Adventures of Superbro: Savage Dawn and Final Days

At first I thought about making separate posts for these two crossovers, but there really isn't that much to talk about them. Or not much that I care about to talk. So lets wrap this up in one go.

Savage Dawn directly follows Truth storylines and involves all the same titles: Superman, Action, Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman. And with the same writers, while artists move around a bit. So end result was pretty much more of the same. 

If you read Truth then you know that Vandal Savage had bunch of kids and with their help tries to take over the world or something like that. So this story is about dealing with Savage and his various kids that were fighting Superbro in various Truth story arcs. It all starts with Superman Annual #3 that recaps it, provides some connections between Savage and Superbro/Krypton and sets the stage for crossover. 

First problem with the crossover is fairly obvious - multiple creative teams don't align very well. And next problem is that the entire thing feels more like a new status quo than a crossover. Annual #3 sets the stage and then it feels like Superbro does bunch of side-quests before finally resolving things. And quality is all over the place with various strange decisions like Superbro becoming "mortal". At the time it was news to me that Superbro was "immortal", but Tomasi knew better.

If you read some of Truth and want to see how this thing ends then Action #50 and Superman #50 (with previously mentioned Annual #3 for set-up) are worth picking up. Superbro's powers are finally restored and Savage is defeated. That sounds all good and we can move back to regular Superbro adventures, right?

No, next comes Final Days crossover that kills Superbro. But lets start with the positive: while this crossover involves same 4 titles, Tomasi is the only writer. This leads to less inconsistencies and you can easily argue that on technical level Final Days is a better executed story than Savage Dawn. But what about the story itself?

Basic premise is that due recent epic battles like Savage Dawn, Darkseid War and whatever else Superman is actually dying now. It is just too much for his body to handle. On one hand it makes sense, on another hand it sounds like nonsense when you realize that if same logic was applied to other heroes then they all should be cripples or dead by now. So this decision is obviously very selective with singular purpose - to kill Superbro.

There are various other small issues like weak villain, hamfisted introduction of Convergence Superman, Superman/WW relationship coming back when it looked it was out during Truth. Doctor Omen warrants separate mention probably since this is her introduction and she plays an important role in Yan'g New Super-Man series. In short I don't think that reading Final Days provides any insight into New Super-Man and her role isn't clear till we are past Superman Reborn continuity "fix".

In the end none of these crossovers are good, but Savage Dawn at least provides an ending for Truth storyline. Final Days technically provides an ending for Superbro, but it all gets thrown out like a year later by Superman Reborn so whats even the point? Just read Yang's New Super-Man and save yourself some headache.