I received this from Edelweiss and Dark Horse Comics in exchange for an honest review.
2.75 stars (rounded up). This is the average of the ratings for the four stories included in this volume. This is the first of several volumes collecting the Dark Horse/DC mash-ups from the mid-90s to the early 2000s.
Story #1 - Superman vs Alien (1995). 4 stars. Good twist on the story of Argo, the city from Krypton, as well as Kara (“Supergirl”). This one read like one of the old Elseworlds volumes from the 1990s. The aliens were properly vicious and it was good to see Superman actually have to rely on something other than his super-strength (he was losing his powers, being so far away from our sun). This seems like it was wide open for a sequel…
Story #2 - Superman vs Alien II: God War (2002). 1 star. I hate the New Gods. There, I said it. Out of all of Jack Kirby's creations, the New Gods are the worst, by far. The characters have virtually no depth other than “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, especially Orion. Superman was a supporting character in this one, too: the primary storyline was Apokalyps trying to take over New Genesis (again) with another of his “intrigues”. Aliens are part of the story, of course, but it really has nothing to do with the aliens at all. Or Superman, for that matter. There's nothing going for this one; even the artwork sucks.
Story #3 - The Superman/Madman Hullabaloo (1997). 2 stars. Corny, very corny. Like Tom Hanks' "Big" corny. Switched personalities, switched universes, merged costumes, and one "bad" guy behind it all. This felt like a throwback to the light-hearted Superman stories of the 1960s, the Silver Age, in which nothing really bad happened to anyone, even when a building collapses on a crowd of people.
Story #4 – Superman/Tarzan: Sons of the Jungle (2001/02). 4 stars. Another “Elseworlds”-type story, this time with the Kryptonian spaceship crash-landing in Africa and the great apes finding and raising Kal-El, as well as finding and raising toddler John Greystoke, who eventually becomes Tarzan. I enjoyed this one, and the artwork was pretty cool, too.
Even though I enjoyed the first and last stories, I’m not sure this is one I would actually purchase. The good and the bad are about equal in this volume, leaving me feeling sort of underwhelmed.