Superman: The Wrath of Gog [Paperback]

Chuck Austen (Author)

Book Description

Series: Superman (DC Comics) | Publication Date: June 1, 2005

There are robbers to catch, children to save and the hordes of Apokolips to stop and Darkseids minions provide only a hint of the threats that challenge the Man of Tomorrow. From the Silver Banshee to Proteus to new threats like Weapons Master and Sodom Gomorrah, the relentless action is nonstop for the Man of Steel. Will he have enough strength in the end to face the villainous Gog?

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5 Up–Clark Kent has recently returned from a long, intergalactic journey through time and finds that he has been demoted at work in favor of his newspaper-office rival, Jack Ryder. Lois Lane, Kent's wife, has apparently known about it for two weeks but was sworn to secrecy by the Daily Planet's publisher. Upset, Clark must become Superman to fight Gog, a horned man with equal powers, who plunges a spear filled with liquid kryptonite into Superman's chest, weakening him. The Justice League of America shows up to dispel Gog, who teleports away. Wonder Woman and the others take Clark to his boyhood home to recuperate. Once there, Lois's sister confronts him about his wife's poor treatment of him, but he doesn't want to hear it. The book ends with his marriage up in the air, the threat of Gog's return looming, and Clark's endearing love for office life diminished. Everything comes together in this title: a strong plot, well-developed characters, carefully rendered action, and snappy dialogue. There are a lot of Superman releases each year, but one such as this, which extends a good story line with great twists, should be on the buying lists of libraries with heavy comics circulation.–John Leighton, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author

Chuck Austen has written a wide range of titles, including Captain America, The Avengers, U.S. War Machine and the X-Men. He has also written JLA and his own Worldwatch. Ivan Reis has illustrated The Avengers, Crux, Lady Death, Iron Man, The Invisibles, and Xena: Warrior Princess. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (June 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401204503
• ISBN-13: 978-1401204501
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,443,117 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars With bad writing comes bad readability!, June 7, 2005

By 

Thomas Foss - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Superman: The Wrath of Gog (Paperback)

Chuck Austen came into this story arc, claiming he would take the character "back to his roots," to the wisecracking, violent incarnation of Superman that dominated in the 30s and 40s. For some, this would be admirable, but when such a turn flies in the face of sixty years of character development, it looks more ridiculous than bold.

Austen wrote two fill-in issues of Superman books before he started this regular gig. In both issues, a normal human character is introduced, bonds with Superman, and dies, causing Superman to begin brooding and questioning his role. In one of the issues, he goes after criminals with a fistful of wisecracks and a blatant disregard for human life, tossing inhabited cars into buildings and whatnot. That's not Superman, folks.

Austen's Man of Steel reads like Spider-Man with a cape. He tells jokes, curses, constantly doubts his abilities, and acts in wholly uncharacteristic ways. Besides that, Austen's "plot" is plagued by too many attempts to look cool with no real substance. Gog and Doomsday attack over the course of the arc that begins with this TPB, and Superman gets repeatedly beaten, even by third-string villains like Weapons Master and no-string villains like the inexplicable Repo Man. The convoluted story makes no sense whatsoever, it does not have any sort of logical flow. Austen's writing fight scenes without cohesion or continuity.

Oh, and just for fun, Austen decides to shake up Clark and Lois's marriage by divorcing Lana Lang and her husband, and portraying her as a desperate girl who can't get over her old high school crush, while simultaneously turning Lois Lane into a cold, jealous b*tch.

The biggest shame of all of this is that Ivan Reis's fantastic art is wasted on such a terrible, terrible story.

Austen can write, he proved that in the excellent maxi-series, "Superman: Metropolis." Unfortunately, his run on Action Comics lacked anything that made "Metropolis" good. Check your local comic shop for the 12 issues of that series (since I don't think they've ever been collected), and avoid this as if it were Kryptonite.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Stand Alone, June 25, 2005

By 

This Reader (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Superman: The Wrath of Gog (Paperback)

I haven't followed Superman, so I can't put this book into the context of sixty years like the other reviewers here, but as a stand alone, I really enjoyed it. I found the action exciting, and the way other hero's (like the Teen Titans) looked at Superman pretty cool. The action sequences (which one previous reviewer derides) were handled very, very well in my opinion. The art was fantastic, and it was easy to tell exactly what was happening from punch to punch.

As to the Clark/Lois/Lana part of the story -- I found it compelling, but again, I was completely lost as to where the relationships should be in the context of what previous writers have done. Perhpaps in the grand scheme things the relationships might have felt off, but for a stand alone book, it was entertaining. And as far as Superman's actions during the fight scenes -- I didn't see the lack of concern for human life mentioned by the other reviews -- at least not in this vollume, which is the only one I've read. In fact, Supe's seemed pretty self sacrificing and inspiring to me. And as for Superman beating Darksied and all his men in under ten seconds -- as I recall it, the story picks up at the end of a long fight between Superman and Darksied's men, implying the battle has been much longer than portrayed. And while Darksied does appear at the end of the battle, it is not as a participant, so it isn't quite accurate to say Supe's beat Darksied and all his men in ten seconds.

Anyway, as someone who hasn't been following Superman, I enjoyed reading this vollume quite a bit.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Terrible Writing, Good art, February 11, 2008

By 

Christopher Gwyn (over there) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Superman: The Wrath of Gog (Paperback)

I suppose this comic TPB would be great if you couldn't read and just looked at the pictures. The artwork is solid and detailed. The problem is with the writing. It seems like writer Chuck Austen always wanted to write Spiderman and got stuck with Supes. The plot is scattershot and Superman spends his time making lame one-liners. There is a contrived sub-plot with Clark Kent being demoted and neither his boss or his wife will tell him about it. The soap opera BS of Lana Lang's pining for Clark and questioning of Lois Kent's commitment to her husband was pathetically weak. And there was the inexplicable fight sequence mixed in with that sub-plot that had nothing to do with anything. What was that all about? Zero stars for writing and 4 for art. If you want to have some cool pictures for your kid to look at, pick this up. If you want to read a Superman trade that is up to expected standards, forget it.