Action Comics #962

Written by: Dan Jurgens

Art by: Stephen Segovia

Coloured by: Ulises Arreola

Lettered by: Rob Leigh

In the previous issue, not wanting his family to be in the line of fire, Superman has Wonder Woman take them to the Justice League Satellite where they will be safe before continuing his brawl. Back in Metropolis, Lex Luthor works to save lives after the destruction, stabilizing buildings and clearing rubble while talking with the powerless Clark Kent, when debris begins to fall on evacuees, the new Superwoman leaping in to save the day. As the fight with Doomsday wears on, Superman begins to falter, Doomsday closing in for the finishing blow when he is suddenly stopped in his tracks by men in high tech suits with powerful weapons, who attempt to force him into some sort of gateway.

This issue follows directly after, with Doomsday resisting being put through the gateway, eventually breaking free and slaughtering all of his new attackers. Regretting his inability to save them, Superman flies off, luring Doomsday towards his mountain fortress. The fight continues as Superman smashes him through the halls of the fortress, but it soon becomes clear that whatever Superman's plan is, he simply wont be able to keep Doomsday at bay long enough to enact it. After some urging from Lois, Wonder Woman finally agrees to return and help Superman, fighting off Doomsday long enough for Superman to complete work on his Phantom Zone Projector, using it to seal away Doomsday. As a finale, I actually liked this issue quite a bit. It shows Superman as being smarter than he was when Doomsday first appeared, being able to out maneuver and out think Doomsday, rather than simply relying on brute force as he did before.

The artwork remains good and the action flows very well. One panel in particular, where Superman is hit out of the sky by Doomsday and proceeds to curl up, roll on the ground and then spring back to full flight in one continual motion being a notable highlight, another being when Superman uses Doomsday's momentum against him to toss him to, apparently, the other side of the world. There are a couple small issues, at one point Lois is in an unusual pose, at one point Jon's face looks peculiar, but these are extremely small criticisms in an otherwise well drawn issue.

As a conclusion to the Doomsday arc, this issue was satisfying. While the first few issues may have faltered, the arc really hit its stride with a good mixture of action and character moments. Despite my personal belief that the Doomsday fight overstayed it's welcome a few issues ago, I still enjoyed what these issues had to offer as a look into just who Superman is and how even the classic Superman has changed since his first encounter with the monster. Beyond the addition of a family dynamic, this Superman has shown an ability to learn from past mistakes, to take a more thoughtful approach to protecting the innocent, and as such I believe is the perfect person to represent hope for a new era.