Action Comics #14 review

I’ve heard complaints that Grant Morrison isn’t imbuing Action Comics with the same sense of wonder that pervaded his All-Star Superman run. As if to answer those critics, ‘Superman’s Mission To Mars’ opens with a sequence showing just how awesome the Man of Steel is – without actually showing him. There’s real grandeur as super-hearing, speed and flight combine to demonstrate that this truly is Earth’s greatest hero.

Picking up cries for help from a manned mission to Mars, Superman shoots across the solar system to bash Metalek alien automatons akin to those that recently tried to take over Earth. He knows that if Metalek are on Mars, the bigger threat of The Multitude can’t be far behind. And Earth is on their hit list. He’s been waiting for the cosmic menace to appear since his encounter with the Collector of Worlds, but has no idea what form they’ll take.

It’s fair to say he wasn’t expecting thousands of angels. At first, sheer numbers and a locust-like ability to eat everything in their path forces Superman back, but when he remembers their true nature, he’s able – with the help of the Terran scientists – to send them packing.

It’s then, though, that the ultimate threat makes himself known – and he’s familiar to anyone who’s been reading this comic regularly. It’s escaped 5th Dimension prisoner Vyndktvx, once again using his magic to bedevil Superman. And he’s no longer playing games.

Yep, Vyndktvx, quite the descriptive name, because he’s rotten to the core. And the freaky form he takes this issue, combined with images of Superman fighting angels, took me right back to my childhood and Superman #236.

That Neal Adams and Dick Giordano cover fair freaked me out. I wonder if Morrison also read the issue, and the imagery stuck?

Not that it matters, as his nicely worked story doesn’t rely on nostalgia for effect. It’s a pretty decent chapter in the longform story he’s telling, and I’m chuffed to bits that the little man finally declares himself; time for a comeuppance, methinks. The fight with The Multitude is satisfying, even if my guess that they’re a Bismollian toga party proves incorrect. I like that Superman uses birth father Jor-El’s experience to save the day, and that even with his immense powers, he needs an assist from the regular humans.

Most of all, I like that none of them treats Superman with the suspicion that’s been a trademark of DC’s New 52 relaunch. No one fears him, they trust that he’ll save the day. And even when circumstances cause that trust to waver, Superman doesn’t wobble – he just does his best and in so doing, inspires others (click on image to enlarge).

Said people include real-life scientist Dr Neil Tyson, seen here marvelling that Superman is actually wearing a worse outfit than him. You may have read that Dr Tyson, at DC’s request, worked out a possible position for a ‘real’ Krypton, which is wonderful, in a pointless way. Apparently Dr Tyson was voted People Magazine’s Sexiest Scientist several years back – presumably he didn’t wear that passion killer back then.