Action Comics #18 review

Esnetni saw taht, wehp. Oops, sorry, I’m in 5th Dimension mode, backwards speak and all that. Longtime Superman readers know that the way to banish traditional pest Mr Mxyzptlk home to the 5th Dimension is to trick him into saying his name backwards. But Mxy’s rival Vyndktvx, who’s been attacking Superman from all angles for […]

Action Comics #16 review

If you’ve not been reading Action Comics, any attempt at summation of this issue by me is going to fall very flat. We’re almost a year and a half into a grand, glorious storyline spanning several periods in Superman’s life, as well as the far future. Then there are the representatives from the magical Fifth […]

Action Comics #15 review

… or Mrs Nyxly Explains It All. There’s an awful lot of exposition this issue, but it’s anything but awful, as Clark Kent’s landlady, recently revealed as an emigree from the Fifth Dimension, gives him the big picture. In a truly fascinating instalment we see Superman on the roof of her building, remembering the confrontation […]

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, […]

Action Comics #11 review

Believing Clark Kent has been getting in the way of his vocation as Superman, the hero has killed off his reporter alter ego and taken on a new role – Metropolis firefighter Johnny Clark. The new guy will keep his distance from colleagues, so there’s little chance of anyone guessing his secret. This issue we […]

Action Comics #8 review

Oh. My. Word. If there’s a page in this week’s comics more likely to make you jump out of your chair than the full-page shot of Superman flying towards the reader, I don’t wish to see it. Here I’ll show you … no, I’m not sure you’re ready. Get a stiff drink, bear with me […]

Action Comics #4 review

Brainiac’s invasion of Metropolis continues, with his computer virus motivating the creation of thousands of ‘Terminauts’ across the globe. But they’re not out to terminate humans, only Superman. The other part of their mission is to preserve – read, ‘steal – Mankind’s treasures. Clark Kent, visiting an industrial plant with Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, […]

Action Comics #3 review

Three months into the Superman relaunch and we get our first look at Krypton, as Jor-El warns Lara to get out of Kandor just in time for her to see it stolen by, presumably, Brainiac. A quarter of a century later, on Earth, Clark Kent dreams of the catastrophe, witnessed by him as a babe-in-arms. […]

Action Comics #1 review

Faster than a speeding bullet! More powerful than a locomotive! Able to leap tall buildings at a single bound! These are the classic lines that have evoked Superman for generations, and all three are referenced in this first issue of Superman’s new beginning. And there’s more. A lot more, as Grant Morrison and Rags Morales […]

Canterbury Cricket #1 review

It’s the world of Flashpoint and in England super-powered resistance fighters Etrigan the Demon, Godiva, Mrs Hyde and Wicked Jinny Greenteeth are in battle with the Amazon invaders. They’re in trouble until a new combatant enters the fray, a man-sized, metallic insect whose chittering sonic boom turns the tide. As they lick their wounds, the […]