Action Comics #1103 review

Superboy, our recent Action Comics headliner, takes a back seat as the flashback stories focus on his future foe, Lex Luthor. We first meet Lex as a three-year old, beating dad Lionel at chess.

Yes, Lex is narrating from the present day, recent events in the Superman series having prompted him to write things down.

But Lex isn’t the only one keeping a record.

As you can see from the words being burned into the book, he’s writing about how Earth parents Jonathan and Martha Kent taught him to be careful with his powers, the origin of which they didn’t know.

Lex’s mother, Leticia, though – perhaps because she’d given up a high-flying engineering career to be with loser Lionel – was less shy about showing off her son, even organising a party to introduce him to the neighbours.

The more they see of his intellect, though, the weirder they think Lex is, and Leticia’s plan to make friends backfires – people keep their distance.

As time passes, Lionel’s casual cruelty sparks his wife into action after he flounces out of the family home following a row.

Well, we already knew the apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it came to Lex and his parents, but I think this is new. Seeing just how awful the Luthors were, though, doesn’t make me feel much sympathy for Lex – even if his early environment was unconducive to his developing empathy, he’s smart enough to know so many of the things he does are objectively wrong.

I’m not sure I want a detailed look at Lex’s early years, we had a peek into his background only last year in the Krypto mini-series, which this run may wind up contradicting. And while the patented Kent Wisdom is on form, we’ve had bags of it in recent issues of Action.

My favourite aspect of Mark Waid and Patricio Delpeche’s opener to their five-issue tale is Lex’s present day musings, I enjoyed his thoughts on amnesia and the like hugely. I’d love more of this kind of thing.

I did enjoy such new details as Lionel being a henchman, and Leticia feeding Lex’s ego. And Easter eggs for longtime readers, such as Uncle Kendall, the giant diary in Kryptonese and Nowak Street made me smile.

Plus, obvious as it is, Waid is good at contrasting the parents as couples, the loving Kents vs the loathing Luthors.

Delpeche, who filled in a few times on the recent Superboy strips, is fully in charge of the art here, his faux naive stylings suited to a book focusing on memory, impressions. His storytelling is good, while his colouring, rough hewn as it is, suits his style.

The lettering by Steve Wands is excellent, I especially like his Lex Luthor: Year One logo.

I thought the cover was by Delpeche, the linework and impressionistic colouring is similar, but it’s by two people I don’t know, Chris Brunner and Rico Renzi. I wonder if they’re here for the duration.

While this is a pretty decent comic, I’d rather we were getting a full-on Superboy story… but maybe that will change as things go on.