Superman #40

Writer: James Robinson

Artist: Doug Mahnke

Inkers: Jaime Mendoza and Scott Hanna

Colourist: Wil Quintana

Letterer: Rob Leigh

In what seems to be an annoyingly usual occurrence, Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason are once again taking the month off before coming back for another story. This is made worse with the news that the team are leaving the book for Brian Michael Bendis to take over, with the current volume ending with #45 in April. At least Gleason is drawing that whole story.

For this little two-parter, James Robinson joins series stalwart Superman artist Doug Mahnke to tell a very simple story, where Superman and Superboy head off to save a planet from a tremendous implosion not unlike Krypton's. Yeah, we've been getting a bit too much of Krypton over in ACTION COMICS and it's frustrating to read more of it here, but Robinson provides a fun yet predictable take on it.

Mahnke shines in this issue. I'm not sure what the future holds for Mahnke, since it seems Patrick Gleason is joining Bendis on ACTION COMICS with Ivan Reis on SUPERMAN. Nevertheless, his run on this title has been great and the man can draw a hell of a Superman.

This is a pretty basic story, and it's frustrating to see Tomasi and Gleason off the book for yet another hiatus, but the story we get here is fun enough with some great father/son moments peppered throughout. The artwork is strong and I look forward to reading the next issue.