Action Comics #1095 review

Ryan Sook has been providing cracking covers since Action Comics began telling the adventures of Superman when he was a boy, and here’s another. An evidence board, as seen in many a TV crime drama, with young Clark Kent at the centre, the red tape making a familiar symbol. And that title, ‘The Kent Conspiracy’, it’s all very true crime.

The cover isn’t entirely representative of the story. No one is trying to work anything out, even though this issue’s star, Pete Ross, was introduced in the Silver Age as a boy whose hobby was detective work. Nope, we pick up after last issue, when, unknown to Superboy, Pete discovered his secret identity while on a camping trip with best pal Clark Kent. It’s the following morning, and Pete is doubting their long friendship.

Later, Pete comes across bullying at school.

He calms things down, the school day continues, and after the final bell has rung sees Superboy save townsfolk from a burst fire hydrant. Of course, there’s no acknowledgment from the Boy of Steel that he knows Pete. Shortly after, he’s thinking about Lana, and how she’d be affected were Clark to be open with his friends.

Ma Kent notices Pete is very down for reasons unknown, and Lana too realises something is wrong. That evening she finds him, and insists he tells her what’s up.

Did you notice that kid in the baseball cap listening to the gossip about Lana? He shows up, and he’s not there to offer a sympathetic ear…

Pete doesn’t confront Clark, but by the end of the issue he’s found a kind of peace, partly due to Lana’s empathy; she never demands details, the abstract is all she needs. His own emotional intelligence does the rest.

And I did enjoy a very classic bit of Lana business that ensures Pete sits down with her.

I also like the novelty of having this issue narrated not by future Clark, as usual, but by in-the-moment Pete. In the Silver Age he decided immediately to not tell Clark he knew, but to secretly help him get away to do Superboy deeds as needed. That’s really not going to be swallowed by today’s readers, so being with Pete as he processes the information, works out whether he really has a place in Clark’s life, is appreciated.

And it’s great seeing Pete stand up to a homophobic bully… it reminds me a little of Pete’s comics debut.

It’s heartbreaking to see Superboy everywhere but with Pete… OK, he doesn’t know what his friend is going through, but if he spent a little more time in Smallville he might go from noticing Pete is off – which he has – to getting him to open up, as does Lana.

It’s even more upsetting that when he meets Pete while in costume he pretends not to know him.

Writer Mark Waid gives us another superb chapter from Superman’s youth, veering from the regular business of Clark learning what it is to be a hero, to Pete learning what it means to be, well, a supporting character. It’s so sad that Clark never gets to see that Pete, too, is a hero, not simply because he’s always ready to defend against bullies – that Clark knows – but that he’s able to set his own feelings to one side to help Superboy on his journey.

Waid deftly conveys those feelings, and he does a great job with the dialogue, the conversation with Lana being my favourite part of the story.

Back for a second issue, Patricio Delpeche again gives us wonderful full-colour art. His people are unashamedly non-naturalistic and very very expressive, and I like his storytelling choices. Take this page, for one.

It’s wonderful work, and I want to see lots more.

Steve Wands’s lettering, and balloon placements, are a subtle gift to this comic, and a million points for another instance of the classic Superboy logo in a word balloons.

Is Action Comics winning awards? It should be. This issue demonstrates why.