Aftermath or Origin Tale? You Decide!
Written By: Dan Jurgens
Art By: Ian Churchill, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: April 12, 2017
Release Date: April 12, 2017
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
Where we all thought that the last issue of Superman was going to be the book that gave us all our answers to what actually went down in the Reborn arc, it seems that Action Comics is the place to be because it even spells it out on the cover. Hopefully, it's telling the truth because goddamn do I need me some answers. So yeah, if you're not in the know, we previously saw Superman, Lois and Jon in the clutches of Mr. Mxyzptlk, who planned on taking Jon and making his parents forget about him as payback for Superman forgetting about him when he was captured by Mr. Oz......... Well, none of that went down and instead we had the red energy of the New 52 Superman and Lois join with the blue energy of the Pre-Flashpoint versions and when that happened, it merged the timelines, making everything you know and hold dear........ continuity. Yeah, there might be some exceptions and we really don't know what that means, but hopefully we'll find out with this issue of Action Comics. Let's check it out.
Explain It!:
Our issue begins with me being immediately excited because we see Clark and Lois both working at the Daily Planet and Perry White knowing all about their marriage and their son Jon and the fact that Perry's actually Jon's godfather........... Yeah, all good stuff but sadly, that's where it ends. Superman's time with Mxy is beginning to be a bit of a blur to him, but since he wants to know exactly what went down and who this mysterious being is, whom apparently is more powerful than Mxy and who actually split Superman and Lois into two versions, Superman goes to get some answers from the Fortress of Solitude.......... Where we just get a history lesson about the origin of Superman.
Now you can go and tell me that things are slightly different than what they were in the Pre-Flashpoint version of Superman's origin or his New 52 origin, but for the most part........ it all just comes off as old hat to me. Been there, done that. What we get is Superman going to the crystal font and asking it to tell him everything about his life and that takes us on the journey to Krypton exploding and a baby Kal-El being launched into space, until he's eventually found on Earth by the Kents. It all comes off as a re-run, which Superman has apparently never seen for how awed and astonished he comes off here and the only real thing that I could personally see as being something from past continuity that was added here is the fact that Clark Kent knew Lex Luthor in Smallville as a boy.
In the end........... and actually throughout this issue, we get our re-run interrupted by some mysterious holographic figure that first comes to Metallo, who's all messed up and barely alive and the mystery man offers Metallo a chance at a new body if he joins him in his fight against Superman, which he then continues to go and persuade Blanque to do the same, but the problem I have with this is that we have ourselves the Pre-Flashpoint Metallo here and not the New 52 one........ who died actually helping Superman defeat Vandal Savage. I don't know what's going on with this and if we're just supposed to forget about the New 52 Metallo, which I would gladly do because I hated that version, but it's just odd to get this old Metallo out of nowhere without an explanation. Anyway, as we close out this issue, Superman thinks he hears a voice in the Fortress and it appears that whoever this mystery person is who is going out and making an army of Superman villains........ Well, it seems that he's also connected to the crystal font in the Fortress.
That's it for this issue of Action Comics and while I love the scenes where this mystery figure is collecting Superman villains, I wish it would have been explained more about how or why we're dealing with a out of continuity Metallo or even where the hell he was. Instead it's just thrown out there and the rest of the issue is simply Superman taking us on a walk down memory lane.......which, I love continuity, but Superman's origin tales all run together for me and this one just came off as similar as every other one I've ever seen and besides for the addition of having Clark know Lex as a kid in Smallville, I didn't gleam much difference in this all-new, merged origin story. It's really disappointing too because I thought we were going to get some legitimate answers out of this issue and instead we get a re-run. Yeah, I loved the art and I love the idea of Superman's villains coming together, but the majority of this issue just really felt like filler, without giving us any of the answers we were looking for and while also making Superman look like a bit of a dope.
Bits and Pieces:
While you won't get any real answers in this issue about what went down in the conclusion of the Reborn arc, you will get the setup for what this new arc is all about and it looks pretty bad ass....... Too bad that the majority of this issue felt like a re-run that you've seen a hundred times before. The art was great in this issue, but the answers were lacking and so was my excitement by the end.
5.8/10
Yea i feel like this was a waist we didnt cover anything reborn in the superman issue and now nothing new in this just that pre crisis history seems to trump n52 history with him knowing lex as a kid i will say the hologram man is interesting though
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Secret Origins is back in continuity and that makes me happy..one of my favourite superman books
ReplyDeleteI felt the same about the rehash of the Krypton story and was kinda put off by the idea that this is a herirst time Clark is "experiencing" this! At THIS point in his life and career??? That can't be. I'm pretty sure he was shown this by the crystals previously in the old continuity. Was there no scene like that in New52? I can't remember. But Clark had to have learned about his Kryptonian origins somehow. So they basically scrapped both and gave us a brand new version of how Clark witnesses his beginnings? But Kelex even starts with, "As you know..." So he DOES know this already.
ReplyDeleteI did think it was interesting that they kept the bit about Clark having known Lex in Smallville before his move to Metropolis. That's NOT new. It's from Geoff Johns' Superman Secret Origin 2009. That was the last retelling of Superman's origin story before Flashpoint, I believe, and replaced Mark Waid's Birthright from 2003. So that does appear to be some type of editorial decision-making about they keep and what they jettison between the two continuities.
From what I can tell the only "new" history is Perry's not only knowing but being godfather to Jon, which couldn't have happened in either Pre-Flashpoint or New52 continuity because Jon was born during Convergence when Clark and Lois weren't in Metropolis and there was no Perry. That makes WONDER what other rewrites we'll get.
very odd they just retold the regular origin...but I do prefer Smallville Lex
DeleteIf your going to retell Superman origins you have to do something different than what everyone already knows otherwise there's no purpose to it ... This felt like a pointless issue to anybody familiar w Superman in any way
ReplyDeleteI kept waiting for some big twist that never came
DeleteWeirdscience dudes, please help, im not familiar with the pre new52 superman's history in comics, need help if the history being shown here is really a part of that history or a part of the new52 coz im really wishing that this is the history of pre new52.. i like the pre new52 superman better than the one whos been bangin wonder-woman.. really confused dude here..
ReplyDelete