The Weekly Panel of Steel #8

Wow, so we're graced with two weeks in a row where we had suitable contenders for the Weekly Panel Of Steel! I don't think that's happened since I started this blog.

This week's panel is a beautiful image, coming to us courtesy of the Flashpoint event. So far, we've been about six weeks into this story with nothing but a fleeting image of a cracked Superman logo on a bunker to keep us Superman fans properly teased.

All of that comes to an end today (well, almost) with the release of Flashpoint: Project Superman #1. This is the mini that sets out to tell us how there is no Superman in the Flashpoint universe. With the briefest of teases, and the few tidbits they've released in some creator interviews, it looked like we were going to get a Superman/Super Soldier type of story with Kal-El as a government guinea pig.

Well that's not quite what they delivered, as they managed to one up my expectations. The government super soldier angle is still there, front and center, but it appears that the Project Superman had their alien DNA long before Kal-El crashed to Earth! That's right, his ship comes crashing right into the heart of Metropolis, not long after the original Project Superman test subject has gone rogue.

All through the story we're led to believe that Kal-El was the origin of the alien DNA, but as we see in the last page of the story and in this weeks Panel of Steel...that's not quite how it happened.


I like the redesign by Gene Ha of the Kryptonian spaceship that brings Kal-El to Earth, as it has a nice Silver Age meets Superman movie feel to it.

All in all, this series has me excited to see how this plays out...and it's all because of that great last page!

Plot by Scott Snyder & Lowell Francis
Script by Lowell Francis
Artwork by Gene Ha
Colors by Art Lyon
Letters by Rob Leigh

Flashpoint: Project Superman #1
The Hero's Road
August 2011
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