That’s a heck of a cover by Steve Beach, with not one, but two literal men of steel facing a bunch of bad guys. The barely restrained power, the determined expressions… excellent.
Inside we learn that the people with their back to us are Blue Earthers – but not the garden variety Metropolis xenophobes, these are elite super-powered vigilantes. They’ve gained power drained from Superman by the bodyguard of their leader Norah Stone, necessitating the hero donning one of John Henry Irons’ spare suits.
The Bearthers stop a post-robbery getaway van but get far too rough on the thieves, whose lives are saved only by the intervention of the Super Family.
Just as the battle is joined, one of the so-called Super-Twins, Otho-Ra, is transported to a mental landscape, where she is confronted by Stone, and learns her secret agenda – to recruit her.
By the time Otho’s ejected from the strange realm, with a small souvenir, the fight is over.
Later, after a boost from Steel’s tech has helped Superman regain most of his strength, local TV reveals Blue Earth’s heavily doctored version of events.
Norah looks like Bruce Wayne? Well that’s a surprise! She’s reminded me in her previous appearances of Otho and Osul-Ra, visually… I think this is the first issue her hair has looked like it might be Bruce-black, previously it’s been brown. Also, Otho-Ra, Osul-Ra.. No-Rah? So who is Norah Stone?
She’s Janan al-Ghul, an alternate world daughter of Batman and Talia, a member of the Empire of Shadows, previously seen in the Batman/Superman: Authority Special #1 two years ago this month. Given that she looks totally different to the spiky person drawn by Ben Templesmith, I don’t feel bad about not pegging her. Heck, Superman has a super-memory and it took him a while, with help from Lois, to get there!
Now I know who she is, Norah’s longterm plan to conquer Earth-0 does fit in with what she was up to with her equally awful siblings in the special. I look forward to the Supers booting her back to Earth al-Ghul.
I liked this instalment a lot, from Otho’s insistence she’s ‘… a Supergirl of the House of El’ to Superman showing the Blue Earthers what it means to be a hero. Writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson is terrific at using character as the building blocks of story. I love that a quiet panel of Otho sleeping in Action #1052 blooms into a plot point, as I thought it would.
The only off note is the idea that several experienced, fully juiced Super Family members can’t capture a bunch of Metropolis randoms who have only just received a share of Superman’s power. Why is Superboy whooping it up with Supergirl when he should be pursuing escaping super-villains?
The art is just fantastic, it’s always a treat when Eddy Barrows shows up somewhere and in Eber Ferreira he has a top-notch inker. The layouts are wonderfully kinetic, with that panel of Supergirl, Super-Man, Superboy and the Super-Twins swooping down one of my favourite super scenes of the year. And I really, really like that ‘Great Scott’ moment, it’s positively Bolland-esque in its combination of sharp lines and soft finish (and thanks to Johnson for bringing back Superman’s classic exclamation).
Colourist Matt Herms and letterer Dave Sharpe add the final touches; Metropolis is vibrant, al-Ghul Earth hellish thanks to Herms, while Sharpe controls tone of voice with skill.
All in all, it’s another great chapter of the neverending battle.
Last issue’s Super-Man of China back-up, showing how Kenan Kong came to join the Super Family after the Bat-Man of China comes calling, ends on a clever, bittersweet note, thanks to writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Viktor Bogdanovic.
In a one-off tale, Archie Comics legend Dan Parent brings his Kevin Keller credentials to a tale of the agony and ecstasy of young love. Young Superman Jon Kent finds it’s not easy when you’re a busy teen superhero cum babysitter dating a terribly overworked HR person. His beau, Jay Nakamura, has become a lot more palatable of late, but I really could have lived without a whole page of him texting Jon Kent from bath and bed.
Mind, he’s not looking much better when dressed, donning a truly hideous pink jacket for a Saturday picnic. Jon is equally inappropriate, wearing his super-suit in public with Jay, despite reminding the pink-haired PR person he’s using his secret ID again. Marguerite Sauvage’s art is pretty, though – I just wish it was serving something other than a misplaced YA feels-fest.
The Jon story wasn’t to my taste but the other two very much were, and I guess Jon’s non-adventure will please some folk. So let’s declare this issue of Action Comics another direct hit.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 
Really good read. . .except for Jon. The unforced error that is Jon Kent is just painful to watch. I wasn’t onboard with aging him or with the bisexual angle, as I predicted that these changes were too sudden and would end up defining him, as writers strove to justify the shifts. This back-up is that in spades. Worse, we get more Jay, in a thinly veiled analogue of Lois Lane. Can we have Doomsday Clock II and make Jon a kid again? Please? Great review!
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I’d take anything that would just give us back old, that is, young Jon – a terrific, popular character wrecked for the sake of Brian Bendis’s ego.
Much as Jay has improved in Steelworks, I still want him to be a villain!
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I don’t think it was all Bendis or it would have left with him. Now that they’ve made Jon bi and given him a boyfriend, all hopes of de-aging are gone. DC will fear backlash at undoing that, no matter how ill conceived the reveal and boyfriend are.
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Anj here!
Didn’t guess Janan Al Ghul at all but after rereading my review and the book, it seems like a rematch was always in the offing. I’d love to ask Johnson if he was always planning to revisit the world.
It is interesting that Otho is such a linchpin for the whole match. Wonder why? And who will ultimately talk her into staying on the right side. (Hoping it is her ‘Aunt Kara’.) (And I still think No-ra from Warworld was a decent guess.)
Really liked the New Super-Man story. I suppose there should be some out-clause in Luthor’s mindbomb that if you discover Clark is Superman you don’t die. You only die if he tells you. Rather mature decision by Kenan to save his friend by leaving him. Explains why Kenan is living here in the States.
As for Jon, this isn’t a good story. 10 pages of candy floss, regardless of who is canoodling. I’d feel the same way if this was Conner exchanging texts with Cassie lounging in a tub.
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I don’t think Otho will need talking into staying on the side of the angels, sure, she has some rough edges but that was about survival, not conquest – she seems to be settling into the bosom of the Super Family nicely, I can’t see Norah having anything to offer her.
I reckon it’s very likely Phillip planned, or at least hoped, to get back to the Al-Ghul family, the man is a planner!
Excellent idea about Luthor’s mental bomb. It’s a daft idea that should be put be put back in the box.
I wish we still had lettercols. I’d love to know how other readers reacted to the Jon nonsense.
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I really liked the main story, too. I very much enjoy the super twins and hope they stay around awhile, written as entertainingly and sensitively as Johnson does.
Of course, eventually someone will decide to “go back to basics” and background the super family. It’s easy enough to write Kara and Conner out, just say they’re working outside Metropolis. But I worry that when some new writer or editorial edict doesn’t want these new kids around, they’ll be shelved or fridged or turned evil.
On the not-projecting-problems-in-advance-front, I liked the issue for all the reasons you mentioned. Johnson’s run on Action feels like a classic, a high-water mark. Whereas, say, I’m enjoying the current Superman book, but it feels less like one I’ll come back to a lot. I’m feeling about Johnson’s work here like I feel about Greg Rucka’s first run on Wonder Woman, and much of Gail Simone’s.
I would not have guessed Norah’s identity … I didn’t even remember the earlier Janan appearance. But I will say, although this serialized story seems to be called “New Worlds,” the cover copy for 1057 called it “Revenge of the Demon, Part One.” I guess that could’ve been a hint to us that Norah was either an al Ghul. Or Etrigan.
—bpm
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Well, there is that Etrigan body (?) we saw in her HQ a few issues back!
I do hope the kids aren’t sent to the Phantom Zone like poor old Chris Kent. I can’t see PKJ doing that… probably they’ll join the rest of the Warworld refugees – where was that again?
Thanks for the comments!
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