The New is Old - Superman Action Comics vol 4: Hybrid

 

Review:

With issues #19-24, collected here, authors Andy Diggle, Scott Lobdell and Tony S. Daniel bring us a New Superman who looks a lot like the Old Superman. Gone, without explanation, is the T-shirt-and-jeans, workboot-wearing Superman of limited powers, from the Grant Morrison reboot. The Superman in these pages can once again fly, not just run and jump; he can breathe in space; Clark Kent is a crack investigative reporter. In other words, this Superman is rebooted back to his pre-Morrison reinvention.

The visuals have turned a corner too. The art is bolder, sexier even - the women more shapely, their outfits more skimpy. Coupled with some innovative layouts, the look and feel is vastly different once we hit issue #19.

Andy Diggle and Tony S. Daniel give us 'Hybrid,' the titular tale of the collection. Lex Luthor infects the Man of Steel with a virus that rewrites his DNA. Soon his hand is deformed by the infection, until it basically detaches itself, then grows and mutates some more. The same powers and weaknesses as Superman makes for a ... still somewhat one-sided battle. Long live experience and friends.

Scott Lobdell and Tyler Kirkham craft the other major story in this collection, with the Atomic Knights. This intergalactic peace corps comes to our solar system to stop the Lexus from devouring it. Their disdain for Superman changes to admiration and even hero-worship as he more than holds his own in the climactic battle.

Description:

Determined to turn the people of Metropolis against the Man of Steel and finally vanquish him from the Earth, Lex Luthor unleashes a virus on Metropolis capable of rewriting the DNA of those infected, including Superman.

While Superman's immune system eventually fights off the infection, not before a hybrid Superman is created through the virus' ability to rewrite DNA.  This new hybrid Superman is the only being capable of defeating the true Superman and Lex will stop at nothing to see it accomplish its mission.

Collects: Action Comics #19-24, stories from Young Romance: The New 52 #1 and Superman Annual #2

Authors: Andy Diggle, Scott Lobdell, Tony S. Daniel
Artists: Tony S. Daniel, Tyler Kirkham
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Dec 30 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401250775
Pages: 200 pages

5-Dimensional Check and Mate - Superman Action Comics vol 3: At the End of Days

 

Review:

Grant Morrison has been playing multi-dimensional chess with us in this New 52 reboot of Superman, and his many subplots collide for a complex and satisfying finale.

Vyndktvx, posing as a "little man", has been recruiting Superman's enemies throughout time. When all is ready, he launches an attack that hits Superman at multiple times of his life: Prom night; at points in his jeans-and-T-shirt days; on Mars later in his career; even at the End of Days. But for the assistance of the Legion of Super-Heroes, Mrs Nyxly and Mr Mxyzptlk, all would be lost.

In the reboot, Morrison faced the daunting task of placing 70+ years of history, friends, foes and continuity into the new setting. It's been a spectacular and thoroughly entertaining effort!

The artists involved with this collection need to work in a wide array of styles, as demanded by Morrison's wide-ranging narrative. From the stylings and desaturations of the Phantom Zone, to the Martian settlements in a battle with massive mecha; from fanged angels to the whimsical 5th-dimesnsion and its distortions; from Super Doomsday to Smallville serenity, they match and meet those demands. The visuals are on-point and often serve as excellent clues to the shifts in settings.

Sholly Fisch again fills in with fascinating backup tales around the margins of the main narrative. A heart to heart between Clark and his pa, Jonathan Kent; Superman's influence on marginalized kids standing up to their white bullies; and the love and devotion of Krypto the dog. Sweet, warm, beautiful tales that add depth and richness to the expanding rebooted Superman mythology.

Description:

The New York Times best-selling creative team Grant Morrison and Rags Morales' landmark run on SUPERMAN: ACTION COMICS ends here in SUPERMAN: ACTION COMICS VOLUME 3: AT THE END OF DAYS!

Five years ago, Clark Kent moved to Metropolis. Alone but hopeful, he donned a simple t-shirt laden with a giant S, beginning the career of one of the greatest heroes this--or any other--world has seen. Superman has grown with the city around him, and though he is feared by the public, there's no doubt they need him to protect them from this universe's gravest threats. But when the multiverse sends it's deadliest villains against the Man of Steel, can even he turn them back?

Collects: Superman: Action Comics #13-18

Authors: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch
Artists: Rags Morales, Brad Walker
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: July 29 2014
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401246068
Pages: 224 pages

The Middle Game: Superman Action Comics vol 2: Bulletproof

 

Review:

Grant Morrison is playing chess with the New 52 Superman reboot. Volume 1 was like a chess opening - familiar pieces of Superman history, moving in mostly familiar patterns with some masterful variations. Here in volume 2, it's more free-wheeling, less familiar, more freeform. Pieces we recognize are moving in sometimes unexpected ways. The feints, attacks, defenses are many, nothing gets fully resolved. We are clearly building toward a fantastic end game.

Rags Morales draws the main stories in the collection and turns in solid work in the demanding conditions of this cross-time storyline. Young and old versions of the same characters, tender moments and spectacular battles, Morales steps up to them all.

The artistic pinnacle of the collection, however, belongs to the pages by Ben Oliver, with their feeling of painted masterpieces. Superman has lost his cape, and a child finds it and feels invulnerable while wearing it, imbued with the courage to stand up to an abusive father. It is a powerful story, well told and portrayed in a soft yet strong series of emotionally evocative images.

Writer Sholly Fisch pens several smaller entries in this collection, backup features or segments of the Annual. With Cafu on visuals, they fill in some of the spaces between the larger story Grant Morrison is telling. Most appreciated is the short tale of people toasting the life and influence of their friend Clark Kent. He, recall from volume 1, was apparently killed in a bomb explosion, and their memories and testimonies are moving, and of course reach the super-ears nearby.

This is a fine collection, setting up a heckuva conclusion in the next volume.

Description:

Clark Kent is dead! When grave circumstances cause Superman to leave behind his alter ego, an unimpeded Man of Steel must face his deadliest foe to date: Nimrod the Hunter! Metropolis' newest threat has killed everything he's ever tracked, but he's never killed an alien. Will the red and blue Kryptonian be his first?

Legendary writer Grant Morrison (ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, BATMAN) continues his best-selling, critically acclaimed run on SUPERMAN: ACTION COMICS, with art by Rags Morales (IDENTITY CRISIS), Gene Ha (TOP 10) and a host of comics' finest illustrators.

Collects: SUPERMAN: ACTION COMICS 9-12, 0 and ANNUAL 1

Authors: Grant Morrison, Sholly Fisch, Max Landis
Artists: Rags Morales, Brad Walker
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: Dec 17 2013
Parental Rating: Teen
ISBN: 978-1401242541
Pages: 224 pages

A Home Run of a Reboot: Superman Action Comics vol 1: Superman and the Men of Steel

 

Review:

2011 brought the New 52 reboot of Superman. What a daunting challenge, to give a fresh start to an iconic and culturally embedded character, that brings newness and excitement while remaining faithful to the more than 70 years of accumulated lore, legend and familiar characters!

DC Comics made the right call in putting the flagship Action Comics title into the hands of Grant Morrison, an established writer with a track record of critically acclaimed reboots, stretching as far back as Animal Man in the late 1980s.

So much is packed into the first 8 issues, collected here. A powerful yet not quite so omnipotent Superman, in T-shirt, mini-cape, jeans and sensible shoes. The secret identity of Clark Kent, reporter. Lois Lane. Jimmy Olsen. Lex Luthor. Brainiac. Legion of Super-Heroes. Crumbling Krypton and a rocket ship to Kansas and the Kents. Morrison touches them all, briefly, laying down markers of what is consistent and what has changed in this new Superman universe.

Unchanged, of course, is his strong sense of morality, right and wrong, justice. And the general outlines of his mythology are also in place. But the relationships, limits on powers (for example he more leaps tall buildings than flies, and he needs to grab an oxygen mask when heading into space), and the nuances of his history have been brilliantly and skillfully reset. I could have coffee with this guy - either as Clark or Superman - without feeling awkward. Such is the naturalness and humanity Morrison gives this character.

Rags Morales does some brilliantly evocative close-up work, packing emotions and hope into faces with subtle skill. And his renderings of our hero have great energy and excitement, with more subtle touches to watch for, rewarding a slow read. Sometimes too subtle, perhaps, as information an image meant to convey can get missed, and you find yourself flipping back to fill in the gap.

This is a superb start to the rebooted DC series.

Description:

DC Comics took a bold step and renumbered the longest-running monthly comic, Action Comics, to #1 for the first time since 1938 as part of the DC Comics The New 52 event.

With this renumbering comes a new creative team featuring comics legend Grant Morrison and fan-favorite artist Rag Morales. While Morrison is no stranger to writing the Superman character, having won three Eisner Award's for his work on All-Star Superman, Action Comics will be something new for both old and new readers and present humanity's first encounters with Superman, before he became one of the World's Greatest Superheroes. Set a few years in the past, it's a bold new take on a classic hero.

Collects: issues 1-8 of the monthly series

Authors: Grant Morrison
Artists: Rags Morales, Andy Kubert
Published By: DC Comics
Published When: May 7 2013
Parental Rating: 
ISBN: 978-1401235475
Pages: 256 pages