Striving To Put Right What Once Went Wrong
Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Stephen Segovia, Art Thibert, Ulises Arreola, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 24, 2016
Release Date: August 24, 2016
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Yeah, this first story arc of Action Comics has pretty much been a rehash of The Death of Superman, but the sad thing is, where that story was world changing and epic, this one has pretty much been middle of the road........ Mostly due to Superman and Doomsday just punching the shit out of one another while big bad mysteries sit in the background and refuse to give us their sweet, sweet secrets. Maybe that will all change here......... Hopefully, that will all change here. In the previous issue we saw Superman give up his one chance of changing the outcome of his first fight with Doomsday, when he tasked Wonder Woman with looking after his family and sending them away to the Justice League Watchtower. Will Superman be able to take Doomsday on one on one? Will his previous knowledge be enough to allow him to overcome? What the hell is Mr. Oz doing with troops? Yeah, I have no idea, let's jump into this issue and see what Dan Jurgans has in store for us with the conclusion to "The Path To Doom". Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with Mr. Oz's plan to subdue Doomsday into some kind of gate, just utterly failing. Yeah, we don't know shit about Mr. Oz or what he's planning....... or why he's watching everyone like a creep, but from this issue we do know that he's down a bunch of troops that he apparently has, because goddamn are those guys dead as shit. So yeah, After we have that strange intermission to our Superman/Doomsday fight that really went nowhere, it's back to our basic slug fest, but it seems that Superman out of nowhere has a plan...... or has been trying to enact his plan all along, but things like civilians and family kept getting in the way. Either way, Superman is now trying to lead Doomsday to his Fortress.......... not the Fortress of Solitude though, the one we saw that the Pre-Flashpoint Superman had in the Lois and Clark title........ which really always just came off as an alien man cave he could use to get away from Lois from time to time.
While Superman is trying to stay alive and ahead of Doomsday, we see Wonder Woman, Lois and Jon watching our hero's progress from the Justice League Watchtower and I have to tell you for how angry I was that Superman sent Wonder Woman away to watch over his family, I love this part of the book because while I might just be reading too much into things, it really comes off to me that Wonder Woman is having a problem just standing still and watching Superman have the fight of his life because while this Clark might not be the one that she knew and loved, he still looks and acts just like him and it's killing her inside not being able to be side by side with him or just simply protecting him. It's a great moment and thankfully Lois comes to her goddamn senses and finally forces Wonder Woman to go and help Clark because he's having a hell of a time fighting Doomsday off when he finally gets him to his Fortress.
In the end, with Wonder Woman's added help and distraction, Superman is able to get his makeshift Phantom Zone Projector working and our fight is finally over....... Yeah, it's kind of anti-climactic for how long these two have been going at it, but I love that this Superman had a plan and I love that we got to re-explore Clark's wanna-be Fortress. With the beast gone and things feeling like old times between Superman and Wonder Woman.......... not in a sexy way, Superman heads back to Metropolis to go and have a word with Lex Luthor, where he pretty much says that he's thankful for what he did for the city, but he still doesn't trust him yet...... and the interaction is gold, especially since the people of Metropolis refer to Lex as Superman. If that wasn't enough for you, we also see that Mr. Oz not only wanted to see what this Superman would do when pitted against Doomsday, but that he also wanted the monster for himself as well and achieved this goal when he somehow super scienced his way into intercepting the Phantom Zone projection and catching Doomsday like he was some kind of Pokemon.
That's it for this issue of Action Comics and while on the surface this issue really appears to be more of the same of what we've already gotten, I don't know if it was because of the interactions between our characters, coupled with Lois' narrations throughout the issue and Superman and Lex having themselves a little non violent interaction at the end, but I found myself enjoying this issue more than I've enjoyed a lot of the previous ones. It also might be the callback to Superman: Lois and Clark with the inclusions of this Superman's Fortress, but whatever it was, I just found this issue feeling more connected to things than any of the others in this arc and I don't want to say that it's just because this is the conclusion, but even the fight between Superman and Doomsday felt more epic. The art was great, even though I was initially thrown off by it when I first opened this book, but it got better and better as it progressed and the colors were fantastic. Yeah, I might have been swept up by the hype that we're finally moving on and the rest of you out there just might say that I'm crazy because this was just too much like our previous issues....... and you might be right, but one thing I know for sure is, this issue really seemed to have more heart than we've seen in any other Action Comics issue since Rebirth began.
Bits and Pieces:
Our "Path To Doom" story comes to a close with this issue and while all the mysteries that we've been dealing with might not be revealed here, what we do have is a conclusion that seems to have a ton of heart, great character work and awesome looking art. Yeah, it's still a comic about Superman fighting Doomsday, but it seemed to work better here than it has previously and because of that when I finished this issue I had a smile on my face.......... I just would have liked a little more on the revelatory side of things.
While Superman is trying to stay alive and ahead of Doomsday, we see Wonder Woman, Lois and Jon watching our hero's progress from the Justice League Watchtower and I have to tell you for how angry I was that Superman sent Wonder Woman away to watch over his family, I love this part of the book because while I might just be reading too much into things, it really comes off to me that Wonder Woman is having a problem just standing still and watching Superman have the fight of his life because while this Clark might not be the one that she knew and loved, he still looks and acts just like him and it's killing her inside not being able to be side by side with him or just simply protecting him. It's a great moment and thankfully Lois comes to her goddamn senses and finally forces Wonder Woman to go and help Clark because he's having a hell of a time fighting Doomsday off when he finally gets him to his Fortress.
In the end, with Wonder Woman's added help and distraction, Superman is able to get his makeshift Phantom Zone Projector working and our fight is finally over....... Yeah, it's kind of anti-climactic for how long these two have been going at it, but I love that this Superman had a plan and I love that we got to re-explore Clark's wanna-be Fortress. With the beast gone and things feeling like old times between Superman and Wonder Woman.......... not in a sexy way, Superman heads back to Metropolis to go and have a word with Lex Luthor, where he pretty much says that he's thankful for what he did for the city, but he still doesn't trust him yet...... and the interaction is gold, especially since the people of Metropolis refer to Lex as Superman. If that wasn't enough for you, we also see that Mr. Oz not only wanted to see what this Superman would do when pitted against Doomsday, but that he also wanted the monster for himself as well and achieved this goal when he somehow super scienced his way into intercepting the Phantom Zone projection and catching Doomsday like he was some kind of Pokemon.
That's it for this issue of Action Comics and while on the surface this issue really appears to be more of the same of what we've already gotten, I don't know if it was because of the interactions between our characters, coupled with Lois' narrations throughout the issue and Superman and Lex having themselves a little non violent interaction at the end, but I found myself enjoying this issue more than I've enjoyed a lot of the previous ones. It also might be the callback to Superman: Lois and Clark with the inclusions of this Superman's Fortress, but whatever it was, I just found this issue feeling more connected to things than any of the others in this arc and I don't want to say that it's just because this is the conclusion, but even the fight between Superman and Doomsday felt more epic. The art was great, even though I was initially thrown off by it when I first opened this book, but it got better and better as it progressed and the colors were fantastic. Yeah, I might have been swept up by the hype that we're finally moving on and the rest of you out there just might say that I'm crazy because this was just too much like our previous issues....... and you might be right, but one thing I know for sure is, this issue really seemed to have more heart than we've seen in any other Action Comics issue since Rebirth began.
Bits and Pieces:
Our "Path To Doom" story comes to a close with this issue and while all the mysteries that we've been dealing with might not be revealed here, what we do have is a conclusion that seems to have a ton of heart, great character work and awesome looking art. Yeah, it's still a comic about Superman fighting Doomsday, but it seemed to work better here than it has previously and because of that when I finished this issue I had a smile on my face.......... I just would have liked a little more on the revelatory side of things.
7.8/10
I couldn't agree more Eric. I really liked this issue. I'm still pissed that it took us so long to get here...the previous issues were just filler. But the payoff was worth it. I thought the character development and story progression were great. We get resolution and a great setup for future issues. I really liked the art and I thought the dialogue was really great as well. And the most exciting part was how much I didn't hate Lois in this issue. She actually seemed like a concerned mother and wife. Great issue and great setup for the future.
ReplyDeleteThis issue perfectly encapsulates what Action Comics is supposed to be . Awesome issue.
ReplyDeleteGreat issue but I feel like this whole arc could have been done just as well, if not better, in three issues instead of six.
ReplyDeleteCommenting from the podcast discussion but I think the point of the phantom gate is that it wasn't Superman's plan the whole time. Oz the whole time was saying he needed Clark to think, it seemed like his plan the whole time was for him to eventually use this so Oz could get Doomsday. I liked how this issue brought all that together. It almost even seems like Oz sending troops to hold Doomsday back is all just to remind Clark of the gate. I actually thought this issue brought all the teasing together really well. It gave emphasis on what Oz meant the entire time about stuff falling into place and Clark needing to think to solve the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think the "think" part was to get Doomsday away from metropolis so he could use his own gate...which failed. Those poor workers. Not sure how Oz would know about Clark's projector...though he has cameras everywhere!
DeleteI think his plan was for Clark to wear down Doomsday, get him out of city and capture him.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
DeleteWell okay... :(
DeleteJack, I have no idea why your comment was removed and I'm sorry that it happened.
DeleteIt's all good lol I knew it was abnormal.
DeleteIn the panel where Jon asks Wonder Woman to help his dad, for a split second I thought his hand was on the inside of her thigh and not on her hand.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, when Superman is preparing his portable Phantom Zone gun, just before he picks it up, he kind of looks like Smeagle guarding his precious ring.
I was glad Lex and Superman talked rather than fight. Even though, they aren’t chums, it’s a good starting point.