DC Round-Up: SUPERMAN: THE KRYPTONITE SPECTRUM #1 has that All-Star feeling

THIS WEEK: Team Ice Cream Man takes on the Man of Steel, in the first issue of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum. Also, Supergirl #4 continues Sophie Campbell’s stellar run, artist Fernando Pasarin returns in Green Lantern Corps #7, and Batman: Dark Patterns #9 delivers a pyrrhic victory for the Dark Knight.

Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.

Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #1

Writer: W. Maxwell Prince
Artist/Cover Artist: Martín Morazzo
Colorist/Cover Colorist: Chris O’Halloran
Letterer: Good Old Neon

In a single panel on page 16 of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #1, the book’s creative team announces their intention. The announcement is simple; some might call it subtle. If you haven’t read All-Star Superman in a while, you might even miss it. But if, like me, you have this Frank Quitely panel from All-Star burned into your brain, you’ll quickly understand what writer W. Maxwell Prince, artist Martín Morazzo, colorist Chris O’Halloran, and letterer Good Old Neon are up to.

Yes, in Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum, it seems the creative team of Ice Cream Man has set out to create their own All-Star Superman. By which I mean, a timeless, innovative, and heartfelt story that is equal parts sci-fi adventure and personal examination.

And so far, they’re succeeding.

In case you haven’t previously heard about this five-issue miniseries, I’ll give you a quick rundown. The Kryptonite Spectrum kicks off with the arrival of four new kinds of Kryptonite: Purple, Cobalt, Speckled, and Rainbow. For reasons that I and Batman both find suspect, Superman decides to test out the effects these new types of Kryptonite have on him. This issue shows what Purple K does to Big Blue and, as you might expect from this creative team, the effects are pretty wild.

Specifically, Purple K breaks down Superman’s ability to perceive time in a linear fashion – which quickly turns this opening chapter of The Kryptonite Spectrum into a formalist playground. Pieces of dialogue and then whole panels start getting pulled backward and forward in time, culminating in an off-kilter fight scene between Superman, Batman, and Solomon Grundy that Superman literally pieces together. I don’t mind spoiling that here because writing those words really does not do justice to how Morazzo, O’Halloran, and Good Old Neon depict the process on the page. If you’re at all interested in seeing creative teams do neat things with their ability to control time through paneling and page layouts, you really need to give this one a read.

However, if The Kryptonite Spectrum #1 was just a formally-inventive comic, I likely would not be as high on it as I am. What really sold this issue for me was Prince and co.’s characterization of Superman, Batman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor. Just like in All-Star Superman, The Kryptonite Spectrum‘s versions of these characters hew closely to their cores. They look and feel like the iconic versions of these icons. But you can tell Prince has something to say about, for example, Superman’s relationship with Lois, and his relationship with Batman. This story is not just going to be about sci-fi wackiness and formal experimentation. It’s also going to be a story that has real heart and depth.

In a summer packed with great Superman comics, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum may be the best one yet. I expect we’ll be talking about this colorful, experimental series again in this space soon, as I’m quite excited to see what Team Ice Cream Man serves up in issue two.

The Round-Up

• • Supergirl #4 continues the series’s run as DC’s most delightful current ongoing. Writer/artist Sophie Campbell, complimented by colorist Tamra Bonvillain and letterer Dave Sharpe, strikes a great balance between retro and modern storytelling sensibilities – packing a ton of character, adventure, and fun into this issue without it feeling overstuffed. If you’re in the market for “classic” superhero comics, and you haven’t yet checked out this series, you really need to give it a read. It’s quickly become one of my favorite books in the All In line.
  • Green Lantern Corps #7, the second part of “The Starbreaker Supremacy” crossover between Corps and Green Lantern, sees artist Fernando Pasarin return to the series, and gives him the chance to draw the heck out of some cosmic-scale characters and set pieces. When I reviewed issue one of this series, I noted that Green Lantern Corps felt like a level-up moment for Pasarin. That remains true here. His, inker Oclair Albert, and colorist Arif Prianto’s take on the Sun-Eaters and the Source Wall sold the scale of the events in this issue, while their take on the now-mostly-emotionless Green Lanterns helped sell the philosophical aspects of co-writers Morgan Hampton and Jeremy Adams’s story. Between this issue and Green Lantern #25, “The Starbreaker Supremacy” is off to a solid start.
  • And finally, Batman: Dark Patterns #9 is a gut punch of an ending to the miniseries’s penultimate storyarc. There’s no knock-down, drag-out fight between Batman and a villain here – just a tragic turn of events that Batman is powerless to stop. Artist Hayden Sherman, colorist Tríona Farrell, and letterer Frank Cvetkovic once again deliver a set of gorgeous, inventive pages, which do a great job conveying the Dark Knight’s fatigue and heartbreak in the face of the pyrrhic victory writer Dan Watters devised. Provided this creative team sticks the landing in their final storyarc, Batman: Dark Patterns will certainly find a home on our Best DC Comics of 2025 list this December.

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