Action Comics #1039

 

It's a little bit funny. After 56 years of reading comic books, the two that I most look forward to these days are two of the oldest: Detective Comics and Action Comics. Both of which are straight outta the heart of DC, one of the two biggest comics publishers going these days. Does this shoot my indie cred to bits? Does it matter that I still follow Drawn & Quarterly and other smaller independent publishers? Well, don't answer that, because actually I don't care. I buy what catches my eye, not what's cool or whatever.

And Detective and Action have definitely caught my attention of late. Detective is in the midst of a twelve issue weekly story arc in which Batman is largely absent. It's well written and drawn, and the standard covers are amazingly good. Definitely worth a look.

But as for this Superman...this so-called Superman.... This story (which is on Part 4*) has made all of the right choices so far. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson has taken Superman down at least or two pegs, possibly more. He is trapped on Mongul's Warworld, he has lost a great deal of his power (if not all) due to red sun radiation, and he looks like he's aged quite a bit, what with the more than a touch of grey on the sides. Check out this page from issue #1039:

Speaking of...the art on this issue...pencils and inks by Riccardo Federici, with colors by Lee Loughridge...is just lovely. And if you had shown me that bit of art from above without giving me any context, I'd have thought it was a John Carter of Mars thing. (Which is a great compliment in my book.) 

Anyway...this is a story of what makes Superman Superman, and as you have no doubt guessed, it's not the powers he received when he became a resident alien on planet Earth. There's one scene in this issue where another captive tells Superman that he has to stop fighting the way he did when he had powers, and though it takes him most of the rest of the issue to wrap his head around that, near the end of the story Superman asks the other guy to teach him how to fight. That's pretty fuckin' cool, ennit? Also, Superman refuses to mortally wound any of his opponents in the arena, and holds fast to his promise that he will work to free all of the prisoners of Warlword. Even the ones who are trying to kill him.

Now THAT's a Super Man.

This story arc will no doubt be collected at some point in the near future, and often the collections are cheaper than the accumulated single issues, but I can't wait that long. It's hard enough waiting four weeks, FF'sS. 

* ComiXology's blurb copy says it's Part III, which I find irritating enough to make a comment on...but I've long since given up on telling ComiXology when they fuck up.