Action Comics 12
For the background n what happened, I’ll refer you guys to my earlier review of Action Comics 11, which has a ‘story so far’ to get y’all up to date.
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http://www.statueforum.com/showthread.php?t=129656)
This issue ends what is a year of the new ‘Harry Potter’ Clark Kent stories for Grant Morrison and Rags Morales. I’ve already mentioned I like ( not love ) this new take. Compared to the 12 issues of Superman, this book has been the only place where we Superman fans get to have their monthly dose of a good Superman story.
I’m gonna be slightly more spoilerific this time
The issue starts with what you think is Flashback. Separate Panels feature Clark n Jonathon Kent staring at the heavens, Clark leaving Smallville, coming to Metropolis / the Daily planet, Forming those relationships with Perry, Lois, Jimmy n the rest, Embracing his ‘Superman’-ness, Fighting alongside his peer’s from the Justice league, Looking at earth from the Tower ( great Caption here : “It’s Like Camelot” ), Lois in a wedding gown and in Superman’s (Not Clark’s ) Arms,”A golden Age has begin” “ a dream come true” .. wait what !!! Yeah.. now you notice that all the panels which came had a hazy outline, DREAM SEQUENCE !!!!
A great way to start a book, really liked it..
In the last book, Lois was dying ( well thrown into a Car’s windshield ) and the People of Metropolis were attacking Superman under mind-control of the new character. So it seems the First 2 pages have been Superman under a Mental attach, but being Married to Lois brings him to his senses ( Why wouldn’t it !! It worked for me )
Now I’ll be brief:
Superman Comes out of his haze, Lois looks to be bleeding and in real bad shape. He tries to get to Lois through the horde of folks attacking him. All this time, Suzie is bewildered, that her Kidnapper / protector is trying to hurt superman and her Aunt Lois. Suzie gets to her, helps reduce her pain through her powers.
The Villain – Hoodie guys and superman are Duking it out, well, The villain throws Cars at Supes, and Superman is punching them. Finaly he Gets buried under a lot of them. The Hoodie invited Suzie to finally come with him to this ship – The Cometeer (HINT !! ). He tries to convince Suzie to come with him, shows her he means no harm, but if she doesn’t come with him, some bad folks will get to her. Susie don’t want to leave with Aunt Lois in such condition. To prove to her he shows her his origin. Pretty Cool stuff, practically mirroring a superhero origin. I’ll Link you to it, so as not to spoil stuff. ( the ever reliable (not ) Wikipedia: Origin )
Apparently, Superman has also seen into his mind when he was under the Mental attack. He calls him the First Superman. There’s a Flashback, where we learn what Mr. First Superman has been up to. We get introduced to the folks he is working for – The Oort Kind. They are taking Susie or the Neo Sapiens / Nutants to turn them into Warriors and Superman cannot interfere.
Superman is Pissed – you invade his mind, abduct his friends, act like you own the place, He’s gonna try to Punch ya ! First Superman says he’s working for the people who own this planet and throws Superman into a building. He tells Susie she can do similar things, and that is why they must leave. She doesn’t want to.
Rescue folks arrive, The Firemen find one of theirs Eaten from inside out ( there’s 2 eyeballs lying on the road.. EYEBALLS wtf !!
) And they find Johnny Clark’s Helmet. Well, Superman has lost 2 identities now, Apparently Johnny clark’s been vapourised.
Superman Gets up, and tells Mr. Hoodie who’s prepping to leave what he’s going to do. ( don’t all superheroes do that? ) I like the way it’s put, it ties in to the name of the book
Supes ends up getting in a great punch. Mr. Hoodie gets ready for endgame – a Psychic Bullet ! Luckily, Susie interferes and Saves Supes. He protests, saying he is doing it to save her and save all of the earth. Supes goes – you went about it the wrong way. The spaceship arrives and teleports? First Superman away.
Now Supes gets back to Lois, She’s badly hurt. Supes zooms her away to the Hospital. There’s too many internal injuries, and she does not have the hours it would take to operate. We finally see a great Superman Moment which takes us straight back to the golden and silver ages. He saves her, obviously !
As he’s changing, Batman arrives, giving him a flash drive. It’s got all the facts on Clark’s Life and what he’s been up to since he came to Metropolis. His suggestion to Supes is to bring Clark back to Life. ( Apparently Superman can read Flashdrives with his ‘flashdrive vision” ??? )
Now the build up to the next issue, Superman arrives at Clark’s old quarters and his landlady reveals her true form / origin. We see she’s from another dimension, and she came here to protect clark from the “Envious one”. I would really like to tell ya who it is, but you can figure it out. The last page sees Susie being tucked in, and the little freakish dude from issue #1 is in the room approachin Sleeping Suzie, “Hello Little Girl..”
Overall, I loved the issue, despite some of the Hokieness which I feel is deliberate as Morrison is trying to Channel the Golden age stuff. Loved the call back to one of the forgotten heroes ( Link above ). Really loved the way Superman saves Lois, that’s what Superman is to me, that is exactly what I love about an all-powerful Superhero and what I loved about superman as a kid. It was a magical thing, I’d love to see Superman (or Flash ) read the entire library in a few seconds to solve a mystery. It’s something I’d love to see more. It’s Morrison, heck we are going to see the cool stuff, and crazy ideas. Some work, some don’t. There’s one which really bothered me – Reading the Flashdrive. I really did not like Flashdrive vision, what is that??? If it’s explained I’d be fine, can Superman read the one’s and zeroes encoded magnetically and then decode them in his head? A leap too far for me.
I also thought the resolution to Clark Kent’s identity crisis was very meh, I would have liked to see some more creativity here. ( No no “No more mutants” or “Brand new Day” here please ) Hopefully, next issue when we see Clark explaining where he was to Lois n the Daily Planet Gang. I’m more excited to see the next one, and some inter-dimensional craziness.
A great issue, and I love where it is going, all set for the next few and the end of Morrison’s run.
