Action Comics #983 Review and *SPOILERS*

The Hell With The Phantom Zone, This Is The Danger Zone!

Written By: Dan Jurgens

Art By: Viktor Bogdanovic, Jonathan Glapion, Mike Spicer, Rob Leigh

Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: July 12, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

The Superman Revenge Squad has made their presence known and it couldn't be worse for Superman because after the affects of the Black Vault, that Zod tried to use to release his phantom armies, our Man of Steel has been stricken blind.  Yeah, six big bad bullies against a blind Superman doesn't seem like the fairest of fights and boy it wasn't.  After Superman confronted the Revenge Squad once they came to the Fortress of Solitude looking for him, we saw our hero beaten to the point of death, but thankfully his recently put together allies, The Super League have come to his aid and hopefully, evened out the odds a little bit.  Let's jump into this issue and see how the Super League fare against the Revenge Squad and see if any of them are able to go up against the Man of Steel's toughest foes.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Kelex trying to get Lois and Jon the hell out of the Fortress of Solitude because it has become increasingly unsafe and once we go outside to see the Superman Revenge Squad facing off against the Super-League, we know why.  Really, I think Kelex has some deeper knowledge about the odds of the Super-League's chances against these foes and knows that they're all doomed and that's the reason he's trying to hurry to get Jon and Lois out of there because goddamn, once Zod goes after Superman and discovers that he's blind, it seems that all of the rest of the team become equally as handicapped because even though a few of our Superman like heroes get their licks in, the Superman Revenge Squad just tears through them.  

Eventually, the whole team is down and it looks like not only has Zod found the Phantom Zone Projector he was looking for, but also that he's killed Jon and Lois as they tried to escape........ but since Superman doesn't seem to want to worry about that....... and because this is Lois and Jon we're talking about, this scene doesn't play off as impactful as I think Jurgens would have hoped.  

In the end, The Super-League regroup and try to go after the Revenge Squad again to try and put them down once and for all, but Zod makes short work of them when he simply sends them to the Phantom Zone.  Zod hasn't gotten everything he wants yet though because it seems that his armies can't just be sent out of the Zone all willy nilly.  No, instead someone has to go in and find them and he tasks a willing Eradicator and a not so willing Cyborg Superman for the job and sends them into the Zone as well as our heroes.

That's it for this issue of Action Comics and this is a fast paced issue that really only gets us from point A to B without giving us a lot in between.  Especially, since our heroes really didn't stand a chance against the villains and seemed to immediately get taken down by the Revenge Squad with what seemed like little to no effort.  So yeah, the issue started, a fight ensued and all we're left with in the end is that our heroes were sent to the Phantom Zone and that the villains believe Jon and Lois to be dead.  As for the art, I'm a big fan of Viktor Bogdanovic's style and what he gives us in the New Super-Man series, but the way he portrayed some of villains in this issue just wasn't for me, but all in all I enjoyed the art and my biggest gripe with the way that the art looked was how drowned out the colors seemed to be because we have these great big heroes and villains sporting a lot of color, but here they were just dull looking.  All in all, this was a mediocre issue of Action Comics that only seemed to be here to get us to our cliffhanger and I was pretty disappointed by everything else.  

Bits and Pieces:

While we get to a pretty cool cliffhanger in this issue, everything else just felt lackluster in the long run because while we're supposed to be excited for the big battle against the Superman Revenge Squad and The Super-League, there really wasn't much there and the art was mixed for me because I wasn't a fan of how some of the villains looked and how the color in this issue seemed completely drowned out.  I hope things pick up in the following issue because right now, this arc just seems to be spinning its wheels and not giving us much, which seems crazy for how big it initially felt.

6.4/10