Action Comics (2016) roundup
One annoying thing about DC Comics that Marvel (mostly!) doesn't do: they change writers for series but keep them going. Despite the fact Tom King stopped writing for Batman years ago, he's still listed as the writer for the (ongoing!) 2016 series. This can make it difficult for me to determine when and where to draw the line when it comes to reviewing entire series, but at this point I think I just need to bite the bullet and go back through a backlog and relay my thoughts. I might be a little disjointed in summary, but I hope you'll take my thoughts even if with a grain of salt. I usually skipped the annuals.
Action Comics #957-1000 (Dan Jurgens)
You can see why this is such a headache, I hope? To go back nine years and talk about the story that made me fall in love with a character?
There was a lot of weird continuity throughout this series, with this Superman being a pre-Flashpoint version of the character who had been brought back for crisis-related reasons. But he didn't come alone; he brought his wife, Lois Lane, and their son, Jonathan Kent, who became a staple of the mythos in the meanwhile. I'm at this point blinded by nostalgia and this foundational aspect of my comic-reading journey, and I would happily and blindly recommend this section to anyone.
Action Comics #1001-1028 (Brian Michael Bendis)
...it's a shame this era follows the previous one. We get the trunks back, but at what cost?
Mostly I just recommend you skip over this one. Bendis at his best is fine and even enjoyable, but at his worst it's aggravating. He keeps cameo'ing other characters from series he was writing at the time, and while I like Naomi quite a bit I can only take so much of her.
There's also the decision to age up Jon that gets me. I can take bad reading decisions and carry on, because it could lead to something interesting or great down the way (see: Barbara Gordon getting paralyzed). But taking away seven years of development from Jon was frustrating, and cut out a lot of stories that could've been told. I don't want to harp on it too long but even at the time, before my taste had developed, I thought this was a stupid decision.
Action Comics #1029-1060 (Phillip Kennedy Johnson)
This one was great. I didn't remember it scrolling back through, but the fact this series contains the Warworld Saga?!?! So many iconic characters are introduced here, and the Super family expands from a team to an actual group of close friends. We get shifts in the status quo that, while they reverse some things from previous series, have a weight and effect that still ripples throughout everything that comes next. Not to mention the return of many iconic villains in new and interesting ways.
This one you do need to read the 2023 Annual for, but that's a small price to pay to read greatness broken only by peak.
Action Comics #1061-1063 (Jason Aaron)
No credits for this issue, weirdly enough.
Bizarro has been one of my favorite of Superman's rogues' gallery for years. Given the autism, I am drawn to characters that are just broken, not the right shape to fit in and never will be. Every time he appears, even at his most vicious, he's tragic because he'll never belong.
This story starts off extrapolating something from Superman and Bizarro's relationship: if Superman is weak or defenseless against magic, would that magic Bizarro a natural sorcerer? The answer is: yes, and he proceeds to wreck shop in a very difficult-to-cure way.
This story shines a sympathetic light not just on Bizarro but also on the Joker, surprisingly. It's a short but punchy story, and one whose ending I think about fondly. It also seems like a series that doesn't borrow themes with Aaron's most recent Absolute Superman, which is excellent because we get to see a completely different take on the Man of Steel.
Action Comics #1064-1066 (Joshua Williamson)
This series is caught up with Joshua Williamson's excellent Superman (2023) run which is still ongoing at time of writing. I thoroughly enjoyed House of Brainiac and this section of Action Comics was a nice addition to it.
Action Comics #1067-1069 (Gale Simone)
Superman receives a challenge for the fate of Earth that will put him through the ringer! Can the Man of Steel pass with flying colors?!
This event is fine. There's a few neat moments here and there (Superman literally eats a gun at one point) and the conflict is solved with brains over brawn, but I can't really point to anything fantastic about it. It's also dubiously canon, so unless you're a Gale Simone fan you could probably skip over it.
Action Comics #1070-1081 (Mark Waid)
I already reviewed this event, "Phantoms", and found it great. I have reviewed it separately, but suffice to say it deserved its week-to-week structure to keep up the tension.
Action Comics #1082-1084 (John Ridley)
This is a series that deals with Superman and the idea of hope, in a very literal way that affects the villains who are attempting to reform. It's poignant but blunt, so it lacks a lot of the punch that comes from deeply empathetic stories. I think there's probably a better version of this story written somewhere.
Action Comics #1085-1086 (G. Willow Wilson)
Bringing us to the last completed story, Clark Kent goes to the arctic, but Superman is needed to fight cyborg polar bears. It's a short, fun, cute and even bittersweet event, because G. Willow Wilson is just Built Different.
And that brings us back to Mark Waid! Hoping he'll continue to put out excellent stories, as he has done for years. I'm about to read #1087 now.
