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The Man of Steel must face off against some of his deadliest
enemies, including the Silver Banshee, Preus and Doomsday
- the being who once killed him! Then there's a new villain,
Repo Man. But none of these compare to the vengeful Gog, who
has travelled back from the future to keep his vow of ending
Superman's life...
This
graphic novel, which collects issues 820-825 of Action
Comics, concludes the Gog storyline that was set up in
The Wrath of Gog.
Once again, though, despite its title, this volume is more
concerned with other characters than it is with Gog, who only
truly dominates the final issue.
Before
that, Superman battles a reincarnated Silver Banshee, whose
new personality has more in common with one of Judge Dredd's
Dark Judges. Whereas the Banshee only used to kill those who
stood in her way, in her new body, that of an obsessive compulsive,
she feels the need to "tidy away" the whole of humanity -
by killing them, of course. However, the main villains are
the Kandorian racial supremacist Preus, who assembles an army
of followers from a band of red-necked survivalists, and a
wimp-turned-warrior Repo Man, who takes centre stage during
the middle two issues.
Chuck Austen's writing is a great improvement upon that in
Wrath, though his version of Superman still seems to
relish violence more than I believe he should. Here, for instance,
he threatens to "pop" the Silver Banshee's "head off its neck",
and later has a smile on his face as he beats up Repo Man.
However,
we also get to see Clark's caring side, as he regrets being
forced to defend himself against Preus' human followers, including,
in a heart-rending scene, a suicide bomber. The Man of Steel
is also weakened by an ageing effect of Kryptonite - which,
in a neat nod to the past, gives him the appearance of the
older Superman of Earth 2.
The
Clark/Lois/Lana love triangle develops further when Lois finds
a pair of Lana's panties in the apartment. Unfortunately,
the conflict between the women in Clark's life appears to
be closed rather abruptly by a few stern words from Martha
Kent (who, following her post-Smallville makeover,
is described by Repo Man as a "looker"). Maybe the catfight
between Lois and Lana has merely been postponed. Let's hope
so...
Boasting
dramatic character revelations and action-packed art, In
the Name of... is much better than The Wrath
of... Thank Gog.
Richard
McGinlay
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