Superman #6

Written by: Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason

Art by: Patrick Gleason

Coloured by: John Kalisz

Lettered by: Rob Leigh

In the previous issue, Superman takes his family to the Moon to protect them from the Eradicator. Unfortunately, before they can get to the safety of the Moon based Batcave, The Eradicator attacks again, finally managing to absorb Superman and become even more powerful by using his living energy. Jon attempts to escape but is intercepted by the Eradicator, who once again attempts to kill him when he is suddenly fought off by Lois wearing a Bat Battlesuit. While Lois keeps the Eradicator busy, Superman, now inside of him, converses with the souls of the dead Kryptonians, convincing them to give him their power, and is able to escape, diminishing the Eradicator's power to almost nothing.

This issue begins as the fight continues, Superman punching the Eradicator into the Moon's core. Superman continues to dominate the weakened Eradicator, who continues to taunt him about the failure of his house due to Jon and the fact that he still has one soul left inside him. Superman quickly remedies this fact by reaching into the Eradicator's chest and ripping out Krypto, the tow of them delivering the finishing blow as the released souls of Krypton signal their acceptance of Superman's decision by morphing into a glowing Superman signal in the sky. He then fixes the knocked over transmitter from earlier in the fight, revealing to the world that Superman has returned. After they have returned to Earth, Clark takes Jon in to truely meet the Justice League, introducing him to Diana and Bruce as Superboy. As a cap to the Eradicator story, I actually quite liked this issue, it had Superman finally having the upper hand in the fight, and ended with a triumphant statement that Superman has returned.

The artwork remains impressive, although my critique of the overuse of shadow remains, making Superman's costume slightly darker than it should be. This issue in particular was full of great action moments, with Superman drilling the Eradicator through the moon and so on. The best moment, in my opinion, however, was the moment when Superman righted the transmitter and stood beside the American flag, striking his iconic and triumphant pose, completing the image of a classic, heroic Superman that this series has been promising.

Ultimately, I felt that this issue was an amazing cap to the Eradicator storyline, mixing family drama, Jon coming into his own, and the triumphant return of a classic Superman. While the issue may not be perfect, the moments that shine in it shine so brightly with hope for the future of the series that all of the critiques seem to just fade away. I remain excited for what the future holds, and hope that it can maintain this level of quality as it moves forward into its second arc.