Superman: Action Comics #1062 – Jason Aaron, Writer; John Timms, Artist; Rex Lokus, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: The first issue of this run was an odd duck, introducing us to a much more dangerous version of Bizarro who invaded Sorcerer’s World, killed the residents, and claimed the power for himself. This Bizarro, drunk on rage and grief, used his new power to get revenge on Superman by turning the whole city into Bizarros—a concept that sounds hilarious at first, but under the pen of Jason Aaron, is absolutely anything but. This issue is a massive case of mood whiplash in the best way possible, as Aaron plunges us into a truly disturbing dystopia of an entire world run by Bizarros. Swim instructors try to drown people, firefighters start fires, and other disturbing implications are only glossed over briefly. This is treated as the equivalent of a fast-moving zombie virus—with everyone turning into their worst self possible, including Lois Lane, who is now a mad book-burner.
This leaves Superman alone but not unaffected, as his own mind is being ripped apart by the virus, leaving him barely able to fight it off with Bizarro stuck in his head taunting him. He runs himself ragged trying to keep Metropolis from getting itself killed through its newly warped mind process, while other heroes try and fail to find the source of the infection—with some getting infected themselves. Desperate and losing his grip on sanity, this leads Superman to make a desperate move, seeking out the only other person who has maintained—or rather, regained—his grip on sanity in the fast-spreading Bizarro plague. This was absolutely not what I expected out of this second issue, but it’s actually brilliant and leaves so much unanswered for the final issue. Much like his Batman story, Aaron has taken an iconic character and found a way to plunge them into a completely new scenario that feels thrilling and haunting at the same time.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
