Action Comics #898

 At the near end of Luthor’s quest within Action Comics and this time Cornell takes us to an overdue rematch between both Lex Luthor and Orange Lantern Larfleeze. If you missed how these two villains managed to come at each other’s throats, well it all started at the very end of Blackest Night where Luthor was selected as an Orange Lantern. Larfleeze, who’s the selfish kind just couldn’t share that power and that’s exactly how these two first went at it. With Luthor de-powered and Larfleeze continuing on hounding the criminal mastermind before this Black Ring quest, it was bound that a full-blown fighting encounter was to happen and so it did within this very issue.

There’s something about Cornell’s storytelling that I find very unique, how it’s somewhat disguised as being a fan-steered event with the gauntlet of characters that Luthor has encountered or faced. Even though these encounters with the likes of Deathstroke, Joker, Gorilla Grodd, and Larfleeze are just build-ups and key points for Luthor’s quest on obtaining his desired power and for that Action Comics 900 issue that’s coming up soon. However, even though I truly like how Cornell is displaying his unique form of storytelling, these encounters that Luthor goes through aren’t connected within a continuous way, but taken as certain points within the storytelling that instantly takes you from one scene completely to another with so little connection between each issue. One thing that I love most about a comic is the flow of the storytelling, but with the Black Ring here, there’s hardly any balance seeing how your mostly looking at thirty minutes into Luthor’s quest during one comic and one or two days later looking into another thirty minutes. It’s mostly just the highlights that are being seen within the Black Ring storyline and there’s a lack of proper connection from point A all the way to point B between each issue.

Aside from that, I personally love this issue as I found Luthor’s encounter with Larfleeze a success and very supporting within the storyline. Yes both villains do give you a full rematch and this time there’s somewhat a victor between the two. But what I also enjoy about this encounter was how Luthor easily has an advantage over Larfleeze because of his extremely greedy personality. Basically the connection that Luthor has with Larfleeze is a major interest within this issue and even very supportive with Luthor’s quest.

This issue does properly give a well-deserved moment with both Lex Luthor and Larfleeze that really has defined more of Lex Luthor’s character and his continued quest with the Black Ring power. With two more issues to go and the Black Ring now taking us to another character within Luthor’s life that might be one of his greatest challenges of all time, this issue is highly recommended. Both writer and artist is still bringing out the best within this continuing event that just about any fan shouldn’t find themselves missing out on.