Superman #666 - DC

Superman #666! What an ominous ring that has to it. But this title didn't go the way of Batman #666, with the imaginary story. Or alternate Earth, or whatever. No this one actually took Superman down in to the pits of Hell. The premise of the story is that when Krypton exploded, taking the live of all it's inhabitants, it also destroyed it's Hell. Not literally. But with no one for it to feed off of, it was essentially dead. Except . . for this one little demon . . . Rakkar . . . that hitched a ride along with Kal-el to earth. Once there, he became a part of our Hell. But with no believers he was basically powerless. So he had to convince the powers that be to grant him some of there power, and in return he would deliver Superman to them. Not a bad plan, actually. Except . . the Phantom Stranger got involved. Rakkar's plan was to take Superman through a dream scenario, where basically he would cut loose. He would feed him frustration and anger and also the knowledge that it was a dream. So since it was a dream, he would reason that it was his down time and he could pretty much do whatever he wanted. The problem is, they say unless you can do it in real life, you can't do it in a dream, because you possess the same character ideals and limitations. So basically if Rakkar could get him to cut loose in a dream, than he would have corrupted his soul making him a target for the Hell lords. But the Phantom Stranger basically split his soul, creating an out shell that was hallow. So Superman wasn't actually corrupted. And when he finally got to his real antagonist, Rakkor, then Phantom Stranger put him back in and he could take care of the situation. Pretty neat story actually. Kurt Busiek is still writing this book. I'm actually surprised that he's stuck around this long. He's not usually one to do that. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad he's here. I love his stuff. But I know that his time is limited, so I'm going to enjoy every issue that I get. Walt Simonson jumped in this issue on the pencils. And for this story . . . he was absolutely perfect for it. This was some of the best stuff from him I've seen in a while. And that's saying alot, because he's a fantastic talent. Overall this was a great issue. Next issue I think we get back to the Arion storyline. Yay!