Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Action Comics #1

There's really not much I can say here for an introduction... It's Superman! It's Lex Luthor! It's Grant Morrison! Let's get to it!

Action Comics #1:

Summary: First, some background. This ISN'T set in the modern day DCU, but the past, apparently 6 months from the time Clark Kent/Superman arrived in Metropolis. We get started with Supes torturing a corrupt business man/crime boss named Glenmorgan until the terrified man gives a full confession of his crimes... Now I'm no lawyer, but I don't think that confession is gonna hold up in a court of law... Anyway, the cops don't like this Superman guy doing their work(well, not the torturing, but the confronting criminals thing), and fire a few shots at him, but needless to say, no bullets can hurt Supes. With that, Supes runs away from the fuzz, with the law hot on his heels. From there we head to a secret army base in Metropolis where we meet General Lane and Lex Luthor. Lane doesn't like the idea of a “man” like Supes running around on American soil, and Lex suspects that Supes is an alien parasite, sent to destroy the Earth. Since they both have doubts about Supes, the army has hired Lex to capture Supes, and Lex has promised to get the job done by 8pm, which was a half an hour away. To that end, Lex has a wrecking ball sent to destroy a derelict building in Metropolis, even though there were some squatters living inside. Supes rushes over and stops the demolition of the building, and as he exits the building, he is immediately met by a pair of tanks. Supes uses the wrecking ball to destroy the first tank, but is blasted by the second tank, which puts Supes down. Before the tank can fire again, the squatters Supes saved earlier run in front of the tank and buy their savior the time needed to get away from the tanks. Supes manages to run/jump back to his little apartment(which reminded me of Peter Parker's apartment in Spider-Man 2), where he pays his landlady some back rent. From there, we head out to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen(goddamn it!!! Jimmy Olsen is in the reboot but Wally West isn't?! Is there NO justice?!?!), and learn that they were on the trail of one of Glenmorgan's ex-enforcers on a train. Supes(as Clark) gets wind of this because his little love affair with that damned Jimmy Olsen has already started, and Supes somehow realizes that something was wrong... I'm still not quite sure how he knew, but whatever. Anyway, Glenmorgan's enforcer threatens the passengers with some guns, and Supes arrives on the scene to stop the train since the tracks had been blown up and the train was careening out of control. Long story short, Supes DOES manage to stop the train, but gets pinned between the train and a building in the process, leaving him helpless and ready to be captured, just as Lex Luthor had planned it.

Thoughts: This was an odd issue... There were parts I REALLY enjoyed, and others I didn't really get, which is par for the course when talking about a Grant Morrison written comic book... At it's heart, and in simplest terms, this comic was basically an edgier Superman trying to save the people of Metropolis while Lex Luthor tried to eradicate what he saw as an alien menace sent from the stars to destroy humanity. That's fine and good. However, there were a few things that did bug me... Right off the bat, the way Supes tortured Glenmorgan to get a confession out of him seemed wrong for Superman. Batman? Sure, I could see it. Apollo? Definitely. But Superman? The paragon of all that's good in the world? I just can't see him resorting to terrorizing somebody in order to get a confession. Like I said in the review, it's not like the cops/lawyers could even use a confession gained in such a manner. Another thing that bugged me here was the odd Spider-Man-ish feel this comic had. As I stated, the first thing I thought of when I read the scene where Supes met his landlady was Peter Parker and his landlord in the Spidey movies... In a lot of ways this was more like Spidey-lite than a Superman comic. Supes is misunderstood and hated by the cops, even though he's obviously a good guy. The only thing missing here was Perry White smoking a cigar screaming about what a menace Supes was! Anyway, back to the story. I enjoyed it overall, but there were some bits and pieces that left me cold. The scene with Lois, Jimmy and Glenmorgan's goon on the train was just off for me. One minute Supes is talking to Jimmy on his cell phone, the next he's talking to the editor at his newspaper(I think?), the next minute he suddenly realizes Jimmy and Lois were in terrible trouble and is off to stop the runaway train. Am I looking forward to the next issue? I guess so... But out of the three DC reboots I've read thus far, this one was the weakest of the bunch by far.

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.On the plus side, Lex Luthor is still the same, awesome character he always was.

18 comments:

  1. The scene with the train is the same of Spider-man 2 movie..

    I think that Paul wrote almost the same thought about the spider resemblances at his Blog

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  2. HA! I didn't even pick up on the train scene but you're right that's ANOTHER weird similarity! I wonder if Morrison was watching Spidey 2 when he wrote the script for this one?

    Really? Interesting. If the two of us were able to pick up on it, then there must have been LOTS of people who also picked up on the similarities.

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  3. "Right off the bat, the way Supes tortured Glenmorgan to get a confession out of him seemed wrong for Superman." Soon as I read that in your review I was like "What the fuck?" Every word of it too.

    I think JT picked this up after changing his mind about getting it, I wonder if he'll be thinking the same thing as you, Lol. I don't know how I feel about this issue of Action comics. It sounds good, but that Superman torturing thing is just really annoying me. I hope the next issue is much better for you. :)

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  4. Lisha! I was thinking the same thing! Supes torturing people into confessing their crimes seems SO out of character for him... I can't wait to hear what JT thought about this comic and that scene in particular. I mean maybe it was just me, but that seemed WAY off for Supes!

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  5. I liked the issue. It's not too bad in my opinion. The torture scene doesn't bother me that much because I've heard that Morrison based this version off of the Golden Age version, and that dude was a "little" rough with the baddies. Plus, it's a young Superman, though I would at least think that he would have known that you can't force someone to admit to a crime like that.Oh well. I hope issue 2 is as just as good or better.

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  6. That's cool, ARW. See, I'm more well versed in Supes from the 90's to the present, so I just couldn't see that Supes torturing some crime boss! But yeah, especially since he was a reporter, he had to know that whatever confession he got from Glenmorgan as Supes COULDN'T hold up! I didn't think it was awful, but compared to the other rebooted titles I read yesterday, I definitely enjoyed Action the least. I now know I won't love Action, but I'm still hopeful Superman is better!

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  7. Truth be told... I was gonna review this, I opened it and saw Supes torturing a guy like Batman then saying "That ain't superman!" and I was so off put by it I just closed it and came to read your review instead. Won't be reading this series.

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  8. Grant Morrison strikes again! :P Yeah, I don't know how Supes used to act back in the day(1930's/1940's), but that scene REALLY bothered me... I don't want to drop this series because it IS Action Comics, but here's hoping Morrison tones down Supes more renegade behavior. Like I said, I'm fine with Bats or Apollo acting like that, but Supes is supposed to be a bit more virtuous, no?

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  9. Well you'll have to let me know, I'll refer yo you because you're more neutral when it comes to that, considering you give Grant a chance whereas I don't, especially now. Plus it wasn't on my pull list, I just threw it in, but I'll try Superman out.

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  10. So I am now your go to guy when it comes to Grant Morrison? Can do, will do, good buddy. I just hope this was a one time blip, because we really don't need a tough, edgy Superman... There are MORE than enough tough, edgy characters running around out there...

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  11. Exactly. Wolverine, Batman, Cable, Punisher, Jason Todd, we don't need Supes on the list as well. And yep, you've been my go-to Morrison guy for the hell that is Batman Inc so why not AC?

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  12. "you've been my go-to Morrison guy for the hell that is Batman Inc so why not AC?" Good point. I suffer for you, my friend. When my mind finally snaps from too much exposure to Morrisonitis, I expect you to visit me regularly in the crazyhouse!

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  13. I don't know man.. that's a big commitment and I could spend that gas money on pop and Digorno's... which I sure you'd rather I do. :D

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  14. Nah, I hear ya. To be honest, if our roles were reversed, I'd do the same to you... Although I'd lie about it and promise that I was going to visit you. I just never would! :P

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  15. Hence my trip to Binghamton that never happened eh? :P Still waiting on clearance for that!

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  16. And you shall continue to wait, JT! :P

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  17. Lol you're such an ass. One day I'll just show up... like Batman.

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  18. Man, that's a scary thought... One day I'll be sitting on my couch, happily playing a video game when you jump out from behind a chair or something screaming, "I'm Batman!!" *shudder*

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