In this review of Superman #18, Clark and Zatanna continue their quest to find the map to the Dark Roads while Mercy and Lois set on their own mission..
Superman #18
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist and Main Cover: Jamal Campbell
Variant Covers: Guillem March, W. Scott Forbes, Sweeney Boo, Nicola Scott, Al Barrionuevo
Page Count: 28 pages
Release Date: September 18, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers
The Story
Superman #18 begins as Superman, now powerless and wearing a black healing suit, travels with Zatanna through the magic “dark roads” in search of help against Amanda Waller’s planet-wide power-sucking blitzkrieg. Their expedition leads them to “The Oblivion Bar,” a drinkery inside a pocket dimension that is populated by magic wielding characters. More specifically, it leads them to Neron who holds the Map of Mordu which they need to successfully traverse the dark roads without getting lost. Neron states that if Superman agrees to lie for him, he will give them the map. Superman agrees to lie, thereby lying with that agreement itself, and he takes the map.
Zatanna explains that while Amanda Waller cut off access to the multiverse, there’s still a way to access it through the dark roads, using the Map of Mordu. As they go on, Zatanna reveals that the map is literally draining her life essence away and she expresses to Superman that if she can’t get her magic back, she’ll be nothing.
Eventually they arrive upon Dr. Light in the House of Heroes who explains that Waller has kept an agent inside The Bleed that helps prevent travel in-between worlds. The agent is “Konfusion” a Batman-Superman hybrid by way of Green Lantern’s ring that was introduced back in the pages of Batman/Superman World’s Finest #4 (and it’s a toy! Kaminski brags in an editor’s note). Superman and a seriously power-drained Zatanna use the Map of Mordu to escape the House of Heroes and Konfusion just in the nick of time.
In the arctic, an amnesiac Luthor, as well as Mercy, Jimmy, and Siobhan are led by Lois Lane in a flying supersuit to the shattered remains of the Fortress of Solitude. A bit later, Superman and Zatanna take the dark roads to the arctic and regroup with the others. Now Superman has a plan: Zatanna, Dr. Light, and him are going to take the dark roads to find Batman and Wonder Woman while the rest of them head to Metropolis to fight Waller’s misinformation campaign.
Finally, as other recent books have done, the final page of Superman #18 is a panel-for-panel homage to Superman: The Man of Steel #17, showing the monster Doomsday busting out of containment.
Analysis
With a tie-in story this entrenched in comic book lore, it’s inevitable that most of the dialogue in Superman #18 must serve double time to catch up as many readers as possible. We’re now many months into the Absolute Power crossover, and since DC doesn’t want to completely ostracize anyone who might be jumping in for the first time, many of the characters speak almost exclusively through exposition.
Most of it is people telling each other things they already know (a big no-no in screenwriting). Take Neron’s line about the Map of Mordu: “you need this map so you can sneak around in the shadows and get past her defenses,” a line whose only purpose is to refresh or educate the reader as to the macguffin of the last few issues. In fact, with a few exemptions, this is a story almost entirely built around macguffins and destinations and wacky characters with little emotional investment despite the stakes of the wider story.
Unfortunately, the limitations of being a tie-in issue cause this story to neither be satisfying or inviting on its own, nor particularly consequential to the ongoing storyline. It serves as a narrative puzzle piece for completionists, but doesn’t work in any other context. Even when the destruction of The Fortress of Solitude is revealed for the first time in this book, it isn’t given the weight it deserves considering its rich legacy in Superman history. Instead, it’s shown through a simple establishing panel at the top of the page as if Joshua Willimson doesn’t even expect the reader to accept it as a true status-quo altering development.
Taking the issue for what it is, there are some highlights. Hardcore comic book fans will be delighted to see the Oblivion Bar and the myriad familiar faces that inhabit it. Joshua Williamson’s knack for writing Superman (the character) is on full display here, and he and Zatanna share a nice character moment about identity. When he tries to comfort her by stating that she’s more than her magic powers, she rightfully points out that it’s easy for someone who has three individualized identities to say that (Supes, Clark, and Kal El). She only has one: Zatanna. Her superhero identity IS her identity.
Jamal Campbell’s art is serviceable if slightly unremarkable this issue. His penchant for primary colors and approachable character designs is on full display and it’s cool to see the black suit, I guess. I wish he had tried to do a bit more with the dark roads and the Konfusion fight but the splash page where Lois and Superman reunite is great. They really look like a couple in love and it serves as a great emotional payoff for an issue that carries very little emotional substance elsewhere.
Final Thoughts
Superman #18 is not a bad issue, but it’s neither essential for the ongoing Absolute Power crossover nor is it accessible as a standalone story. As a result, while it avoids any offensive missteps, it also fails to rise to greatness.
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