This issue wraps up the Alien storyline. The actual cover is in red, as opposed to the black one I'm showing here. But truth to tell, I prefer the black on myself. Anyways come to find out, Despero has been behind all of this madness. Basically what happened is Despero came across this alien race who goes around the universe cleansing planets that are inhabited by a race that have gone the wrong direction in their evolution. That's simply stating it . . . but that's the overall gist. So, Despero has them look in to the mind of Superman, their greatest hero, when he is under Despero's influence. All they see is hatred, anger and darkness, so they pass judgement on the planet, and deploy the Black Crystals to take all the inhabitants out. But now . . . Superman has broken Despero's influence. However, Batman has come under the influence of the Black Crystals. Actually he did it to himself because he knew that it was the only way that he was going to be able to take on Superman. Well Superman uses their friendship, and his knowledge of Batman and his beliefs, to break him free of the influence. Once they do that, they are pretty quick to deduce Despero's plans. And rather than fight him, they confront the aliens. Showing them that what they had seen before wasn't the true nature of their race. But the final straw was when they looked in to Batman's mind, because he had a nuke ready to use to take out the aliens. Superman convinced him to have hope, that if the aliens saw their true natures that they would spare them. Batman's internal decision to not use the nuke, and have faith in Superman's plan, is what turns the tide on the aliens decision. And immediately everyone is set free from the Black Crystals. Fantastic story by Mark Verheiden. Also Joe Benitez is the penciller on this issue. I really like his style. I think he's trying something different here. There were frames that really reminded me of some early Todd McFarlane stuff. It was really nice looking. Overall this is a fantastic series. I have been blown away by every story-arc that's come through here. Props to all the creative talent.
