Superman: World of New Krypton #3 Review

Written by Greck Rucka and James Robinsion

Penciled by Pete Woods

Cover by Gary Frank

A group of disgruntled members of the Labor Guild have taken hostage Alura and a few others. In retaliation Commander Gor of the Kryptonian Military has rounded up a random group of Labor Guild workers and has threatened to release fire on them if Alura and the other hostages aren't released.

Zod is ready to give the order to Gor but Kal-El interjects asking for a chance to settle this without bloodshed. Zod is reluctant at first but Grants Commander El thirty minutes to try and find a more peaceful solution.

Kal-El uses one of the Archer rifles on himself, (they disperse red energy, rendering Kryptonians powerless for a certain amount of time) in order to negotiate in what he believes will be a non-threatening manner.

A restless member of the Labor Guild attacks Commander El when he first enters but things calm down when Tam-Or instructs his people to stop the fighting.

Kal-El becomes a bridge between Alura and Tam-Or, convincing her to accept some of the requests asked by the Labor Guild in return the members of the Guild must put down their weapons and release the hostages. Through this Tam-Or sees that Kal-El is genuine in his quest to keep peace with the people and help his guild.

Meanwhile Gor and Zod get into a heated discussion. Gor thinks he was wrongly taken out of the situation by Zod in favor of Kal-Els less violent approach. Zod orders Gor to release his prisoners and await further orders in the event that Commander Els plans fail.

Alura addresses the crowd, letting everyone know that the situation has been handled and for everyone to return to what they were doing without any violence.

From a distance Gor sets out to his own doings and fires a sniper shot at Tam-Or. The red sun blast hits him but Supergirl sweeps in to stop the bullet just before it hits him. Supergirl has impressed her cousin with this, and Alura speaks kindly of Kal-Els means of stoping the crisis while Zod scolds Gor once again.

All seems back to normal the next day but Gor decides to mock Kal-El and try to start a fight. Kal-El refuses to take action and walks away only to be blindsided from behind by Gor.

The Kryptonian military code states that the men must duel even though Commander El is strictly against it. Zod arrives ensuring that the battle commences. Kal-El mentions being trained by the Earths greatest user of hand-to-hand combat, but never mentions a name. (Batman)

In the end this training gives Commander El the upper hand as he quite easily defeats Gor. Kal-El delivers one final blow to keep his nemesis down before hearing from above "I'd say hes had enough Kal. And anyway, we need to talk."

He turns to see the Green Lantern Corps hovering, led by Hal Jordan

Story:

The story is progressing very nicely so far. The first three issues have given us somewhat new situations for the Man of Steel in ways that he had to use more reasoning than actual power which is nice. I really like the numbering diamonds on the front to tell you how far we are into the story as the whole scope covers 4 books at this point. Great work again, and the cliffhanger at the end leaves me waiting on the next issue to see what possible conflicts arise next.

Art:

The art is much stronger this time than in the previous issue. Hopefully as the story progresses so will Pete Woods' art. I don't mean to belittle his work; I loved it on the "Up, Up and Away" arc a few years ago, but his first two issues seemed a little sub par. Much better work this time and I think he's finally back on track again.

Cover Art:

The cover conveys what happens in the issue well enough, and Gary Franks art is beautiful as always, but nothing really stands out about it for me. The covers for #1 and #2 jumped out at me and made me want to buy the comic. If I were browsing just by cover alone, I would probably skip over this one and not even realize it was there.