Action Comics #687

From the box of random unread comics.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: #687
Date: June, 1993
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Roger Stern
Art: Jackson Guice, Denis Rodier
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Editor: Mike Carlin, Jennifer Frank

Reign of the Supermen! This is one of the four issues introducing the new "Supermen" following Superman's death at the hands of Doomsday. These issues (complete with gimmicky cutout covers) each featured a "pretender" to the role of Superman, based on phrases associated with the character: "Man of Steel", "Man of Tomorrow", "Metropolis Kid", and in the case of this issue, "Last Son of Krypton".

The actual character in this case is the Eradicator (no, not Rhea Ripley). The story is written so that it is possible to believe that Eradicator is actually some sort of reincarnation of Superman, who has gone full-on Kryptonian at the loss of his humanity.

In the background, we see lots of details of the ripple effect of Superman's death. This is one of those stories that felt like a gimmick at the time. After all, no one believed for a minute that Superman was actually dead. He was simply spending some time "dead in the DC Universe", as one does. But looking at this story years later, the fact that the Superman's death turned out to be as temporary as everyone knew it would be seems less important, and the story itself is quite good.

Writer Roger Stern juggles a ton of little details and character interactions and does a nice job of introducing Eradicator-Superman while adding to the overall mystery. While I wasn't buying that Eradicator really was Superman, and I knew that we were getting the real Superman back eventually, I was left intrigued to find out how we get there and what other plot twists lie ahead.

Nice piece of an epic story that still holds up pretty well.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #1000

I bought this at Merrymac Games and Comics in Merrimack NH this past summer.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 1000
Date: June 2018
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Dan Jurgens, Peter J. Tomasi, Marv Wolfman, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Scott Snyder, Tom King, Louise Simonson, Paul Dini, Brad Meltzer, Brian Michael Bendis, Cindy Goff, Curt Swan, Bob Rozakis, Kurt Schaffenberger, Butch Guice
Artist: Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Patrick Gleason, John Romita Jr., Danny Miki, Curt Swan, Butch Guice, Kurt Schaffenberger, Bob Rozakis, Olivier Coipel, Rafael Albuquerque, Clay Mann, Jerry Ordway, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, Kevin Nowlan, Walter Simonson, John Cassaday, Jorge Jimenez, Jim Lee, Scott Williams
Colorist: Hi-Fi, Alejandro Sanchez, Peter Steigerwald, Dave McCaig, Jordie Bellaire, Trish Mulvihill, Brennan Wagner, Laura Martin, Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Rob Leigh, Tom Napolitano, Nick Napolitano, John Workman, Carlos M. Mangual, Josh Reed, Chris Eliopoulos, Cory Petit
Cover: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair,
Editor: Paul Kaminski, Andrea Shea

I love these big-round-number issues! At one point, when DC made the idiotic decision to renumber Action and Detective, it looked like we might never get here, but fortunately the original numbering was restored a few years back, and so here we are at #1000.

This is an anthology featuring some truly legendary Superman writers and artists, most of it assembled around a loose theme of inspiration: How Supermans is an inspiration, and more importantly, how the courage of ordinary people serves as an inspiration to Superman.

The opening story had Superman reluctantly attending a Superman appreciation event in Metropolis with some encouragement from Lois Lane, and a bit of behind-the-scenes manipulating that took on a distinctively silly Silver-Age vibe.

Next up was "Never-Ending Battle", a sort of walk down memory lane in the form of single-panel pages taken from various alternate timeline and Elseworlds-style adventures, all framed around a battle with Vandal Savage. This was aimed right at the hardcore fans who have read every story. Casual readers were going to miss a lot here.

"The Enemy Within" features Maggie Sawyer and the question of how Superman decides which crisis to intervene in with so many things always happening at the same time. This was handled pretty well, considering the difficulty of the question it was addressing, and Maggie came off great.

"The Car" was my favorite story in this issue, a throwback to Action Comics #1 set in the 1930s that answers (among other questions) what became of that car that Superman is demolishing on the famous Action #1 cover.

"The Fifth Season" was a great little Lex Luthor vignette, and "Of Tomorrow" was a sentimental far-future piece.

My second-favorite story was "Five Minutes", focusing on the staff of the Planet, with a some introspective moments leading to a humorous ending.

"Actionland" featured Mr. Mxyzptlk, and Brad Meltzer's "Faster Than A Speeding Bullet" was another story hitting the theme of ordinary people inspiring Superman, in this case with the action condensed down to a second or less.

The last story was a preview of the upcoming Brian Michael Bendis run, and it introduced a new villain who didn't seem to have much trouble beating Superman and Supergirl. The book ends with the new villain making some "shocking" revelations about Krypton and Superman's origin story.

The opening and ending stories were my least favorite in the book, which is unfortunate, since those were the ones most tied to current continuity. This was my first introduction to Superman and Lois' son since I haven't been reading much in the way of current in-continuity comics, and he comes off mostly as annoying.

Rogol Zaar, the new villain, certainly comes off as powerful, but that's not difficult to write, and the tone of the scene was uneven, with some weak humor mixed into what should have come off as a grim scenario. The tease of big new revelations (read retcons) didn't do much for me either. I don't need every new writer to rework Superman's past.

But that being said, there was plenty to like in this book. Most of the one-shot stories with well thought out, with some pleasant surprises. And as mentioned earlier, the cast of talent here is spectacular.

There was a lot of beautiful artwork, and enough of the nostalgic and introspective stuff to make this special in the way it needed to be.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #957

This is the last of the small stack of DC Rebirth tie-ins that I picked up over the summer. Like most of these, this one came from one of the Newbury Comics locations that I visited.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: #957
Date: August, 2016
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Patrick Zircher
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Mike Cotton, Paul Kaminski
Cover: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado, Sonia Oback

As I mentioned in my review of Detective Comics #934, I love the fact that DC has restored the original numbering to these two long-running series. Looking forward to checking out Action Comics #1000 somewhere down the road!

In the meantime, though, this issue is something of a soft reboot for Superman. The original Superman is missing, possible dead (well, "Dead in the DC Universe", anyway). With Metropolis missing its greatest hero, Lex Luthor has stepped in, with what basically looks like his version of John Henry Irons' Steel suit, complete with Superman chest-shield symbol and cape.

This does not sit well with one Clark Kent, currently moving into a home in upstate New York (Maryland? Anyway, it was upstate somewhere) with his wife and newly-super-powered son. This, apparently, is a Superman from one of the (52? Is that still a thing?) alternate Earths in the multiverse.

He confronts Luthor with predictable results, but if Superman is battling Luthor, then who is the Clark Kent who just showed up to cover the story for the Planet?

In spite of all the multi-universe nonsense going on, this was a really well-paced story that was told in a nicely straightforward and logical way. Even with it being something of a weird situation in terms of continuity, this issue succeeds both as a jumping-on point for new readers, and as a fun entertaining read.

As a side note, nice to see Maggie Sawyer back in action.

Also, excellent cliffhanger ending with a least a reasonable attempt at a logical buildup.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #6

I still have a lot of early New 52 books to read. I'm on the #5's and #6's with most of the titles that I kept following. I read up to #7 on most of those, and that was when I realized that the comics were stacking up unread again and I stopped buying them regularly.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 6
Date: April 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
Penciler: Andy Kubert, Chriscross
Inker: John Dell, Chriscross
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Jose Villarrubia
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau, Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

Superman gets some help from time-traveling members of the Legion of Superheroes to deal with a threat that is hiding in plain sight. This story had a lot going on, and a ton of plot twists. Some of the paths taken to get to the end were a bit awkward and overly complicated, but the good moments were really good, including a really awesome Superboy/Legion ending.

Backup story is another look into the past. This time, it's Clark Kent's last day in Smallville before heading to college. It's sweet and sentimental, with some amusing bits of dialogue.

This was worth the slogging through all of the time-travel silliness.

Rating: 8/10

Lex Luthor #1

Here is the last of the small batch of comics I picked up this past week at Newbury Comics. I recently reviewed Forever Evil #1 and wasn't that impressed, certainly not impressed enough to buy the zillion crossover comics needed to get the whole story.

However, hype is hype, and the holographic covers for this "Villains Month" event certainly got plenty of hype. So I figured I'd at least check out one.

Title: Lex Luthor
Issue: 1
Date: November 2013
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Charles Soule
Penciler: Raymond Bermudez
Inker: Dan Green
Colorist: Ulises Arreola
Letterer: Dezi Sienty
Editor: Anthony Marques, Eddie Berganza

Apparently, this is actually Action Comics #23.3. No, really. We've gone to fractions.

I picked this issue up, somewhat at random, from among the 3-d holographic cover versions of the Villains Month comics that were in stock at the store I visited last week. These have been selling quite well, so a lot of titles were sold out, and I just went with a character that I knew reasonably well.

The cover itself is the most impressive 3-d effect I've seen on a comic, one of the best I've ever seen in print. It is also headache-inducing to look at.

The story is pretty straightforward. Luthor gets out of jail and immediately manipulates a bunch of evil schemes, all of which fall into place perfectly because we are supposed to believe that he is an evil genius. Some of the details were fairly clever, and the pacing of the writing was good, but there really was never any doubt as to the outcome of anything. And like most stories of this type, the more you think about it the less impressive it is, because really, Luthor needs to have ridiculous amounts of luck on his side for his plans to actually work. This is always my gripe with stories like this one, and given that, this particular issue did a better job than most with the evil scheming.

This issue also turns out to be a very direct prequel to Forever Evil #1, which made it a good choice if I was only going to read one crossover comic. The story here is actually pretty nicely self-contained, which I also took as an added bonus, considering what I could have been getting into.

Not terrible if you want to see Lex Luthor behaving badly, but nothing especially insightful either.

Rating: 5.5/10 



 

Action Comics #5

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 5
Date: February 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
Penciler: Andy Kubert, Chriscross
Inker: Jesse Delperdang, Chriscross
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Jose Villarrubia
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau, Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

Variant cover is pictured.

This issue is almost entirely made up of retellings of bits of the Superman origin story. It's effective, but not terribly groundbreaking. There's some retconning, of course, but again, nothing that is all that shocking.

When we finally get into current plot, it's a messy time travel story that doesn't really go in any direction except toward the needlessly complicated.

Backup story is more Superman origin stuff, this time focusing on Jon and Martha Kent in the early years of their marriage and their struggles with infertility. It's generally good, although it very quickly goes down the path of "everything happens for a purpose" which is pretty much the least interesting thematic direction this could have been taken in.

All of that being said, there are some good details throughout the issue, and it does a nice job of laying seeds for future stories.

Rating: 5.5/10

Action Comics #421

Here's an oddity from the 1970s that I picked up today at the South Attleboro Collectibles Show, which capped off my attending four conventions in eight days (Queen City Kamikaze, Boskone, Totalcon, South Attleboro Collectibles Show).

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 421
Date: February 1973
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Cary Bates, Elliot Maggin
Artist: Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Sal Amendola, Dick Giordano
Editor: Julius Schwartz

Let me guess? This is a tribute, right? Or maybe it's just a coincidence that Superman happens to be going up against a bald musclebound sailor who just happens to gain super strength by eating a special green vegetable? No, really, it's called "sauncha" (hey, that is several letters off from spinach!).

Interestingly, when you google "sauncha", the first entry that comes up is Wikipedia's page on "Captain Strong".

The story is also a bit on the mean-spirited side in the sense that sauncha affects Captain Strong as an addictive drug. He's well-intentioned, and presented as more of a victim than a bad guy, but it was still an unexpected tack if the intention was to pay tribute to Popeye. And it was played a bit too seriously for it to be treated as a spoof.

The story itself is pretty straightforward. Superhero fanboy Billy Anders is trapped in a collapsed building. When the door is busted in, he expects Superman to be the one to rescue him. Instead, it's Captain Strong. Billy tells the story to Clark Kent, while Strong tries to make a deal to sell the secret of his mysterious sauncha vegetable to a greedy businessman. When the food executive tries to doublecross the sailor, Captain Strong shows up looking for revenge (and amped up on a sauncha overdose). Superman arrives and it is ON.

Lots of Silver-Age goofiness, including silly identity-concealing tricks by Clark Kent.

With the weird Popeye ripoff going on, this had me scratching my head more than anything else. It is certainly an interesting curiosity piece.

The backup story featured Green Arrow. Dinah Lance is getting set to open her new flower shop ("Pretty Bird Flower Shoppe"; sorry, guys, "Sherwood Florist" was a much better name). After meeting an obnoxious press agent while saving a theater audience from a forest, Oliver Queen decides that he might just have a future as a publicist. After all, he can out-obnoxious just about anyone. So he promises Dinah that he's going to get her shop on the front page of the local paper.

Then he just has to figure out how to do it. The answer comes in the form of a fugitive mob hitman. All Ollie needs to do is to make sure he apprehends the criminal in exactly the right place.

This is a light story where not much really goes wrong. The action is secondary to the romantic comedy vibe between Dinah and Ollie, which is pretty amusing. It helps that Dinah is gorgeous, in spite of her appearing only in small panels on a couple of pages. It also helps that she's not buy into any of Ollie's attempts to turn on the charm.

Trick Arrow Count: Net arrow, bugging device arrow, siren arrow. Ollie also uses one regular arrow. You know, the pointy kind. Sadly, no boxing glove arrow.

Good backup story and a historically interesting (if only in the "how could this not have resulted in a lawsuit?" sense) main story.

Rating: 6.5/10

Action Comics #4

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 4
Date: February 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
Penciler: Rags Morales, Brad Walker
Inker: Rick Bryant, Sean Parsons, Brad Walker
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Jay David Ramos
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau, Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

In the midst of a full-scale robot invasion, the people of Metropolis begin to realize that Superman is one of the good guys. I particularly liked Clark's reaction to the police who try to arrest him (As a huge robot looms over them: "Slap on the bracelets, boys. Otherwise, stand back and let me do my job.").

The alien force behind the robot invasion is the same force that "collected" Kandor. Now it's grabbing a significant chunk of Metropolis (including Lois Lane). Meanwhile Superman has his own problems in the form of John Wayne Corben AKA Metallo.

But Superman has some backup too. As it turns out, Corben isn't the only guy named John who can put on a suit of armor.

Steel gets the backup feature, and his introduction is handled in short-and-sweet style that integrates nicely into the overall plot. And references back to the original tale of John Henry are always fun in Steel's stories.

Rating: 7.5/10

Action Comics #3

So, of course, after a weekend of running bonus reviews to get back on track toward 365 in 2012, I get hit with a stomach flu and a major malware problem simultaneously. I'm recovering, and so is my PC. So onward with the reviews!

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 3
Date: January 2012
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Rags Morales, Gene Ha
Inker: Rick Bryant, Gene Ha
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Art Lyon
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

The third issue of the new Action Comics gives us our first look at Krypton, focusing on the destruction (well, shrinking, I suppose) of Kandor, rather than the fate of the planet Krypton itself. The scene give a few interesting new insights, including a link to some of the current villains in the main timeline, but it's also presented as something of a confusing jumble of telepathic chatter that detracts more than it enlightens.

Things get better when we get back to Clark Kent, who gets in some great lines ("You need to be the cop you wanted to be when you were a kid."), while making classic amateur superhero blunders, and questioning his own path in the face of an onslaught of bad press from corrupt media tycoon Glen Glenmorgan (doing his very best J. Jonah Jameson; all we needed was "Superman: Threat or Menace?" on the cover of the Planet).

Most awesome detail in this issue? A glimpse inside Clark's perfectly organized sock drawer! Ha!

The ending brings the issue full circle with the origin of Metallo and a robotic invasion all connected back to Kandor.

Everything worked but the opening scene.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #2

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 2
Date: December 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Rags Morales, Brent Anderson
Inker: Rick Bryant, Brent Anderson
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Rags Morales, Brad Anderson

Still in the "Superman Year One" mode. The military has captured Superman following last issue's train collision, and Lex Luthor is in charge of giving the Man of Steel a little taste of what Dick Cheney liked to call "enhanced interrogation techniques". In this case, it involves an electric chair. When Luthor is done with that, he plans to try some fluoroantimonic acid (Which is actually pretty cool stuff! Wikipedia it! I did!). And speaking of chemistry, Clark gets the best line of the series with this exchange:

Luthor: Does the word 'Krypton' mean anything to you?
Superman: Noble gas... Number 36...

Oh, hey! It's John Henry Irons! We also get to see General Lane (who gets a visit from his daughter, who's on the trail of the captured Superman). Also introduced is John Corben, who has some past romantic history with Lois.

Not surprisingly, the army doesn't hold Superman captive for long, but the story had lots of good details and little plot developments along the way to its inevitable ending. A major revelation about Lex Luthor sets the stage very nicely for some future storylines.

This was good. Superman is still "super" but a bit more limited than in some past versions. The young, inexperienced, and slightly cocky attitude is refreshing, while still maintaining the underlying potential to grow into the familiar heroic persona. The supporting cast had plenty to do and the action was fun and clever.

Backup feature is picture-essay with the creative team discussing character and prop design and it's a pretty interesting read, especially the revelations about their inspirations from very early Superman stories.

I've neglected to mention this in a few previous reviews, but all of the New 52 #2's contain a preview of the Christmas-themed Batman graphic novel, Batman: Noel. The artwork is gorgeous, but there isn't much you can make out as far a plot goes. It appears to be a variation on Dicken's A Christmas Carol.

Rating: 7.5/10

Action Comics #1

Title: Action Comics
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciler: Rags Morales
Inker: Rick Bryant
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Letterer: Patrick Brosseau
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson
Cover: Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair

The first Action Comics #1 since 1938! I'm still disappointed that the series won't go to #1000, but as I've mentioned before I understand how DC felt that the renumbering would only be seen as a true relaunch if they renumbered all their titles, including the "big number" books like Action and Detective.

I bought the variant cover version with Jim Lee's artwork, which is actually taken from a (really good) splash page in Justice League #1 (my review of that issue is here).

What we have here is a new take on Superman. He's younger, and clearly inexperienced. He's also got a solid case of cynicism for the legal system, and a cocky and arrogant attitude, particularly toward the Metropolis Police Department. Detective Blake: "We used to have laws in this town. Like gravity." Ha!

The opening scene has him pulling a Batman-style stunt of dropping a white-collar criminal off of building ledge and catching him just before impact to force a (clearly inadmissible!) confession.

Superman's powers have also been scaled back considerably. He's a lot more vulnerable to harm (although still tough enough to take a shot from a tank's main gun).

As for villains, we've got a decent (and pretty much by-the-book) portrayal of Lex Luthor working as a consultant for General Lane (Lois' father). Oh, and the other major adversary in this issue is a bullet train (emphasis on "bullet").

A lot of people probably won't like Superman's new cocky attitude. I didn't think I would. But I did find myself enjoying this portrayal of the character, particularly if the direction we're going in is toward a some growth and maturing. The villains were spot-on (bonus points for Luthor's reference to the brown tree snake and the cane toad!). I liked Clark's interaction with his landlady, who seems like a good supporting character, and I liked his vibe with Jimmy Olsen. There was also a fun scene where some bystanders came to Superman's aid against the military.

The ending sequence was visually pretty cool, but I was a bit lost on the logic behind the scene, which involved a bomb on a train for no reason that I could figure out. It looked like this was a case of trying to fit too much material into a limited number of pages. Something had to get rushed. The ending cliffhanger was still pretty effective, with an great visual.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #900

What can I say? I'm a sucker for these "big number" milestone issues, and Action Comics has the highest number in comics, now at #900. Picked this one up at Newbury Comics today, day of release.

Title: Action Comics
Issue: #900
Date: June 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Paul Cornell, Damon Lindelof, Paul Dini, Geoff Johns, David S. Goyer, Richard Donner, Derek Hoffman
Art: Pete Woods, Jesus Merino, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Rags Morales, Adrian Syaf, Jamal Igle, Jon Sibal, Gary Frank, Ryan Sook, RB Silva, Rob Lean, Miguel Sepulveda, Brian Stelfreeze, Matt Camp
Colorist: Brad Anderson, Blond, Java Tartaglia, Paul Mounts
Letterer: Rob Leigh, John J. Hill
Cover: David Finch
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson

Issue #900! Wow! That is a lot of comics.

As is typical for these milestone issues, this one is extra-long and loaded with backup features.

The main story serves two purposes. First it wraps up the ongoing Lex Luthor plotline about Lex seeking out the ultimate power needed to destroy Superman. Meanwhile, it's also setting up a new plot that's a fun little variant on the famous Reign of the Supermen storyline that followed up the death of Superman at the hands of Doomsday.

Unfortunately, the problem with giving a villain godlike omnipotence is that the universe still needs to be intact when it's all said and done. We know going in that no matter what Luthor does with his newly acquired cosmic powers (acquired through a rather convoluted pathway that involved black power rings, the Phantom Zone, and something called the Zone Child), we're going to be hitting the reset button by the end of it. It's just a matter of how interesting the ride is going to be. In this case, it's inconsistent. Luthor tortures Superman in an effort to "break" him, by having him re-experience his greatest losses. This seems a rather futile strategy, since Superman has already proven his resilience in the face of those very events. It does set up one really clever scene in which Luthor searches for the worst moment of Superman's life, expecting to find some sort of planetary-scale tragedy, and instead finds some true insight into what Superman is really all about.

Of course moments later it's time to cue up the convenient amnesia. We do get a nice little cameo by Death, but little else of consequence happens either in the main plot or in the Doomsday subplot, which simply engages in a stalling action to set the scene for the next issue.

Next come the backup stories. The first of these "Life Support" by Damon Lidelof and Ryan Sook, is far and away the best thing in this issue. It focuses in on a very small, but very important moment in Superman's history and does so with a strong plot, a good sense of mystery, and some powerful emotional content. The art is understated, but still among the best in this issue, which is saying a lot because this issue is loaded with strong visuals.

"Autobiography" is a conversation between Superman and an ancient alien being about the choices made when interacting with other species. It's a good bit of science fiction, especially for those fond of pondering "prime directive" type dilemmas.

Next up is the (seemingly) obligatory comedy piece, "Friday Night in the 21st Century", which serves as an excuse to 1) mock Lois Lane a bit (apparently she has a messy desk and is a bad cook) and 2) have a gratuitous appearance by the Legion of Super Heroes. Harmless fluff.

"The Incident" is an attempt at a political story, and it almost works really well. The President's national security advisor has a clandestine meeting with Superman to discuss an incident that too place in Iran. Apparently, Superman decided to sit in on a protest in Tehran. This doesn't sit well with the US government who feel like diplomacy should be handled the old-fashioned way (you know, by sending in Hillary Clinton). The actual Iran stuff was great. Absolutely brilliant discussion about the true limitations of Superman's effectiveness in solving the world's problems. But then the story takes things a step too far with Superman deciding that he is going to renounce his US citizenship. Look, I'm no ultra-patriotic conservative, but I respect tradition. "Truth, Justice, and the American Way" may be something that was made up for the TV version of Superman, but it's become ingrained as part of the Superman tradition and mythology, and I have a hard time with Superman going against those ideals, even if it might make logical sense for him to consider himself more of a "world citizen". It's too bad, because this detail seems hastily thrown in and unnecessary to the story being told here.

Last story is an odd screenplay/storyboard sequence featuring a rival of Clark Kent's who is using a STAR Labs suit to gain superpowers and challenges Superman to a "friendly" competition. This had a bit of a Silver Age flavor to it, and featured some good interaction between Superman and Lois.

Finally, a Brian Stelfreeze two-page pinup showing different character designs for Superman ends the issue. Interestingly the "current" Superman is shown holding an American flag. Mixed messages?

This issue is artistically excellent from David Finch's cover to the cosmic Lex Luthor sequences to the Doomsday fight to some great illustration in different styles for the backup stories. It's the kind of visual feast you expect from a milestone issue. The stories themselves were generally good for what they were. I had a few gripes, but for the most part this was an enjoyable read.

Rating: 7/10

Action Comics #894

Title: Action Comics
Issue: #894
Date: December 2010
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Paul Cornell, Nick Spencer
Art: Pete Woods, RB Silva, Dym
Colorist: Dave McCaig, Brad Anderson
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Editor: Wil Moss, Matt Idelson

Yup, that's Death on the cover, straight out of the pages of Neil Gaiman's Sandman. And she's here to have a little conversation with Lex Luthor. Lex: "And I suppose you're claiming to be Death. You don't even look like him." Death: "Are you looking for the scythe? Or the skis?" Ha! First of all, kudos to Pete Woods who does a gorgeous rendition of Gaiman's classic character. Luthor, as might be expected, tries everything he can think of to get out of the plight he's in, right down to playing for sympathy. Death, as might be expected, greets all of this with mild amusement and a touch of curiosity. Paul Cornell does the best he can in a story where he's basically handcuffed. He can't actually kill Luthor, he can't really have Luthor defeat Death like she's some rival super-villain, and he can't even really answer even the most obvious of questions because DC comics isn't in the business of giving definitive answers about the existence of God, the nature of the universe, and what happens to souls (if there even are such things) after death (or, in this case, after Death). Along the way we do get Lex admitting that he's an atheist, which makes reasonable sense. He's forced to admit that Death is what she is, but he's not ready to acknowledge any supreme being (aside from himself, of course). While the plot doesn't really go anywhere, the dialogue is quite good throughout, and it's refreshing to see these familiar characters having a chance to talk philosophy for a bit. The discussion of what Luthor would want in an afterlife was quite interesting.

Backup story has Jimmy Olsen playing escort to a group of aliens who are scouting Metropolis for a location to hold a massive party. Why come to Earth to party? Well, as it turns out, oxygen gets this species drunk. Jimmy really should have taken the keys to the spaceship from the cute alien girl before she started driving. Some aspects of the story are a bit over-the-top. It would have worked just fine without it turning into a planet-threatening (but still played for laughs) scenario. But that being said, it was pretty funny, and I enjoyed this depiction of "Superman's Pal". Nice mix of hip, nerdy, cocky, and clever. Good silly fun to balance out all the deep philosophy in the main story.

Rating: 7.5/10