Review – Superman: Action Comics #1020: Superboy’s Return

Superman: Action Comics #1020 – Brian Michael Bendis, Writer; John Romita Jr, Penciller; Klaus Janson, Inker; Brad Anderson, Colorist

Ratings:

Ray – 8/10

Ray: Superman: Action Comics doesn’t quite feel like it has its own story at the moment, but that doesn’t stop it from being an entertaining ride. Combining plots from Event Leviathan, Justice League, Young Justice, and others into one crazy Metropolis showdown, Action Comics #1020 feels more like an event issue than an issue of an ongoing. Leviathan and the Legion of Doom have teamed up to rain hell down on Metropolis, and Superman’s scrambling to collect his allies.

But the real moment in this issue everyone will be excited for is the long-awaited reunion of Superman with Young Justice – including his erstwhile clone, Conner Kent. Conner seems to have his memories back, but Clark doesn’t yet, so that leads to the awkward situation of Superman remembering most of the team besides the one who is actually closest to him. And Bendis gets the maximum awkwardness out of it as they fly towards the battle.

Not every artist, even the best, is suited for every story, and that’s definitely the case for this issue. John Romita Jr’s art is great for most of the villains and the action scenes, but he’s a strange fit for the Young Justice team. His faces for characters like Wonder Girl are hard to recognize, but when he’s drawing the action scenes he’s at the top of his game.

While Superman and Superboy pull off a clever move that takes advantage of the fact that Superboy is still a blank slate in the world, the villains scheme – not just against the heroes, but against each other. Leviathan is playing a different game than the Legion of Doom, and this seems like it’s an early tie-in to Leviathan Dawn. One thing that threw me a bit is the timing, as it seems like this takes place much earlier in the Justice League run that just ended, particularly involving some details with Batman. There are a lot of little quibbles, but when it works, it really works.

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Disclaimer: GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.