Action Comics #891 – Review

by Paul Cornell (writer), Pete Woods (pencils & inks), CAFU (pencils), BIT (inks), Brad Anderson (colors), and Rob Leigh (letters)

The Story: Lex Luthor fights Mister Mind for control of his own fantasies.

What’s Good: It’s always a pleasure to read a comic that feels wickedly smart and it’s even more special when this comic turns out to be a mainstream superhero book.

Cornell delivers a wonderful probing of Lex Luthor’s psychology through several dreams/fantasies that Mister Mind subjects Lex to.  Every single one of these scenes is ingenious and perfectly representative of Lex’s character.  At one point, he’s Prometheus, bringing the fire of the gods to humanity and at another, he’s Dr. Frankenstein.  It’s creative, lively stuff that you can tell Cornell is having a ball with.

Yet, what really makes this issue even more special, and surprising really, is just how funny it is.  When you’re getting a book that is more or less a meditation on Lex Luthor, I think it’s natural to expect something dark and brooding and while this issue definitely has those moments, it has a hefty amount of absurd humour.  Mister Mind is a frequent source of physical comedy, for example, and when he speaks to his mysterious master, it’s done in a fourth-wall breaking style that made me smile. Cornell also makes the most of the sheer absurdity of the character and his appearance; there’s a scene with the little caterpillar in a Wild West saloon that needs to be seen to be believed.

While Lex’s dreams all provide strong insight into his character, Cornell skillfully plays with the idea that these dreams are more what we (and hence Mister Mind) think Lex’s psychology is like.  The result is an interesting mix of truth and expectation and when Lex rebels against the veracity of these fantasies, it’s very interesting.  It also needs being said that there is one dream in particular, where Lex essentially plays Superman, which is completely hilarious.

Superman: War of the Supermen #3 – Review

By: James Robinson and Sterling Gates (writers), Cafu (penciller), Wil Moss (assistant editor), Matt Idelson (editor)

The Story: The Battle for Earth: First, the Kryptonians are screwed. Then, the sun (turned red last week) is turned back to its normal yellow. Only 7,000 Kryptonians have survived the brief color change and the destruction of New Krypton. Now the humans are screwed. Actually, I mean really screwed. Prime Minister of Britain dead (don’t know if they’re talking about Brown or the new one). Prime Minister of Japan torn to pieces. Thousands of people dead.

What’s Good: Wow, is this issue ever fast-paced and action-packed! The story swept me along and didn’t let me go until the final splash page. It jumps from disaster to near-miss to cliffhanger, leaving corpses everywhere. On Earth, in space, in the sun….bodies everywhere. Remember last issue I said that the Human Defense Corps would never have stood a chance against Kryptonians moving at full speed? Well, here we see what happens when Kryptonians really get pissed and use all their powers. It is awesome to behold. It reminds me a lot of when Darkseid took over the mind of every Daxamite in an old Legion arc called the Great Darkness. A hundred thousand Daxamites? Seven thousand Kryptonians? It doesn’t matter. Anything more than about five and you haven’t got a prayer, not even those clever Australians with their kryptonite robots. Robinson, Gates and Cafu have shown the supermen in all their overwhelming power.