Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Action Comics #959 Review and *SPOILERS*



Superman Is Looking At The Man In The Mirror


Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Tyler Kirkham, Arif Prianto, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 13, 2016

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Well, it's been a knock down drag out fight so far in Action Comics and even though I'm not someone who snubs their nose at a good fight, it seems that's all this series has really been so far, except of course throwing some big ass mysteries at us....... which is great and all, but I'm left yelling at the comic to start answering some goddamn questions, but instead it's Superman and Doomsday punching each other....... and I've read that one already.  So yeah, Doomsday, Clark Kent showing up on the scene without any powers it seems and Mr. Oz being a big ass creep just watching the whole thing while probably touching himself.......  Okay, now you're all caught up.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Lex Luthor went and got his head popped like a grape, like it looked at the end of the previous issue and see if we get any answers about what the hell Clark Kent is doing........ you know, except being all mild mannered reporter about it.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Lois recounting the time that her husband fought Doomsday previously..... and even though it's a little tedious because we already saw this in the previous issue, it is a little nice seeing it from Lois' perspective....... and then I don't give a shit about her perspective because I have to concede to Jim's thoughts on Lois being the worst mother in the previous issue because she goes and lets Jon watch his father get the second beating of a lifetime on TV.  What the shit Lois?  You trying to traumatize that little boy to the point of no return?  Besides for Lois being a bad parent though, we do end up seeing Clark Kent go on about how he can't fly some more, but sadly this too just seems like a repeat from last issue, but don't worry things on the Clark Kent front do get better here.


Back to the battle, we see Superman begin taking on Doomsday again........ so Lex can keep his pretty bald head and all and yet again we hear more about his previous fight with Doomsday...... which might be nice for people who have never read The Death of Superman, but I have to think that it's getting a little old for them now too.  Eventually after all that thinking about his previous fight with the monster, Superman comes to an epiphany about how he has to isolate the bruiser away from all the people and how he has to keep his distance too.......... you know, what with all the death and all last time........ of course you know, you've read like seven times.  Things do get a little interesting here though because after Superman forces Doomsday into the sewers, Clark Kent goes and does the dumb shit by telling everyone to back off because they could fall in....... and then he goes and does just that and breaks his arm in the process.  It's here that we get a little back and forth with Superman and Clark and apparently this Clark went into hiding months ago and somehow it was Superman's plan....... Yeah, this Superman doesn't know what the hell Clark is talking about, or even how he's there, but this is certainly an interesting development, which is immediately over when Superman gets Lex to fly Clark to safety and make sure that all the civilians in the area are safe.  


In the end, Superman decides that heat vision is the best way to go at keeping Doomsday at bay, but for some reason Superman is dumb as shit and is totally taken by surprise when Doomsday grabs a gas line.......... and Boom!  As the smoke clears on the street, Clark Kent looks on to see how Superman is doing after that explosion, but it seems that Clark is about to have a worse day than he's already having because as our issue closes, Doomsday is approaching him and that's not good for anyone.


That's it for this issue of Action Comics and while I do find this Clark Kent mystery intriguing as hell, I'm kind of mad that this issue for the most part was just a rehash of the previous issue because the previous issue seemed in a lot of ways to be a rehash of the issue before that........ shit really needs to start happening soon..... whether that be some answers from Clark Kent or Mr. Oz, either way I'll be happy, but I need something because the suspense is killing me here.... and that's probably where the strengths of this issue lie because while I desperately want to have these mysteries revealed, it's because of these mysteries that I keep reading........ you know, besides for the whole review thing.  This series really needs to balance the action a bit though because it's just a little too much for something that for the most part we've already seen, but luckily, the art was fantastic in this issue and I always look forward to something that Tyler Kirkham brings us...... I'm a Kirkham groupie.  

Bits and Pieces:

Action Comics continues to give us over the top action and while it looks great with Tyler Kirkham rocking the art, it's starting to become a "been there done that" situation because on top of this happening every issue....... we've already seen this for the most part in the Death of Superman.  Even with that though, the mysteries of this series continue to intrigue even though the answers are being divvied out at a snails pace.  Hopefully the action can be balanced out better in upcoming issues because I just want more out of this comic......... but not from the art, that's right where it should be.  

7/10

10 comments:

  1. Mostly agree.
    Firstly , Kirkham's art is off the chain!! A perfect fit for this book!

    I actually really liked Lois in this issue, I think Jurgens writes the best Lois when he's given the chance, but it would have been cooler (or smarter) if the reason she let John watch was because she knew HER Clark was the older and wiser Superman, who learned from his last fight with Doomsday , and was now ready to face him... Which apparently did not occur to Superman himself, until well past the bloody halfway mark of the book!

    I have been a vocal proponent of Jurgens Superman since the Convergence and eventual re-emergence in the Lois & Clark series, and it's sooooo frustrating to see him write certain scenes in this new book. It's as if by eliminating the N52 Supes , they decided the original should inherit his rookie blunders, and bad decision making.

    This should have been a rematch, with an older, smarter, and more powerful Clark herding Doomsday towards his ultimate defeat. Instead, we get a blow for blow recount of a 20 year old (though still epic) battle, where Supes finally realizes he should keep his distance and then ends up fragging the Center of Metropolis...

    Really?
    I know this is action comics, and thanks to Kirkham FEELS like Action Comics, but If i'm committing to buying a series twice Monthly, I need it to deliver on both story AND Art, and Jurgens feels like he's in a holding pattern.

    I'm hoping we can break out of it.
    And where's the rest of his powers? Superspeed and freeze breath (in a sewer) could have helped a bit.

    Come on DC!!

    -Ascent

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  2. This feels like the most stretching of a story to fit the bi-weekly schedule of all the DC books. It feels like absolutely nothing has happened.

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  3. It does feel like stretching...and we're going at a snail's pace, but I'm still interested! I mean we are getting twice as many pages as we used to in a month. So, maybe they are legitimately taking more time to SHOW AND TELL this story than they would have in a standard monthly comic issue? Don't say it. I heard Jim in the podcast last week call me..."positive"...like it was a dirty word. Still don't know how I feel about that. I'll let you know in the mail.

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    1. The Clark Kent stuff alone keeps me interested, but I hope that the story becomes more than just a fight scene wrapped around a recap of The Death of Superman....... plus, I hope that Mr. Oz does more than just watch what's going down and throw cryptic messages out because right now, we seem to be getting the same thing issue after issue.

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  4. I thought Lex ran home and grabbed a new powersuit. Wasn't until Jon said that the Lex Box repaired his suit that I understood what was going on.

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    1. I was the same way. I was thinking it was some kind of continuity error or something else happened. I guess it was powered by a mother box...

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    2. If you haven't read Justice League #52 yet, that's a great prologue to this current story and really felt like it should have been a Action Comics: Rebirth issue.

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    3. I knew that his suit is "powered" by his Lex Box but didn't think it could be "repaired" by it too!

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  5. Here is my Siri, put those that care hear it:

    It seems that the Clark Kent subplot is being set up to establish,for the citizens of the DCU) that Superman and Clark are, in fact, two different people (and that the whole identity reveal had something to do with Superman taking Clark's place for some, as yet, unexplained reason).

    Meanwhile, n52 Lois is becoming Superwoman and sending a mysterious package to post-Crisis Lois.

    I think things are being set up so that post-Crisis Clark and Lois can resume their original lives at the Daily Planet. Super-Lois will become her own thing (I don't know what, yet).

    Either post-Crisis Lois and Clark will pretend not to be married and John will be a relative of one of theirs that comes to live with them OR Lois and Clark will have a public relationship and "adopt" John.

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    1. This seems so convoluted that it just could happen.

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