Superman: Action Comics #1063 – Jason Aaron, Writer; John Timms, Artist; Rex Lokus, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: It’s the conclusion of Jason Aaron’s first Superman story, and it’s probably the darkest Bizarro story of all time. The twisted doppelganger from Bizarro World has gained control of dark magic and transformed the entire world into polar opposites. That means 8 billion people have turned into frenzied maniacs—and the craziest man alive, the Joker, has become completely sane and benevolent. At the end of the last issue, Superman sought out the killer clown’s help, and that help takes the form of a strange psychic battlefield—because there’s a piece of Bizarro stuck in Superman’s mind, constantly trying to take over like it did to just about everyone else. And that piece is getting bigger with each bout, as Superman and Bizarro fight to the death in the mindscape. The fights, even thought they only exist in Superman’s head, are reminiscent of the iconic battles with Doomsday.
And those fights do not go as expected, raising a terrifying prospect of a world permanently ruled by Bizarro and devoid of all reason or mercy. And so it comes down to the most unlikely savior the DCU has ever seen to confront Joker as the one remaining bastion of sanity. This leads to a surprisingly compelling confrontation, followed by some surprisingly emotional moments as we say goodbye to this version of the Joker and get Superman back—only is he exactly what we had before the Bizarro invasion? This story did a lot of unique things that we really haven’t seen before. A Bizarro story that made the character genuinely terrifying? Check. A Superman story with strong horror overtones? Check. It also seems to put the cap on this version of Bizarro now, which makes sense—because I don’t really see this story being easy to top. Over to you, Josh Williamson. Aaron has set a high bar in this era.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
