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One of the biggest battles in Superman history tears through Metropolis as the super-villain team-up of Lex Luthor, the Legion of Doom, and Leviathan come to change Superman's city forever! The blockbuster creative team of writer Brian Michael Bendis and artists John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson create a Superman epic for the ages-as the Man of Steel deals with the public disclosure of his secret identity!
This issue is a better backstory than Action Comics #1018 as it brought Leviathan into the fold where he first became a name in the DC Universe. Whatever his plans may be, and how much of Metropolis will be left standing, is going to keep this book very interesting for the foreseeable future. Read Full Review
Bendis is terrific at crafting these kinds of plots within the plot, as the obvious plan ends up being not so obvious, after all. Add in terrific art by John Romita, Jr. and Klaus Janson, and it's a cracking good tale. Read Full Review
Does Leviathan really want Superman dead? Or is he playing Lex for some reason? If anything, this read like an epilogue to Event Leviathan. We got the reveal of Mark Shaw and then ... poof ... it was over. Now we get to see how he inculcates himself into the DCU proper. Starting out on Lex's level is a show of respect. Amazing. Read Full Review
Action Comics #1019 picks up on the momentum that the last few issues started. Everything seems to be coming together and I am looking forward to see how it all plays out. If you have been following the series this far then I recommend grabbing a copy at your local comic book shop or where ever you get your comics. Read Full Review
It feels like the two Superman books under Brian Michael Bendis have switched position in the last few months. While Superman is taking on the challenging identity storyline, Action Comics is still stuck in the past era dealing with various subplots. That's not to say Action Comics #1019 is not well-written, but it's definitely lost some of its momentum. Read Full Review
Action Comics #1019 starts like it's going to be another cliche Bendis comic- a bunch of boring talking heads fawning over a Bendis created concept. However, he salvages it by having it actually play into the story at hand, a welcome change from the last issue. Romita Jr's art works for everything in this issue, his versatility as an artist working with the peaks and valleys of Bendis's script wonderfully. Read Full Review
A lot of the action is really well laid out, but the characters lack definition in the story moments. Romita Jr. does some great layouts with the Leviathan scenes, but both Cheetah and Grodd look weird. Cheetah has the look of a cartoon cat and Grodd looks like a strange Sasquatch hybrid. Read Full Review
Fellow DCN reviewer, Derek McNeil messaged me that this issue was “a hot mess!” I don't know that that is an entirely accurate description as Bendis is able to make something feel exciting with Superman in Action Comics #1019. The idea of the anti-hero is intriguing and Luthor's plot to kill Superman is engaging. Certainly, his identity reveal has played out over in Supermanas a non-story. (If there's no impact to this reveal, why do it in the first place? Answer= Bendis has no idea what he's doing.) While this issue is actually pretty good, its context within the larger scope of Bendis' run begs the question, why didn't some of this happen sooner? A roller coaster ride of quality continues in Action Comics #1019, though it never gets over the biggest hills. Read Full Review
Action Comics is a sum of many parts, and it is not always better for it. There are many events and story lines touched on in this title, and they aren't all lining up correctly. Often this series seems like it has too many irons in the fire and would benefit from focus. Read Full Review
Overall, this issue feels heavy-handed. It has a mission and gets it done, but in a way that seems to reduce the Legion of Doom in order to prop up Leviathan in an unearned way. Instead of building up the character by showing, we're meant to believe he's more powerful than most of these villains. This further reduces Perpetua's plan since she chose Lex when this issue seems to suggest Leviathan was the superior villain. Read Full Review
At this point, the fight feels like it's been drawn out too long and it's that concern that drags the issue out. There's just too much going on and in too many points in time. Too much tell and not enough show. Read Full Review
Hopefully, this picks up. Right now, it is barely a story and has nothing to it to have me keep me reading. Read Full Review
The creative team has been on a roll, but this issue is a bump in the road. Read Full Review
We have the meeting of the villains this issue and while I usually love situations like this, there really isn't anything going down here besides for the group consensus, "Superman bad" and even with that, it feels odd that Leviathan would join up with anyone like the Legion of Doom. On top of that, the art is disappointing and I would just like more of anything out of this title because right now it feels like I get nothing issue to issue. Read Full Review
If youre a Superman fan you can safely skip this issue as nothing of consequence happens and with Romita having an off issue theres nothing to redeem this one. Read Full Review
The story was very interesting and is building up very well but the art is horrible
I like how BMB handles the conversations between Lex, Leviathan, Red Cloud, and Brainiac. Though it feels like the other Legionaries of Doom aren't really adding much. What undermines the story is what a mess the art is. JRjr is terrible these days.
"Where is the one place he never fights back all the way?"
Well, this caught me off guard. After the last two issues, I was expecting this one to be terrible as well. Turns out, it's not.
Don't get me wrong, the art is still, absolutely, truly horrendous and the issue doesn't actually wash off the awfulness of the previous issues, but the writing is much better, the story is much more clear and cohesive, and seeing Legion of Doom and the Leviathan together is actually pretty entertaining.
It's still nowhere near the quality of Bendis' Daredevil, that I'm currently re-reading (damn, that is a good comic book), but there's some hope that maybe the future issues will continue the trend of improvement.
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Honestly, not one of the worst written things Bendis has written thus far at DC. Very far from his best though. The art on the other hand, was not working for me in anyway.
please stop
Ahaha oh no this is a mess. Oh, how embarrassing.
This seems to be the opposite of the Superman book right now. For me, Superman started off really bad and boring and now has become decently readable. Action Comics started off slightly readable and now has gotten really bad and boring. This is probably the worst Superman book Bendis has written. It's boring, it's confusing with continuity, makes little sense when you think about it, and overall who cares about Leviathan. The art is also pretty bad, I don't think JRJR can draw Superman stories well, I think his Marvel work is much better. There aren't a lot of redeeming qualities for this book.
Rarely I see a comic with no redeeming qualities. Last time it probably was King's Knightmares trainwrck of an arc. Usually you get something of value for the money - most of the time decent art, sometimes decent story, (very) occasssionally both. But this... this is awful. Everything about this comic is awful. Plot, dialogues, art, all with no exception horrendously bad. If it was an indie book, or something niche, I wouldn't be that displeased and frustrated. But this is, supposedly, one of DC's flagship titles. If the house is willing to release something like this, with no effort nor talent put into, nowadays, I have a really bad gut feeling about what's to come in the future.
Avoid like the plague, vote with your wallet - if you r more
This issue is poorly paced and if the moments Bendis wanted to land had any chance of doing so at the scripting stage, the ungodly art made certain that they would not.
DC if youre reading this, please bring back Tomasi/Jurgens on Superman. Brian Bendis is ruining this great character.
Hey Kids!
Do you want to read as story with everything you haven't enjoyed over the last year? Well then, do I have the comic book for you! That's right this book gives you three, count them THREE villains that no that no one wanted to read about in one book! Leviathan, Red Cloud, and Apex Lex. All of them interacting with each other in a nonsensical and mashed up story with aspects of how "Woke" to social issues the author is. Not only that but you won't even have to be bothered with seeing Superman in this issue as he's only in the book for 3 pages despite being the main character!
Ok, seriously this book really did suck. I have nothing positive to say about this book. I can't stand the opening format and the @ b more
This is completely unacceptable from a flagship title. It is just a 24 page wank of everything Bendis has created.
- This. This is a trainwreck.
- Which thing is a trainwreck?
- THIS is a trainwreck!
- A trainwreck?
- Yes! A trainwreck..
- I see it now, it's a trainwreck.
- This is what I told you from the start, a trainwreck.
- A trainwreck.
Bendis and JRJr together. Can't go wrong... LOL!
Get rid of Bendis. All he does is try to inflate the importance and impact of his own bullshit. Stop with Leviathan. It sucked and was a failure, much like his entire run on the Super books. As for JrJr, I really like a lot of his art from Marvel but his DC works is absolute trash. Stop putting him on books. Seriously. It’s bad. Now, JrJr and Bendis together? There is nothing redeemable about this issue.
Somehow tech built by the Manhunters, which were replaced by the Green Lanterns, is somehow a match for the Legion of Doom who have been empowered by cosmic forces?
...I don’t know even know what to say.
Leviathan also went from a separate faction trying to establish its own mandate to a generic “supervillain” group. Great.
Lex stating that the “event leviathan” impressed him made me cringe, because if that’s true that is a very low bar to impress the guy.
Red cloud’s participation in the plan they make is laughable, because I doubt this villain will ever be anything of note and her part is something anyone else within that team could do (and far better).
Nothing in this issue more
Prelude:
Bendis. Action Comics. Bad. Let's go.
The Rare:
Nothing at all.
The Usual:
Rubbish art.
Bendis-speak.
"The Event Leviathan"
Continuity.
Leviathan Island.
It's boring as hell.
Conclusion:
Thank god it's over.
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