4 out of 5

From the cover copy and image – ‘The REAL World’s Finest,’ as Supes, partially out of frame, carries an in-frame cop – you can guess what this issue of Superman is likely to be about, and if you’ve followed Chuck Austen, that wouldn’t be too much of a surprise, playing in to his general hoo-rah attitudes.

At the same time, Chuck excels at finding very human pathways to explore within the larger soap operas and cliched takes of comics, and this Man of Steel guest issue is, pleasingly, one of those examples. Not that the setup isn’t essentially in line with what we might predict, as Supes celebrates the contributions of his street-level Metro PD compatriots, but Chuck hip-checks some sentimentality by telling this from the cop’s POV, and winks at some comic contrivances: as we’re being read to from a diary by said copper, he’s allowed to call-out that that kind of ruins any tension – he wrote the thing, so he survives whatever tale he’s telling us, eh?

Happenstance allows the diary-writing cop, Wix, and Superman, to go get a coffee after a particularly harrowing save, and Supes takes a liking to the way Wix chats him up like a fellow Metropolisian. This turns into a regular habit for the duo, kept on the downlow so as not to attract too much attention. Meanwhile, some inserts give us different sides of how the locals and the police view Supes, and some additional background context on Wix; all of it giving further value and weight to the little chats, which are incredibly charming.

And even upon a final plot swerve, whether you’d want to call it predictable or not, Chuck avoids some outright blue line sentimentality, again keeping the focus on humanity. It’s surprisingly powerful, given how surface-level generic the story could otherwise be considered to be.

Artist Pascal Alixe is an odd companion here. Their extra linework on figures reminds of Leinil Francis Yu a bit, except here, Alixe just kind of makes everyone look… middle-aged, but in a weird, discordant way. In a Superman-is-balding way that doesn’t feel purposeful. Obviously that style does kinda work well for the grounding concepts, but again, I can’t see that was directly intentional. For a mostly chatty (read: minimal action) comic book, they do keep it moving exceedingly well.