Action Comics #982 Review and *SPOILERS*

Put Him In A Body Bag Johnny!........ I Mean, Zod!

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Jack Herbert, Jose Luis, Ray McCarthy, Hi-Fi, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $2.99

Release Date: June 28, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Let's jump back into some Superman Revenge Squad action, where we saw in the previous issue that after Superman's jaunt into the Black Vault, he was left blind from its effects.  Yeah, I don't really know why and believe me, this issue won't tell you, but our Man of Steel is blind and he's going up against some of the biggest and baddest Superman villains that ever lived.......... Yeah, the odds don't look too good.  Hopefully though, Superman will get himself some super lasik surgery and he'll be able to put a good and proper whoopin' on these baddies before it's too late.  Let's jump into this issue and see if Superman stands a chance.  let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with everyone in the Superman Revenge Squad throwing a temper tantrum about why they aren't going and killing Superman already, but Cyborg Superman shuts them all down when he tells them that they'll kill Superman as soon as they get into the Fortress of Solitude and acquire all of the technological treasures that Krypton has to offer.  No one immediately goes with this plan, but once Henshaw explains that the science inside will be able to give Metallo a new body that could last forever, create a War World for Mongul, allow Krypton to live again for Eradicator and give access to the Phantom Zone like Zod wants, they all get on the trolley............. including Blanque, who doesn't give a shit about any of those things, but hey, at least he's a team player.  So yeah, the Fortress is in the Revenge Squad's sights and that's too bad for Superman because that's exactly where he happens to be with Jon and Lois as he tries to figure out why the hell he's blind.

We don't get any answers about the why or how of Clark being blind, we only know that his heat vision will still work and that the Kryptonian battle armor that rejuvenated him after his original fight with Doomsday is no good because he depleted its power with those injuries............even though we just saw Lana Lang in there so that it would keep her alive in the Superwoman book, but whatever.  Anyway, while Superman's getting his eyes checked, Jon is being led by some mystery voice in the Fortress, who I initially took as Blanque using his telepathy, but now I assume it's something that will end up saving the day as this arc progresses because Blanque is outside the Fortress with the rest of the Revenge Squad, ready to rumble and calling our hero out............. which Superman obviously responds too because he's a big dope, but not before sending out the call for backup and even though it's not the Justice League, it's still pretty damn cool.

In the end, Superman catches the Revenge Squad off guard by attacking them from below and doing the best that he can to hear them so that he can anticipate their movements, but this only goes on for so long until the Squad starts acting as a team and puts the big hurt on our hero.......... almost to the point of death actually, which is pretty messed up because even Superman believes he's about to die, but as our issue comes to a close, his backup arrives in the form of the Super League, who consist of Supergirl, Superwoman, Lex Luthor, Kenan Kong and Steel and they are stand in between the Revenge Squad and their target.  

That's it for this issue of Action Comics and while I was a little perturbed at the beginning of this issue because of the time we needed to spend in making sure that everyone remembered the Superman Revenge Squad's personal motivations and then walking through the Fortress finding out that Superman is still blind, the book did pick up when our villains showed up outside the Fortress of Solitude doors.  That though and the reveal of the Super League wasn't enough to really get me over the moon with this issue because it seems that we're just padding the issues out now to get the arc longer and the story suffers because of it.  The art team really shines though in this issue and I loved everything that I saw in this comic........... especially Supergirl, which I wish would look like this every time I saw her, but the story is getting a bit too slow for my liking, even if I'm still a fan of this whole concept.

Bits and Pieces:

This issue takes too damn long to get started because it wastes half the book it felt on making sure that everyone was up to speed with what's been going on up till now and the story suffers for it.  Yeah, it picked up towards the end and gave us an awesome reveal of things to come, but by that point it felt like too little too late for me.  The art was great though and I'm still interested in this story, I just wish it would pick up the pace a bit because playing catch up every issue is killing me.

6.5/10