- Action Comics #893, by Paul Cornell, Sean Chen & Wayne Faucher, and Nick Spencer & RB Silva (DC)
- First Wave #4 of 6, by Brian Azzarello, Rags Morales & Rick Bryant (DC)
- Justice Society of America #43, by James Robinson, Jesus Merino & Jesse Delperdang (DC)
- Time Masters: Vanishing Point #3 of 6, by Dan Jurgens & Norm Rapmund (DC)
- Wonder Woman #603, by J. Michael Straczynski, Don Kramer, Eduardo Pansica, Allan Goldman, Jay Leisten & Scott Koblish (DC)
- Captain America #610, by Ed Brubaker, Butch Guice & Rick Magyar (Marvel)
- Casanova #3, by Matt Fraction & Gabriel Bá (Marvel/Icon)
- Powers #6, by Brian Michael Bendis & Michael Avon Oeming (Marvel/Icon)
- Chew #14, by John Layman & Rob Guillory (Image)
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In Action Comics Lex Luthor outthinks Gorilla Grodd, but later events set up next issue’s much-heralded story with Death from Sandman appearing in the DC Universe. Of more significance (to my mind) is that the fill-in artist is Sean Chen, whose work I’ve enjoyed ever since he illustrated Kurt Busiek’s Iron Man series a decade ago. Unfortunately he hasn’t regularly drawn a comic since then, so we only see him for a few issues at a time.
The back-up story has gotten some advance press because it introduces Chloe Sullivan (from Smallville) into the DCU, as a rather grumpy ex-girlfriend of Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy’s now being portrayed as something of a slacker, compared to more successful members of his generation, and his friendship with Superman being a bit overblown. It’s rather the opposite of what Grant Morrison did with the character in All-Star Superman, and though I give Morrison a hard time these days, I much prefer his take on Olsen. So the story is actually rather depressing, and the sudden reverse at the end (in which Jimmy seems a bit more heroic, albeit contingent on him actually doing something) just makes it seem ridiculous on top of that. One wonders what the point of this exercise is – I’d rather see Cornell write a companion story to the lead, as I’m sure he’s got plenty of ideas in his head. But this Olson story is not really much fun, so why bother? |