Action Comics #2:
What Happened: Lex Luthor and his army allies are torturing Superman in an effort to get some genetic material/idea of what Supes is. Supes eventually gets free, threatens to kill Lex and manages to escape the army base. From there, Army member John Corben(pre-Metallo) decides to try out some prototype armor to attack Supes, and Lex Luther has a mysterious conversation with what appears to be Brainiac.
The Good: Lex Luthor was pure Lex Luthor in this issue, and that is a great thing! Lex thinking Supes was a shapeshifting alien dog made me laugh pretty hard. Krypto appears to be dead. Brainiac's(?) introduction can only lead to positive things. We didn't have to suffer a Jimmy Olsen appearance. Did I mention that Lex Luthor was the main focus here?
The Bad: Superman was still acting like an asshole. There were only 20 pages of story for $3.99, thus proving once and for all that DC DOES NOT hold the line at $2.99... Yeah, I guess my only gripe is that Grant Morrison writes a very unlikable Superman...
The Verdict: Oh, this issue was WAY better than the last one! I mean I was ready to drop this series after that last issue, but now I'm more willing to see how things play out here. Granted, I'm still quite pissed about the pricing of this issue(defend that DC fanboys, I DARE you!), especially after how hard DC pushed their whole, “Holding the line at $2.99” program... Stuff like this simply makes them look like hypocrites. Sorry, a bunch of random sketches and Morrison-babble does not make up for a 20 page story. At least Marvel is more open with the fact that they're trying to fleece as much money out of their fans as they can... Rant over. Going back to the story, Morrison seems to be setting up some good things(Lex, Brainiac, Metallo), he just needs to write Supes less like Batman and more like the virtuous Superman that we all know and love.
Score: 7 1/2 out of 10.
Please let that mean Krypto is dead...
i only read the first one that a friend loaned me but wasn't it 4 bucks for more then 20 pgs? that's what i seem to remember. but that's bullshit that they decreased the pg count and left the cover price the same. the story didn't sound too bad but i ain't payin 4 bucks for only 20 pgs. but you know that already you saw my Annihilators Earthfall video rant :)
ReplyDeleteYup, 20 pages of story = $4 in the new DCU I guess... They tossed in 8 pages of "Behind the scenes" stuff, like what Rags Morales and Grant Morrison thought about the first two issues, but quite frankly, I could care less. Those 8 pages should have went to the story, not the creative team's thoughts! Hey, it was your vid that opened my eyes to this sort of bullshit with the dwindling page counts and increased price, Dave! :D
ReplyDeleteI wish there was a some more story in those last 8 pages as well. The behind the scenes stuff was interesting though. At least I got it for a discount!
ReplyDeleteEh, I skipped the last 8 pages... Maybe I'll go back and give 'em a read now, it just didn't look overly interesting though.
ReplyDeleteI loved this issue, we get the posible new origins for Steel and Metallo plus Lex was All the Lex he can be, Plus no Jimmy Olsen a perfect Issue for me =P
ReplyDeleteI can't complain about any Superman comic that didn't feature Jimmy Olsen! :P
ReplyDeletei just checked some Marvel & DC back issues i have from the 80s and 90s and it appears that 22 pgs was the industry standard. now it appears as if you can pay up to $4 for just 20 pgs. but this 20 pg for 3-4 bucks is a fairly new thing. i also came across stuff in the 2000 - 2009 year range that was still 22 pgs. the only difference is that the paper quality is much better now then it was in the 80s and 90s. i don't want them to go back to newsprint quality paper of course but i would gladly take a lower quality stock of paper that was still better then newsprint if it meant paying a lower cover price.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, Dave. So basically you're paying extra money for less pages but better quality of paper... You gotta love the comic book industry! :P
ReplyDeleteSee, I normally wouldn't even have pointed out the 20 pages thing in Action, but it annoys me because DC went to GREAT lengths to promote their "Holding the line..." initiative back in April/May. If DC is going to take the high horse and tell everybody, "Hey, look at us! Our comics are only $2.99! Marvel's aren't! They suck!!" then they should stick with that! The fact that DC is acting so hypocritical is what's bugging me.
Krypto is not dead.
ReplyDeletehttp://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/2011/10/09/legendary-artist-andy-kubert-to-join-dc-comics-the-new-52/
Gah!! Dammit! Hopefully it's a flashback issue... :P
ReplyDeleteOkay...just so you know: the more-than-20pgs-$4 price is still sticking. Nothing changed. They just added in like a bunch of design pages for some reason.
ReplyDeleteHopefully going forward they'll take those design pages out of the book and give us an extra 8-10 pages of story for the extra $1. I just think if DC is "holding the line" they should give us more story for the comics they price at $4. For example, in the Weird Worlds mini-series before the reboot the cover price was $4, but you got extra pages of story, which made it worth it, to me at least. If you don't care about the designs, and only want to read the story, this comic was kind of deceptive pricewise.
ReplyDeleteall i can say is thank God for what $1 or better yet 3 for $1 boxes that are still around. i found H4H #2 in a 3 for $1 box a couple of weeks ago.
ReplyDeleteWoo, I WISH my shop had a box like that! Hell, half my collection has probably come from bargin bins and smart buying off of eBay... eBay did wonders for my collection... I can't tell you how many cheap full runs I've picked up over the years.
ReplyDelete