Written by: Keith Champagne
Art by: Doug Manhke
Publisher: DC Comics
After the much needed break, Clark returns in this chapter to fight one of the biggest DC villains!
Fear Itself Part 1 really focuses on that emotion quite a bit,with everyone involved being stricken by it, including the Man of Steel. This issue plays more like a detective story more than anything else as the Big Blue is trying to figure out the reason for the disappearances of children.
That premise in its own does not sound like a much of a Superman story, but it is way more complex than that and Champagne does a good job in telling this investigative story in such manner that is tense and ultimately not boring, which is always important in the comic book. There are some strong omissions here, as rest of the Superman books always had some connections with his family; where this issue only mentions them in passing. There is a hope that Jon and Lois are going to play integral part of the story later on, but they are omitted in this particular chapter which is a shame.
Art is yet again by Doug Manhke who continues to impress on the Superman title and is always a welcome addition to Gleason. He knows this character, he knows his strengths and weaknesses and that is represented in the art here. This is especially evident toward the end of the chapter when the big reveal happens.
Manhke is familiar with both Superman and Green Lantern mythos being on both books for a very long time, and the way that he changes up his style just slightly toward the end of the chapter is nothing if not impressive.
Superman 29 is not the best Superman story in Rebirth line, but it is nice to see other characters not from Superman line make an appearance in this book. As mentioned, the lack of Superman family in this particular chapter is somewhat missed, especially how this story is shaping up, but there is a strong possibility they will be an integral characters toward the end of the arc.
Superman continues to be a very strong book in the Rebirth line, together with Batman, and shout out to Metal, Snyder and Capullo are back, so for a trinity of books to purchase this week from DC, I would go with those three!
