Citizen's Grade: Impressive.
"He's faster than a bolt of Lightning. He can stop a missile with two fingers. He can mold titanium between his molars like gum. But there is one substance that can tear him apart from the inside out. One substance that can kill him." What is that substance that can kill Superman? Kryptonite.
After a run-in with Livewire; where Superman is left helpless from exploding shards of Kryptonite, The Man of Steel decides that he must rid the world of the one substance that can leave him utterly helpless. He enlists the help of The Dark Knight, who (using the Batcave computer) shows him the tremendous amounts of Kryptonite scattered across the planet. Superman, Batman, & any other superhero who wishes to help begin collecting all the "K" they can track down, from huge rocks to pebbles.
Some; however, do not wish Superman to achieve his goal. Aquaman; King of Atlantis, opposes Superman & Batman openly....as does the U.S. Government. "Last Line"; a top secret Government group led by Amanda Waller, sets out to stop Superman at any cost. They have stockpiled "K" is huge amounts and have "K-weapons"....all to stop The Man of Steel. Despite Superman's love for his country, and long history of defending it's citizens....his government is scared of him. After defeating them, Waller unleashes her greatest weapon; the All-American Boy, a human-Doomsday hybrid who's DNA has been augmented by kryptonite.
As the All-American Boy beats down Superman all across Kansas, Batman learns the awful truth behind Waller's secret weapon and convinces one of Last Line's members to help him save Smallville, Kansas & Superman as well. The awful experiments that the young man went through to become the All-American Boy have left him confused and enraged, but not mindless. Batman & Brannon track down his parents, and bring them to Smallville just in time. With the A.A.B. in custody, Superman, Batman, & The Justice League go to work rebuilding Smallville.
Superman & Batman discover that LexCorp was behind the weapon sales to the Government, so they infiltrate LexTower & find that LexCorp has the largest stockpiles of "K" on Earth. With Lex Luthor imprisoned off-planet, Lana Lang is now CEO. Superman believes that Lana; a longtime friend will help him in his mission. He is wrong....Lana is trying to be "responsible" to her employees & stockholders and will not cooperate with her friend Superman. She threatens to blow up the "K", scattering it in dust form all across the planet...making it uninhabitable for Superman or any other Kryptonian.
Despite Batman's warnings, Superman doesn't believe she'll do it, but she does. Thankfully, their "friend" Hiro; a tech whiz-kid, helps them...releasing tiny K-collecting nano-spiders to "clean" the Earth of the K-dust (all for a date with Power Girl). With Earth safe for Superman again, He takes all the collected kryptonite and throws it into the Sun....but saves one last piece and gives it to Batman for safekeeping.
This seventh volume of the Superman/Batman series was written by Michael Green (Batman Confidential, Heroes, Green Lantern movie script) & Mike Johnson. Green is currently the regular writer for the series. Artwork by Shane Davis. A good story in a long line of good stories. After Jeph Loeb, the Green/Johnson team are the best writers so far in the series. I was impressed in how they showed human nature at work, fearful of and trying to attain power over an individual (who is not a threat and does good) simply because he is stronger then them.
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