Morrison is bringing in something I thinks he's wanted for a while; combining his literary vision of All-Star Superman with what the ignorant public knows thanks to Smallville. Morrison just might have created the ultimate Superman beginning…one that both old and new fans can enjoy! Read Full Review

Now, we know that Morrison is going for a Golden Age feel here. So will Martha bring Kal to the local orphanage as a 'found' baby only to adopt later (as in the earliest Action Comics origins?) or will she spirit him away to the Kent farm and come up with another explanation for him? I don't know if the former will hold up to the light of current times. But we'll see. Still, much like the Steel story, Fisch does a great job letting us learn a lot about these characters in a short page count. And Cross' art amplifies the words. Read Full Review

Sholly Fisch also wrote a heart warming short story chronicling the trials and tribulations that Jonathan and Martha Kent went through to have a child. The art and writing made you root for them from the moment they said "I do" until the night where their little bundle fell from the sky. It was kind of sad in a way, since they are dead in the new universe, so the only time we are going to see them is during flashback scenes and this is probably the most of them we will see. Read Full Review

I was prepared to be put off by this issue, but it won me over. Outstanding craftsmanship will do it every time. Read Full Review

The era of Superman's new origins that Morrison is tasked with bringing to life is shaping up to be quite good. As a super Superman fan, I have no objection to what Morrison is doing in the long run, albeit with a few exceptions I've discussed at length before. Now if DC Comics could just fix what's going on over in the pages Superman (and "five years" down the road), maybe the Superman Family of books would rise to the top of the reading stack again. It's a position that they held for several years recently, but have been supplanted this year by some of my other favorite mainstream heroes, Wolverine and The X-Men. Read Full Review

This is everything I want comics to be, especially Superman comics. Old fused with new, far out concepts and secret languages. I feel like a kid again, and am foaming at the mouth for the next issue. Read Full Review

Action Comics #5 was another great entry in Grant Morrisons current Superman run. Morrison effectively handled the re-telling of Superman's origin and added more depth to his Superman run. There were a lot of interesting sub-plots introduced in this issue that has me looking forward to what else Morrison has in store for Action Comics. The ending of this issue with the older versions of Superman and the Legion of Superheroes has me looking forward to seeing what Morrison has in store for us in the next issue. Read Full Review

On the surface, "Action Comics" #5 veering away from the title's regular storyline sounds disappointing. But reading this comic, one thing is quickly clear; if you need to postpone a story for a couple of months, "Action Comics" #5 provides an excellent template on how to do so. Read Full Review

Action Comics #5 may well be the point in Morrison's run where the shallow end becomes the deep end. The story is charming, beautiful, and well-layered. Make sure you pick up this issue if you have any intention of knowing what the hell is going on later. Read Full Review

While there is something fantastic in Morrison's cryptic references and unabashed imagination, the feeling of "Oh my gosh! That was so good" does not dwell in these 20 pages. It is clever and interesting, but serves more as disjointed, ambiguous groundwork than an action comic. Read Full Review

A touching back-up feature, a competent (but not inspired) retelling of Superman's origins, and a completely disconnected plotline makes this issue one severely mixed bag. Read Full Review

nyway, most of the issue is dedicated to showing Krypton esplodin'. That's about it. So unless you've enjoyed reading the scientific jargon and every Kryptonian ever saying "Oh, Jor-El, you silly coot!" every other time Superman's origins have been retold, you can mostly skip about 26 of the pages of the entire issue. The parts about the Kents are necessary and respectably done. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the back-up story about the history of Jonathan and Martha Kent, one that goes the extra distance to make their relationship hinge all the more on some 'miracle' that come in the form of a space baby. Why can't the Kents be simple? Why does their life have to include various hints at some biblical connection to something greater? Ugh. It's exhausting. Read Full Review

None of this changes the fact that this simply isn't the comic we need right now, and worse, it's actively part of the problem. It's reinventing the wheel, when what we need is a cradle-shaped rocket to bear new ideas safely away from the imploding mess that is the mainstream superhero genre. Read Full Review

These books aren't doing anything special to hold-off theinevitable death of the comic book industry. In fact, they are speeding up the process. Read Full Review