RE: Action Comics Weekly

I imagine the ranking of the Superman feature is all the Superfans voting their displeasure of have two pages out of 48 devoted to Superman in his own book.

Nightwing and Speedy on the Prowl! A quarter century later it's called Red Hood and the Outlaws


RE: Adventures of Superman #447

Story: Another chapter in the long Quraci saga that winds up being decent overall. I liked Jose Delgado and the mystery of Gangbuster was well done. Morgan Edge is starting to get interesting as well. I love Jerry Ordway's art, I just wish I didn't have to suffer through Dennis Janke's terrible inking.

STORY: B- ART: B COVER: B+

Was that Milton Fines stage name?

So there actually IS a reason for me to be reviewing these ACW issues?

You just gave purpose to my life!

Well, beyond providing all of you with the kind of fascination that usually comes from watching a car wreck while safely passing along on the highway.

Superman #25




"Head Trips"
writer: Roger Stern
pencils: Kerry Gammill
inks: John Beatty
letters: John Costanza
colors: Petra Scotese
asst. editor: Renee Witterstaetter
editor: Michael Carlin

"with a big thanks to that Adventurous Lad, JERRY ORDWAY, for all the advice and input."

grade: C


The first Roger Stern issue that I have not enjoyed. It's not that anything about this issue is particularly bad, but rather Stern brings back Byrne's Brainiac and fails to make him any more impressive. Brainiac was absolutely one of Superman's most impressive villains of the Pre-Crisis, and we've patiently waited for an unemployed sideshow mentalist to transform into something resembling that character, but now, in full transformation, he's still pretty disappointing -- just a guy in a truly horrendous looking outfit playing mind tricks on Superman. That's it. No real characterization either beyond a disappointing amount of smug and hubris.

In addition, I'm bothered by the beginning of this issue, with Superman splitting into his good and dark halves -- a deep seeded fear in Superman's psyche right now, but it's Brainiac's dream. Why? Yes, Superman hinted at having a dark side when he last confronted Brainiac, but why is this haunting him? Does Brainiac fear Superman? Come to think of it, Vril Doxx has absolutely no personality in this story -- no characterization, no fears, no goals; nothing. He simply performs his part and then outwits Luthor at the end, sporting that obnoxiously smug face in the final panel when I would have expected/preferred the cool, calculating face of an alien genius.


Let's talk about that cover, though. One of the most infamous Superman covers of the Copper/Modern Age, and I think it's the best part of this issue. Rare is a cover that tells a better story than the comic within, and it does. What would happen if Superman lost control of his strength and hurt those closest to him? This image is at the heart of all Superman is struggling with right now, and it's articulated better in this single moment than in any of the stories we've read thus far.

In contrast, the actual heart of this issue, in which Superman envisions himself repeatedly hurting and killing those closest to him, is nowhere near as powerful as the cover. These could have been highly dramatic moments, and they just weren't. Stern could have played up the repressed feelings aspect -- Clark growing enraged over Lois continuing to resent him or Perry demanding he be at the office more often, and then exploding, but Stern completely bypasses the psychological potential of this story and just has Superman imagine they're bad guys and attack them before realizing he got the wrong people.

A wasted opportunity, much like Brainiac.


Important Details:

- Milton Moses Fine's body is now completely inhabited/controlled by Brainiac. Additionally, Luthor has bionically enhanced his mental abilities.

- Brainiac is able to partially control Superman's mind from great distances, but he cannot read it; he can only sense emotional reactions. Implied, however, that Brainiac can normally read most minds, so why doesn't he read Luthor's and obtain all his darkest secrets for leverage? Come to think of it, why would Luthor ever empower someone who has the ability to do this? After all, Luthor expects Brainiac to be able to read Superman's mind until Brainiac explains that he cannot do this.



Minor Details:

- Alice, the Daily Planet gofer who has shown up multiple times and who, I once surmised, was the result of some in-joke in the DC bullpen, returns in this issue. She even makes the cover (to Superman's left).

- The cover also continues to depict Cat Grant working at the Planet (she was also on assignment with Clark last issue), while Adventures of Superman has had her working for Morgan Edge for the last two issues.

- Eventually, someone is going to have to clarify what Luthor's intentions are towards Superman. He had him in his grasp at one point and elected not to go for the kill, presumably because he enjoys the hunt, but I feel we need this clarified better now that Byrne is gone. He allows Superman to go free at tremendous cost and risk to himself, and then makes messy hail-Mary moves like empowering Brainiac in order to strike back at the guy. It seems illogical beyond the point of obsession, somehow. Surely, Luthor has more efficient means of disposing of Superman; means over which he can exercise more direct control. But then I suppose we wouldn't have Luthor as a useful vehicle for empowering all sorts of new Super baddies for Superman if we had Luthor take the practical approach.

One thing I've always respected about this run is the idea that most of what separates Metropolis from the real world is Lex Luthor. All the future tech and most of the super powered bad guys in these stories are byproducts of his empire. It makes the suspension of disbelief a lot more tolerable when you can chalk it all up to one evil super genius who could exist, but doesn't.


plot synopsis in one sentence:

Brainiac is having a nightmare about Superman unleashing his dark side to attack him, he awakens to learn that Luthor has removed the tumor that had given him headaches, has cybernetically enhanced his mental abilities, and given him fail safes forcing him to work for Luthor in order to mess with Superman, Clark starts experiencing delusions while at the Planet that his worst fear has come true and he has used his powers to hurt/kill those closest to him, eventually driving him to fly far away in a moment of extreme fear and fury, causing Brainiac to lose contact with him, so he gets himself together and goes to confront Milton Fine as Superman, only to have Fine use his powers on Superman once again, leading to a very public confrontation in which Fine appears to kill himself, only to reappear in Luthor's office, having removed the failsafes Luthor put in his brain and having Lex at his mercy.

Action Comics #620



For what it's worth, the scene depicted on the cover never occurs in this issue.

The only bit of interesting news coming out of the letter column this week is that Peter David is being replaced by James Owsley (Christopher Priest) on Green Lantern, and it's implied that this was done in response to fan feedback. Also, one fan writing in confirms that his reason for ranking Superman last is "don't bother me with two page stories." Surely, Roger Stern's pacing isn't helping to win anyone over to the format.


Green Lantern: It was a boring story, but the surprise twists in this issue were impressive and actually got me interested for a moment. On top of that, the once suspected villainess makes a damn good point about how men make prejudgments about empowered women, automatically sympathizing with the weak-willed ones at the same time (as we readers were prompted to do in the previous issue), leading Hal to question his relationship with Arisa and whether what attracts him to her is her being weaker than he. I was actually impressed for once.

Wild Dog: Why am I still reading this? Is anyone out there actually rooting for Wild Pup to work his way into Wild Dog's heart? I'm kinda' waiting for the kid to catch a bullet in the head.

Secret Six: Great action sequence and a much needed twist in which it now looks like a separate government affiliated agency is responsible for the alleged deaths of the original Secret Six and that Mockingbird is using the new team to avenge them.

Deadman: Still absurd and illogical, but at least we learn that the daycare isn't running in the middle of the night, after all. It's just a very stormy morning. The art still makes up for the lackluster writing.

Blackhawk: Inevitable explanations about a tangled conflict that feels really generic and doesn't interest me a bit, plus a small amount of witty banter and sex. Sounds like Pasko has created a formula for the feature by this point, and that formula is getting old.



And then there's Superman...


"Too Late, the Hero?"

writer: Roger Stern
pencils: Curt Swan
inks: Murphy Anderson
letters: Bill Oakley
colors: Tom Ziuko
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: D- (would have been an F if not for Swan and Ziuko)

It's bad when the first thing I find myself doing is going to the last panel to see whether Stern will advance the plot AT ALL by the end.

He won't.

So any hope of the abduction of Bob at the end of the last chapter somehow being tied to the larger plot and moving things along is totally extinguished here. It's just some random muggers, and this tacked on side problem isn't even resolved by the end of the chapter.

Right now, I really hate Roger Stern.

Fortunately, as usual, Swan and Ziuko do a bang-up job with visuals. I particularly like how endearingly sarcastic Swan makes one of the muggers' faces as he teases Bob:




But this chapter, itself, is a complete waste of time. I'm convinced at this point that Stern has no intention of ever resolving this storyline which, by the way, wasn't all that interesting to begin with.

I read ACW sporadically through the entire run, especially in the beginning, but I did end up with most of the Secret Six issues. That particular series was perfect for the serialized approach, and I know I always wanted to find out what would happen next.

I'm pretty sure I had this one (and the one before it) and I'm thinking of digging out all my issues of ACW and following along.