Review: Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Rise of Metallo trade paperback (DC Comics)

I’m not sure I’ve ever quite glommed to Action Comics being the site of Superman’s action-focused stories, to the exclusion of real plot or story or character development. Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Rise of Metallo is not guilty of all that, though there is assuredly a noticeable amount of punch-em-ups in this story.

I was put in mind here a bit of Kurt Busiek and Geoff Johns' “One Year Later” book Superman: Up, Up, and Away while reading Metallo. That is, we’re in the wake of a major “Crisis,” and while continuity hasn’t changed, obviously we’ve taken a step forward in time — that the whole extended Super-family seems to be working out of Metropolis now, complete with matching costumes; John Henry and Natasha Irons' new prominent business venture; Metropolis' rampant anti-alien sentiment. To a greater extent I was good with these developments without explanation; to a lesser extent, a few things didn’t wholly make sense to me that I thought the book could have explained in lieu of some of the aforementioned action, though it’s equally possible some of this is over in the Superman title.

Kudos to Johnson for wringing some unexpected emotion out of the story, and at unexpected times. His Superman is certainly “super” in the inspirational sense, and if some of these beats are the same as we saw in the Warworld Saga, I thought Johnson presented them more clearly and believably here. There’s also a nice mystery within — things are not exactly what they seem — though I fear some of the characters who appear have outlived their usefulness.

[Review contains spoilers]

There’s assuredly a thrill to seeing this newest iteration of the Super-family all costumed up together. In the post-Crisis era on down, Superman has never had the heroic “family” that the Batman franchise has, Superman’s first Superboy sidekick being contemporary to Batman’s third Robin and so on.

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Of late things have been even harder to square, with the new young Superboy Jon Kent becoming the new adult Superman Jon Kent, even with both Superman and Superboy Conner Kent still around. Comics fans are predisposed to want their spines to match, and so to have Conner, Jon, New Super-Man Kong Kenan, Supergirl, even Steel Natasha Irons suited up in matching duds feels like squaring up and formalizing things that have maybe been loose a smidgen too long.

At the same time, as far as we can tell from Metallo’s narrative, it seems like at least Clark, Lois, four of the young adults, plus the two “Super-Twins” from Warworld and Krypto the Super-Dog all live or at least hang out a lot in Lois and Clark’s seemingly impossibly large apartment. Y’know, I’m sure it beats sleeping on the cold floor of the Fortress of Solitude, but I still thought we could use a little more detail, lest we believe the whole crew just sits watching TV on the Kents' couch (or stands awkwardly behind it) until an emergency calls for their attention. (Most of the Super-family I thought Johnson had right, though his Kenan is more bloodthirsty than the wise-cracking hero of Gene Luen Yang’s New Super-Man book.)

Lois and Clark announce they’re adopting Super-Twins Otho and Osul, and I thought Johnson did well presenting Jon Kent’s misgivings about it. I’m glad none of the Super-writers have brushed the hard circumstances of Jon’s aging under the rug; here, Johnson tackles the tricky circumstance that Clark and Lois can to an extent regain what they lost with Jon’s aging by adopting young children, while Jon can’t particularly de-age himself to grow up again under his parents' roof. Clark is well meaning but ignorant of his son’s feelings; you hate to see it, but I appreciate that Johnson was willing to let Clark not be completely perfect and to preserve the awkwardness in this relationship.

After the Super-family battles Metallo and his mechanical minions for a while, we come to find the real culprit here is the Cyborg Superman. That’s sensible, of course — I’m thinking of the lean old days when the Cyborg Superman was paired with Toyman roundabouts Superman Blue, and we all know how that turned out. The “tech-ed up” Metallo is a better fit, though then again, it’s Cyborg Superman; his cameo in Dark Crisis was exciting because it was unexpected and he’s rarely looked scarier than under Daniel Sampere’s pen, but here it’s just Cyborg Superman, ranting and raving again. As happens, Cyborg Superman’s “Reign of the Supermen” debut was so powerful, most things since have diluted the appeal. (See also Doomsday.)

More surprising here was Johnson also bringing back the Eradicator in his original “Reign” form, and I hope this isn’t the last we see of him. At the same time, between Superboy, Steel, Cyborg Superman, and the Eradicator, letting alone a straightaway flashback to “Reign,” and it feels a bit like Johnson’s resting on an applause line. Trouble is, regrettably, the bench of the post-Crisis Superman mythos isn’t that deep and the applause line is always a “Death/Return” reference, and so it all seems a bit more obvious than I think Johnson intends.

Then again, there’s a “Hellgrammite” joke in here, so Johnson certainly retains the benefit of the doubt.

Superman, it should hardly bear reminding, is the world’s most powerful immigrant, the child sent to our planet — and, indeed, Kansas, USA — in search of a better life. Johnson’s metaphor here is sharp and clever, setting his story in a Metropolis rocked by organized “anti-alien” sentiment, no less than we might see on the evening news. Part of me finds it all uncouth — surely that’s not how they act in grand old Metropolis — but that too may be just as much a sign of the times as all else.

Phillip Kennedy Johnson has Superman sneaking through walls to visit Lex Luthor in prison in Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Rise of Metallo, though why wouldn’t Superman just ask the warden to let him visit, versus how Batman would do it? There’s missteps here, but also grace, as when Superman shows mercy to Metallo despite his crimes; as on Warworld, Johnson continues to have a Superman who sees the good in all and there’s plenty examples among these pages. I sense the “Dawn of DC” Superman title is going to be more my speed than Action Comics, but still, exciting times for the Man of Steel overall.

[Includes original covers, costume designs]

Rating 2.25