When we last left the Last "Full" Son of Krypton, he was still busy fighting the Eradicator and attempting to keep it from killing his half-human, half-Kryptonian son Jon in an attempt to purify him of his human DNA in efforts to rebuild Krypton, apparently with the deceased souls of the planet also inhabiting the Eradicator's form.

That battle rages on in this issue as Jon struggles with his true nature and his desire to help his dad fight the Eradicator while struggling with the balance of being both human and Kryptonian, a reality that his mother Lois helps him try to figure out in this story that really has taken a dramatically action-packed turn since the end of Issue #2. It's not that this isn't a welcome change of pace as any action involving Superman is certain to be on a grand and glorious scale, it's just very different from the smaller scale, family oriented story that it seemed we were going to get in the first two issues of this series.

To be fair, this is the first Superman arc I have read since Superman: Doomsday and I've only read that, The Death of Superman and Funeral For a Friend total as far as Superman arcs go, so this level of action and pace doesn't bother me one bit and isn't out of the norm for what I have read before, but I also don't know how different this is for readers that have read more or all of Superman's arcs right through the New 52 run into now. To me it feels a lot like that 90's Superman era and I said that in the last issue review, and that's even more apparent in this issue, especially with the return of a certain character that I won't give away for anyone that hasn't read the issue yet.

Right now in DC Rebirth, there's a few Superman stories going on when you consider the Action Comics arc, Justice League and also New Superman with Kenan Kong in the title role, so it's easy to somewhat get lost in the shuffle of what exactly the character is doing if you are trying to keep up with the whole Rebirth line right off the bat, but right now this Superman series aside from being a strong throwback to 90's era Superman action and stories is clearly a father-son story between Clark and Jon as both deal with their place in the world in different ways, Clark as a "new" Superman to this world and Jon as the child of two worlds, struggling to reconcile them both at the same time, a problem that Clark has always had, but never quite had to deal with from his son's half-human angle.

At this point, the Eradicator is a plot device villain, as he should be, to further the story between Clark and Jon along and it's a solid one at that so far. We're treated some great art from Patrick Gleason and solid writing from Peter Tomasi even if he's mining the 90's for some throwback angles. It's a welcome sight I would think from what I've heard from fans that weren't too keen on the New 52 direction with Superman and many other heroes.

5 out of 5 - DC UNIVERSE REBIRTH - SUPERMAN #4

This series runs twice a month, next issue due out August 17.