This stand-alone one shot goes directly into the past of Cyborg Superman. We are almost thrust into the mindset of Hank Henshaw from the opening page. The pacing of the story was a little slow in my mind. Basically you get this issue to set up the first battle in a long time between Cyborg Supes and Superman. Basically you are given a book here that is given in narrative by Hank.

He goes into great detail about his past and what he did before taking on the mantle of Cyborg Superman. Being an astronaut and having his wife on the shuttle with him seemed very coincidental and really almost like they threw this in to tie the book together. We get the back-story of how Hank crashed on earth and was hit with a radioactive wave upon entry giving him and his three-crew mates special powers that eventually wind up being disabling diseases. Hank’s 2 friends are turned into monsters, and his wife is slowly disappearing before his eyes. FINALLY finding out who has made Cyborg Superman and why he came to earth was the only interesting part of this issue.

Allan Burnett did what he could with this character without trying to give away what is going on in the Sinestro War story. But I just think this issue fell flat with what it could have been. I enjoyed the back story of Hank’s past, but I felt that this issue made him less evil and more of a whining baby who wants to only further his own agenda. Patrick Blaine is on the artwork duties here and does a pretty good job of pacing what he is given. His story telling abilities are at its best during some of the battle scenes and remind a lot of Dan Jurgen’s work.

All in all is you’re a fan of Superman then this issue is a must have, but I felt that it could have been better and really could have spent my money on something else this week.