COMIC REVIEW- Superman: For Tomorrow

Superman: For Tomorrow is a comic that starts off so promising. However, the longer it goes on, the more it becomes a bloated mess, dropping the ball as it limps along to an ending. This review has spoilers throughout, so you have been warned.

To start with a positive, throughout the whole book, the artwork is strong. Superman is drawn in vivid colors and the battle scenes are always drawn interestingly. The only exceptions are the female characters: Wonder Woman and Lois Lane may as well be interchangeable models with abnormally large breasts. Despite this, the artwork does hold up well and maintains a good balance and really drives home the differences between the warzones, cityscapes and the paradise.

The story, however, doesn’t hold up nearly as well as the artwork. For Tomorrow follows Superman after the disappearance of millions of people worldwide. This includes Superman’s wife, Lois Lane. Superman seeks out a random priest, who is dying of cancer, to confess about his ‘sin’. The first part of the story is then told through flashbacks from when Superman first learned of the disappearances as he is telling the priest of his ‘sin’ in saving the world. For me, this had the best part of the book in it when Superman takes on 4 giant elementals (earth, fire, wind and water) summoned by an Amazonian witch to kill the alien ‘foreigner’. When the elementals threaten to destroy the world to get Superman to leave, he effectively beats them at a game of chicken.

From here, the book starts to become bloated and loses allot of its narrative momentum. Superman travels to a warzone in order to stop the fighting, which somehow leads to a coup by another group. We are introduced to a commando, Orr, who Superman, despite his superior senses, somehow continues to miss. There is also a genetically-engineered killing machine in the employ of the group who stage a coup. Although marginally effective in showing why Superman shouldn’t be a one-man peace force, there are allot of other books which have done this better. Superman’s visit to this warzone feels like a convenience just so that he can discover the device that caused the disappearances: A portal to a paradise in the phantom zone which he created and then meditated to get forget about. If that sounds confusing and unnecessary, it is probably because it is.

For me, when he travels to the phantom zone is where the story really went off track. Zod is the big surprise villain as they have a beat-down. The priest, the most interesting character in the book, is wasted and rushed out of the picture after he is transformed into a mindless killing machine who wants to die after accidentally killing some innocents, Aquaman and Superman have a stand-off for some reason that is built up then forgotten about, and Batman and Wonder Woman try to stop Superman trying to save the millions of people trapped in the phantom zone. Adding in frequent flashes to the Amazonian witch and Orr which feel pointless within the confines of the story and just makes the narrative more confusing and have no decent rhythm. It almost feels like the story is at odds with itself, alternating between being a thoughtful meditation on Superman’s role and then having a bunch of dumb action scenes.

For Tomorrow ends up being a bloated mess of a Superman story. It has one of my favorite Superman scenes I have read in it, and it does start off promising. The artwork throughout (except for the one complaint) is really well done. I think it really could’ve benefited from reducing in the scope of characters towards the end to keep up a narrative rhythm. There should also have been more time for the priest, built up to be such a big part of the story, to actually give his character arc a meaningful conclusion.

1.5 out of 5 waffles of tomorrow, today!