The Outhouse - The Greatest Comic Book Forum

by **LOLtron** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 1:28 pm

Geek Readers take a look at Action Comics #3.

Credits & Solicit Info:

Writer: Grant Morrison
Pencils: Rags Morales & Gene Ha
Ink: Rick Bryant & Gene Ha
Color: Brad Anderson & Art Lyon
Letters: Patrick Brosseali
Publisher: DC

Review:

Despite doing the thing that bugs me most about a reboot, which is using it as an excuse to tell us origins we've already been told, I'm loving this book. So far we've seen a young Superman feared and hated by the powers that be. Last issue he was briefly in their clutches, only to escape and show how powerful a being he is becoming. Though he is unaware of exactly who is feeding him info, the reader gets to see that Lex Luthor is working with some sort of entity in space.

[spoiler warning]
So, in this issue we start back on Krypton with the last days. Instead of a natural disaster leading to the demise of the planet, the people are simply enjoying a party and making a few jokes at the expense of wacky, armageddon predicting Jor-El. An artificial life form crashes the party, however, announcing that their world was being cataloged in advance of imminent destruction and then begins tearing stuff up. That's how it came off to me anyhow, I guess it's possible these things were just cataloging stuff because they knew a disaster was coming, but it certainly seemed to me that they were changing things up a bit and having Krypton be destroyed by these things instead.

Back to the present, young Superman wakes from a nightmare as police force their way into his apartment and rummage through all of his stuff - just to harass him because they don't like the stuff he writes. This was probably my biggest issue story-wise. I can believe in flying men from space, but cops entering and searching a reporter's apartment without a warrant just because they feel like it was too much to ask. My nitpicking aside, they kind of speed through things to show us how the population, and not just the military, is starting to turn on Superman -- though stoning him after he saved a little girl from being hit by a truck was a bit heavy-handed, I suppose it makes the point.

Eventually he ends up at a new smart factory, hunting the story of citizens being put out of work and running into his competition, Lois Lane. As they argue, we see the same series of events that happened on Krypton start to occur on Earth, as several machines self-assemble into the being that starts talking of cataloging and life destruction.

Meanwhile back at the military complex that held Superman last issue, we see them getting this soldier ready for some sort of enhanced suit to go after Superman, but they only end up getting "infected" by this same alien life-form. The issue ends on a cliff-hanger as Lex shouts above the screams to this entity that they had a bargain and this villain asks "Where is Superman?"
[end spoilers]

Like I said at the beginning, I am really enjoying this take on Superman for the most part. Some of the ideas they are trying to get across come off a bit heavy-handed at times, really hitting the reader over the head with certain concepts. I think a more gentle approach would flow a bit better, but it's not enough to really mess up the story to me. The art is a little too sketchy, as the last couple issues have been, though the art in the first part set on Krypton was great. I'm guessing that was the Gene Ha portion. All-in-all, great issue and really looking forward to the rest of this run.

Review from thegeekreaders.com

Review by: Geek Readers

http://173.199.169.70/index.php/reviews/comics-reviews/17046-review-action-comics-3.html/

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:12 pm

I agree with the heavy-handed part. Some of Clark/Superman's dialogue has just sounded too stiff. The "You need to be the cop you wanted to be when you were a kid" comment and others like it came off as something you'd hear Adam West's Batnan say more than a modern-day Superman.

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:20 pm

[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand

As for the Brainiaic (I'm guessing that's who it was) destroying Krypton, I hope that's not the route Morrison's going for. Jor-El's predictions of Kryptonian destruction that were ignored by the status quo is a pretty important metaphor for our times with the controversy over climate change.

And as for Krypton itself, I'm not sure how much I like it. It seemed too generic sci-fi, and we all know Morrison can do better than that. In a lot of ways, Man of Steel-era Krypton was something that seemed a little dangerous. Stuff like the early versions of the Erradicator always seemingly try to transform the Earth into something more Krypton-like.

by **Cat-Scratch** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:40 pm

The Nacireman wrote:
[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand
As for the Brainiaic (I'm guessing that's who it was) destroying Krypton, I hope that's not the route Morrison's going for. Jor-El's predictions of Kryptonian destruction that were ignored by the status quo is a pretty important metaphor for our times with the controversy over climate change.

And as for Krypton itself, I'm not sure how much I like it. It seemed too generic sci-fi, and we all know Morrison can do better than that. In a lot of ways, Man of Steel-era Krypton was something that seemed a little dangerous. Stuff like the early versions of the Erradicator always seemingly try to transform the Earth into something more Krypton-like.

I've yet to read it, but...

[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand

Seems to me that yes, this is continuing Geoff Johns bit of Brainiac killing Krypton.

by **Herald** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:54 pm

Cat-Scratch wrote:
I've yet to read it, but...
[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand
Seems to me that yes, this is continuing Geoff Johns bit of Brainiac killing Krypton.

[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand

A concept that's partly stolen from the '90s Superman animated series.

by **Punchy** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:57 pm

Herald wrote:
[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand
A concept that's partly stolen from the '90s Superman animated series.

How can DC steal from themselves?

by **Cat-Scratch** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 2:57 pm

Herald wrote:
[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand
A concept that's partly stolen from the '90s Superman animated series.

Yup!

by **Herald** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:09 pm

Punchy wrote:
How can DC steal from themselves?

When they're not stealing from themselves, but from WB Animation.
WB Animation is NOT the same as DC Comics.

by **Punchy** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:11 pm

Herald wrote:
When they're not stealing from themselves, but from WB Animation.
WB Animation is NOT the same as DC Comics.

It pretty much is.

One Superman story can't steal from another, they all feed off one another.

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:23 pm

Punchy wrote:
It pretty much is.

One Superman story can't steal from another, they all feed off one another.

DC and WB Animation are both owned by Time-Warner :evil:

, but that's about it. DC had about squat to do with any of the animated series.

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:28 pm

Cat-Scratch wrote:
I've yet to read it, but...
[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand
Seems to me that yes, this is continuing Geoff Johns bit of Brainiac killing Krypton.

[Reveal] Spoiler: Click to Expand

Still a stupid idea. It takes away from the Jor-El predicting the planet's destruction concept, and being ignored/ridiculed over it. Like I said. It's an idea with a lot of relevance today with the climate change debate. That's how it should have been handled.

by **chap22** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:39 pm

Herald wrote:
When they're not stealing from themselves, but from WB Animation.
WB Animation is NOT the same as DC Comics.

well then, to play devil's advocate, by that logic, wouldn't a very large percentage of the stories done by WB Animation have been "stolen" from DC Comics? yet i don't see anyone taking them to task for that.

the way i see it...good on Morrison for borrowing elements from creators who are far better than he is.

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:48 pm

chap22 wrote:well then, to play devil's advocate, by that logic, wouldn't a very large percentage of the stories done by WB Animation have been "stolen" from DC Comics? yet i don't see anyone taking them to task for that.

the way i see it...good on Morrison for borrowing elements from creators who are far better than he is.

You couldn't say they were stolen, as they had the rights to adapt them, per se.

by **chap22** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 3:56 pm

The Nacireman wrote:
You couldn't say they were stolen, as they had the rights to adapt them, per se.

so what? WB owns DC. i'm pretty sure DC Comics has as much carte blanche now to borrow good ideas from those old WB cartoons as the cartoons had to adapt from vice versa. it ain't like it's the first time the comics have done so...Renee Montoya, Cloe Sullivan, Live Wire, hell even Jimmy Olsen (by name) from the old radio serials all came to comics from other media.

i just don't see the uproar.

by **Juan Cena** » Wed Nov 02, 2011 4:05 pm

chap22 wrote:so what? WB owns DC. i'm pretty sure DC Comics has as much carte blanche now to borrow good ideas from those old WB cartoons as the cartoons had to adapt from vice versa. it ain't like it's the first time the comics have done so...Renee Montoya, Cloe Sullivan, Live Wire, hell even Jimmy Olsen (by name) from the old radio serials all came to comics from other media.

i just don't see the uproar.

I'm just saying it kind of takes away from the story that Krypton was destroyed by outside forces instead of exploding on its own (or caused by some reason by the Kryptonians themselves)