Continuity, they say, can be both a tool and a trap. But whether or not you’re the sort of person who will just write what they please and hang trying to make it tie in perfectly with everything that’s gone before, there are certain rules that everyone knows to stick to. Such as – don’t contradict anything less than a year old, and certainly not any stories that are currently happening.

Sadly, that’s exactly what the ludicrously-delayed final part of Geoff Johns, Richard Donner and Adam Kubert’s Last Son storyline has done. Originally intended to come out almost a year ago, the story wraps up the tale of the escaped Phantom Zone Kryptonians, among them Chris Kent (the son of General Zod and Ursa), all of whom end the story by being pulled back into the Zone. There’s just one problem. For the last year’s worth of stories, Chris has been living as the adopted son of Clark Kent (er, hence the name) and Lois Lane. But this issue picks up at the exact moment at which the last part of the story ended some time last year. So, er, just when were all those stories with Chris supposed to happen?

The answer, of course, is that there isn’t an answer. Chris had to be featured in Busiek’s Superman (Johns’ own Action Comics sidestepped the problem with an interminably long story set in the 31st Century), because to not have him around would have spoiled the intended ending of Last Son. But once it became apparent that this was going to happen, was it really not possible to think about a rewrite? Never mind the writing, at editorial level this is a massive, massive screw-up – and it renders this storyline almost entirely pointless and unreadable.

Of course, it’s not the only mistake that was made by the higher-ups. Once it became apparent that Kubert was going to take far too long to finish this (and I don’t like to criticise artists too much for lateness, because it’s something to which all manner of personal problems can potentially contribute – so let’s apportion him only part of the blame for this fiasco), then somebody should have stepped in and hired a replacement artist to finish the job. I mean, this isn’t All-Star Superman or The Ultimates. You wait for Quitely or Hitch art, because the book is as much their vision as the writers’ – and because it’s so good when it finally arrives.

But one of the main problems with this issue is that neither the art nor the story are particularly worth waiting for. Johns and Donner wrap up what was, let’s be honest, a fairly standard story about General Zod (appallingly designed, not looking threatening in the slightest) trying and eventually failing to subjugate humanity with a convenient ending (”anything that has been in contact with the Zone gets pulled back in”) that almost feels directly ripped from the end of series two of Doctor Who. It still grates, meanwhile, that (you would guess at Donner’s behest) the comics have suddenly become so like the films – weren’t they supposed to be a bit more distinct than this? The most recent re-telling of the Jor-El story was only in 2004’s Birthright, and while I know that Infinite Crisis created a “new Earth” that could happily contradict previous stories, there was simply no explanation for his suddenly becoming a bearded white-haired presence in the Fortress – beyond “oh, this is the version I know, this is the version I’m going to write”.

Amazingly, meanwhile, for something that took so long, Kubert’s work feels rushed and sloppy in places (at one point, Zod is seen with those stupid goggles on, despite having previously had them punched off his face by Superman). There are some nice large-scale set-pieces, but he works far better with the big splash images than he does in effectively conveying action in smaller panels. And in many of those smaller panels, there’s simply no detail or definition to his characters.

If this had been part of the regular Action Comics schedule, it probably would have been quite passable. It’s not amazing, but like the rest of Last Son, it’s a nice big action story with some quite neat bits (a bit more of Luthor gathering a team to “help” Superman would have been nice) – although you probably will have to go back and reread the rest of the story to remember just what’s supposed to be happening. But the year’s wait, and the cost of it being in an extra (and double-sized) issue, simply don’t feel worth it at this point. And worst of all, the one genuinely interesting legacy of the story – the idea of Clark and Lois bringing up a superpowered kid – has already been thrown back in the cupboard. At the end of the day, despite the initial hype and anticipation, the much-heralded Johns/Donner/Kubert event can only be seen as something of a failed experiment. And what with this and Batman, people really need to think twice before putting the Kubert brothers on monthly flagship books any time soon.