I love classic Gil Kane art, but this cover is a travesty.
A few interesting things about this issue. First off, the fan rankings show Black Canary still being the least liked feature for the seventh week in a row while Nightwing remains at the number one spot and, perhaps in response to this feedback (or because another feature was delayed) we get two installments of the next Nightwing feature in this issue -- that's a full third of the book. Additionally, in the letter column, Mike Carlin explains that it was, in fact, Wolfman's decision to include Speedy in the first Nightwing feature (not that I doubted this), and we see this new Nightwing feature entitled "Nightwing and Speedy". Apparently, Roy Harper is here to stay.
Green Lantern: James Owsley and M.D. Bright bring in Captain Atom and, at the same time, attempt to take a more comical Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League approach to the story. The climax really is quite funny as Captain Atom totally misreads a situation and blows up the ship of the destructive alien just as it was about to leave peacefully.
Secret Six is really on the move now, with things quickly moving towards a climax. And, for those of us who never read the original series, we're finally told that August Durant was the original Mockingbird, which, I'm sure, is nothing more than a red herring to ensure we're shocked when Mockingbird's true identity gets revealed (and I'm betting the farm it's Carlo DiRienzi; all the clues point there).
Black Canary: I'm on strike with this one. Too terrible to continue reading.
Nightwing and Speedy: Two full chapters of a story that's truly more disappointing than the first. The plot is nonsensical as Speedy is taking a six month vacation to spend time with his daughter and, as he and Nightwing conveniently stumble upon a conspiracy involving a drug cartel, Speedy casually remembers how he was fired from his job at the CBI (a fictional amalgam of the CIA and FBI) and nearly assassinated for discovering that it was secretly sponsoring a drug cartel. Yeah, he just decided to walk away and forget about it, not even mentioning it to the friend he's with on this trip who happens to be a superhero and trained by the world's greatest detective. But beyond even that, the jokes are plentiful, terrible, and dated (ranging from Saturday Night Live's Church Lady to Alex Hailey's Roots), and the story is just entirely uninteresting thus far. There's no personal drive for either character to get involved at this point since Roy seems to hold what happened to him at the CBI in no particular regard.
And then there was Superman...
"Panic in the Sands" writer: Roger Stern pencils: Curt Swan inks: Murphy Anderson letters: Bill Oakley colors: Tom Ziuko editor: Mike Carlin
grade: D
We've already established by this point that this entire meandering story line could be resolved in five seconds flat if Clark became Superman, but somehow, he believes doing so will convince Bob the Zealot more than ever that Superman really is a god watching over him. The problem is, Bob already believes that anyway, so wouldn't it make more sense to become Superman and tell him directly that you're not? Twice, three times, maybe even four until it registers? That would end this story more effectively.
Instead, Clark spends half this installment imagining becoming Superman and then decides that would make things worse.
Stern truly is desperate to keep this storyline from ending, and I truly don't understand why.
And, by the way, let's not forget that Clark knows there's a group attempting to kill Bob's entire religious order, so his deciding to take Bob to them slowly as Clark Kent instead of speeding over as Superman is further endangering these people's lives all so that Clark can attempt to alleviate his discomfort at being the object of their worship. Stern has not thought this out.
Swan, Ziuko, and Anderson continue to do a fine job making the feature pleasing to the eye, but this storyline is killing me with the pacing of a tortoise moving uphill.
This is about four or five issues of ACW in a row that I have no memory of. So I either missed more issues than I thought (and I thought I had most of the Secret Six issues) or I just totally forgot them. I do remember the real revelation of Mockingbird, so I must have started buying them again. I also remember the Phantom Lady arc.
With this flying dreadnaught under me, I can wipe out all mankind! Now the Hulk will be the HUNTER instead of the HUNTED!
This is about four or five issues of ACW in a row that I have no memory of. So I either missed more issues than I thought (and I thought I had most of the Secret Six issues) or I just totally forgot them. I do remember the real revelation of Mockingbird, so I must have started buying them again. I also remember the Phantom Lady arc.
Mockingbird won't be revealed for two more issues. Phantom Lady is five more after that.
I'll be on vacation from tonight through next Tuesday (July 15th). Reviews will resume soon after, and I have a little surprise in store to thank everyone for their patience
I'll be on vacation from tonight through next Tuesday (July 15th). Reviews will resume soon after, and I have a little surprise in store to thank everyone for their patience
See you in a week!
Leaving before the Mockingbird reveal? Seriously? You're a cruel man Mr S,a cruel cruel man As for your surprise-would that be naming Zyson as your stand-in for the week?
]Leaving before the Mockingbird reveal? Seriously? You're a cruel man Mr S,a cruel cruel man As for your surprise-would that be naming Zyson as your stand-in for the week?
If Mockingbird doesn't end up being Carlo DiRienzi, then you and Zyrson can run the site from now on
It occurs to me at this point that, if Superman just picked up Bob the Zealot, flew him directly to his compound, and then told his religious order that he's not a god, this story would be over already.
- Luthor forces Delgado to become his bodyguard against his will by remote controlling his body. Now really, what sense does it make to have a bodyguard who is serving you against his will? He's not going to make those death-defying leaps to protect you unless you make him do so. Is Luthor going to have to watch his bodyguard watch him 24 hours a day?
He may have said bodyguard in this issue, but he uses him as more of an enforcer.
A surprising amount worth discussing in this week's issue, from the pay-off surrounding ACW's longest running and most engaging mystery, to some frank discussion from Mike Gold about this title's responsibilities to its younger viewers, and finally the answer to the question we've all been asking ourselves since ACW began.
Here goes...
Secret Six -- The Mockingbird Revelation: If you thought August Durant would end up uncovered in this issue, you were right. He was uncovered...in a body bag. Sure enough, the subtle clues all along led to the proper place: Mockingbird is Carlo DiRienzi.
Frank discussion from Mike Gold: Gold points out in the letter column something that I absolutely had not noticed before -- ACW never bore the Comics Code approval label. As he explains it:
Mike Gold said:
In point of fact, we do not submit ACW to the Comics Code Authority. We feel the price alone ($6.00 a month) tends to chase away the younger readers whose interests the Code attempts to protect.
He goes on to add that
The fact of the matter is, the comic book medium is no longer just for kids
.
With all the upset over Action Comics no longer being a Superman title, I find it just a little more tragic that DC's second oldest title, beloved by children and adolescents for generations, was no longer considered "for kids" anymore. Sure enough, the entire industry has since moved in that direction, but it's sad to see such a trend begin on such a legacy title.
And yet, while this helps to explain how Blackhawk had been pushing the boundaries of PG-13 comicdom for the past few months, Gold also goes on to decide that
On the other hand, it is appearing more and more clear that thematically our Blackhawk feature is out of pace with the rest of ACW. It's tough to remove our most popular feature (over the course of our first 17 issues) from the book, but it appears to me that the most responsible thing to do would be to spin Blackhawk out of ACW and into its own series, labelled "for mature readers."
So that's just what we're going to do. Outside of rather unusual guest appearances in ACW #635 and #642, Blackhawk's last appearance in these pages will be in ACW #634.
And Blackhawk #1 will follow about a month and one-half later.
So was this truly an issue of exercising good taste in attempting to delineate the borders between "For kids" comics, "General Audience" comics, and "For Mature Audiences" comics, or was Blackhawk so successful that this transition was going to happen anyway, and Gold simply took the opportunity to placate a few detractors concerned about the content?
And finally, the answer to our BIG question... This appears to be the point where DC and/or Gold decides ACW is a failure and will be terminated. As Gold writes:
...we all wish we could offer more Superman here in ACTION. It's taken some time, but if things work out, you'll be seeing more of The Man of Steel in these pages in about five months.
Five months later, the title returned to a monthly Superman feature with Action Comics #643
As for the features, themselves...
Green Lantern: Owsley and Bright lose sense of the fun/absurdist interplay they'd begun to create between Hal and Captain Atom last week, this time having the two monologue excessively about their different approaches to justice and whether the two were truly all that different after all. Pretty tedious follow-up to a fun team-up that doesn't give me much faith in where the story is headed next.
Black Canary: Much as I'm supposedly on strike with this feature after far too many terrible chapters, I have to admit I skimmed this one and found a few impressive moments where Randy DuBurke's pencils, Pablo Marcos' inks, and Sharon Wright's dialogue all flowed together beautifully. Still, I can't stand Wright's plotting or pacing, so skimming is all I'll continue to be doing. Too bad such a top notch art team isn't paired with a better writer.
Nightwing and Speedy: Golden hired Marv Wolfman to do a Nightwing feature, and somehow that's progressed into a Speedy feature (no Nightwing appearance at all this time in a plot that is clearly centered around Speedy) written by Cherie Wilkerson (who, at the time, was best known for writing for the 1988 Superman cartoon, as well as Disney's Ducktales, and whose career in comics didn't really seem to take off after this) and simply co-plotted by Wolfman. Honestly, the story's not bad. The writing, pacing, and art all do a reasonable job. But is it a feature that anyone actually wanted? Still, I'm consistently impressed how hard ACW worked to be a platform for up and coming female voices in comicdom -- even if pretty much all of them ended up being disappointments.
Secret Six: We get the big revelation, but not much else. If you already had a pretty strong guess who Mockingbird was going to be, this issue wouldn't do much to excite you beyond confirming your awesomeness.
Blackhawk hits a serious lull while trying to get a new story arc in motion. The humor, action, and characterization that have made this feature enjoyable at times are all absent, as is the risque content Gold is now apparently so concerned about. Interesting side note: this chapter mentions the creation of the CIA, while the Nightwing and Speedy feature still uses the fictitious "CBI" agency in its place. There really is no inter-continuity among these features.
And then there was Superman...
"Wipeout!" writer: Roger Stern pencils: Curt Swan inks: Murphy Anderson letters: Bill Oakley colors" Tom Ziuko editor: Mike Carlin
grade: D
Five months left of this tedious plot line, apparently, and nothing much happens this time. Clark and Bob the Zealot are still trying to evade the bad guys in the desert, but Clark prods Bob to use his mental imaging powers to confuse the bad guys, causing them to bail out of their jets, and leaving them vulnerable so that Clark (or Superman) can get answers from them.
Really, even those fans who weren't turned off by Superman being reduced to 2 pages per week MUST have given up on the tedious pace of this thoroughly uninteresting plot by this point.
Last Edit: Jul 19, 2014 12:23:52 GMT -5 by shaxper
