The rise of Brainiac, a new look for Doom, and the return of Wildebeest (sigh…)

Adventures of Superman 438, Doom Patrol 6, Green Lantern Corps 222, Infinity Inc 48, New Teen Titans 41, Swamp Thing 70

While Millennium didn’t exactly set the DC Universe ablaze with new ideas, its aftermath comes with a bevy of solid comics from top-notch creators. It also featured several books clearly on their last legs, chugging along still for no discernable reason. This week features examples of both, from the great team of Ordway and Byrne to the dismal follow-up to Millennium from that series’ creative team.

Adventures of Superman #438 by John Byrne, Jerry Ordway, and John Beatty

John Byrne’s corner of the DC Universe has introduced many of Superman’s classic villains at this point in post-Crisis continuity. Yet somehow they’d reached almost two years of Byrne’s run without bringing Brainiac into the fold. This issue fixes that, though in a way I doubt anyone expected.

Art by Jerry Ordway. All art featured in this article is owned by DC Comics and used for review purposes.

Clark Kent, Jimmy Olsen, Cat Grant, and Cat’s son Adam Morgan are all taking in a circus. An incident with an elephant that Superman has to intercept points to an abusive trainer, but the events of the day still face an issue as the…