Superman / Batman #57 - DC

This issue was different. Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning write it. Whilce Portacio does some fabulous art. Basically, Superman goes up against the Prankster. Superman knows that there's really nothing the Prankster can throw at him that he can't stand-up to. As does the Prankster. But this time . . he's got a different idea. It seems that the Prankster has been playing around with nanotechnology. It's infested in everything in his lair, including himself. But so far . . that's not really overly relevant to the story. The only reason I can think that it was even brought up was to give a reason why he's so much smarter now. Anyways, his plan is to lure Superman underneath a shrinking ray. Which he does, and he shrinks Supes down to sub-atomic size. As this is happening, Supes sets off his JLA emergency beacon. When Batman gets there and finds out what's going on, he call in John Henry to help. With a nanoscope he finds Superman in a piece of wood on the desk. He uses his unique energy signature to pinpoint him. There's a couple of problems though. First of all, they have to get Superman out before all of his energy is depleted. Time feels different at sub-atomic size. This whole thing is only about 15 minutes into it, but to Superman he feels like he's been there for over 2 months. Also, with all of this nanotech running rampant in the Pranksters hideout, they need to emp it before it can move on to infest the city. And, they can't just un-shrink Supes. Batman has to go in to retrieve him. I thought it was an interesting issue. I think Dan and Andy do a great job with their stories. And of course, I love Whilce's work . . anywhere I can get it. We'll see how it rolls out next issue before I make my final decision. There's some interesting ideas in here, but it just depends on the story space for their interpretation. It could end up being a great story, or . . it could be lame. We'll see how they play it out.