What better way to ring in the Easter holiday than to discuss the completion of the modern reinvention of America’s favorite non-religious messianic figure? What started 8 months ago as a fresh look at Superman’s roots has turned into one of the most thorough reconstructions of the character and his surrounding myths to appear in recent years. This, truly, is a Superman who is vital and relevant to the 21st century. Who is not out of place using modern speech and technology, and most importantly, has shifted his focus subtly to deal with today’s issues. Don’t believe me? Let’s take a look.
Issue # 1 had him recklessly taking a ruthless land baron down a few pegs. While this type of story wouldn’t have been completely out of place in 1938, as was regularly pointed out upon the issue’s premiere, the specifics lend themselves well to today’s world of rampant unemployment, and the centralized efficiency that is costing more jobs, and widening the class gap every day. The second mini-arc had him dealing with a xenophobic government and populace. Now, this is a story that fits in almost any reimagining of the character, as mankind will always be willfully ignorant of anything that doesn’t fit inside its worldview. However, that doesn’t make it any less striking – an easy allegory can be drawn between the sign-carriers and naysayers of this tale, and the much-publicized hate-practitioners of the WBC. Then we have the final part of the arc, in which we’re reacquainted with Braniac, now himself remade into the ultimate hoarder, who must be forcibly coaxed into letting go of his cherished but useless collection by Superman, whose decluttering philosophy is painted as quite obviously in the right. The image of Superman’s “intervention” for Braniac, though not explicitly stated as such, is still quite troubling for me as a retailer, and as a collector. Like anyone with a strong emotional investment in something, I don’t want my collection of physical comics to become obsolete, nor do I want my business selling those comics to do so – and yet its easy to look at Braniac’s final scenes as a wholesale endorsement on Grant Morrison’s part of the digital media revolution that’s slowly but surely taking away all the physical artifacts that remind us of who we all really are.
But I digress. Taken as a pure superhero story, without pausing to consider the subtext, Action Comics # 8 is fantastic. As has every issue thus far before it, it readily delivers on its title, providing motion and action in almost every scene. I would describe Grant Morrison’s writing as many things, but before this book, “kinetic” would not have been one of them. Rags Morales’ almost-realistic, yet still exaggerated art style has fit these stories to a tee. In fact, I would go so far as to say that in all 52 books of their relaunch, DC didn’t find a more perfect writer/artist pairing than these two, on this project. Its slam-bang superheroic fun, and every comic fan owes it to themselves to be picking it up. Given a choice, though, I’d still rather you do so the old-fashioned way.
As published on examiner.com
http://www.examiner.com/dc-comics-in-dallas/michael-seigler
