Superman: Action Comics #1094 – Mark Waid, Writer; Patricio Delpeche, Artist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: Superboy has been pulling off a tricky balancing act for the last arc of this book, becoming increasingly active as a hero while also maintaining a normal life with his parents, his best friend Pete, and his possible girlfriend Lana. But he’s also attracted attention, leading the military to storm into Smallville looking for him. He brokered a truce, in exchange for occasionally running some missions for General Sam Lane. That bill’s about to come true. After a brief prelude involving studying at Lana’s house, and some interesting hints about some dark secrets lurking in her house, Clark is summoned and given his first mission – Dr. Silas Stone has been kidnapped by militants in some far-off fictional country, and they’re hoping to force him to build weapons for them. A special forces team that tried to rescue him has been pinned down – so it’s Superboy and his bulletproof skin to the rescue.
Except that might be a lot easier said than done. As soon as Clark lands in the city, in a cool new stealth outfit, he finds out that the villains have already set up a trap. Due to some unusual effects, his powers are affected – and so is his basic hearing. He also gets his first up-close look at death from the start, when he realizes that he’s arrived far too late to save everyone. The villains in this issue are mostly generic goons who talk like 80s action movie villains, but they serve the purpose – and the reveal of exactly how they’re messing with Superboy’s powers is pretty clever. This Clark might have all his abilities, but he doesn’t have the experience – and that makes him very vulnerable to things that his older self might be able to easily handle. This issue is very much a “reality ensues” moment for Clark, as he starts to realize the toll that being a hero will take on him – and just how alone he is in this quest.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
