Ice to Meet You. Yeah, Some Dialogue's as Bad as Batman and Robin
The Good: The perspective on the cover is kind of nice, and the blur/focus effect to show depth is pretty nice as well. It's still not an amazing cover, but its the best yet.
Nicola Scott's art is great, more modern than Merino's (Not that that's always a bad thing) but where it really hits me is the panel layouts. Scott's layouts are definitely above Merino's.
It's pretty interesting to get a look at Lois Lane's life in her new producer role. Overall we get a nice look at the secondary characters and what they do when Superman isn't around.
When Superman stopped appearing in the issue, I didn't notice because it was the switching of perspectives. But then a character kind of pointed it out, and Superman's reemergence into the comic was a very well paced scene, especially since it didn't fall for a trap I thought was too obvious for this series not to fall into.
The identity of the ice monster was interesting, following the increased connections for each monster. I was actually confused when I remembered the flame monster was the security guard transformed, and this monster was who it was; but who was the invisible monster. Then I thought about it and it hit me. And I was like, "Whoa, a plot point that WASN'T explained in excruciating detail? Good job with that FINALLY. The identity of the invisible monster also works on another metaphorical level. The homeless man was already invisible to society. Except.... Superman was the one who couldn't see him, and society COULD, which totally turns the metaphor on its head.... Hmmm...
Some interesting development on the running plot.
The Bad: Your focal point of uproar against Superman is the death of 2 policeman? Not any other major death?
OH GOD. Why did you choose that heinous font for the M, A, and N in the presentation? "oooooh, it's like the font in Action Comics; but GOD it looks TERRIBLE in the slide.
Pages 9-10. I turned the page and just... oh god. Lots of dialogue can be find, but first glance here I just see a WALL OF TEXT, and I shuddered.
Superman is taking Morrison's subtle modernization of Superman and shoving it in my face and rubbing my nose in it. We get some oddly placed recaps of Action Comics #1-4 for no apparent reason, and I detect almost a hint of scorn in them. They're used as an example to help the reporters cast Superman in a negative light.
Superman's never felt punches before?
STOP TELLING US ALL THE ANSWERS LIKE THAT. "Metropolis was turned to fire by one entity, so logic dictates that this frigid variation may likewise be the act of a single alien force." AS IF YOU DIDN'T SPEND EVERY MOMENT MAKING IT CLEAR THIS THREAT IS JUST LIKE THE OTHERS.
"No! The creature! It's female!" Just.... stop. Morrison is modernizing Superman, and Perez is apparently trying his hardest to do the opposite. There's just so much that has gone into this issue that feels like a hate letter towards the first few issues of Action Comics.
"You're heading for a meltdown." GOD DAMMIT I TOLD YOU TO STOP.
In Conclusion: 2.5/5
This issue is better than the last, but only just barely. Nicola Scott's great layouts, and an overall more interesting pacing really helped things, but then the bad stuff was worse, and I just got depressed again. Seriously, NOBODY talks like that, and a villain suddenly turning out to be female isn't the end of the damn world. Maybe George Perez is a legend, but please, stop letting him drag Superman through this dredge, he deserves better.
