Superman: Action Comics #1051 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Dan Jurgens, Leah Williams, Writers; Rafa Sandoval, Lee Weeks, Marguerite Sauvage, Artists; Matt Herms, Mitch Breitweiser, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: After a year-long adventure that sent Superman to deep space to liberate Warworld, the entire family is back on Earth—and a new adventure is about to begin. Narrated by Lois Lane, the main story focuses on just how much Superman has changed Metropolis—and how the new Super-family will continue that pattern. It’s great to see the entire family, including all three Super-teens, Kenan, John Henry and Natasha, and new arrivals Osul and Otho under one roof. This segment of a bustling Super-family apartment is basically everything I’ve wanted out of this series—including some great little sibling rivalry bits and a hilarious little nod to Clark and Lois’… private life. Clark and John want to solve many of Metropolis’ issues, and the opening of the new Steelworks will aid that—but Luthor’s upgraded Metallo tries to crash the opening in a dramatic segment. This is a jam-packed main story, but never loses sight of just how well Johnson writes the core characters here.
The backups are strong as well, starting with a charming Jurgens/Weeks flashback story. Set directly after the events in the Death of Superman anniversary special, Clark and Lois decide to move Jon back to California away from the partially-destroyed city. This Jon, set a little before the events of Super-Sons, has the right heroic instincts but is still deeply inexperienced and reckless—and has made a dangerous decision to try to keep people safe that may put him in and others in danger. It’s great to see this story pick up from one of the best comics of 2022.
The Power Girl backup by Williams and Sauvage is the oddest of the three, but still strong. Picking up from a Lazarus Planet one-shot, it focuses on Karen and Omen as they work through Karen’s complex backstory and personal challenges. But before they can make too much progress there, they have another task—helping Beast Boy through his recovery after his shooting. While he survived and even joined the fray in Dark Crisis, he’s now regressed into the form of a calf—and Karen needs to travel inside his mind with Omen’s help to find the source of the problem. It’s a twisty story with gorgeous art.
The intention here seems to be to make this book something similar to Batman: Urban Legends with a stable main story—and so far, it’s an amazing start.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
