Jul
13
2016
1

Action Comics #959 Review

Written by: Dan Jurgens

Art by: Tyler Kirkham

Publisher: DC Comics

When Rebirth started, Action Comics was one of my top tier titles and biggest surprises. Three issues in however, the book has begun to coast a bit and simply spin its wheels rather than move the story forward. While there are still stand out moments, the book needs to start moving forward before it finds itself dropped.

The story this issue plays out exactly the same as the previous issue, Superman and Superlex fight Doomsday, Clark Kent makes mysterious allusions to his true identity, Lois and Jon watch on, as does Mr. Oz, and there’s a cliffhanger with a main character in mortal danger. When I finished the book it felt like absolutely nothing had advanced or changed from where we left off last time, making me wonder why I spent time reading 20 pages, let alone spent money on this. This sounds a bit too negative, as there is still a lot of pretty fun action, and I am intrigued by the Clark mystery, but none of this feels like it should be this long. It all feels artificially extended, with the intriguing plot elements feeling like annoyingly teasing ways of getting you to buy the next issue in hopes you’ll be able to find out more. Due to the rapid pace and lower price this is less of a problem than it otherwise would be, but with other series moving much faster and the other Superman book being of much higher quality it’s starting to reflect poorly on Action Comics.

In terms of art however, Tyler Kirkham proves to be a real shot in the arm for the series. His style is a lot cleaner and more expressive than Zircher’s, with the change in styles at least making the issue feel a little bit fresher. There are a few unfortunate instances of wonky faces in the slower, emotional scenes (Jon especially looks a bit like an alien, and no not a Kryptonian) but for the most part the comic undeniably nails the action sections, at least living up to its title. This change in art mid arc though is unfortunate, and makes me wish even more that they’d just made the arcs shorter and used the changing artists on each arc.

The biggest problem with the series for me so far  however is how it keeps looking back rather than forward. The best Rebirth books are the ones that manage to harken back to the central core of the characters while moving forward with brand new stories, such as the other Superman book. This though can’t go five seconds without referencing Death of Superman and it’s honestly getting annoying. Doomsday is just a straight up boring character, with Death of Superman being a popular but ultimately uninteresting story too. With so many new ingredients to play with such as Superlex, Jon, this new Clark Kent and Mr. Oz, Jurgens instead insists on beating you over the head with “LOOK DOOMSDAY WAS A THING!! ISN’T HE THREATENING?? ISN’T THIS SO GRIPPING?!” which ignores the great parts of the comic in Cavour of his own personal creations. It doesn’t do the story any favors and makes much of the clunky dialogue a chore to sit through. It’s a real shame, Lois and Clark was a great blend of the old and new, and the potential is certainly here for Jurgens to continue that, but he doesn’t really seem interested in any forward momentum.

Overall, Action Comics is quickly loosing steam. It’s a shame that a series with so much potential is content to sit back on cruise control and not try anything more daring or exciting. With this “path of Doomsday” story pegged as a six issue arc my patience is beginning to wear thin for the series, if things don’t seriously pick up next issue it may be time to let this one go.