Superman: Action Comics #1065 – Joshua Williamson, Writer; Rafa Sandoval, Miguel Mendonca, Mirko Colak, Artists; Alejandro Sanchez, Mike Spicer, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: This continues to be one of the most enjoyable crossover events in a while, and it’s definitely helped by the fact that it’s crossing over with… itself. Josh Williamson writes the entire event, and he’s been building to it for over a year now. When we last left off, all the Super-family save the man himself were trapped in Brainiac’s warship as he experimented, with Supergirl and Superboy managing to get loose—only to discover that they were still shrunk even out of the bottle. Via a team-up with Livewire and Parasite, both of whom have turned over a new leaf thanks to Superman, they’re able to get restored and take the fight back to Brainiac—just in time for Brainiac and Luthor to reveal the shocking truth of what’s hiding in one key bottle.
Meanwhile, the unusual team-up of Superman and Lobo continues to be an absolute blast. Barely escaping the forces of General Chacal, the duo find refuge in a place much more Lobo’s speed—Hardcore Station, a great callback to 1990s DC comics. This space station full of scoundrels is a good place to lay low, but it’s not long before Chacal finds them and makes Lobo exactly the offer he needs to possibly betray Superman. I think not all is as it appears here, and we’re thankfully getting the next issue in only a week. This is a very fast-paced story, and calls back to some of the best 1990s Superman crossovers—particularly the highly entertaining “The Trial of Superman,” which also dealt with some odder areas of space.
The backup is even fuller with 1990s deep cuts, as it stars the son of Brainiac—Vril Dox, the ruthless anti-hero behind LEGION. We haven’t seen this character in a long time and I think many readers confuse him with Brainiac 5, but he has a fascinating history with Brainiac, and their interactions here are incredibly fraught—and no one is more deeply affected by the reveals involving Colu. There’s a particularly great cliffhanger here, tying into the main story next week, and every issue so far of this event has been consistently strong.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
