A few months ago, Kal-El didn’t even know who Rogol Zaar was. Then the powerful warmonger invaded earth in THE MAN OF STEEL and turned Superman’s entire life on its head. Suddenly, the destruction of Krypton wasn’t a tragic natural disaster, but the action of an individual with such a hatred of Kryptonians that he saw fit to destroy their entire race and homeworld. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Lois and Jon left Earth and the entire planet got sucked into the Phantom Zone! Talk about a rough series of events!

But if we know one thing about the Man of Steel, it’s that he’s not the sort of guy who gives up and goes home. While no one yet knows how to get Earth out of the Phantom Zone, or if it’ll even survive the experience, Superman’s determined to give our best minds a chance to figure it out in this week’s SUPERMAN #4. Unfortunately, that means going head-to-head with Zaar once more. This time the villain’s picked up a new ally—Jax-Ur, the ruthless criminal who destroyed one of Krypton’s inhabited moons. Considering how formidable they both are on their own, it’s hard to see how Superman takes them down together, especially with an army of criminals behind them. Get your first glimpse at the spectacular battle in our exclusive first look at the issue!

SUPERMAN #4 by Brian Michael Bendis, Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Oclair Albert and Alex Sinclair is in stores this Wednesday.