Action Comics #8

Brad Walker

The finale of the first Action Comics story arc is finally here and now it's time to decide the fate of Superman as he battle Brainiac in order to stop him in preserving Metropolis to Brainiac's collection.

The first story arc from Grant Morrison have reached it's finale and i have to say this is a very good issue but it has some problems with it. As much as i love Grant Morrison's writing in the past issues what i don't like is the pacing, the battle here is a bit of a mixed bag at some point it feels like a really good movie with choppy editing. It keeps cutting back to Brainiac going back and forth with the same dialogue along with Metallo where out of nowhere he just pops in the last issue for this big battle between Brainiac and Superman. Especially with Lex doing the same dialogue/monologue of him dealing with Brainiac to "save" metropolis where he have already said in the past issue. Throughout the book the battle is kinda intense it's just that there were some confusions here and there. But that's just the start of the confusion, there are also some major confusions with the art in this issue, you have guest artists here (I can't really point out who they are though, but the art styles are familiar at one point) and the ending all of a sudden became a mixed bag of 2 endings, It has Superman being rewarded with the key to the city, and he looks older (He looks a bit like Christopher Reeves at one point). second is pretty much back to Rag Morales' art for the climax of this issue (leads up to the next issue).

Grant Morrison's writing throughout this New 52 for Superman himself is well done, him telling the story of a young Superman/Clark Kent evolving into a real hero from a reckless superhero, there were some things that he put in this issue and it has more depth to Clark Kent's character by the end of the issue and i liked that side of him, It's like Grant Morrison is writing All Star Superman all over again. I also liked the interactions he is having with the people surrounding him, I'm surprised that he puts alot of depth to a character throughout the last few pages of this book. The art is beautiful and all but like i said it is just confusing. From start to finish i liked this book, didn't really love it like i should. There were some problems but in the end it is still a solid ending for the first story arc of Action Comics.

I'd give this comic a 3.5/5