Action Comics 1
Reviewed by Will Morgan 14-Sep-11
… Best of all, it avoids Morrison’s two greatest faults – weak piddle-away endings that don’t match the strength of his opening concepts, and a propensity for being up himself to an extent, well, usually seen only on very specialist websites…
WORKING CLASS HERO
After the virtually content-free Justice League and the constipated clusterfuck of Hawk and Dove, it’s nice to be able to say something positive about one of DC’s New 52.
With Action Comics, Morrison has gone back to Superman’s social and political origins. This Superman is very much a hero of the proletariat, opposing not just bog-standard evil-doers, but corrupt cops, dishonest politicians, and avaricious business conglomerates.
When the first Action Comics 1 debuted, in 1938, America was still reeling from the Great Depression; the majority of people in the USA still lived perilously close to the poverty line, with a tiny minority flaunting their wealth and power, claiming that the suffering of others was neither their fault nor their concern – and how times have changed, right? Enter Superman, champion of the common man, defender of the dispossessed and oppressed from beaten wives to screwed-over employees, terrorising the complacent “elite”.
Over subsequent decades, that message became blunted, then lost, as Superman integrated more with mainstream middle-America, his outrage drained and his compassion channeled into anodyne do-gooderness.
But here, Morrison spells it out to the fat cats: “Treat people right, or expect a visit from me.”
Even the much-derided costume change (these are Supes’ early days, not the slicker version we’ve glimpsed briefly in Justice League and Swamp Thing) is appropriate in context; it looks rough, thrown-together, hand-made by someone with higher priorities than ‘branding’.
The usual players are in place – Lois, Jimmy, Luthor – but with a patina of freshness (Lois and Clark working for rival newspapers) the narrative is coherent and compelling, and Rags Morales’ artwork is stunning, enlivening even the ‘talking-heads’ scenes with vitality and depth.
Best of all, it avoids Morrison’s two greatest faults – weak piddle-away endings that don’t match the strength of his opening concepts, and a propensity for being up himself to an extent, well, usually seen only on very specialist websites.
There’s ample time ahead for Morrison to introduce all his usual tangled conspiracy-theory bollocks, if he must; but I’m hoping he’ll restrain himself. Because frankly, this non-mainstream Superman is not only the strongest offering of the new DCU by a very long way, but a distinctive and largely unheard message, in comics and in wider society, and I’d like it to remain so.
Tags: DC, Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, Superman, The New 52
A favourable review and I agree with the sentiments expressed. Action Comics # 1 in this single issue has gone a long way to assuage my sense of betrayal by DC. Perhaps there is hope after all for the reboot – well, to some extent. Let’s not get carried away. There are still some disturbing reads out there, such as Barbara Gorden’s return as Batgirl. I was so hoping this would work but has left me feeling quite nauseous. There is something not quite right about it – we should all be so fortunate to have disability and long term illness brushed aside by a “miracle” happening. It’s disrespectful on so many levels.
I don’t always get on with Morrison’s work to be honest, but this has been a beautiful re-imagining of the fifties Superman. Morales’ art has been so evocative of this, but with hints of the futuristic glory to come for Metropolis via the high-speed elevated tube train.
The only significant change seems to be that Jimmy and Clark now appear to be near enough the same age, working as young journalists for rival newspapers, and not the older mentor – younger cub reporter relationship that characterised the former incarnation.
The glasses as disguise still seem to be the order of the day for Clark, which has always been a bit silly, and doesn’t speak much for the intelligence of the people around him. However, I wouldn’t have it any other way as it’s now embedded in the mythos. To be fair though, Morales & Bryant’s rendition of Clark in the later pages with specs and striped hoody t-shirt looks very different from the slick haired Superman.
The most endearing part for me was the residents of Metropolis standing in front of the tanks as human shields to protect their street champion. As the saying goes ‘the people united can never be defeated’ – well, mussed up a little perhaps, as we’ve seen in Libya.
Now then…………reboot Superboy and Supergirl? I can’t even bear to look in that direction, let alone anything else. Sorry guys.
The more I’ve heard about this new 52 launch,
the more I’ve been against it. Before this the only DC titles before this that I bought were Action Comics and Jonah Hex. Action was because Cornell was writing it, although that
seemed to go downhill fast as soon as Superman reclaimed the title; so, not being a fan of Grant Morrison, I kept Action on my monthly order, anticipating I would ditch it after #1, but was very pleasantly surprised by how good it was and so will stick with it for a while longer. This is a “low key” Superman, who can leap tall buildings rather than fly, and he can bleed. Of course you can spot Luthor straight away, before he is formally introduced, on the basis that he’s the bald person in a suit (it if were a Marvel relaunch, you would instantly recognise the bald person in a wheelchair).
This is effectively going back to the basics of Superman from the initial Action Comics stories of the Golden Age. It will be
interesting to see whether this incarnation becomes the friend of the Unions against big (bad) bosses, or whether that would be too
radical a departure from the Republican voter that he is more closely recognised as.
Mind you, if they were really going back to basics then Luthor would be sporting a full crop of red hair !
However I notice that DC are no longer “draw[ing] the line at $2.99”. That didn’t last long, did it ???
The jury is still out on the Hex replacement, as it hasn’t come out yet.
Now that I know Liefield is working on Hawk and Dove, I can fully understand why Will was so against it on his Facebook page.