In this review of Superman #31, Superman heads off to fight in the King Omega tournament, while Lois makes a visit to the Fortress with fiery consequences.
SUPERMAN #31
Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON
Art: EDDY BARROWS
Main Cover: Dan Mora
Variant Covers: DAVID AJA, SEBA FIUMARA, ARIEL OLIVETTI, JORGE FORNÉS
Page Count: 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
Release Date: 10/22/25
This review contains spoilers
Following the events of Superman #30 and overlapping with DC K.O. #1 and Titans # 28, Superman #31 kicks off as Superman flies from Watchtower to the Fortress of Solitude in an attempt to access more information on Darkseid and King Omega. He’s disappointed to find that Jor-El has nothing to share on those topics. He doesn’t leave empty handed, though, as Clark asks Jor-El what he’d have done with unlimited resources and assistance leading up to the explosion of Krypton.
When Jor-El indicates that he would have saved everyone, Superman knows what must be done. He meets with Mercy Graves at Lexcorp to discuss the construction of superships to help evacuate the planet. After getting that arranged, he has to break the news to Lois and his parents about the tournament.
With Superman gone to enter the competition and the rest of the planet evacuating, Lois takes a detour to the Fortress to interview Jor-El about the Heart of Apokolips, but ends up breaking the simulation in the process. Fortunately, Lara steps in to fill in the blanks. She tells Lois of the legends of a final god and that in order to have an Omega, there has to be an Alpha. She believes Doomsday was the Alpha, but their conversation gets interrupted when Superboy Prime crashes through the walls of the Fortress.
After managing to hold off the evil Legionnaires and escaping from the future, he has information that Superman needs to hear about the Legions. This conversation is cut short by yet another massive explosion in the Fortress, but this time, it’s Sun Boy blasting his way in to finish off Prime. Fortunately, Prime now has some backup because when Sun Boy came blazing in with his sun powers, he exposed Lois to that energy, turning her into Superwoman once again.
Analysis
Joshua Williamson is doing a fantastic job of making sure the DC K.O. event remains connected. The first half of Superman #31 meshes nicely with the other recent books from the overall storyline. It’s done in a way that if you’re not reading everything else (you should be, though, because it’s off to a great start), it still makes sense. One downfall of these epic event stories is that if you aren’t familiar with all of the titles, it can get a little confusing to keep track of, but Superman fans are probably going to want to be fully up to date on the story, as DC K.O. is seemingly focused on Clark. With Williamson writing the core K.O. books, things are made a little easier with him writing Superman, as well.
The moments before Superman leaves for the tournament are full of emotion, with both Clark and Lois realizing how important and dangerous this is. Williamson is able to sandwich in these tender moments between more action oriented sequences at the beginning and end of the issue. The last couple pages are pure comic book fun, with Superboy Prime breaking the fourth wall, as usual, and Lois gaining super powers. Things weren’t crazy enough already, so let’s kick it up a notch, right?
With Dan Mora only on cover duty in Superman #31, we get treated to some good art through a combination of Eddy Barrows’ penciling, Eber Ferreira’s inking, and Alejandro Sanchez’s coloring. The characters are drawn with detail. There’s a variety of colors and tones used throughout the pages. One of the pages is when Lois is interviewing Jor-El. The panels alternate between the cool blues of Lois in the Fortress and warm oranges of Superman fighting to enter the portal for the tournament.
There’s a great splash page about halfway through Superman #31 that has Superman flying directly at you with the meanest look of determination you’ve ever seen. My other favorite splash page is the last-page reveal, where Lois is floating in a swirl of flames and Superboy Prime has a mile-wide grin on his face.
Final Thoughts
Superman #31 keeps the pedal down on the DC K.O. story. It has a blend of action and emotion while progressing the events on our journey to the Heart of Apokolips. Have fun, comic lovers!
