Action Comics #33 – Review

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

The Story: As if Doomsday isn’t enough of a problem, now there’s mass narcolepsy going on.

The Review:
Last time we visited this storyline, I said that I was on the verge of giving it up, a proposition I was only half-joking about. I just couldn’t bear the idea of buying three comics a month for however long this arc lasted, knowing I wouldn’t really enjoy them. At least with Transformers, I only kind of knew I wouldn’t like it. But after dropping Batman/Superman, economic considerations aren’t as pressing anymore, and admittedly, Pak’s starting to take the story in an interesting direction.

Don’t get me wrong; the Doomsday Superman stuff is incurably dull. There’s little psychological gold to mine from Clark’s mental war with his Doomsday conscience; it’s your typical angel-devil set-up, but with superheroes. You also doubt that Clark will ever fully succumb to his destructive urges because once he does that, even involuntarily or by accident, it’s over for Superman—either that, or everyone, including Clark, will need to have a short memory. You might as well flip the page every time you see a craggy-faced Clark.

Action Comics #32 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Scott Kolins (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Superman finds it hard to save others when he can’t save himself.

The Review: Now that Doomed has entered its second phase (“Enemy of the State”), I think it’s say that the arc is living up to all my worst fears about a Doomsday storyline, i.e., there really isn’t that much story to tell. Doomsday is a mindless killer, and it isn’t any less so in the form of Superman. In that kind of scenario, there’s really only one way for the plot to go: unbridled panic from the world at large, not unlike the chaos unleashed from a Godzilla attack or alien invasion.

As if a hybrid Superman-Doomsday isn’t perilous enough, this issue confirms that his very presence is murderous, setting trees ablaze and killing off “millions of living things…insects, protozoa, microbes,” turning Superman into a walking plague on top of everything else. Thus the story cycles through the same three beats over and over: Superman’s horror of himself, everyone else’s horror at what he’s becoming, and the competing loyalty from his most diehard supporters. The reactions are quite natural, but terribly monotonous; as in any disaster story, they serve only to kill time until the disaster inevitably escalates once more.

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:

Action Comics #28 – Review

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

The Story: Every farm girl should be so lucky to have Superman for a slave.

The Review: I don’t often talk about covers, but the one Kuder made for this issue really stuck out to me: Superman, flying—no, blasting out of an exploding light, one arm stretched up in flight, the other rigid and clenched into a fist, his face tight and focused but with no hostility.  It’s so classically Superman-ish.  Aside from the high collar and missing underpants, this is a Man of Steel even past readers would immediately recognize.

That seems to be the trademark of Pak’s run on this series: bringing Superman back to his roots while keeping him updated for the pleasure of a contemporary audience.  The pre-relaunch Superman was noble and virtuous, but also kind of a stick in the mud.  His PG-rated personality often seemed to make him incapable of relating to a population that grew more audacious every year.  Unfortunately, the Superman post-relaunch lost a bit too much of what made him a beloved icon, putting him at risk of becoming too much like any other modern superhero: powerful, aggressive, and snarky.  We can thank Pak for stopping that trend before it completely takes root.

Action Comics #27 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder & Mike Hawthorne (art), R.B. Silva (pencils), Ray McCarthy (inks), Dan Brown & Eva de la Cruz (colors)

The Story: All those stories about mole people are finally proven true—except worse.

The Review: As I said in my review of Superman Unchained #5, I’m not of the camp that believes Clark Kent should have a completely happy-go-lucky childhood—emphasis on “completely.”  Done right, a little pathos makes the boy Clark seem even closer to us, like when his super-hearing kicks in and he catches his parents mentioning he’s “not human[.]”  How many of us had an experience of overhearing what we shouldn’t and the massive anxiety it produced?

So, yes, a little rain has fallen into Clark’s early life, but hey—rain is a good thing, and the sun that comes out afterward more than redeems it.  Jonathan and Martha, like the awesome parents they are, quickly notice the sad changes in their son and decide to fix things with the truth, rather than let the secret fester.  Clark’s initial reaction to his extraterrestrial legacy is naturally rendered, rejecting it even as he reaches out for it, but his parents’ gesture leaves a lasting impact on his values: “Love?  Yeah.  From the parents who wrapped me in the blanket…and the parents who saved it for me.”

Action Comics #26 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), June Chung (colors)

The Story: Superman, this is no time to play fetch with the rampaging monster!

The Review: Last month I expressed bafflement over what I took to be a back-up feature in Pak’s debut issue on Action Comics.  Now that I see that little ditty was just the springboard for his first true arc, I don’t know whether I should be feeling chagrin, embarrassment, or validation over my earlier remarks.  While the folks who caught #25 will be glad to get right into the action, those who skipped it will have missed out on some important logistical groundwork.

Not that important, though, which makes you think the only reason Pak put his prologue in #25 was to get some additional breathing space here.  The trade-off pays off, as Pak delivers a tale of heartfelt action-adventure worthy of our star.  While the issue starts off in typically superhero fashion—Superman warding off a giant underground cave monster—it quickly takes on shades of light comedy, human drama, and sci-fi reminiscent of All-Star Superman.  Weirdly enough, it feels more like All-Star Superman than even Grant Morrison’s beginning run on this series.

Action Comics #25 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Arif Prianto (colors)

The Story: The perfect man encounters the perfect storm.

The Review: There are a lot of similarities in the way Pak begins his Action Comics run to John Layman’s start on Detective Comics.  Both writers have achieved name-recognition and respect in the industry, but haven’t yet reached the household status that Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns, or Gail Simone have.  Nevertheless, they’ve each been entrusted with one of DC’s longest running anchor titles, starring its biggest icons.

And like Layman, Pak finds himself working with a crossover event early on.  Fortunately for him, circumstances are a little kinder than they were to Layman.*  Although you can’t help raising an eyebrow at Zero Year reaching as far as the Super-family of titles, it does give Pak an excuse to start out in Clark’s formative years, which he already has some experience doing.  The only downside is his first issue won’t necessarily set the tone for the rest of his run, given how different the Clark of the T-shirt days is from his fully-outfitted, present-day counterpart.

Action Comics #6 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Andy Kubert (penciller), John Dell (inker), Brad Anderson (colorist), Sholly Fisch (feature writer), Chriscross (feature artist), Jose Villarrubia (feature colorist)

The Story: Now you know where all those little voices in your head are coming from.

The Review: I don’t think I’m the only one, but I sometimes give Morrison a lot of flak for being purposely obscure in his writing.  The combination of his strange ideas, highly stylized choice of words, and loose playing with time and space often leave me bewildered, unsure if I’m reading genius or gobbledygook.

After reading this issue the first time around, I sat back, my mouth slightly agape, and murmured aloud, “Am I high, or is he?”  Maybe I read it too quickly or too carelessly, but I could not make head or tail of it.  On the second reading, I sat back again, this time my mouth pursed in thought.  All the pieces I had found so disjointed, wordy, and confusing the first time around had come together and made a deep impression on me.  Or, to be accurate, I should say it impressed me.

For one thing, Morrison amazes, as he regularly does, with the boundless enthusiasm and scope of his ideas.  Who else would come up with a plot involving tesseracts that allow objects to be bigger inside themselves than out, allowing Superman’s enemies to hide and plot within his very brain?  Who else can give a rocket ship character, actually making you feel invested in its fate?  When it comes to sheer creativity, this issue beats all preceding ones by a mile, and that alone makes it truly memorable for the first time since this series relaunched.

That’s not to say there aren’t flaws.  It’s still baffling why Morrison chooses to tell this particular tale smack-dab in the middle of a story arc where T-shirt Superman already has his hands full against the Collector of Worlds.  The fact that his rocket ship plays a significant part in the issue also throws you off track, since up until #3, the military still had it in their possession.  Also weird is the presence of Drekken, or Erik, or whoever that shapeshifting foe is; he doesn’t do much other than get in Superman’s way, and you never find out where he came from.

Superman 80-Page Giant 2011 – Review

By: Too many to list—you’re better off reading the review.

The Story: Jor-El does Mission Impossible; Perry White takes a shot with Wildcat; the many lives of Jimmy Olsen; the inconsistent grammar of Bizarro World; Supergirl’s ten-second boyfriend; Lois Lane’s good deed; and Superboy, the Werewolf Slayer!

The Review: Annuals may be a grab bag of mixed features, they’ve got nothing on these “giants” DC likes to put out now and then.  You can’t always take them too seriously, but they’re often a surprisingly good showcase of unknown or rising talent in DC’s ranks.

Jor-El’s adventure into Krypton’s core starts off strong and has some great thrills, but his stream-of-consciousness narration drags the pace down.  Had Bud Tidwell more page-time, all his Krypton continuity might have paid bigger dividends, but mostly they’re distracting.  Still, you can’t go wrong with Cafu on art duties; from Jor-El’s expression of relief on his successful escape to Krypton’s skyline at night, everything’s just beautiful to look at.  And let’s just agree Bit’s inks and Santiago Arcas’ colors should accompany Cafu’s lines at all times.

Most Daily Planet stories revolve around Lois and Jimmy, the paper’s point men.  But Neil Kleid shows that they’re continuing a journalistic spirit begun by their boss.  Perry White’s boyhood tale of a run-in with Wildcat and the Guardian not only pays tribute to DC’s Golden Age stories, but speaks sentimentally to the bonds between fathers and sons.  Dean Haspiel gives a great retro look to the script that’s appropriate and lively, but also respects the emotional scenes.

In a strange twist, Abhay Khosla and Andy MacDonald’s Jimmy Olsen feature ends up the moodiest story in the issue, sort of discussing the philosophical implications of Jimmy’s multitude of wacky adventures.  It’s narrated and drawn well, and even has some good moments of humor, but lacks grounding.  It feels very Twilight Zone—you sense there’s an important point being made, but the execution is so weird you just wonder how it’s intended to affect or say something about the character.

I have nothing to say about the Bizarro story except it makes little sense—which is fitting, I suppose.  Dan McDaid’s cartoony art is perfect for fun Bizarro hijinks (though the yellowish cast over everything gets nauseating after a while), but Steve Horton doesn’t really offer much in the way of a coherent script, much less one with appreciable humor.

Joe Caramagna gets the right voice for Supergirl—curious, a bit self-conflicted, but hopeful—but it can’t be said he gives her appealing characters to bounce off of.  They seem like they’re just thrown in to give her people to talk to and some easy conflicts.  Sure, there are some clueless guys out there, but these dudes take the cake (“‘Karalinda.’  Asian, huh?”  Seriously?  She’s totally white and blonde!).  Trevor McCarthy draws it fantastically though—his lines are kinetic and youthful, though colored a bit too darkly by Andre Szymanowicz.