of the world. To be honest, I wasn't exactly sure what or where Astro City actually was. The odd thing was that the stories weren't primarily about the heroes on the cover. It was odd, but mostly enjoyable, even if the questions that arose from chapter 1 don't seem to get answered anywhere further down the line.

The Batman/Superman comic had it's moment, but again was a collection of parts of books. It even contained two non-consecutive parts of a "death of Superman" story line, which apparently isn't related to the "Death of Superman" from twenty years ago or so.

In summation: these graphic novels aren't novels. They were anthologies, and not necessarily good ones.