That said, let's get into it!
Action Comics #2 – Okay, three variant
covers, one of which is a sketch version of one of the other two. And I’ve
gotta say, while I like them all, I’m partial to the non-sketch original
variant. And that would be a sentence I didn’t expect to see outside of the
90s. As to the meat of the issue, here we see little more than a whole issue
action sequence, but it is a fairly awesome one, with Superman basically
beating his way out of the underground secret prison he’s being held in by Lex
Luthor. By the way, this is one of the best characterizations of LL I’ve seen
in the comics in quite some time. Arrogant, dismissive of anyone who isn’t him,
and obviously well on his path to villainy, his insistence on calling Superman
“it” because of the fact that he’s an alien feels absolutely perfect to me.
There is a lot of interesting stuff in this issue, especially towards the end,
where we learn that Luthor is getting his info on Supes from a mysterious source.
Okay…it’s Brainiac. How could it not be? I’ll eat my hat (The nice, Superman
one.) if it isn’t. All told, a strong, action-oriented issue that nicely
progresses both the story and the characterizations nicely.
Recommendation:
I’m still leaning toward trade, honestly, but it’s really starting to make me
want to put it in my pullbox.
Animal Man #2 – And the creep factor of
this issue continues. Yeesh. The little sister gets powers, much to the chagrin
and annoyance of both her older sister and Buddy’s wife. We learn more about
the Red and how it affects the world around us…well, kinda. In true horror
movie fashion, we only get glimpses of the true nature of the beast. Is it
evil? Does it have any morality aside from survival? What does it have to do
with Maxine’s powers? Does it have
anything to do with them? Man…lots of questions, not too many answers, but man,
what a ride. There’s a lot of semi-exposition, that I’m not sure about
reliability, because, let’s face it, it’s coming from a little girl. She may be
misinterpreting things, or simply parroting a lie the Red told her. But the
stage is set, the mission given and the heroes off on their adventure. I’m sure
Joseph Campbell couldn’t be any more proud. As an aside, this one and Swamp Thing seem to be heading toward a
crossover, with the Red being set up as a malevolent enitity over there. Which
is true? We’ll see.
Recommendation:
There’s too much awesome here to wait for the trade, so go on and put this one
in your pull box.
