A New Era Begins In This Week’s SuperChat

A new year brings in new beginnings. An era ends, and a new era rises. Jon’s faces down the Red Sin and finishes off his series with Superman: Son of Kal-El #18, written by Tom Taylor, penciled by Cian Tormey and Ruairí Coleman, inked by Cian Tormey, Ruairí Coleman and Scott Hanna, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr., and lettered by Dave Sharpe.

Next, Lex Luthor makes his big move in a much-delayed response to Superman revealing his identity to the world. How do you put that genie back in the bottle? Find out, in Action Comics #1,050, written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Tom Taylor and Joshua Williamson, drawn by Mike Perkins, Clayton Henry and Nick Dragota, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Dave Sharpe.

And finally in Action Comics #1,051 the new era of Super-family kicks off, from Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Rafa Sandoval, Matt Herms, and Dave Sharpe on the lead stories, with back-ups by Dan Jurgens, Lee Weeks, Elizabeth Breitweiser, Rob Leigh, Leah Williams, Marguerite Sauvage, and Becca Carey!

Armaan Babu: Happy new year, to you, Tony, and to all our regular readers! I hope you’re all having a good year so far. Now, I know that there are number of Superman comics we’ve not managed to cover in a bit, but —

I’m sorry, what just happened? I feel like I was supposed to remember something but every time I try to think about it I get a strange shooting feeling up my left arm, so I’m just going to leave it be. We do have a lot to discuss, though, because we’ve got big things coming for the Super-books, and it all starts with a little decision in Action Comics #1,050 that I have thoughts about.

Tony Thornley: I can’t wait to talk about… Superman? I feel like there’s a name there besides that. Something… Hmm…

Armaan: Before we look ahead, though, let’s say goodbye to one of the Super-comics that’s coming to an end…

In Case Of Emergency (SoKE)

Tony: So before we get into Action Comics, we thought it was worth looking at the conclusion of Son of Kal-El. Which… what a mixed bag of a story. This concluding arc has been so much stronger than pretty much the entire rest of the series, and I think it’s because it’s based in Taylor’s strengths. When he does soap opera and big superhero stuff, it sings.

The Justice League rebuilding the Kent home was a great touch. DC has felt very siloed lately, outside of a few individual books. The Superman line has been very good about expanding their reach, and this is the sort of moment I love seeing. Though the archetypes of the Justice League makes them more like gods than anything, they have been working together so long that they are friends and even family in some cases.

I’m extremely bummed that Tormey and Coleman aren’t following Taylor into Adventures of Superman. They both have a great sense of action and motion. My biggest problem with the current Flash run is that the art is too static. In just a few panels, they are able to convey a sense that Wally West is hyperactive, and later in the issue, you can almost see the wind whipping through Jon’s hair.

From the great opening scene, the story goes into a pretty standard Superman plot. Red Sin’s very interesting multiple personalities are dropped (important to note, it wasn’t dissociative identity disorder), in favor of a fairly standard revenge plot. Red Sin shoots Jon and Clark after taking away their powers, then Jon uses 30th Century tech to repower himself, and save the day.

I really enjoyed that element. The Legion has barely come into play with Jon’s modern adventures. Having a Legion super-science gizmo (basically his belt-buckle is a yellow sun battery) save the day is not just fun, but it shows they haven’t been forgotten. More Legion, all the time.

It’s definitely fun and VERY pretty to look at, but a little slight. Red Sin ends up basically a new Metallo or Kryptonite Man style villain, and otherwise, the series is over, ready to relaunch.

It’s Not A Redux (Action Comics #1,050)

Tony: Oh my hell… I… I’m kind of speechless after this issue. I thought this was a competent comic book. But the actual content? The what, and how in particular? I’m kind of angry here, and it doesn’t make me very optimistic for the near future. So it turns out that Luthor has used Manchester Black to not just erase “Clark Kent and/or Jon Kent = Superman” from the world’s mind, but placed a stroke trigger for anyone Clark or Jon reveals it to.

I mean, this is basically what Waid and Morrison proposed in their infamous “Superman 2000” pitch (except it was Mxy, not Manchester who didn’t exist yet). And honestly, it’s not that far off from a plethora of other “wipe away the public identity” stories. I’m torn about this… 

The issue opens with Luthor hooking Manchester Black up to a giant gizmo, and after a couple pages of back and forth, Lex triggers a massive psychic wave. Meanwhile, the Kents are hosting a dinner, and Perry White’s a bit late. When Jon and Clark show up in costume after doing Super-stuff, it causes Perry to suffer a stroke and maybe a minor heart attack (they say heart in the Kent home but stroke in the hospital). It’s at that point that Luthor reveals what he’s done and a brawl between him and Clark starts.

Now on one hand, it was inevitable that Superman’s secret identity was eventually going to be restored. No one has used the reveal in a substantial way since Bendis left the books. Johnson, Taylor and Williamson even provide in universe examples of why it’s a good thing. It’s disappointing to have such a promising plot point put into a box, but let’s be real: if it wasn’t here, it would have been somewhere else eventually.

How it’s done is just so clunky though. This is a technically competent story, and the trio of writers clearly thought it out pretty well- the Kents and Jay were protected by the JLA force-field, the heroes who knew were protected by psi-training from Martian Manhunter, all that stuff. But good grief, it was just tough to see it go down in such a predictable way. Then at the end of it to have Luthor put in jail for murdering Manchester Black… a murder that had no body on-screen and no evidence. Sure, Clark had Lex confessing, but without a body, how is that going to hold up?

The art is generally very pretty though. Perkins’ opening was eerie, Henry’s Super-stuff shows why he’s had such a solid career in the big two and Draggota makes the Superman/Lex fight look fantastic. Even better, Martin shifts his colors with the artist, matching the tone of their portion of the story. I actually had to check a couple times to make sure it was the same color artist.

In the end, several toys are put back in the box, and a new status quo is set up, including a handful of teases for the Dawn of DC Super-line. Not all of them (no Superboy or Steel teases despite both series being on the way), but the flagships. Which begins us to…

Brand New Day (Action Comics #1,051)

Tony: So this issue is pretty standard set-up stuff. We get a lot of the new status quo- the Superman family are all in Metropolis to make the city better. It’s essentially Tynion’s Detective Comics status quo from Rebirth, minus the oddball reformed villain (which would actually be kind of fun here). 

After the family stops a terrorist event (which I feel isn’t talked about enough), we see them out of costume. Everyone is actually acting like siblings and cousins, even Kong Kenan (It’s a nice touch by the way showing Kenan is still learning English). Clark announces that he and Lois are adopting the Phaelosian twins (Jon feeling a little sad and a little jealous about that is a very humanizing touch), and they chat about other new status quo plot points. Then the Steels open their new techno-think-tank/corporation and Metallo finally attacks.

I can’t help but compare this to said Detective run, and I’m doing so favorably. This is a massive step up over the disappointing previous issue. I’ve been saying for a long time that the Superman family needs a Superman family series, and Action Comics is the perfect place for it. There are solid character moments, good plot progression and the art is generally very solid. Herms’ colors are a little muddy in places, but that might just be growing pains working from Sandoval’s pencils for the first time?

As for the back-ups, the Lois and Clark flashback one is simply pandering to the fans who wish Jon was still a kid. It’s fine, but it’s very backwards looking. The Power Girl and Omen story is a great use of Karen Starr in a new role, and creating a unique niche for her. Psychic detective/therapist is a fantastic concept, Williams writes the hell out of it and Sauvage makes it look so good. If it doesn’t spin into its own series, I truly hope it sticks around for the long haul.

So, jury is still out on the long term, but I’m digging this issue. We’ll see where it goes from here.

Daily Planet Headlines

• Look, if we don’t get a regular Jimmy Olsen back-up in Action moving forward, what’s the point?
• For a wild card member of the family to join the group in Action, why not Eradicator? I mean, Steel and Conner are members of the family. Why not? They’ve tried to reform him in the past, to mixed results, but it could be a very interesting element to join up.
• Also, pretty much anyone from the Jimmy Olsen back-ups from pre-Warworld would be great. Loose Cannon, Guardian, Gangbuster? All of them would be welcome.
• I hope Power Girl and Omen intersect with the larger family soon. Karen is a fascinating character and she deserves to step into the sun as a full-fledged member of the Superman family.
• Lois Lane, interim Editor in Chief of the Daily Planet? That’s a status quo that I wouldn’t mind for a few months. Probably won’t be around long term, but I’d be down for it for at least a few arcs.

Armaan Babu

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.