Things look pretty bleak for Mon-El. He’s a captive of General Lane and Project 7734, and is given a choice of either joining Lane’s anti-Kryptonian forces or becoming a lab rat which is to be poked, prodded, and dissected by Lane’s scientists. Obviously, Mon-El will not join Lane’s little private army, and with the help of a fellow captive (and enemy) might just have the means to escape and live up to his promise to show Lane that he, like the man who he “replaced,” is not a “hollow creature” who “washed up on Earth.”

Mon-El is back and determined to show the world that he and Superman are heroes and that all of Lane’s machinations, which are designed to manipulate the world into thinking the contrary, are false. The ease with which Lane lets Mon-El go is somewhat surprising and might be a bit of a lapse on Robinson’s part, but things need to wrap up quickly and tidily in order for Mon-El to make his return debut and show off his new super suit next month. He’s also supposed to be joining the Justice League of America as well, so he needed to get away from Lane, and rejoin the "living" pretty cleanly.

Dagnino’s pencils in this issue are pretty solid, but like the storyline, feel a little rushed. The two page spread of Mon-El tearing through a squad of Project 7734 armored troops is a bit jumbled and chaotic, but manages to tell the story needing told visually. On occasion, Mon-El’s face looks different from page to page and sometimes his teeth seem unusually elongated as he grimaces while blasting heat vision rays from his eyes. These drawbacks to the issues art really aren’t necessarily a testament to any sort of shortcoming to Dagnino’s talent. They simply appear to be the product of a rushed job.

Superman #693, while not quite living up to the greatness of other recent issues of the Superman Family of books, does at least get Mon-El back on his feet, and set the stage for his, hopefully, triumphant return to Metropolis next month. It should be a blast.