Geoff Johns Run on Action Comics (Spoilers)

[Admiral_Young]

I've been a Superman fan since I was around ten years old (I'm 29 now) and started reading the John Bryne run. I stopped reading shortly after Lois and Clark got married not really for any reason other than I found the stories boring that they were producing at the time. I was also a big fan of Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman and discovered Smallville during it's third season and fell in love with it. It made me an even bigger Superman fan.

I returned to reading Superman comics starting with Geoff John's and Richard Donner's Last Son (the delays pissed me off to no end but I've got the hardback now so I'm happy) and love how he seems to be incorperating continuity together in one fluid storyline. I finished reading New Krypton and eagerly await his return...I understand that James Robinson will be filling in for him over the summer while Johns works on Blackest Night and that they're working to some bigger event in 2010. I've also become a big Legion of Superheroes fan over the last couple of years because of Superman and the Legion of Superheroes, and Mark Waid's run. Understand that DC is planning on doing another book after the Legion Crisis storyline is over with. Has anyone else been reading the run?

 

[shivkala]

Yes, and while the storytelling is good, I'm just not completely sold. I think John's is trying too hard to inject the Bronze Age into the title (I loved the psychic Braniac, versus the robot one; John's Legion is straight from the 70's; and even Metallo now resembles his Bronze Age look).

It may interest you, though, that Johns and Frank are working on Superman: Secret Origins, which is due out sometime this year, I thought, to firmly establish Superman's origins, something that hasn't been done since Birthright (which was never fully adopted as Superman's origin and mostly treated as an Elseworlds timeline); Superman #200 which for all intents and purposes had Superman end up with a different origin than Byrne's (I think the intent was to have Birthright be the origin at this point, but nothing solidified this); Infinite Crisis and 52 jumbled Superman's origins bringing a lot of the Silver Age Elements back; and Johns run on Action Comics which solidified a lot of those elements (Clark having powers and using them as a teenager, Lar Gand landing in Smallville and becoming Clark's "brother," having a young Clark befriend the Legion, etc.).

 

[Supervisor 194]

I've thoroughly enjoyed Johns and Frank's run on Action Comics.

Their Superman has been the first to feel 'authentic' to me since Curt Swan was the main artist, and their take on continuity shows that most of what was needlessly thrown out back in the 80s is still workable in the right hands. I'm also a big fan of the Legion--at least the Legion that ran from the late Fifties until it was gutted by Crisis on Infinite Earths--and Johns' Legion story stands along Earthwar and Great Darkness as one of the greats as far as I'm concerned.

Gary Frank is the first Superman artist since Swan to feel definitive to me--and I can't wait to see his take on the origin!

 

[Icemizer]

I have been pretty happy with Johns runs a good read all around. Of course my favorite re-origin is John Byrnes Man of Steel. I really hated every aspect of birthright. Nothing interesting there at all.

I liked the adult Legion there for awhile and have been pretty iffy on its current incarnation. Winey kids are dull to read.

 

[the Dagman]

I really enjoyed the recent Legion story arc from Action. It was a real testament to the character of Superman. Where he was taken to the future to where he lost all his powers, reduced to relying on his Legion flight ring, and yet he was still Superman. It was beautiful. Stories like that make fans for life.

And enough cannot be said for Frank's art since he came onto the book and started using Christopher Reeve as his character model for Superman... it's iconic. It is like Frank has captured Reeve's soul and we are being treated to another performance by an actor we lost way too soon.

 

[Mr Light]

So what is the total list of trades by Johns and by Frank? Did Johns start with "Last Son" or was he doing the Infinite Crisis tie-ins as well? Did Frank start with the Legion arc?

 

[ClayinCA]

I really enjoyed the recent Legion story arc from Action. It was a real testament to the character of Superman. Where he was taken to the future to where he lost all his powers, reduced to relying on his Legion flight ring, and yet he was still Superman. It was beautiful. Stories like that make fans for life.

And enough cannot be said for Frank's art since he came onto the book and started using Christopher Reeve as his character model for Superman... it's iconic. It is like Frank has captured Reeve's soul and we are being treated to another performance by an actor we lost way too soon.

Couldn't agree more. It's an especially refreshing change from the "old man" look that Alex Ross insists on giving Superman, and which seems to show up on an awful lot of DC's branding.

Great avatar, by the way!

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

And enough cannot be said for Frank's art since he came onto the book and started using Christopher Reeve as his character model for Superman... it's iconic. It is like Frank has captured Reeve's soul and we are being treated to another performance by an actor we lost way too soon.

Fo'sho.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yep I agree totally on Gary Frank's artwork...he's really my favourite of the recent Superman artists and I think Alex Ross's older Superman is fine. Remember that one of the Kuberts was involved in the Last Son arc and the reason for the delays...I'm thinking that is why they brought Frank on board. I'll do by best here is a tentative list of Johns run with Kubert and Frank, oh and Eric Powell from The Boys:

Superman Last Son
Superman Escape from Bizzaro World
Superman and the Legion of Superheroes
Superman Brainiac (coming out in a couple of weeks)
Superman New Krypton Volume One: Birth (May)
Superman New Krypton Volume Two (Sep)

Those are the only ones that I'm aware of. Shiv'kala I know and am very eagerly awaiting Secret Origins and World of Krypton (not sure if Johns is penning World of Krypton but looking forward to that). I guess that Geoff will also be busy doing Flash: Rebirth as well before returning to Action Comics in the fall or winter.

 

[ElScoob]

I just want to echo my love for Johns' run. I've said it before; he's doing this great "include and transcend" thing, continuity-wise, incorporating elements from all these past interpretations of Superman. THe overwhelming feel I get from his version is a blend of the Donner film and the Bronze Age comics--which is what I grew up on, and what I love. So to me, this feels like the 'real' Superman.

(I recently realized that Johns is about the same age as I am, so I'm sure that he's doing the Superman that he grew up on, too.)

Of course, words can barely do justice to how pleased I am that the 'real' Legion--the one that Superman was part of as a kid--is back in continuity, more or less. I have read and loved many, many Legion comics in the last twenty years, but divorcing Superman from the Legion was a huge misstep and I am glad to see it corrected.

I also love Gary Frank's Superman art. I was never a huge fan of his in the past--I thought he was good, but his style never quite clicked with me. That's changed now. His use of Chris Reeve as a model for Superman resonates deeply, of course. But there are other things. In the Superman and the Legion arc, for instance, when he drew the flashback sequence of the Silver Age Legion founders meeting Clark... the three of them, especially Cosmic Boy looked... hm. How to put this? Well, without making his artwork seem to obviously ape Curt Swan's, he still drew Legionnaires that evoked Swan's versions very strongly. Imagine that there was a real, living, breathing Cosmic Boy out there... it's like Swan and Frank both drew that same guy, capturing a good, recognizable likeness.

I can't wait for Secret Origin. That ought to be a blast. I'm not sure if I am looking forward more to that or to Flash: Rebirth.

--g

 

[Cicero]

And enough cannot be said for Frank's art since he came onto the book and started using Christopher Reeve as his character model for Superman... it's iconic. It is like Frank has captured Reeve's soul and we are being treated to another performance by an actor we lost way too soon.

The Reeve-film basis of Franks's art is what I dislike most about it. I was born a year after the last of his first three films was released, and have never had any fondness for them. (It might not be too strong a statement to say that I hate them.)

I'd had no idea anyone was nostalgic for those dismal years until certain creators began to twist Superman into their sad echo.