The New 52 Review: Action Comics #1

Now this is more like it. After the somewhat underwhelming first issue of Justice League, Grant Morrison delivers an excellent first issue in an all new start for Superman. This is a character that despite epitomising the very essence of superhero just never captured a great deal of comic book fan's attention. And I must admit I'm one of them. Superman always seemed so dull to me.

But Grant Morrison embraces the challenge of The New 52 and brings us the best version of Superman yet.
Finally Superman is interesting. Instead of focusing on humanizing superman, Morrison hones in on the alien aspect of the story, and in turn succeeds in making Superman unpredictable and fascinating. What we see here is an alien visitor trying to be heroic but at the same time showing more than a little anger, resilience and righteousness.

Oh No! Superman is a Commie robot from outerspace! 

As Superman goes about his vigilante business, his path crosses with that of a couple of other characters who will feature in this series; Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen and of course Lex Luthor. It's hard to write Luthor badly, and Morrison gets him just right. Immediately Lex is on the case of Superman, determined that he is a dangerous alien who must be stopped and at any cost. Yep, it's on between Supes and Luthor.

The alter ego in this story is Clark Kent, seemingly bottling up the rage inside of Superman and going about his mild-mannered business in a mild-mannered way. I'm not sure how Morrison has in mind for the Superman/Clark Kent aspect but it will be interesting. Morrison is a master and this is a brilliant way to start things off.

Clark Kent or Harry Potter turned bum.

The artwork is brilliant. Morales is such a classic artist, his work is so crisp and gorgeous to look at, and his pacing and story-telling skills are second-to-none. It complements the story and even enhances it. Beautiful work.

This is such a great first issue, I can't wait for the next one.