Action Comics #814

April 12, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Another Day at the Office

When things are funny at the Daily Planet and Clark can’t get any answers, Superman takes some time away from the office to unwind.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

The new Action team takes over this issue with a simple, done-in-one story about a day in the life of the Metropolis Marvel. Superman spends an average day taking down some train hijackers, catching falling cars and fighting Darkseid. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Hiring Chuck Austen to take over the longest-running superhero comic in the world was, to put it lightly, a controversial choice, and in this issue it’s plain to see why. There is some good in this issue – Austen’s Superman is someone who is sure of himself, confident and clearly loves his powers and being who he is, and that’s something this character should have and, frankly, doesn’t always display under other writers. The problem is that Austen frequently goes too far in the other direction, saddling the character with stilted dialogue and going from confident to arrogant, a characteristic that doesn’t befit Superman in any incarnation.

On the artistic side, though, there is no complaint at all. Ivan Reis and Marc Campos were born to do this title, and their bold, powerful Superman is one of the best takes on this character since Stuart Immonen was handling him on a regular basis. Readers who have complained about “manga-style” artwork will have nothing to bemoan here. The fight scenes are great, the facial features are dynamic and expressive, and every page of the comic looks great.

Let’s not forget the cover, either – Arthur Adams, creature artist extraordinaire, gives us a wonderful pin-up of Superman versus Kalibak (a scene that actually appears in the issue, take that, Marvel editors), and to top it off, the title returns to the original logo with this issue. I know I may be the only one who cares about that, but it’s something I really like.

Rating: 6/10

Action Comics #813

March 9, 2004

Quick Rating: Good
Title: Heaven (Godfall Part Four) & a back-up story

Now that Superman knows he is trapped in Kandor, how far will he go to break out?

Writers: Michael Turner, Joe Kelly & Chuck Austen
Pencils: Talent Caldwell & Ivan Reis
Inks: Jason Gorder & Marc Campos
Colors: Peter Steigerwald & Christina Strain & Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Michael Turner
Publisher: DC Comics

After three issues of a story that disturbed me with how familiar it seemed, the “Godfall” storyline takes a step in the right direction this issue. Superman, having been lost in the timestream, thought he was back home on Krypton. Instead, as we found out two weeks ago in Superman #202, he was really trapped in the bottle city of Kandor at his own Fortress of Solitude, kidnapped by a fanatical worshipper of his that wants to escape the city and become a goddess in the outside world.

The story has, fortunately, taken a twist that distinguishes it from previous “Back on Krypton” storylines. However, Michael Turner and Joe Kelly have begun playing fast and loose with continuity. The trend in comics these days seems to be to accept those parts of a character’s past you like and ignore those you don’t. What we are presented here is a new version of Kandor that doesn’t reconcile itself with either the pre-Crisis version (a city stolen from Krypton by Brainiac) or the post-Crisis version (a city comprised of kidnapped aliens from throughout the cosmos). This Kandor appears to be some sort of strange hybrid of the two. If you can wrap your head around these sorts of unexplained continuity shifts, that’s fine, but it’s also the sort of thing that alienates long time fans, confuses new fans and eventually leads to things like Zero Hour.

On the art side, Talent Caldwell is doing some beautiful stuff. He has a Superman that looks proud and majestic, even when beaten, and the determination in the man of steel’s eyes reminds you that, boy scout or no, he is a force to be reckoned with.

In the back-up story, Chuck Austen redeems himself from the abysmal Lana Lang story he gave us last issue with a rather good reintroduction of an old Superman villain. (I am deliberately avoiding using the title of this story, which appears on the last page, as it is a huge spoiler.) Austen’s story involves a young boy who, at the scene of a tragedy, is convinced Superman will save his parents, not realizing they are already dead. He takes the child through levels of blind faith and innocence to the depths of heartbreak and anguish, and he manages to accomplish that fairly well, while bringing back a villain we haven’t seen in some time in the last panel, giving us chilling implications for Superman in future months.

Ivan Reis does great artwork on this issue. His style reminds me very much of the artwork we had in the Superman titles in the late 80s and early 90s, when I began reading the books, and therefore I loved it immediately. I actually prefer it, even, to the style Turner and Caldwell use on the rest of the book. Reis is one of those solid artists that always turns in good work but gets overshadowed by superstars who can’t meet a deadline.

I feel a bit better about the Superman titles after this issue than I did after the last issue of Action Comics. “Godfall” concludes this month and next month, supposedly, a new era begins. Let’s just hope it’s a good one.

Rating:  7/10

Action Comics #812

February 7, 2004

Quick Rating: Fair
Title: Home (Godfall Part One) & My Heart

Another day in the life of Kal-El… on Krypton?

Writers: Joe Kelly & Michael Turner, Chuck Austen
Pencils: Talent Caldwell & Ivan Reis
Inker: Jason Gorder & Marc Campos
Colors: Grafiksismik & P.S. Colors, Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
CoverArt: Michael Turner & Peter Steigerwald
Publisher: DC Comics

In Superman #200, the man of steel vanished into a time rift. Last month we saw how the city of Metropolis is coping with his absence. This week, we finally pick up on the man himself, living in a universe where Krypton never blew up, he never came to Earth and he is – irony of ironies, married to an alien.

This Kal-El has a good life, a beautiful wife, a wonderful home… but he senses something is amiss. He overreacts to the slightest problems, as though he’s constantly waiting for the other shoe to drop. He knows his life is too good to be true.

And therein lies the major problem with this book – for a title intended to spearhead the relaunch of the Superman franchise, this book is treading over some seriously worn territory. I’ve lost count of how many stories we’ve seen dealing with a hypothetical life where Krypton survived or where that version of Kal-El felt something amiss. (Alan Moore did it best, in case anyone is keeping score.) There’s nothing wrong with this story, don’t misunderstand, but for the longtime Superman fan, there’s an overwhelming sense of “been there, done that.” For the casual fan, they’ll pick up this issue and just start scratching their heads thinking, “Wait, didn’t Krypton explode?”

The artwork, however, is another matter. Speaking as a professional, detached journalist and a longtime reviewer, there is only one phrase sufficient to describe the Caldwell/Gorder/Grafiksismik art team: Wowiewowwowwow! This is one beautiful comic book! The pencils just pop off the page, the characters look wonderful and the chase scene on laser-motorcycles is more exciting than anything George Lucas has pulled off in his last two movies. The character designs are fantastic too, with very good uniform for the Kryptonian Kal and a gorgeous, clearly Turner-inspired design for his wife, Lyla. If you’re the sort who buys comics more for the artwork than the story, boost the quick rating to “very good.”

There’s also a backup story, “My Heart,” by Chuck Austen, starring a version of Lana Lang that greatly disturbs me. Over the years Lana has evolved greatly, going from a girl that only existed to pine over Superman to a woman who made her own life separate from her childhood crush. In this story, we see her regress even more than she has in recent months, existing again to pine over a man married to someone else. She simply comes across as a bitter, petty woman, and that’s not the Lana fans have been reading about for years.

To be fair, Austen does have spot-on characterization for Jonathan and Martha Kent, and Reis does a very good job on the pencils. He’s got a confident style and makes just about any book look better. This isn’t a terrible book, but it’s not really very special, except for some great art. It’s not a book that will spark a resurgence in the Superman franchise.

At least, not yet.

Rating: 6/10

X-Men (1991 Series) #157

May 16, 2004

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Black Holes (Day of the Atom Part One)

Havok tries to deal with running one of the X-Men teams.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Salvador Larroca
Inks: Danny Miki
Colors: Udon
Letters: Rus Wooton
Editor: Mike Marts
Cover Art: Salvador Larroca
Publisher: Marvel Comics

It has been suggested by many that this “Reload” title is going to be little more than a continuation of Chuck Austen’s Uncanny X-Men run. If nothing else, it’s a continuation of those elements that got me to stop reading Uncanny X-Men back during the wedding storyline. The story starts with an ill-defined disaster in a Chinese village, then shifts to The Xavier Institute where Havok starts a stupid argument with Nurse Annie by asking about the ex, something that most guys have done at some point or another but that few do in such an idiotic manner. He then proceeds to get into another argument with Iceman who, as during the Uncanny run, is written as a spiteful, petulant child rather than the seasoned, professional superhero he had evolved into right up until the point that Austen started writing X-Men comics.

The other highlights of this issue include a centerpiece spread that consists of an entire room full of X-Men crowding into Cyclops’s office and whining about their team assignments, which gives you great faith in their ability to save the world the next time the Vanisher crops up. Apparently Cyclops, the strong, logical leader, has loaded each team with people who hate each other, don’t want to be on the teams and feel over extended. Plus he put his brother, who is behaving like a spiteful jerk and, were it not for the fact that he used to lead X-Factor, would seem to possess no leadership qualities whatsoever, in charge of the team with Iceman, who he hates.

It is possible to tell a story about superheroes where everyone isn’t at each other’s throats. Even in the most soap operatic days of the team, characters were never at each other’s throats the way they are in this book. This isn’t a superhero comic, this isn’t even a soap opera, this is a bad high school melodrama, the sort of thing most of us manage to evolve past in our freshman year in college.

The book also ends with a last-page cliffhanger that has a lot of people understandably up in arms, and I don’t blame them, because it seems to negate one of the best things in Grant Morrison’s run before the ink is even dry on the trade paperback. I’m going to reserve judgment on that part, though, because like the last-page revelation in this week’s Excalibur, you can’t be totally sure that what seems to have happened has actually happened. We’ll probably get a definite answer next issue, at which point I’ll be prepared to be up in arms as well.

Salvador Larroca does a pretty good job on the book’s artistic side. He and Udon do a great-looking Iceman, even if the character is written horribly, and the coloring job really lifts the issue up. I still think Havok’s costume is ugly as sin, but I don’t know who designed it, so I’m not going to lay blame there.

Overall, this book seems to carry on everything that was in the Uncanny X-Men run over the past couple of years. If you’ve enjoyed it, go ahead and get this, because it’s more of the same. If you didn’t like it, I recommend you save your pennies, cross your fingers and hope for Astonishing X-Men to cleanse the palette.

Rating: 4/10