Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Colorist: Matt Kerms
Cover Artist: Dan Mora
Publisher: DC Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
It’s the dawn of a new era. Superman is back on Earth and has reunited with his good friends and family. Together with his family and allies, Superman intends to help change Metropolis into more of a city of Tomorrow. But Lex Luthor has already set in motion a force to topple those plans: Metallo. See what the future has in store for Superman and his family in Action Comics #1051.
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Review:
This comic is a bit of a mixed bag for this reviewer. On the one hand, it’s supposed to be the big start of a “new era for Superman” but it feels like more of the same in more ways than one. It also doesn’t help that plenty of readers might have a bit of a bad aftertaste due to the events of the last issue. Despite that, the comic isn’t poorly written nor is it bad in the slightest. It’s a nice Superman comic that is embracing all the best parts of Superman and his sphere of things to deliver a cool Superman story. Fair warning: this comic will have spoilers throughout the review.
Let’s start from the beginning. The comic starts off fairly well with some narration from Lois Lane highlighting how Superman’s presence, his very existence, changed the course of Metropolis forever and this extends to his “Super family.” We see crowds of people protesting against each other with some individuals ready to go at it and do some damage to the others. But Superman and his Super family are there to keep anyone from harming each other.
One thing I’ll say is that this comic doesn’t feel like a “Super-sized issue” at all. It’s more like it’s a regular comic with just 2 backup stories added on, with the first being enjoyable while the second was boring and uninteresting. The main story highlights the wholesome spirit of Superman and his family as we see them have genuinely fun interactions between each other just hanging out at Supes’ place. It also does a good job of laying out how Superman and the Super family plan to be a force for good and change in Metropolis and hopefully the world. But the changes proposed in the comic are too grand for any longtime fan to believe they’ll ever come to fruition in the DC setting in any feasible way. At least not before some supervillains come in, blow stuff up, use the “changes” for evil, and dash everyone’s hopes away. Again, just more of the same.
Phillip Kennedy Johnson really nails it with the writing and dialogue of everyone in this comic as we see Superman, Lois, Jon, Connor, Kenan, and the Warworlds kids have a nice family dynamic. This is greatly helped by Rafa Sandoval’s art with their expressions, body language, and the dynamic action when the story really kicks in. The only drawback is that Kara and the Steels kinda fall to the background and barely have anything to do in this comic until the second half of it.
However, it’s just great to see the whole Super family actually together in a Superman title since it seemed like too many comic writers were allergic to having Superman interact with any of them in his own titles for years. Of course, Power Girl’s not in the main story, which is a huge disappointment. Maybe she’ll show up in the main story later, but I’m not holding my breath. One thing readers old and new won’t have to worry about is getting up to date on previous stories, other than what happened in the Warworld Saga to explain the new Super Twins. The comic just has a good jumping on point feel to it and fills in readers on what’s significant to the plot going forward.
It doesn’t take long before Metallo makes his move and Sandoval’s artwork really shows when he and the Super family are in action. Admittedly, there’s no big fight in this comic but what we get is action and the beginning of the showdown between Superman and Metallo. Hopefully Johnson follows through on making Metallo and genuinely formidable supervillain to be reckoned with considering he’ll have his hands full with the whole Super family against him. I expect Lex Luthor upgraded him to give them a run for their money. But we’ll see in the next issue.
Final Thoughts:
Action Comics #1051 kicks off a brand new story arc for Superman and his Super family while Metallo finally makes his move. The best part of this comic has to be the family dynamic and wholesome interactions with the Super family thanks to the writing and artwork. Having the opportunity to have most of the Super family together in a comic is exciting, but it’s best not to get one’s hopes up since it’s only the first issue of a new arc. Going by how this issue ends, readers can definitely look forward to getting more action with Superman and the rest in the next issue.