Back in Action

I've been reading Action Comics for a long time. Unfortunately, most of the comics I bought when I was a kid are long gone, but I still have my first issues of Action... 363 to 366, the classic Leo Dorfman / Ross Andru (and the first two of which have covers by Neal Adams) story about Superman contracting Space Leprosy. And aside from occasional issues along the way, of which there have been more than a few, I've had a couple of long runs with Action since then: all of the issues when it went weekly (601 to 642), and a long run up to and beyond issue 1,000 (957 to 1,002). I'd really been enjoying the book up until 1,001, when Brian Michael Bendis took over the writing. He is not my favorite writer. I tried to hang in there...but I just couldn't do it. Bendis' writing just irritates the hell out of me. So with a great deal of sorrow...the kind that only a fellow anal retentive / OCD comic book buyer can truly understand...I stopped buying the book.

But I kept my eye on it, thinking that surely Bendis would move on sooner or later.

And it finally happened. Action Comics #1,028 was it for Mr. Bendis, and with #1,029 (published March 23, 2021) the torch was passed to Phillip Kennedy Johnson. Of whom I'd not previously heard. But to be honest, I didn't care. I would have picked it up if it'd been written by a disgraced Teletubby who'd just gotten out of the state pen and had no previous writing experience. I wanted to check in on old Supes, you know?

There was one frustrating thing about #1,028, though. It was titled, "The Golden Age, Part Two." So I assumed (with some irritation) that I was going to have to buy that last Bendis issue after all. But wait! when I Googled, Bendis' last story was called "Micro Hopes." And "The Golden Age, Part One"? It was in Superman #29, written by 🥁🥁🥁🥁 Phillip Kennedy Johnson. So I screwed my courage to the sticking place and, for the first time in over a year, went into a comic book store. And picked up Superman #29 and Action Comics #1,029. 

Or so I thought. Turns out I had picked up Superman #30 by mistake. (Hey, I was out of practice and trying not to dawdle.) Which was written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson...but had nothing to do with the story in Action Comics #1,029. I read them both anyway. It was a bit disjointed, as you can imagine, but I saw some signs that gave me hope. Mr. Johnson was clearly very different from Mr. Bendis, and I liked the differences. His Superman seemed more real, more human, less full of shit and bombast and arrogance than the Bendis version. And the other characters didn't constantly interrupt each other when they spoke. (Bendis seems to think this is what verisimilitude is all about when it comes to dialogue. Maybe he grew up in a big, aggressive family.) So I ventured back to the comics store the next week, and was able to pick up not only Superman #29, but also Action Comics #1,030. 

Now, #1,030 is opening a whole new can of story worms, but the consequences of what happened (no spoilers here) in "The Golden Age" are acutely felt, and there was a huge upgrade in the art. #1,029 had been rendered by Phil Hester, whose angularity has always irritated me. (I can put up with bad art if the story pulls me along, though. And sometimes I can even put up with bad story and bad art if the character pulls me along, which explains my 300 issue collection of Hellblazer, I suppose.) But #1,030 was drawn (and inked!) by Daniel Sampere...of whom I've never heard previously, but I thought was quite impressive.

So Action Comics is back on my pull list. And my pull list is back from the oblivion of the past year. And it feels really good to be reading new comics again. I'm sorry to say that the single issue price of Action Comics has gone up to $4.99 (as have several other titles), which is just fucking awful from my They Used to Cost 12¢ when I Was A Kid! perspective, but I'm going to hang in there for awhile. This is a Superman that actually interests me, a Superman who has actually changed in several meaningful ways. Not least of which is that he now has a teen-aged son who seems to be on or over the cusp of being more powerful than Kal-El. I'm in.

Oh, btw, in order to make you feel better about the extra buck on the cover price, DC has thrown in a second feature on those books. In Action, it's an 8 page Midnighter (Future State) thing whose only interest to me is that the art is by Michael Avon Oeming, whom I have long loved. Even when he was working with Brian Michael Bendis.