Action Comics #900 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Lex Luthor is about to bring fun, love, and joy to all the people of the universe—the crazy part is I am being totally serious right now.

The Review: Say what you like about Superman: he can be overly naïve, overbearingly preachy, arguably antiquated, and a hopeless optimist.  But any character who can support a title through 900 issues is doing something right.  This unassailable milestone is evidence that Superman remains a deeply embedded icon in our culture.  To be rid of him, our society would have to drastically change—and not necessarily for the better, as this issue demonstrates.

Paul Cornell wisely downplays the Big Blue’s return to his original title to finish off his epic Lex Luthor storyline in grand fashion.  In attempting to break down Superman by forcing him to experience the depths of human emotion, Lex reveals his own under-appreciation for humanity.

Superman already knows more about being human than most of us ever will, while Lex’s quest for his own divinization constantly sets him apart from his fellow man.  He squanders his chance to bless the universe with true, eternal bliss and gain ultimate power by his need to irrevocably prove himself superior to Clark Kent, best man of Smallville, of all people.

The grandeur of this plot gets blemished by the constant distractions from the Reign of Doomsday storyline, which seems obviously forced on Cornell.  He tries to accommodate it as best he can by using it as Lex’s “bait” to get Superman to come to him, but even so it comes off a clumsy, ill-conceived, far more superficial plotline (a grim portent of the material we’ll be getting in upcoming issues) in comparison to Superman confronting a godlike Luthor in space.

Pete Woods and Brad Anderson do their usual stellar job on the main (i.e. non-Doomsday related) portions of the issue, while Jesus Merino and Blond offer fittingly are less impressive efforts on the Doomsday stuff.  But you also have support from Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund, Rags Morales, Ardian Syaf, Jamal Igle and Jon Sibal, and Gary Frank, as each of these artists contribute a page to Superman’s descent into his most despairing moments.

And yet all that craziness makes up only half of this massive issue, as the other contains a number of short features in the “annual” tradition.  The running theme seems to be the humanity of Superman, as all the shorts play on that idea in one way or another, though the best ones do so in a very subtle fashion.

Particularly impressive is “Life Support,” which would be just another story of Jor-El’s desperate last days before Krypton’s end except for Damon Lindelof’s well-crafted writing.  You’ll notice how natural and true-to-life the dialogue is, how it avoids mentioning anything specifically alien or scientifically advanced.  In fact, were it not for Ryan Sook’s gorgeous Kryptonian skylines, you might think these are just two men experiencing the most heartbreaking moments of their lives—and you’d be correct.

Geoff Johns proves you can write a deeply warm and touching story in four pages.  Lois’ reasons for wanting to have the Legion of Super-Heroes come over to their place for dinner feels very sincere and shows how a stable marriage in comics should look like.  The final splash of the Legion crowding the Kents’ Metropolis loft gets loving treatment from Gary Frank and Brad Anderson (love Timber Wolf munching on a whole pizza to himself).

Against these two winners you also have some underwhelming offerings.  Paul Dini’s attempt at writing a space parable of sorts and awkwardly making it parallel to Superman’s nature shows that while Dini may be good at writing many things, he has little hand at producing abstract, thought-provoking kind of stories.  Luckily, the feature is saved by RB Silva’s rich, imaginative art (with the one snafu of making Superman look like a kid in some panels), with inks from Rob Lean and out-of-sight colors by Java Tartaglia.

David S. Goyer’s “The Incident” also has the curse of far better art (courtesy of the talented Miguel Sepulveda, colored by Paul Mounts) than story, but maybe I say that because it touches on one of my pet peeves in comics: putting superhuman characters into real-life politics, in this case, a protest in Tehran.  The story predictably spirals out of control with Superman renouncing his US citizenship at the end, which, DC editorial gods be willing, should never be canon—ever.

“Only Human” receives its script from the legendary Richard Donner, producer of the original Superman films, and Derek Hoffman, with Matt Camp providing the sparse and sketchy, but nevertheless appealing storyboard panels.  The plot is meant to be humorous, pitting a cocky jock in a possibly-poached super-suit against Superman as they race around the city.  But you can’t help thinking of the implications of Superman destroying the suit (which is meant to be mass-produced for general use) just because the one man using it is a total ignoramus.

Conclusion: With such a huge amount of content, you’re bound to get some major highs and lows, but I can safely say the highs in this issue more than make up for the lows—to a limit.

Grade: B+

– Minhquan Nguyen