Composite Superman

Art Baltazar and Franco continue playing in the DC sandbox in Super Powers #2, with a near defeat for Superman and something mysterious arriving in Central City. You can see how much fun the preeminent kids' comics team is having drawing on a wide selection of DC influences in this exclusive five-page preview!

Q: Composite Superman: good idea or great idea? -- @aleams So here's the thing: There's a certain kind of brilliance in comics that comes from simplicity. It's the kind of brilliance that you see in a character like Superman, where you know what he's about just by looking at him, where you only need to explain the minor details that make up his personality, because the broad strokes of who he is and what he does are right there from the very first time you see him. Composite Superman, on the other hand, is the exact opposite of that. He's counterintuitive, weirdly designed and completely ridiculous --- and somehow, some way, that's exactly what makes him great.

Since the dawn of the Silver Age, legacy characters have been a staple of superhero fiction, and having a new character step into a well loved roll can open up new opportunities for writers and artists to tell different kinds of stories. In The Replacements, we'll look back at the notable and not-so-notable heroes and villains to assume some of the most iconic mantles in the superhero genre. Today we’re looking at the brave souls who heard the call and in one way or another attempted to fill Superman’s boots. Some — much like Superman himself — are lost souls from dying worlds, some are two-bit thugs and at least two of them are pretty much The Terminator.