Look! Up in the sky!! It's a bird, it's a pla- ... no, it's a crossover of two characters co-published by competing companies!

Superman has been around for 62 years, and is unquestionably the most popular character in literature. Despite that, old Supes is like porkchops to me. I love porkchops, having eaten them for around 48 years, but there are days when I cannot stand to look at one.

This is an "I cannot stand to look at Superman" day. Terminators have also been around the block more than once. These androids never were the most popular characters in literature, and I grew weary of the murdering android concept years ago.

If you have gotten the creeping premonition that this title is not going to get a good review, bravo. You are very perceptive and have been around a block or two yourself.

There is nothing original in the plot. Naked androids keep arriving on the doorstep of a mother to kill her son who could change the future and eliminate them. That is the Terminator premise. Superman will stop them. That is the Superman premise.

There are big fights. There is nothing exciting or original in the art either, which is uneven. There are big, incorrectly drawn muscles. (The artist could use a lesson or two in human anatomy.) The clever placement of smoke, rocks and other inanimate objects to hide the genitals on the incorrect anatomy of the androids is annoying.

Neither story nor art is terrible in Superman vs. The Terminator. This is average, uninspired work meant to sell comic books on the strength of two popular characters. Isn't it a shame they cannot sell more comics based on the strength of exceptional, inspired work?

Then again, maybe it just needs cheese sauce.

- Rambles
written by Michael Vance
published 19 April 2003