All-Star Superman #11 Review

ALL STAR SUPERMAN #11
Written by Grant Morrison
Art by Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant

You can't do this to me Grant! You can't do this! Why must I be forced to wait another god knows how many months before we see the conclusion to probably the greatest Superman story in history? I don't know if I can possibly take it.

Where other titles fall of the face of the planet due to delays and completely lose my interest by the time their next issue comes out, All-Star Superman, with it's relatively done-in-one stories, has remained a shining beacon of chocolate coated goodness in a sea of broccoli (The broccoli must...die!).

This issue marks Superman's final trials before he dies. Unfortunately for him, Lex Luthor and Solaris are those trials and things don't work out too well for Clark once Lex gains super powers of his own and the red sun radiation emitting Solaris get done with him.

The only thing that kept this from becoming a generic slugfest issue (an awesome one, but slugfest nonetheless) is the introduction of Lex Luthor's neice. Is she new? I've never heard of her, but I doubt Grant just made up a random new neice for Lex, but I wouldn't put it past him either.

Turns out, this neice is quite insane and her dream is to marry a dead man while riding atop an extinction-level event asteroid as it strikes the Earth, killing herself and all of humanity in celebration. Yeah, I think I'm in love. Her conversations with Lex and her general disregard for life is one of many highlights of the issue and I loved how she just stopped her downtown rampage so Jimmy could take her picture and put her on the frontpage of the paper, but not before mulling over the pros and cons of said photo.

The rest of the issue focused on Superman and his Super Robots battle with Solaris. Superman has a special suit to protect him from the red solar rays and he even busts out the Sun-Eater to combat Solaris. Superman eventually ends the battle with a hibernation inducing punch that puts Solaris' lights, literally, out for good, as Superman recalls how Solaris will be rehabilitated in the future and will help humanity. My memory isn't that great, but I think he's referring to DC One Million and the events that occur there, but I could be wrong.

We end the issue with Clark struggling to hand in his final story, the Death of Superman, before collapsing at his desk, his heart stopped and Lex Luthor busting through the wall in a dramatic, cliffhanger ending.

Verdict - Must Read. There's little I can say or do that hasn't been said before by better writers than me. Cloning should be started on Morrison and Quitely and mass production should be ready by 2015 so that we can replace every Superman title's creative team with an army of Morrison's and Quitely's. Only then will my dreams be fulfilled.

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