Story By
Grant Morrison
Art By
Rags Morales & Rick Bryant
Colors By
Brad Anderson
Letters By
Patrick Brosseau
Covers By
Rags Morales & Brad Anderson (standard) Jim Lee, Scott Williams, Alex Sinclair (Variants)
Publisher
DC Comics
It’s a brand new Metropolis and a young and reckless Clark Kent is determined to bring his own brand of justice to the criminal element of the City of Tomorrow. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor, the Metropolis P.D., and the Military lay a trap for Superman.
Seeming to take place at an earlier point in time than the events of Justice League #1, Action Comics #1 follows a young and slightly under-powered Clark Kent as he kicks all sorts of bad guy butt with wild abandon. Young Clark is more akin to Peter Parker in this book than the stalwart, tried and true hero he will become; he’s brash and a little irresponsible as he cracks jokes and tosses baddies around with little regard for their safety. He can take a lot of punishment, but isn’t totally invincible yet and there were a couple panels where Rags Morales had me cringing with the abuse his illustrations dealt the young Kryptonian.
With Action Comics #1 readers finally get their world turned upside down with The New 52. Grant Morrison handles the introductions of different characters and their relationships to each other cleanly, without interrupting the action too terribly or bogging us down with pointless dialogue. Luthor’s conflict with our hero is quickly addressed and then laid aside to get us back to the action. The book covers all of its narrative bases, clearly and quickly. That’s saying a lot for a book that is set to the break-neck pace of Clark running a gauntlet through Metropolis, fighting the army, the police, and anyone else who tries to subdue him.
Morales’ art easily keeps pace with our wrecking-ball hero, conveying the fast paced action while maintaining a sense of Silver Age nostalgia to the whole affair. This is SUPERMAN after all. No matter what changes he undergoes, there’s some responsibility to that character that transcends what The New 52 is all about. Morales does a fine job of paying Supes his due tribute without without distracting from what’s going on: which is Superman tearing sh!t up and having fun doing it.
It’s a new Clark Kent and a new Metropolis, but that’s not a bad thing. The character is still in the spirit of his epic origins, just rougher around the edges. So far I’ve read two solid beginnings to The New 52, and I can’t wait to dig into more.
I give Action Comics #1 Five out of Five Stars.
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