Action Comics #29 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder (art), Wil Quintana (colors)

The Story: Usually, it’s the ghosts that chill you.

The Review: As you can probably tell, I was not thrilled by Batman/Superman’s first annual.  Indeed, the sheer senselessness of most of its moving parts threw me but good, almost leaving me cringing from its poor construction.  The situation’s even more mind-boggling when you turn to this issue of Action Comics and find inside what can only be described as an exemplary sample of superhero writing.  How does this divergence happen?  Hell if I know.

But enough of dredging up day-old grievances.  What really matters is that Pak has gone and done the near impossible, an almost Geoff Johnsian feat: finding a voice for Clark that is at once true to the traditional core of his character, yet also young, entirely at home in our time.  At one point, he delivers one of those famous Superman lectures to Ghost Soldier, with a personal conviction and intensity that makes it less preachy but more than a rant:

“I blame you.  You say you’re a soldier.  Like that excuses everything you do.  Wrong.  Everyone’s responsible.  Both those who carry out the orders…and the ones who give them.”

This might be his best comeback to Soldier’s earlier taunts, after the Subterranean lemurs’ first exposure to sunlight goes horribly south.  “[I]f you want to blame anyone,” Soldier tells Lana, “blame Superman.  …You pushed yourself into a situation you don’t understand, big man.”  Cruel are the words, but not totally inaccurate.  Soldier essentially exposes the same problem Wraith points out in Superman Unchained, that Clark’s moral compass lacks the ability to navigate big-picture scenarios, that his fixation on immediate injustices blurs his vision on long-term consequences.

But Clark’s speech attacks the selfishness driving Soldier’s criticisms.  Last issue, Soldier made it clear that in his hierarchy of values, Americans win out over foreigners, the surface beats the underground, and humans take priority over furry, scaly, fanged creatures.  This is a direct contrast to Superman, who’s constantly thinking of everyone’s best interest.  Even a lone butterfly caught in his freezing breath doesn’t escape his attention and grief, much less the various figures he’s personally taken under his protection.

Most times, he depends on his own superpowers to make this universal concern work, but he’s not so idealistic so as to override his good sense.  Realizing after his mistake with the lemurs that there is not yet a place aboveground for Baka, he sends the little/big guy back to Subterranea, the first of many heartfelt losses in an issue where Superman ekes out a draw, not a victory.  It’s a rare sight that Pak takes full advantage of, mining every bit of pathos from both Clark and Lana and reaffirming the sweetness of their bond.

Kuder has already demonstrated his enormous gift for full-blown action sequences and settings of joyful fantasy, but this issue allows him to show off his emotional chops as well.  He nails Superman in a helpless rage, but he also captures smaller moments as well.  His choice to put Clark and Baka’s embrace in silhouette is wonderfully understated, quietly revealing the bitterness in the scene without thrusting it in your face.  Lana and Clark’s shared grief is likewise gracefully rendered.  I love the composition of both of them exchanging anguished looks under Clark’s flowing cape, like they’re two kids hiding beneath an indestructible security blanket, one that nevertheless fails to prevent the loss in their very hands.

Conclusion: Outstanding in almost every detail, spanning credibly across a wide range of emotions and plotlines with hardly a gap.  A comic that fulfills convention and defies it at the same time.

Grade: A

- Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: - On the plus side, Lana can always market that electrical gun she’s got on hand—works on Subterraneans and Ghost Soldiers!

- I’m confident we’ll return to Subterranea someday soon.  There’s no way Clark and Lana can hightail out of there with its sources of power as well as its “prince” and not come back to face the consequences.