Action Comics #29 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Usually, it’s the ghosts that chill you.

The Review: As you can probably tell, I was not thrilled by Batman/Superman’s first annual.  Indeed, the sheer senselessness of most of its moving parts threw me but good, almost leaving me cringing from its poor construction.  The situation’s even more mind-boggling when you turn to this issue of Action Comics and find inside what can only be described as an exemplary sample of superhero writing.  How does this divergence happen?  Hell if I know.

But enough of dredging up day-old grievances.  What really matters is that Pak has gone and done the near impossible, an almost Geoff Johnsian feat: finding a voice for Clark that is at once true to the traditional core of his character, yet also young, entirely at home in our time.  At one point, he delivers one of those famous Superman lectures to Ghost Soldier, with a personal conviction and intensity that makes it less preachy but more than a rant: