Friday, December 9, 2011

Action Comics #4

Long-time fans (like yours truly) will enjoy the bits of business writer Grant Morrison has loaded into these "untold early" adventures of Superman in Action Comics.

This issue owes quite a bit to the old Fleisher cartoon "The Mechanical Monsters," wherein the Man of Steel struggled to fight an army of robots (if you've never seen it, it's well worth tracking down - some amazing animation there).

The situation is similar in this issue, which features several familiar faces, including Lex Luthor, who's early in his evil mastermind stage of life, a certain alien opponent appears (sort of), and Steel makes his "first" appearance.

It's all well drawn by Rags Morales - there's a lot going on here, and Morales keeps the action flowing (or exploding, as the case may be) while keeping the characters clear.

I was enjoying this issue - and then we got to the final page, and I got irritated.

That's because of the blurb at the end of the story - it reads, "To Be Continued in Action Comics #7."

So we apparently have two fill-in issues before this cliffhanger is resolved? What the heck, DC?

Perhaps they have a good reason, perhaps the fill-in issues are necessary - but it smells like the creative team is struggling with deadlines.

If so, it's a shaky start to what has been up to now my favorite of the "New 52" books.

Grade: A-

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