Mon El takes out Shrapnel, one of the many super villains threatening Metropolis since they feel they’ll have an easy time of it with Superman away.  There’s more than just Mon El on the case though.  The Guardian, Field Commander of Metropolis’ elite super SWAT-like team, The Science Police, Black Lightning and John Henry Irons, aka Steel are also active on the streets of Metropolis.  Mon El, being the most powerful of them all is therefore the most quickly effective superhero when it comes to dealing with super-villains.  Mon El is learning though, that balancing super-heroics with maintaining a secret identity isn’t as easy as it seems, but The Guardian is quick to offer some well thought out advice.  Mon El also learns that in the world of super-heroics anything can happen including the loss of what makes a superhero super.

In this issue we see the advancement of several plotlines lingering from a few months and several issues ago that occurred before, right at the beginning or just shortly after the NEW KRYPTON arc including: Jimmy Olsen’s contacting of Zatara for help in unraveling the magic based attack of Atlas; the continual sneaking around of The Parasite on a quest to power up; The Guardian’s following up on his foretold role in saving a strange creature imprisoned in a fluid vat; and the military’s spying on the superheroes active who have Kryptonian ties.

Guedes’ pencils remain sharp along with his panel breaks that help capture the feel of the action of a particular battle, like the one with Shrapnel at the beginning of the issue, or the wide eyed panic in Mon El’s eyes and a pretty well drawn full page ending to the issue that accurately portrays a fearful fall while relating for those who fear heights, like myself, a bit of a traumatic feeling. 

Overall, witnessing Mon El’s development as a superhero has been and eventful one, but we’ve seen him do battle a few times now and we’re pretty sure, by this point, that he can handle himself so a little more personal development of his identity as Jonathan Kent and his attempts at fitting into Metropolis’ non-superhero scene is now needed to round him out as a character and set the stage for his, sure to be, further adventures after Superman’s return to Metropolis.  With the events of this issue though, the stage might be getting set for this development.  Hopefully so, since Mon El’s story hasn’t lost my attention, yet, and I’m not talking about missing Superman from his own namesake’s book anymore, for now…