Action Comics #900 Discussion

[Admiral_Young]

@Mr. Light during "War of the Supermen" Clark still offered to save Zod. This is a fundamental character definition of who Superman is. Superman isn't god-like though, that was the whole entire point of what Cornell was trying to get across. Same as Lex Luthor will never achieve his goal of destroying Superman. As Clark himself stated, it's a flawed goal.

 

[Turtletrekker]

CBR reviewer gives Action #900 3 1/2 out of 5 stars.

 

[DarKush]

Mild Spoilers...


Only read the Lex story. There were aspects of it I liked, chiefly the interplay between Supes and Lex. That felt right, and Lex's discovery about Supes was a nice moment. It didn't mesh well with the Reign of Doomsday storyline, and I think it undercut it, by having Doomsday just be a distraction, just one piece of Lex's plan. And then DC made it worse by not wrapping up the Doomsday storyline but expanding it. The first Reign didn't do any justice to Doomsday or add anything really substantial to the character and the expansion is probably a lame attempt to do a War of the Hulks type story. With Doomsday, less is always better.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ I felt like Reign of Doomsday undercut the story too. I'm guessing it was forced in there by Editorial.

 

[Mr Light]

The other "off" thing about the issue is that they treat it like Superman's return to being Superman and not a whiny emo dude doing a Forrest Gump across America... but of course that's still going on in the other mag.

 

[Admiral_Young]

That's because Cornell has carte blanch to tell his own story and Action Comics is the flagship title.

 

[Snaploud]

It would be nice to start a separate thread, but I can't think of a way to do so without a spoiler in the title. As such:

Spoiler: Action Comics #900

Superman Renouncing American Citizenship In 'Action Comics #900'

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/28/superman-renouncing-american-citizenship_n_855281.html

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I've already expressed my views on that...don't think it's a big deal at all. Back up story that got picked up by comic book websites and went viral. If anything this will be used in "Superman" rather than in "Action Comics".

 

[Broccoli]

Yeah I've already expressed my views on that...don't think it's a big deal at all. Back up story that got picked up by comic book websites and went viral. If anything this will be used in "Superman" rather than in "Action Comics".

Which would be hilarious since Superman is trying to reconnect with American in Superman. I have to think this is an out-of-continuity story given how offhandedly it is portrayed.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ My thoughts exactly. Superman returned from his walkabout in "Action Comics" which either means that Cornell is ignoring "Superman" which i stated before or "Action Comics" timeline is slightly ahead of "Superman".

 

[Broccoli]

In more positive news, I picked up the issue today and didn't realize until I got home that I inadvertently got the Alex Ross variant cover.* It was the last copy of 900 in the store and the price wasn't jacked up.

*I knew it was an Alex Ross cover, but I didn't realize it was one of the variants.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I think it was the second variant but not sure. I have the David Finch cover.

 

[Broccoli]

All the covers for the issue were pretty solid, I think.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yeah. Both this and "Batman #700" were solid issues.

 

[Broccoli]

Batman 700 was crazy! But in a good way to celebrate the history (and future) of the character.

Superman 700, I was a bit disappointed in, but it served as a good wrap-up and prologue for story arcs.


(Yes, I like to collect the occasional anniversary issue for novelty's sake.)

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Agreed on both comments.

 

[Snaploud]

^ My thoughts exactly. Superman returned from his walkabout in "Action Comics" which either means that Cornell is ignoring "Superman" which i stated before or "Action Comics" timeline is slightly ahead of "Superman".

It certainly would have made a lot more sense after a walkabout that included the entire planet rather than just the U.S...

 

[Broccoli]

I think Action is ahead given that Supes is zipping around doing "Superman stuff" with no one asking "Hey, I thought you were walking around." Also considering that Superman had delays and filler issues, the "Grounded" storyline is behind in publishing. I wouldn't be surprised if "Grounded" wasn't, originally, supposed to be wrapped up (wrapping) by now.

On a side note, given that Luther and Superman were both going on personal journeys of sorts starting at the same time, I initially thought both of these story arcs would have intersected at their conclusions (and, presumably, with Action 900). Clearly, that wasn't the case.

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ I really don't think that JMS's intention (and now Chris Roberson) was to conclude "Grounded" to coincide with the conclusion of "The Black Ring". They're both clearly doing their own stories. I just think that Cornell intended to use Superman at the end of his first year (which he stated would be the case). "Grounded" just seems never-ending lol.

 

[Mr Light]

Are backup stories by an author who doesn't write the character or indeed any comic books at all really cannon, though?

Am I the only one that thinks "Grounded" is an absolutely horrid and boring storyline that betrays the fundamental positiveness of the character? Same goes for JMS' Wonder Woman. And I love JMS. Well, on B5.