Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s first volume in his “Warworld Saga” was dynamic and exciting, an auspicious launch for the new Action Comics writer. But perhaps the accolades heaped on “Warworld Saga” have led me to have too high expectations, because while Superman: Action Comics Vol. 2: The Arena is perfectly workable — certainly better than when the Super-titles have not been good — it’s a low point in the Warworld “trilogy” that I hope can only get better from here.
Johnson assuredly shines in the Warworld world-building, giving depth to the vaunted planet that we’ve never seen before. But in telling a story that turns on Superman changing hearts and minds through passive resistance — noble and important as that is — Johnson struggles to dramatize the proceedings or to present much we haven’t seen before; a few confusing time jumps don’t help matters. As well, while I appreciate DC including some of the Action Comics backup stories in this volume, neither was quite ready for prime-time, contributing to the sense of Arena’s quality dip after Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Warworld Rising.
[Review contains spoilers]
Venturing to a gladiatorial planet, Superman brings a group of borderline anti-heroes and expects them not to be violent. Further, Superman embarks on this dangerous mission with untested allies even though, we learn, he himself is ailing and has been for a while.
[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]
As opposed to Superman’s leadership and decisiveness in Warworld Rising, Arena feels like Superman making a series of bad choices of which we’d think he would have known better. I can’t say if that disconnect comes from Johnson having to reconcile things like Superman’s white hair from Superman and the Authority (which he could have easily just ignored) or what, but from early on Superman’s foolhardiness made it hard for me to see this, as some have said, among the greatest Superman stories ever.
Though the conflict between Superman and Midnighter feels manufactured — of course Midnighter was going to want to kill people and of course Superman wouldn’t want him to — I’m curious where Johnson will go with it, and hopeful it’ll be more nuanced than Superman being right and Midnighter being wrong. I thought there was a particularly interesting juxtaposition in Midnighter’s dedicated chapter where one of Warworld’s slaves admonishes another to follow Superman’s example and not kill their captor — and then Midnighter comes along and rips their captor’s head off. Among the Warworlders, Superman gains traction, but among his own allies, he does not — nor ultimately can Superman even succeed without his allies murdering their enemies behind his back — and I hope that’s not an incidental point but rather something Johnson plans to look at.
Upon arriving on Warworld, in the heroes' first battle with Mongul, Midnighter slips away between panels, randomly appearing and disappearing again until that spotlight issue (with art, notably, by Dale Eaglesham). Flipping back and forth, I’m satisfied the nonlinear timeline of the book lines up, but it does indeed take some flipping back and forth. I knew there was an uncollected Midnighter annual out there and wondered if some of what I felt like I was missing might be in the Action Comics Midnighter backup stories, but I believe I understand those all take place prior to everyone’s departure to Warworld.
Again, I don’t mean to discount the message that Johnson offers here via Superman, and indeed I think Johnson espouses some of Superman’s philosophies better than I’ve seen — that the Warworlders' lives don’t mean more to Superman than his allies, “but not less,” either; that heroism isn’t “doing what’s right only when we’re stronger than our enemies.” But much of the change that Superman effects among the Kryptonian-offshoot Phaelosians comes in the span of about a page toward the end of the book; meanwhile we’re told Superman fights in Warworld’s arenas, but the book jumps from his first day all the way to his 30th.
How does he manage to fight in the arena without being killed or dying? Were there any close calls? What if anything does he learn about the mysterious Phaelosians in a month of living with them?1 Johnson spends some of that page count delving into Warworld’s culture and rituals (drawn with mystical gusto by Riccardo Federici), which is certainly interesting, but it seemed to me that more of the day to day might have been useful.
I appreciate that DC includes the Action Comics backup stories of the time, though they don’t particularly do Arena any favors (nor do they actually discernably take place during Superman’s absence). Sean Lewis' Guardian story tries too hard at maturity, with the same expletive twice in two pages and suggested violence that I’m surprised DC let through, as well as pseudo-science that’s implausible even for comics. Shawn Aldridge and Adriana Melo’s six-part Martian Manhunter story gets high marks for digging into J’onn’s past-continuity adventures2, though writing and art are clumsy at times — kids are targeted by the villains while hanging out in “sub-forums,” another bad guy has a full conversation while falling from the sky, and a supposed car accident just looks like two cars driving near each other.
“Warworld Saga” has received a lot of praise, even a quickly released omnibus, and I’m sure there’s something to that. Superman: Action Comics Vol. 2: The Arena is assuredly good Superman and I’m enthused for Phillip Kennedy Johnson’s run, but just how good Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Warworld Rising was set the bar pretty high. I’m hopeful for a return to the previous from next time around.
[Includes original and variant covers, character designs and sketches]
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