In this review of Superman Unlimited #4, the Super-Bat appears!
Superman Unlimited #4
Written by Dan Slott
Artist: Lucas Meyer, Rafael Albuquerque
Main Cover: Marcelo Maiolo, Rafael Albuquerque
Variant Covers: Mark Spears, Hayden Sherman, Robbi Rodriguez, Ryan Benjamin
Page Count: 21 pages
Release Date: August 20, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Superman Unlimited #4 begins as Tee-Nah arrives in Gotham to meet Jimmy Olsen. As they drive through the city, a giant bat-person falls from the sky. As they take the creature to Doctor Thompkins, Jimmy calls Superman, who saves a woman with Kryptonite jewelry from falling from the roof of a building. She kisses him on the cheek, and he leaves just in time to fight the bat-person as he wakes up and attacks the others.
The closeness of the kryptonite on the woman he saved makes him vulnerable, and the bat-person is able to bite him just before Robin arrives to help them take it down. Superman then turns into a super-bat, and Tee-Nah calls for help using Jimmy’s watch when they realize they can’t defeat him, causing Batgirl, Big Barda, and Black Canary to arrive.
Super-bat bites Black Canary, turning her into a bat-person too, and Jimmy insists they run away to make Super-bat chase them. When they are far enough away, he uses his watch to emit a high-pitched sound that knocks Super-bat out, and they manage to capture him and develop a cure to turn him and Black Canary back to normal. Jimmy writes about the ordeal for the Daily Planet, and Superman talks with Batman, who was in El Caldero buying up as much Kryptonite as possible to keep under lock and key away from Superman.
Analysis
The art in Superman Unlimited #4 is extremely well done. Most of the panels capture the characters mid-motion, giving the reader an excellent look at the action. The background and colors also fits the tone of each moment. Any moment where a man-bat is on the page is often surrounded by shadow or the color red, making it easy to feel the panic in the moment. It feels like a well-shot horror movie the entire time.
The characters’ expressions also fit both the individual characters and the narrative. I found myself particularly drawn to Robin, whose serious and grumpy looks made him stand out from the first moment he was shown. It makes the panels in the end where he’s smiling feel like a true payoff, and it’s still a unique expression among the more serious and surprised looks from Batman and Superman.
This is another issue of Superman Unlimited that is incredibly fun. They set a precedent with kryptonite and Superman’s new powers in the first issue and continue to use these short stories to expand the world and show us how the new forms of kryptonite and Superman’s new powers affect him.
Superman Unlimited #4 manages to present a new, fun story connected to the world they’ve already created in detail. What originally seemed to be a throwaway joke about Tee-Nah going to Gotham City before Metropolis was brought back as a basis for this entire story.
The major downside to the story was how fast Super-Bat was defeated. The text that showed off his screeching was simply filed away as another sound effect, and it didn’t feel highlighted enough to be noticed, let alone for the reader to realize that there was any kind of change in the sound.
The watch was highlighted throughout the story, but it still felt like far too simple a defeat. It was also very abrupt. Not only was Super-bat defeated instantly, but the cure for him and Black Canary was developed away from the reader’s eyes.
Final Thoughts
The art and atmosphere of Superman Unlimited #4 reinforce the excellent world-building and interesting characters, but the abrupt solution makes it feel like a large, important part of the story is missing.
