Action Comics #869 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank

So, it's official. Braniac destroyed Krypton. That is an interesting decision. They hinted at it last issue, and at the time, I wasn't sure they would actually go through with it. At the time, I thought it might not be such a bad idea, but now that they've finally decided to make Braniac's destruction of Krypton canon, I'm not sure that I like it. It is always extremely dangerous to tinker with the origins of a major DC character. When DC decided in the late 80s to make Batman not know that Joe Chill killed his parents, it created the sense that he might be somehow out for revenge rather than simply trying to prevent it from ever happening again, so they had to change it back. Even small details like that can fundamentally alter what makes a character's story meaningful. After all, DC's central characters have been successful for a reason. They are iconic, and perhaps even DC doesn't understand why exactly. Even small tinkering can change the motivation of a character.

This book actually fiddles with Superman's origins in several ways. In the late 1980s, DC made the decision to make Superman the last survivor of Krypton, killing off Supergirl and consigning Zod to oblivion. Both of these removals were mistakes, and DC has recently righted them by bringing both Supergirl and Zod (along with Krypto) back into continuity. However, their heart was in the right place. The introduction of things like the City of Kandor made Superman not especially unique. If there is an entire city of Kryptonians, why is Superman special? However, I think uniqueness isn't the entire issue. When there are more Kryptonians around, especially the thousands now revealed to be living in the City of Kandor, Superman's story becomes less about Earth and more about Krypton itself. It has the effect of shifting the focus of Superman's story away from Earth and back to his original planet. When Grant Morrison gave Superman a one-page, four-line origin in All Star Superman #1, he knew exactly what he was doing. At the end of the day, Superman's origin is the past; his story is really a story about Kal-El on Earth. Too many Kryptonians makes Superman too alien.

The introduction of the actual villain who destroyed Krypton in the first place changes this shift even more radically than the recently reintroduced Kandor. If Braniac destroyed Krypton, then he becomes an even more powerful nemesis for Superman. After all, they now have a very strong history. However, that history is now a Kryptonian history, not a human history. Superman is put in the position of righting or avenging wrongs that happened on a planet long ago, and his story becomes about his Kryptonian heritage, not his unique role on Earth. The reintroduction of Superman's aunt and uncle, Zor-El and Alura, compounds this problem; they are the parents of Supergirl and they apparently survived the destruction of Argo City, where Supergirl had assumed they had died. Superman's story increasingly has the focus of protecting Kryptonian family from Kryptonian threats, and this risks overshadowing his story on Earth, in which he is a boy from small town Kansas with a secret.

Despite these concerns with the overall direction of Action Comics, this is overall a very strong issue. Superman continues his battle with Braniac on Braniac's ship. I love Braniac's creepy assimilation cables. Superman really is outmatched, at least for now, and I look forward to his figuring out how to beat Braniac. My one complaint is that I'm amazed that he didn't know that he can't just turn his back on a wounded Braniac and strike up a conversation with his uncle. One would think he'd have a little more tactical wisdom than that. The battle on Earth, however, is far more interesting. There is a great moment when Supergirl and Lois are on the roof of the Daily Planet, and Kara simply says, "Go", letting go of Lois's hand in an especially well drawn frame. Of course, Lois doesn't listen, and she and the other reporters of the Daily Planet fight off Braniac's drones. Having them have any success somewhat lowers the threat level of Brianiac's robots (how exactly do they survive Supergirl's heat vision and yet are able to be knocked out of a window by a desk wielded by two reporters?), but it does have the nice effect of seeing the Planet staff stand up for Earth.

And of course, the ending is fantastic. Metropolis is bottled and spirited away to Braniac's ship. I've kind of always wanted him to do that. If you're going to have bottled cities, you might as well bottle Metropolis, and I really relish finding out what it will be like living in that bottled city so long as Braniac is able to hold onto it (which I'm assuming won't be very long). In the last four issues, Johns has made Braniac a very credible threat, and now that he's gotten hold of Metropolis, things promise to be very interesting indeed.

This is a very good issue, but also a very dangerous one. I hope the editorial staff know what they're doing in increasingly introducing Kryptonian elements to Superman's story. They risk distracting from Superman's successful premise, and may find themselves written into the same sort of corner they did when they eliminated Joe Chill.

B+

Action Comics #868 Review

Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank

Geoff Johns continues to produce the finest run on Superman that I have ever read. He is completely reinventing (or rereinventing) the character and his world in a way that is so perfect, it doesn't feel like a revinention. Rather, it feels like this is the way the character should always have been in the first place.

In this story, Johns in reinventing Braniac into one of the greatest single threat Superman has ever faced. Braniac is a more destructive version of the Borg, capturing single cities and individuals, and then wiping out the entire civilization. He seeks "perfection", which was one of the key principles of the Borg, presumably wishing to assimilate all knowledge to himself so that he can encompass the entire universe. That's pretty dangerous. He has captured the bottled city of Kandor, and now is attacking Earth, as it has the two remaining Kryptonians (he must not know about the third or care about Power Girl). It is not enough that he absorb the civilizations; the civilizations must also be exterminated so that he can contain all of the information exclusively.

This book is hinting very strongly that Braniac may, in fact, be responsible for the destruction of Krypton. I'm not sure of how good an idea this is. Tinkering with the origins of DC's greatest characters is always dangerous business, and until now, its destruction has always been a natural disaster. However, it would not fundamentally alter Superman's origin, as Jor-El may have been aware of what was occurring as a result of Braniac's machinations. It would lend much greater emotional weight to one of Superman's arch-nemeses if he was responsible for Krypton's destruction, so if that's the way the story chooses to go, I will not be disappointed.

The sheer power of Braniac takes this story to an epic level. He finally, for the first time ever in comics, emerges from his cocoon to fight Superman. Superman gets to fight the real Brainiac, not a machine or a clone. Moreover, Brainiac is so strong, he makes very short work of Superman. Braniac isn't just highly intelligent and technologically advanced, he is strong as well, meaning that Superman cannot simply beat him by working around his latest plan. When Superman defeats him (as I assume he will), Superman will have accomplished on of his greatest victories ever.

Gary Frank's art in Action Comics is very strong. His facial expressions are some of the best drawn in comics. Sometimes they seem so accurate, I wonder if he isn't working from photographs. The early scenes with Supergirl and Cat Grant are largely funny because of the facial expressions that Frank draws for the various characters. Supergirl's cluelessness at the hostility of Cat would likely not have come across so clearly without Grant's art. Moreover, the almost bored disdain of Brainiac at Superman makes him seem more powerful. Truly powerful people don't often don't express much emotion; they don't have to. Frank manages to bring real life to the character of Brainiac, who has often seemed very, well, artificial.

There is some interesting development of Superman's relationship to his parents and his cousin. Originally, they protected him. Now, he protects them. There is a strange sense of helplessness that parents feel when they realise they can no longer protect their children, and even the sense of pride they have in their children can never really offset that. Supergirl is truly terrified of Brainiac, as she has encountered him before on Krypton, and wants to protect Superman from something that she understands better than he does. This was her opporuntity to fulfil the role she was sent to Earth for in the first place. However, there is nothing she can do, and she realises quite clearly the Superman doesn't need her, at least, not as a protector.

The final scene of the book is fantastic. Brainiac has come to Earth. He may have destroyed Krypton, and now he plans to capture Manhattan and destroy the rest of the planet. Even though the skull design of Brainiac's ship is old, Frank makes it look creepier by giving it a darker colour and adding a few touches that almost make it look like it is rotting. My only complaint is this: shouldn't the ship be bigger? I mean, this is the greatest threat the Earth has ever seen and it's not even the size of a skyscraper. Aircraft carriers are larger than the ship. I'd hoped that the most dangerous alien threat the world has ever faced would be at least the size of a city.

In any event, Johns, who seems to be writing half of the books at DC right now, has truly captured the epic scale of the Superman tale. He is a man from another planet. Now he faces what Supergirl calls "the worst of aliens". This story successfully revitalises one of Superman's greatest adversaries, and tells a story worth of DC's greatest hero.

A-