Neal Adams was one of the greatest artists in the history of the comic book medium. But as a writer he was average on his best day. The Coming of the Supermen showcases the great, the good, and the blah that comes with an Adams written project. Now admittedly some of my confusion might be that I don't read the DC Universe with any regularity and so the changes made to the status of characters might be a little more confusing because of that, but not this much.
Adams has one trick with his writing, he wants to present the reader with a conundrum and then explain it. Sadly, the explanations are often bewildering. The approach reminds me of Silver Age DC covers which often grabbed the reader's attention with some absurdity on the cover which demanded a explanation inside. Adams seems to take this approach. The story begins with the arrival of three different looking "Supermen". And we are to wonder how that happened.
We quickly learn that it involves Jack Kirby's Fourth World creations. The Supermen are battling Kalibak and his Parademons. The focus seems to be to capture a boy and his dog. Superman, both as Clark Kent and as the "Man of Tomorrow" takes the boy named Rafi in. Then it turns out that Lex Luthor is involved.
The blood of these Supermen is seen as resource and Luthor is eager to harvest a tiny bit of it. Superman puts an end to that. And then Darkseid shows up. I'm not crazy about how Adams portrays Darkseid, as he seems enraged most of the time and not cold and calculating with little regard for anyone else. This is what made him scary. It's not that he can fire off an Infinity Beam out of his eyes to obliterate you that is the scariest part, it's that your existence or nonexistence means nothing to him.
With Darkseid comes pretty much the whole gang from New Genesis and Apokolips. Orion plays a big role in the story and both Mister Miracle and Big Barda are on hand for some key moments. Metron is around but seems quite different from how I normally see him. In addition to Kalibak, both Granny Goodness and Steppenwolf are around, though I don't think the latter is every fully namechecked in the story. It's always fun to see the Fourth World gang, and Adams draws them well. He even makes a classic Kirby faux pax and renders Orion's mask wrong on one page.
If you were to ask me what this saga is about, I'd be hard pressed to answer. It has something to do with New Krypton and creating a red sun so that Darkseid can gain a foothold. This series was published in 2016 and so anything in the continuity then is likely not the status quo today, so it matters little in regard. It's fun to see Darkseid and Luthor matching wits and each one trying to backstab the other.
I found the finale clever, but a bit bloodless. In the end, it's hard to care too deeply about a story which is rather confusing though drawn with vigor and power. It proves what I knew already -- Adams was not a very good writer, but he was a damn good artist. That is unless I'm missing something. If so, please tell and I'll tackle this one again.
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