Tales From The Dark Multiverse:The Death Of Superman #1 – Review

Tales From The Dark Multiverse:The Death Of Superman #1 is the latest building off of the success of the Batman Who Laughs. These comic series’ names are getting too long. While the premise is a “dark” multiverse, what we have laid out is a series of alternate earths that are just as viable as any in the “regular” multiverse.

Now, being a fan of an infinite multiverse, I like the general concept. It only requires that the stories be good. I also think that stories don’t need to always exist to build up to the destruction of the Earth, or the Universe. That’s a trap it seems the old Marvel series What If? fell into too often. Also, it’s nice to see DC Comics embracing and infinite number of alternate Earths. 

Tales From The Dark Multiverse:The Death Of Superman #1

Writer: Jeff Loveness
Penciller: Brad Walker
Inkers: Andrew Hennessy and Norm Rapmund
Colorist: John Kalisz
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Cover Art: Lee Weeks and Brad Anderson
In Shops: Oct 30, 2019

Solicitation:

The Dark Multiverse takes on the highest-selling comic book event of all time-the Death of Superman! In a broken world much like our own, Lois Lane, twisted by rage and grief, becomes the Eradicator and takes revenge on those who let Superman die, and the corrupt world he could never defeat. Now, with the power of a god, she’s going to end the battle by any means necessary…and the Reign of the Supermen will be over before it begins!

Review:

We have a lengthy, six-page introduction to the dark multiverse. It seems a little excessive, especially given that the panels are sparse. Our narrator is Tempus Fuginaut, standing in for Uatu in the DC Multiverse. With a 48 page story, this might be puffed out to reinforce the conceived peril of the Dark Multiverse. However, since there’s a point where details get compressed and powerful characters get dismissed quickly, a couple extra pages might have been better used. I will say that a character with a static expression on his mask is excellently rendered by Brad Walker to show interest and concern.

The story itself, where Lois Lane takes the death of Superman much worse, sees her become the Eradicator. Of course, this is different from the established continuity where the Eradicator masqueraded as a resurrected Superman. Of course, the absolutist nature of the Eradicator leads to very deadly methods. Naturally, this brings her into conflict with other heroes, specifically Batman. Given how tragic this reality is, it goes as well as you can expect.

Of course, the real conflict doesn’t come with this, which it logically should. Superboy and Steel side with her against Cyborg Superman. It doesn’t end well, with those heroes being dispatched quickly. When Superman does return and question her methods, it is written well, but ends poorly, because this is the Dark Multiverse. The story doesn’t so much have an end as just stop. This leads me to believe that this is part of a bigger plan to make parts of a threat to the “good” DC Multiverse.

Brad Walker does some great rendering, and his Lois really carries her grief and anger. There’s an irritating inconsistency to her costume design. Sometimes it has that broad, lighter center stripe that Eradicator had in “Reign of the Superman”. Most of the time, it just looks like it’s pure black. His Batman nods to Norm Breyfogle, which is odd, given that his work otherwise is detailed enough to hearken to Dan Jurgens without sacrificing the more naturalistic style popular at DC Comics today. While I generally dislike too much experimentation with page design, his use of broadly designed pages is very nicely done and attractive.

Final Rating: 7.5 (out of 10)