Written by: Charles Soule
Art by: Paulo Siqueira & Pascal Alixe
Publisher: DC
Superman’s crossover storyline continues in this issue and it definitely felt like one of the stronger issues. I don’t know if it’s the fact that this issue seemed to be the first one written in this series which actually “crossed-over” from the other books which made it strong, or if it was just the fact that the story was able to recap everything in the series so far, bring it together, and then drive it forward.
This issue picks up where last week’s Action Comics narrative with Steel and Lana in space. To me this felt very out of place in this book as so far in this crossover event there has been clear distinction between the books. We have had Pak in Action Comics writing about Superman and Lana, Soule writing about Superman and Wonder Woman, and Lobdell writing about Superman and Lois. This issue definitely did a good job at pulling together all these elements, but it just felt off that it was in one book. The event was really enjoyable as we knew what to sort of expect in each book and this issue just didn’t deliver on the usually excellent narrative and building of a relationship for Superman and Wonder Woman. This issue sort of became a rescue mission using Pak’s characters and a bitch fight between Lois and Diana.
What this issue does excellently though is establish what has been going on in the event so far. If a new reader was going to come to this book, or someone who is just reading this book and not the rest of the crossovers, then Soule does an excellent job of bringing the reader up to speed as to why Lana & Steel are in space and why Lois is acting all weird. For someone that has been following the event, I can see that this quantity of recap enables the reader to feel somewhat bored, but this really was an essential part of the issue as though it did recap a lot it took those story strands and developed them further.
Soule also allows us to get a deeper understanding of what Clark is feeling having been taken over, now that he is Superdoom!! It really adds a great emotionality to the character despite the fact he is getting more and more infected and emotions probably aren’t at the forefront of a super rock type person thing.
Despite Soule not having particular expertise in some of the relationships he wrote about in this issue, it does feel like he has got a good grasp of the characters and it is a credit to him that Pak and Lobdell allowed their story elements to drive forward in this book. However, because of the developments in these strands it did feel that the relationship between Superman and Wonder Woman wasn’t really touched on in this issue as she was too busy with Lois, and though this will probably only happen in this issue, I did feel that we kind of missed out on what Soule has been doing in this book since the start. Overall though, this is a definite must read for anyone following this crossover event, and we just have to wait now a few weeks till the next part in Action Comics Annual #3.
Note: sidepoint, check out page 7 (or page 3 from when the comic begins) and look at top left hand panel, do you notice anything art wise? Let me know in the comments.
