Pick of the Week #996 – Superman #873 (30)

September 28, 2025·1 hr 19 min·5 clips

Superboy Prime's shocking double-cross in Superman #873 wasn't what it seemed—and Conor didn't see it coming.

The cold open is pure drift. Before the comics talk gets its shoes on, the host is explaining a bike crash, a bruised rib, a sneeze that made everything worse, and the usual comedy of getting older. Then the book takes over. The biggest reaction is to the art, especially the double-page spread of characters moving through a forest where the page is mostly foliage but still feels busy, clear, and alive. Eight years suddenly does not sound that wild. The panel likes the scale of the drawing, even while admitting the story is working a familiar fantasy shape. Robert Kirkman is the surprise here. They remember liking his Avengers work, then talk through how this creature-tribe story feels like a different lane without feeling completely unlike him. The plot keeps itself simple. An aging tribal elder can no longer kill the beast for the feast, so the person close to him does the killing and the dragging to protect the old man's image. That cover does not hold. A rival spots the weakness, decides the elder is finished, and moves toward a leadership challenge in a culture where looking weak costs you fast. The harder turn comes before that fight can happen. The protege steps in because he knows the old man will not survive it. The panel does not try to clean that up. They keep coming back to how ugly the choice is, with loyalty, mercy, ambition, and public violence all tangled together. The skin ritual gives the whole thing some bite. Children are born with different skin, then a crystal sword and light strip it away to reveal the orc-like form underneath. It is weird enough to make the power-struggle setup feel less stock. The close drifts back to bodies falling apart. They check on the rib, joke about ibuprofen and ulcer worries, and leave with the same loose, overlong-panel feel they started with.

As heard by us

A shaggy shop-talk episode that turns a strange fantasy comic into a sharp craft discussion.

The episode starts with a bruised rib, a mountain-bike spill, and comic-shop banter, then settles into a Robert Kirkman fantasy issue with dense, meticulous art.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want a comic-shop hangout that starts with rib pain and ends in dense fantasy nitpicking.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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