Superman: Dawnbreaker (DC Icons, #4)

by Matt de la Pena

[thepunktheory]

Full review on my blog!

Well, Superman didn't save the day here.
There are a few issues I have with this book, but the biggest one is how the story is spread out.
It's a little over 200 pages long and almost nothing happens for almost 90 pages. So all the main showdowns, resolves and epilogues are squeezed in the final 20 or so pages. I got rather bored because even the setup of the story is not too exciting. There isn't much going on either and ultimately many questions remain unanswered.
When it comes to logic, Superman is doing a little better than, for example, the Batman book. However, there are still a few irritating moments, especially with the fight scenes, where I had trouble figuring out what de la Pena was actually describing.
The overall vibe I got here was the same I already got from Batman. This book could be the plot for an afternoon TV series but I certainly don't want to read 200+ pages of that.
I found Superman rather slow-paced and thus a bit boring. I wish de la Pena had spread out his story in a different way as I did see a lot of potential in the idea. Had he focused more on the conflict and resolve of that the book would have been so much more fascinating! But as is, I can't help but get the impression that he didn't really know where he was going with it either.