Action Comics #900

The anniversary issue is here! 96 pages of pure Super-goodness! This issue is the last part of the Black Ring story line and connects to the Reign of Doomsday story line. It features back-up stories from some of DC's top talent!

The Good

96 pages of madness! Holy moly! First things first, great tie-up to one of my favorite Action Comics stories of all time, The Black Ring. The art changes up depending on who the story focuses on, like when Lex and Supes are talking about  Pa Kent dying and Gary Frank, who drew the Brainiac story line. Usually, I don't like when stories do this, but it works in Action comics for me, since I'm familiar with all the artists attached to these story lines. It's an epic meeting of minds at the end of the main story, and while I am disappointed with how it ended, I really enjoyed it. Plus, DEATH! 

Now, time for the back ups I loved. Life Support by writer Damon Lindelof and artist Ryan Sook is a beautiful 10 pages story that takes place days before Krypton explodes, and while it is just two men talking, there is a great deal of emotion in this piece, and it's my favorite back-up of the whole lot. I'd pay $2.99 just for this 10 page story. It's THAT good.

Geoff Johns and Gary Frank come back together to do a little fun four pager entitled Friday Night in the 21st Century. It's cute, and has a bit of an uplifting feeling, since, up to that point, the book was a bit more depressing, in a good way. It's great to see these guys working together again.

The Incident is the second to last of the five back up stories, and I'm down the middle on this one. It was written by David Goyer and drawn by Miguel Supulveda. I wasn't the biggest fan of the art, but I enjoyed the story of Superman's peaceful protest in a nation being torn apart by revolution. It was contemporary and a thought provoking read.

The Bad

I haven't been following the Doomsday story line closely, simply because I'm not too into it and the tie-in between Doomsday and Black Ring seemed very forced. I just don't care for this Doomsday business.

I really didn't like the back-up Autobiography by Paul Dini and RB Silva. Aside from that, there was a back-up of a script written by Richard Donner complete with storyboards, and while the concept was cool, I just lost interest because almost everything else compared to it was so great.

The Verdict

Anniversary issues can fall flat, and most of the time, they do; however, this is by far the best anniversary/milestone issue I have ever read. While I may have not enjoyed the Doomsday tie-in, this issue not only had a great conclusion to the Black Ring story line, which is one of my favorite Action Comics arcs, but the back up stories were just as good. Yes, the book costs $5.99, but it is worth every penny. So don't buy this because it's a milestone issue, buy it because it's an amazing "96 page spectacular." That tag couldn't be any more right. I highly recommend this issue!