Action Comics #1049
Superman battles the New Gods to keep Osul free as Lex Luthor makes his move in Action Comics #1049, by writer Phillip Kennedy Johnson, artist Mike Perkins, colorist Lee Loughridge, and letterer Dave Sharpe. In the back-up, by Johnson, artist David Lapham, colorist Trish Mulvihill, and Sharpe, Thao-La and Supergirl face Chaytil’s monster. Once again, Johnson and company drop some amazing Superman goodness on readers.
Luthor puts the squeeze on Corben, giving him no choice but to do Lex’s bidding. Meanwhile, at the zoo, Superman fights it out with Kalibak, whose bluster gets him taken down. While Superman and Orion fight, DeSaad takes advantage of Bibbo, Osul, and Otho helping fleeing civilians to try and grab Osul, but the power of Olgrun takes charge and puts him down. Superman comes and talks Osul down before telling the New Gods not to try this again, but Orion tells him this isn’t over. Corben escapes prison, killing a guard he likes. Superman goes to Warworld to say goodbye to the Warzoons and professes his loyalty to them. Lex talks to Manchester Black, who refuses to work with him. Luthor takes him down with the press of a button, another weapon in his arsenal. In the back-up, Supergirl and Thao-La battle Chaytil’s monster, but the damage underground endangers the city. Thao-La sends Supergirl up. Chaytil sasses Thao-La for a while, but she takes him down hard before robbing his monster of its Orphan Box. Weeks later, on Warworld, she watches Chaytil and his chain, knowing that it’s all he has left. She leaves him to his cell, but Chaytil has more than just his chain, and he’s not alone.
Luthor makes big moves in this issue, and it’s a joy to see. It’s been several years since readers have seen Lex working against Superman. The start of Rebirth had him a hero until close to the end, then he was a Justice League villain. To see him back in Action Comics, being his perfect evil self is great. Johnson gets something about Lex that other writers forget. Lex never asks. Lex takes, and if there’s a problem with that, he’s going to make that problem worse than anyone can imagine. Finding out that Manchester Black was working with Luthor at first as a member of the Authority is a shock, as is him denying Lex. Black has changed, which is nice to see because he’s much better as an anti-hero than the stereotypical evil British football hooligan.
As usual, Johnson does an excellent job with Superman. It’s great to see him utterly own the overconfident Kalibak, but it’s even better to see him crouch down next to Osul and talk him down. He gives two brilliant Superman speeches in this issue, which for anyone who loves awesome Superman speeches is a gift from God. Johnson has done such a fantastic job with Superman in these last two years, and there’s no other way around it. The back-up is all about Thao-La beating her fear of Chaytil. The fight against him and the monster is more about that than anything else, just a person beating her demons. Johnson does a nice job with it before dropping a major tease for the future at the end.
Perkins and Loughridge make a beautiful team. Perkins’s art is so powerful; his action scenes are titans clashing, but he captures the little moments just as well. The action looks wonderful, but so does the emotion. He captures what Superman can do and who Superman is. Loughridge’s colors are gorgeous. Warworld jumping to hyperspace is a masterclass in coloring, a three-panel masterpiece of color and form that Loughridge just knocks out of the park. Over in the back-up, Lapham and Mulvihill are just as good. Lapham’s thick linework can’t help but be detailed, and Mulvihill’s bright palette really brings the pencils to life. The two are an incredible art team, and they deserve a chance to be let loose on a main story at some point.
Action Comics #1049 continues this book’s run of excellence. Next issue is the big blow-off to Johnson’s run, and it’ll be amazing to see what comes next. Both stories show off teams at the peak of their powers, giving readers remarkable tales. Action Comics is consistently better than nearly any other superhero book on the market, and that’s all there is to it.