Action Comics #1012 Review

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

Written By: Brian Michael Bendis

Art By: Szymon Kudranski, Brad Anderson, Josh Reed

Cover Price: $3.99

Release Date: June 26, 2019

Just because Event Leviathan has kicked off doesn't mean that you won't get more of it here.  It's all Leviathan all the time right here on Leviathan TV!   Really though, we're diving back into the Secret Syndicate/Invisible Mafia story line that we kind of put on the back burner so that we could have five prologue issues to get ready for the big event...... which is also dealt with here.  It's back now though so get ready for all the Leone, Red Cloud and guys with goofy food names action that you can handle as we jump into this issue.  Let's check it out.

For this issue of Action Comics we don't get a lot of Superman as we fulfill our Robinson Goode quota for the summer now that she's become partners with the head of the Secret Syndicate/Invisible Mafia, Leone.  Not only that though, but Brian Michael Bendis is bringing back a DC character that I know everyone is on the edge of their seat for........... Rose and Thorn.  Sarcasm aside, I'm sure there are some fans of the character/characters out there, but for those of you who aren't in the know about the second incarnation of the character, Rose Forrest, you won't get any real background on her here, only that she's a split personality vigilante, who believes that the city of Metropolis secretly wants her out and about kicking the crap out of criminals........ and that's the basis for our story.  Robinson Goode finding out if there's a conspiracy about vigilantes in Metropolis.  

It's weird though because it seems that this conspiracy has to do with the police and the higher ups in the city...... even Superman, but when it's talked about later in this issue it seems like it may have something to do with Leone's Secret Mafia, but since it was her guys getting the crap beat out of them I'm not quite sure what the connection would be.  Maybe because we're stuck with a bunch of that sing-song Bendis dialog that drives me crazy, where we have a page of people talking, but nobody is really saying anything.  We definitely have that for our entire Superman portion of this book at the beginning and it was so hard to get through in its ridiculousness.  

All in all, this installment to Action Comics was really lackluster and left me pretty bored by the end because for the most part...... it was just people standing or sitting around talking about a situation we don't and can't fully understand at this point because there hasn't been enough groundwork put in to make sure the audience is fully in the know about the characters that Brian Michael Bendis has created for this series.  The art is fine........ even though Rose initially kind of came of looking like Lois Lane in my mind........ and the Secret Syndicate parts were weird and muddy...... okay, the art is okay, but the story just kind of did nothing and at this point, I'm kind of sick of that.  Even the big wow moment with Rose at the end doesn't mean much because she was introduced this issue.  Hopefully things pick up going forward, but as of right now I'm not digging this title.

Bits and Pieces:

With the introduction of an older character in this issue you'd think there would be some pretty interesting things happening here, but ultimately, this is pretty boring as we're shown that there may be a conspiracy on top of a secret syndicate which I don't fully understand either and if that wasn't enough we still have big bad Leviathan making his rounds.  With all that going on I have no idea why I wasn't having fun.  Still though, you get some decent art for most of the book, I just wish the story would pick up.

5.4/10