Regret
FINALLY! Despite the cover's credits, Jesus Merino ISN'T doing the finished art for Dan Jurgens, Ray McCarthy is, and the difference is IMMEDIATELY noticeable. It's still got a bit of an outdated style, but it doesn't look NEARLY as stiff or weird as it did before. Just in time for Jurgens to be off the book I guess...
The pacing for this issue swings wildly. First Superman's thinking he tangled with someone on Darkseid's level, then suddenly he THINKS and gets tactical advantages and suddenly he's all over the guy, kicking his ass. And then things get weird. Because there's a moral dilemma here that Superman COMPLETELY ignores like an asshole until later on. This dude is straight up telling him everything was in self defense and he just f***ing wants to get home.... and Superman's like "..... Yeah... but STAY HERE WHERE YOU CAN'T BREATHE AND PAY FOR MURDER ANYWAYS." It just seems out of character for Superman to be so blindly antagonistic like that.
However what this issue DOES do for a good finale to Jurgens' run, is work with the moral issue of the people's perception of Superman. Oh sure, Perez tried something like that.... he just failed miserably. Jurgens REALLY knows what he's doing in this regard. Other countries wanting their own 'Superman,' and Superman dealing with feelings of alienation.
In Conclusion: 2.5/5
It's a good way to end Jurgens' run..... but overall the issue was pretty mediocre. The art was better and I liked the final themes to the story.... but the middle was quite a big mess of Superman arguing like a self-righteous asshole.
