Follow

    Action Comics

    Volume »

    Volume 2 (New 52)

    Action Comics #22

    Avatar image for inferiorego
    inferiorego

    25752

    Forum Posts

    28300

    Wiki Points

    170050

    Followers

    Reviews: 324

    User Lists: 12

    Edited By inferiorego  Staff

    The Good

    Hector Hammond contacts Superman, who is posing as Clark Kent at a movie premiere with Cat Grant, to help him with a menace in space, which is too big for Hector and his gigantic head to handle.

    Give a big round of applause for artist Tyler Kirkham here. He does a fantastic job on this issue. There's some amazing detail within these pages. There's a great splash page of Superman flying out of Earth, to reach Hammond in space, that just looks awesome. It has a great sense of perspective and the background, of the Earth with the Sun starting to peak out, looks great.

    In addition, I really like what Kirkham does with Superman's face here. He looks younger. So many of us are used to an older, more stoic looking Superman, and Kirkham draws him how I see him in the New 52, a person in his early-twenties.

    Writer Scott Lobdell has got me interested in Superman again, but it's mostly through his work on the actual SUPERMAN book. Hammond transitions well over to this book. I became very intrigued with some of the smaller pieces in this issue like Clark and Cat at the movie premiere and what Clark finds out there more than anything else. I'm sure, at some point, these two things will connect to one another.

    Spoiler tag time... Back-up stories are a mixed bag sometimes, but I thought this one was solid. What truly won me over was the reveal page, which "revealed" a reboot to Eradicator. He has a completely new design, and no longer is he wearing those ridiculous sunglasses... Actually, wait...I kinda liked those. I like how the back-up is adding to the world of Superman by telling stories from different perspectives and not just a quicky back-up featuring Superman.

    The Bad

    I like Hector Hammond, and I like Hector Hammond as a part of this book, but the look on his face, on the first page of this book was pretty weird. I know he's supposed to be in awe of what he was looking at, but it looked a bit weird, almost silly. Maybe it's because this character is simply a giant head on a normal sized body, but this character showing emotion like that seemed a bit out of place. Hammond, to me, works best as almost catatonic.

    Pax Galactica wasn't that interesting to me. I found some of the other sub-plots in this book, as well as Hammond and Superman teaming up to be incredibly interesting, and tough aliens traveling around for galactic peace wasn't my favorite part of the issue.

    The Verdict

    ACTION COMICS #22 is a pretty good issue. Nothing really blew me away here. Lobdell's work is much stronger on SUPERMAN, but I have a feeling this issue was put together a bit quicker than usual since the creative team changed. Kirkham's art is really the stand-out here, and I found myself really enjoying the brief moments we had of Clark Kent being an average, everyday person. I wasn't into the Pax Galactica, although I really enjoyed the Battlestar Galactica reference thrown in at the end.

    Overall, I give this book a mild recommendation.

    Avatar image for the_mouse
    The_Mouse

    20

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #2  Edited By The_Mouse

    it would be nice to get an actual superman villain in a superman book. im happy that they are trying new things but honestly, with man of steel out now you would hope that DC would try to have a massive event in the two main superman titles.

    Avatar image for madeinbangladesh
    MadeinBangladesh

    12494

    Forum Posts

    53

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 59

    User Lists: 172

    Can't wait until Greg Pak takes over!

    Avatar image for hawkguy
    Hawkguy

    625

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #4  Edited By Hawkguy

    Yup....

    @madeinbangladesh said:

    Can't wait until Greg Pak takes over!

    I liked how down to earth Action Comics always felt, I think it should stay that way. From what I've seen Superman has been a title that leans towards space, which isn't my style, but seems to be Lobdell's. I'm not a fan of seeing it translate to this title as well.

    Avatar image for dernman
    dernman

    35969

    Forum Posts

    10092

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 9

    Wait so Eradicator is taking the place of Zod basically? :/

    Avatar image for angelo2113
    Angelo2113

    47

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    #7  Edited By Angelo2113
    @dernman said:

    Wait so Eradicator is taking the place of Zod basically? :/

    I'm honestly not sure. I know Greg Pak, who's taking over Action Comics in a few months, is writing a Zod Forever Evil one-shot in September. I got the impression that the back-up character was Zod and that he's working for The Eradicator, hence the ring he was wearing.

    Avatar image for silentjay12345
    silentjay12345

    2

    Forum Posts

    0

    Wiki Points

    0

    Followers

    Reviews: 0

    User Lists: 0

    Hey, did anybody notice when Supes mentions the mental block that Orion enabled on him. Well, that happened "later" in Superman #20 - Wham!

    This edit will also create new pages on Comic Vine for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Comic Vine users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.