Just EPIC and totally underappreciated series...

There are some amazing two page splashes of the robo dragon that look stunning.

The highlights of this ish however is the conversations between the Mandarin and Tony. Plus all of this insanity and the creation of the monster turns out to all be a test he Madarin made for Tony Stark. For what ends we don;t really know but can only guess at.

Anyway Tony is tied up and the Mandarin and him have a heart-to-heart, mono e mono, and these moments produce beautiful dark dialogue between them. You see the ish references how Iron Man defeated Mandarin in Iron Man Vol. 1 #312, and the Mandarin (Mandy for short) reincarnated as a janitor who worked in Stark Towers. This new life from this perspectvie gave Mandy a new evil plan. No longer did he want to destroy all the worlds technology to bring us back to feudalism and make China the world conquerors.

Dont take my word for it here is Mandy and Tony:

Mandy says, "My mind clouded -- my true memories only surfacing in dreams -- I endured unspeakable humiliation for one such as I. But I must thank you -- and the heart -- for such a valuable lesson." Tony confused, "A lesson --?

Mandy goes on, " I'd thought to destroy technology -- to erase two thousand years of progress and restore feudalism. But I discovered -- That feudalism was not dead, merely transformed as I. Coolies, masters, magistrates, mandarins -- the manual labor of peasants generated power, which flowed ever upward -- growing greater at each level, until it rested in the hands of the truly deserving -- the noble classes. And nothing was changed -- My coolie labor enriched those above me, and above them -- until it reached yu. Anthony Stark. Feudal Lord of a modern age." TOny disgusted, "Not lord..."

Mandy continues, "How foolish to reject what I should have sought to understand. And more foolish still, to rage at the idea of Iron Man, a vassal, as my greatest foe -- rther than see beyond him, to my true enemy."

Tony also finds out here that the Mandarin wasn't behind everything, just the death squad in the beginning, so there still remains many unanswered questions as to who else is after Ton. We are then shown something about Madame Masque in her secret HQ getting murdered by an unknown killer. Not sure I remember what that has to do wit anything.

While this is going on the Guardians and the Avengers are trying every trick in the book to take out the giant Dragon ship with no success.

The epic conversation continues:

Mandy "But ahh -- then my dreaming ind awakened -- and I returned to myself! It is a thrill few people in the world can share, I know -- But surely Anthony, you are among them! To know you are superior --- in mind, in body, in spirit. EVERYTHING! To know that power is your birthright -- to know that untold thousands exist on thisworld for no reason but to serve you-- To channel their power through your empire, be it of land or of business -- channeling it upward to fuel you, to fuel your glory!"

Iron Man repulsed goes back at Mandy with "It doesn't -- power doesn't work that way Mandy. Or it shouldn't... The people who worked for me -- wrked at Stark Enterpises -- Werent slaves! They didn;t work because they were property -- They worked there by choice, to better their lives, provide for their families! Employees not vassals -- Give their employers their best because they hope and trust that employers will do the same. And they'll be rewarded in kind, paidfairly for their efforts. Too often employees are disappointed -- Disappointed by people like you, who see loyalty as a one way street -- who think they have a right to power. Instead of earning it by winning their employees loyalty fairly!

Mandy saddened by this explanation, "You disappoint me, Anthony -- mouthing such populist cant, as if you've been brainwashed by the world's ignorant rabble. BUT by all means, go on -- And convince me if you can -- How there can possibly be any sort of parity between those who sweat and toil in the fields -- and men such as ourselves..."

We never really here a verbal counter argument by Tony because as they were conversing he was figuring out ow to slowly regain control of his suit and break free from Mandy's hold. Iron Man flies around to find the very core of the roo beast and with all the taunting and talk of Mandy Tony stayed focus and aimed at the core. Mandy was overjoyed that Tony ignored the all the emotional obstacles and mental games andproved to Mandy that Tony is the one and only TRUE ENEMY.

As the beast is falling apart Iron Man attempts to save Mandy but Mandy throws himself itno the fire.

This was epic beyond words, as good as any movie you can watch...Great end to this little arc! more

So Tony literally dies for a moment, and Natasha uses her electric bracelets to bring him back to life. Grasping for life, pulverized, bruised, bloodied internally and out, Tony ask Black Widow to get his suitcase and she reluctantly does this worried for his life. Putting on the Iron Man suit in half a daze Tony tells her to call the Aveners and meet him where e ends up.

A cool detail is while Tony travels the skies in his Iron Man suit how he drinks water is by pressing a button with his chin and it automatically delivers water. Being almost dead the water makes him vomit almost. Feeling tired he sets coordinates aand activates auto-pilot to fall asleep in his suit. Little details like this really give life to Iron Man and makes me imagine being in the same scenario.

Ending up in Russia some kind of skirmish is happening with the Red Guardian and his crew (Darkstar, Vanguard etc), he tries to convince them the attack on their soil is being led by Mandarin. Without any evidence they stay on the frontlines to deal with the attack while Tony goes to the Mandarin up in the sky. So the Mandarin was behind everything in previous issues, the Death Squad, Stark Fujikawa, the Arms Merchant, the forced technological enslavery. It was all to hep the Mandarin create a huge Dragon ship.

The Robo Dragon swallows Iron Man and as he follows the vast empty tunnel of its inner body, the Mandarin traps Iron Man. The entire ship is empty of soliders and only the Mandarin is in it. With the power of his rings he controls every facet of the Dragon and torments Tony by crushing him, tying him up with metallic wires and has Tony near death. more

Another solid issue here, it immediatly starts off with Tony being chased by Whiplash. WHiplash is jacked, donned in S&M gear and proves to be pretty deadly for Iron Man.His whips are so fast even against Iron Man's speed and technological advantages that he overcomes Iron Man multiple times. Tony blieves the whips must work at a "molecular level", since he can feel his armor becoming brittle with each hit.

Whiplash' motive is really unknown and apparently he use to go by the name Blacklash, and he eventually ent straight for his family and kid. But during the Elektra run of this time around issue #6 or #7, he was deemed unfit and is going berserk over this. Now one might argue that Whiplash' design up against Iron Man is ridiculous but it makes sense in it's simplicity. Mark Scarlotti is ripped to an extreme degree and simply relies on his natural acrobatics and ability with the only technological instruments he uses are external like his glider and his molecular whips. With the mobility of the glider, Scarlottis natural talent, and his ferocious whips he can end Iron Man pretty fast if Tony let's his guard down. Whiplsh gets away and knocks Tony out of the game.

While Tony is on his search for Scarlotti and also looking for some mysterious recording's origin he enjoys his time in France with a woman named Yvette. Every issue does not shy away from Tony being a smooth guy with the ladies, I would be disappointed if these comics decided to stop this.

After that while searching for the mystery man, Pepper and Happy have an argument, Happy falls on the floor from Pepper's dog treat and finds a bug under her desk. They figured out that chick Happy was going out with bugged the room and that means whoever was listening knows every location TOny has been at and that he is Iron Man.

Tony freaks out and immediately leaves the building only to be welcomed by a group of 5 mercenaries who beat the shit out of him to a bloody pulp. One of the mercenearies took his briefcase and threw it in a river, that's why he couldn't become Iron Man and save himself. Whoever hired the mercs didn't tell them he's Iron Man and kept it to themselves. While Tony is getting beaten he sees a man up watching named "The Spymaster". Who is he and what is his role in this?

Tony would have been dead if not for Natasha (Black Widow) coming in to save him on time.

This must of been the handiwork of the Mandarin which should be next ish.

Great stuff here! more

One thing you have to admit about these old comics even these 90s one, you were getting your monies worth in terms of length,size and dialogue. these comics take me a bit longer to read through than most of the modern comics I go through like water no joke. But these issues feel like really good animated episodes you would watch on TV except you would have to imagine the animation in your head. And the amount of detail in the dialogue boxes are really good and allows you as the reader to really get lost in the characters' thoughts and ways.

I remember liking this particular ish when I first read it last year because of he interesting dynamic of Carol and Tony in here. This was the first time I learned that Carol had alcohol problems like Tony too and this made Ms. Marvel more interesting to me to eventually read her comics overtime.

The bad guys in this are okay, the big bad really is the return of the Supreme Intelligence who apparently according to this ish was killed by the Avengers #347. A bunch of douche Kree revived him and need a power plant for some reason.

But what makes this ish great is how Carol gets angry at Tony for calling out her using alcohol to get through her problems. This is also where he first reveals his identity to her for the first time.

When Tony and Pepper go to Power Source Plant where the Kree are secretly based, Ms. Marvel causes a reaction wen she comes crashing at Tony and yelling at him for appearing to judge her even though he wasn't and he completely understands everything she s going through. He smells the alcohol on her breath and it literally makes his"mouth water". These small vulnerable details of both f these heroes for me adds so much depth to them and is why I didn;t mind doing a second reading of this comic series. more

I enjoyed seeing Black Widow and Iron Man team up together in tis issue. Some beautiful old school artwork in this ish, from the character designs to the simple but sweet environmental backdrops or social settings.

Tony and Widow make a good match but to be honest TOny seems to fit well with any woman, I would even go as far to say that he is the Clark Gable of comic books. Devilish, classy, cool and rogue at the same time. And having a set of armor in a suitcase helps this persona immensely.

Anyway, Tony makes a deal with Natasha to help her find out more bout brilliant scientist nd technicians who are disappearing systematically.

Tony and Natasha go all over extravagant places with important officials and the like to use him as bait. Obviously Widow gets distracted by a assassin ad Tony gets kidnapped while she is busy. These scenes here I really liked specifically one page where they are dancing together in a ballroom with jazz musicians playing. These couple pages are really nice to look at and feels very classy.

So Tony ends up at some Technician facility that is forcing all these brilliant minds to create an unknown technology. Tere not told what it is. Unlike all the other hostages Tony eluding the guards creates a beacon that contacts Natasha so she can find him.

They end up fighting Tuatara who has some giant lizard bitch monster form.

This is real 90s stuff here. more

Tony handles Firebrand like Superman pretty much, hacking his less complex suit that contains his energy and using it against him and turning him into a huge laser to cut a new land path for the lava to flow in and save the people.

Firebrand is insane and was created to be even worse by the terrorist organization Flaming Sword. Using his insanity to have him believe he is fighting for a cause against the rich when actuality he is just their tank to make pillaging and robbery easier.

Iron Man gets pulverized a bit here and puts up a good fight with Firebrand.

Im glad this part of the story is over and look forward to see what Natasha is up to on the next ish. Otherwise this just seals off Tony's new relationship with Rumiko, and ends up with him wanting Happy and Pepper to work things out.

I really enjoyed the art but some of the pages blend too much into each other at times. This series will stand out more if it had som more divisions or separations more often. more

So Tony finds out early on in the ish that Pepper and Happy went through a divorce and he feels extremely narcissistic for not seeing this. Even though he was out of the picture for a while, he still blames himself for not being able to read the situation so to speak.

Hanging out in Isla Suerte "The shining jewel of the Caribbean" with hotels, resorts and casinos or as the villain Firebrand would later call it the soft play thing of the rich. Honestly my favorite part of this ish is the introduction of Rumiko. Shes a sexy 27 year old women who is Fujikawa's daughter.From a rich line but not allowed to actually work in the business for being female. Rumiko rebels in her own ways and mixes great with Tony Stark when they are together. She comes off as your cliche rich spoiled brat but you find out she's much more interesting than that and when the island gets attacked by Firebrand Iron Man sees her aiding the civilians and saving lives in the best way she can, fearless girl she is.

In this Firebrand sticks out because he shows his distaste for the rich throughout his moments and some of whatt he says is not wrong at all. "You live off the sweat and toil of others -- live like kings by standing on their backs-- and then fritter away your workers lifeblood in plush, useless places like this!

I did read the first 24 issues back in March of 2024 but honestly I don't remember what happens after this ish, like why does Firebrand have such a hatred toward the rich, does that get explained later on o is it nothing special?

It was funny when Firebrand asked Iron man "Your an employee Iron Man -- a worker! You should be siding with the cause, not protecting the parasites!" Iron man resonds "This isn't exactly the place for a political discussion but business doesn't merely exploit -- it provides people a means to make a living."

The ish ends with Firebrand activating a dormant volcano on hte island. more

This has a better pace than #2, the Dreadnoughts zap Tony with plasma beams with a temperature of 95,000 degrees. His suit takes the hit but he has to fall back and cool off the outer shell. In the meantime he saves Spirosa and her butler from the debris caused by the Dreadnoughts.

We also find out in this ish that Pepper and Happy are actually on the outs for some reason. Happy is openly flirting with this blonde woman in front of Pepper and the tension between them is pretty clear.

Spirosa tells Tony how an old friend of her dead husband named Kapelos has taken over the company to create weapons for the Arms Merchant. Kapelos claimed to cause her husband's death and threatened her life unless she gave him the company and allowed him to create high tech weapons.

Tony sets up and interview on live TV and calls out the Arms Merchant and that he will find him and his entire client list. Putting a target on his back intentionally.

Tony has to face the Dreadnoughts again, using a piece of long steel and threatening the egotistical Dreadnoughts of hitting them with hit like a bat, the Dreadnoughts fall for his smart ass remark and shoot their heat beams at the steel. The steel melts and Iron Man throws the melted steel onto each Dreadnought. The cold of the winter and snow contrasted by the extreme heat allow it to stick onto the surface of the nights.

He then flies into Kapelos operation bringing the Dreadnoughts and uses them as a threat to make Kapelos spill the beans and give him the information he has on a disc. They make a deal and Iron Man then in return flies as high as he can into the sky making the noughts follow and the melted steel heat causes the noughts to blow up and almost kill Tony in the process.

So he saved and freed Spirosa from the grip of Kapelos but Kapelos is just the tip. The girl Happy Hogan is flirting with and went out to eat with is really some secret agent trying to extract Stark secrets. Who exactly she is working for not sure, there are multiple villains with many different angles yet to be revealed. more

So this isn't as talky as the last issue but we have a nice little build up of mystery between Tony and Ms Spirosa who according to this ish she once tried to expose Tony's identity as Iron Man with the Mad Thinker back in Tales of Suspense #72.

We find out in the beginning that Tony has no idea that Pepper and Happy Hogan are married to each other while he was thought dead.

So invited by Ms Spirosa in Switzerland Tony is asked to check on her financial books of the company she is running and inherited from her third husband. He figures out pretty quickly that Spirosa has been forced to entrap Tony by a mysterious force seeking to destroy him most likely connected to Stark Fujikawa. Using his smarts he slips out from the goons and comes out as Iron Man only to be ambushed by Dreadnoughts.

The art is really nice but the story pace is a little tough here but still solid all round. more

I started reading this series as my first Iron Man comic maybe around March 2024. I wasn't really focused at the time because I was going back and forth with my grandfather for his eye surgery and helping him daily with his basic needs so really I kind of read these in a haze.

I read up to number 24 and lost track because I got busy with life let's say. I want to revisit and start over and write down what I think because this Iron Man comic for me allowed me to start liking Iron Man beyond the MCU Robert Downey Jr. version.

So this is after the Heroes Reborn event which I haven't read, where Franklin Richards (Reeds son) starts over the whole universe or something Idk, and the only characters who didn't get reset and are trapped in the previous one are Thor and Dr. Doom.

Tony's origin story and all the things he did in the previous runs though haven't changed it seems so I don't really understand what the whole Heroes Reborn thing was about and I'm not really interested in reading that.

The world now thought Tony has been dead, Fujikawa took over Stark industry, Pepper and Rhodey watched over his main assets, and Tony in this story is in a reflective stage and questioning what the purpose of his life really is. He's not acting so much likes playboy and seems very deep in this. And unlike the films he keeps himself separate from Iron Man to protect his secret identity. Having people believe Iron Man is a bodyguard for Stark.

We have a lot of characters introduced for various reasons we don't know yet until future issues. Side characters show up at his comeback celebration from Foggy Nelson, Foggy mother, Pepper Potts who is married to Happy Hogan now, Rhodey. J.J Jameson, Norman Osborne and Starks cousin Morgan who he refers to as the family black sheep.

Tony goes through the motions and gets annoyed how everyone "knows what he should be doing". He doesn't get an answer until he gets a run in by the Death Squad who was most likely hired by Fujikawa to get rid of Stark so they can keep the company. He gets away and fights them as Iron Man. Defeating them but in the process he accidentally helped destroyed a construction building that was being built for a desperate neighborhood that was affected by the "Onslaught". Feeling like his life is a joke of destruction and than rebuilding he decided to make Stark Solutions to purely rebuild and help government, private business and individuals who can pay. The money would all go toward projects of rebuilding for a better tomorrow.

So Tony in this is very conscious and is trying to change things he might not be able to change.

Real beefy comic with plenty of dialogue to keep you busy and become immersed in this world. more

Oh okay so it looks like Peter David is keeping elements of Jim Aparros Aquaman, which I've never read but I just know about it because of the horrible thing that Aquaman goes through in it. In this ish it shows Aquaman chronicling his life still and recalling his time as King. His celebration has Aqualad Mera, Arthur Jr. and King Travis. I wonder how Aquaman was able to forgive a man who abandoned him as a baby at Mercy reef but that was probably all in the Aparros run.

Anyway Orm attacks and reveals himself as the man who almost killed Keko many years ago. He was jealous and angry because he loved Keko and was enraged that Arthur took her away. We find out that Orm is the half brother of Arthur just like in the movie so that's great 👍 but Arthur doesn't put 2 and 2 together until years later when he is chronicling his past.

Clearly the time when he is chronicling his son is dead, he is separated from Mera most likely and Aqualad I don't know. Did Aparros kill off Aqualad too or did Aqualad go off on his own hopefully will find out more because I liked Aqualad in the Silver age comics.

This is really solid storytelling, and Peter David really did try to make Aquaman be taken serious by more people at the time which is sad because Aparros seemed to have some really good stuff before and the silver age comics were actually fun to read for me. more

Peter David in this ish adds a well written tragic heros journey to Arthur's youth. Starting off in Alaska, Arthur saves a Eskimo girl from getting eaten by a polar bear. They manage to kill it together but from the ravage bear Arthur falls unconscious after the fight. Kako the Eskimo girl take shim to her home.

Her grandfather is a man who is weary of white men because he blames them for corrupting his native land and their traditional way of life. To his surprise he comes to his sod hut with a young boy (Arthur) being cared for. Despite his weariness the old man welcomes Arthur for saving Kako.

The ish also shows that Orm is not to far away but is living more like the modern times rather than the traditionalist way. He's arguing with his mother and he talks about how he was a bastard. How did Orm end up all the way here and what's the story with him and his mother? Hopefully we find out more later on.

Arthur and Kako get real friendly, and at one point Kako takes her coat off and ask Aquaman to "warm" her 😉 and they get it on. In the distance Orm was watching them f**k and later on when Arthur wakes up he finds Kako all bloodied and beaten up. Still alive but barely.

When he brings her back she gets visions of the lands native goddess treating him, but he manages to defeat her by commanding her hair of sea snakes to go after her. When he wakes up Kako is saved, he tells the family what happened and the grandfather freaks out that Arthur has angered their native goddess and dies from a heart attack. The mother screams and blames Arthur for destroying the family and makes him leave.

This has some really good emotional moments that adds some real emotional depth to Aquamans development. This imo is how you do a great backstory of a heros youth unlike the most recent Mark Waid Superboy run which is the opposite and has absolutely no emotional weight to it at all... more

Wow this was really well done this ish!

It starts off with a Japanese ship hunting dolphins with tuna nets and Aquaman describes the horrible experience the dolphins go through during their capture. A baby dolphin when it is born immediately jumps out of the water to breath fresh air. However the moment it is caught by a net sometimes it chooses to stop breathing essentially committing suicide.

The mother dolphin and the baby are thrown into the ship struggling for life and the Japanese crewman is about to end their lives and Aquaman stops it right on time.

He then goes on while writing up in his book why he feels he owes his life to the dolphins.

King Travis of Atlantis abandoned Arthur as a baby and left him on Mercy reef. Atlantean babies only able to breathe in water would lay in the water and eventually the water of the reef would recede and the air would suffocate the baby. This didn't kill Arthur being that he is half Atlantean and half human. A female dolphin found him and had a baby dolphin named Drin. Prome the mother was scorned by the lead Dolphin but she convinced the pack to hold onto the defenseless human baby.

Like Tarzan raised y apes or Romulus by wolves this was a brilliant and beautifully rendered myth come to life on these pages. We watch Arthur grow up with these dolphins barely surviving and barely fed until he adapts. He slowly learns if his super strength from a near death with a shark that tried to kill a female dolphin named Nera. And yeah he falls in love with her but he is told she is not for him and the dolphins help him discover other humans.

One day Drin and Arthur are pestering each other and Drin accidentally jumped onto the blades of a boat and dies. Arthur refuses to leave his body to the sharks but Prom makes him face the harsh reality by letting go, and from there he eventually leaves to find his own way.

Loved every page. 💕 more

So the only Aquaman comics I've read a couple years back were in the DC Showcase Volumes, so that was real silver age stuff. I watched Aquaman with Jason Mamoa tonight for the millionth time on a 4k Blu-ray though for the first time and loved it even more. I recall reading the silver age comics because of the Aquaman movie I watched on Blu-ray at that time.

Tonight I absolutely was immersed in the films bombastic unapologetically over the top world. A far cry from the themes and seriousness of the Snyder films since this was directed by James Wan but honestly I'm happy this turned out this way. The Aquaman movie is great and Momoa looked fantastic and every shot by Wan is spectacular. The use of the water effects and the overall sound design is unbeatable and it shocks me how most people sh*t on this film then and even now, while praising shallow movies like FF and Superman 2025 that have some of the worst cinematography and use of space I've seen in the superhero genre.

Well I finally decided to dive into my Aquaman Peter David collection I collected, I have the first two tpbs than the rest in issues.

TPB starts with the mini series Time and Tide and starts Curry over. Writing in his diary he explains how his mother Atlanna he believes was insane, and the stories she would tell of his lineage were the babblings of a madwoman. He then recollects about the first time he was called hero and we go back to when he was discovered in this version by the Flash during one of the Flash's run ins with the trickster. The Flash goes unconscious and almost gets eaten by sharks but Aquaman speaks to them on time.

At this point Arthur lives in a dark cave and is more creature than man. The Flash convinces him to give the surface a try, and Arthur is really grouchy and has no patience with humans in this ish.

Already the writing is solid here. more

I just have no patience at this point for Waids writing. His last arc really gave me a bad impression and this isn't doing any better here. The art is nothing to write home about and feels mostly devoid of any soul. I don't even care about anyone in here. Let alone Clark himself here, he comes off as generic and has nothing interesting going for him except the overly done "struggling teenager" persona we've seen countless times at this point in comics but not even done well here...

And Captain Comet? Dial the 🌽 cornball writing by a 1000x, what a dumb character to put into the development of Supermans youth. Oh and also in this ish a horde of locust show up and Clark uses his freeze breath in one panel so like I said in previous ish why didn't he just use his freeze breath on the fire?

Emphasis on the emptiness of soul, every character just says the most uninteresting sh*t and it comes off like a corporate pamphlet about how "were all one big happy family".

Congrats 🎉 if you enjoyed this but you would have to deprive me of any good comics for a millennia to ever get me to say any of this was worth my time. more

If your looking for something fresh, different or interesting don't look here. This is a coming of age story done a million times over.

Unless you have absolutely no background in reading literature or comics than maybe you will enjoy this otherwise it's a walking cliche as predictable as the cycle of the day.

And why the hell didn't he use his freeze breath on the fire in the school? Instead he took a water tower that he even says "a farm town like this needs" and waste it all on the school. When all the kids escaped all he had to do was ice breath or anything else but that.

Waids writing feels like he's under a gun and is unable to come up with anything really solid or genuinely enticing that one can add to the Superman mythos. more

It was okay, kind of was more excited to finish it just to be done. Art is lame, feels like a corporate safe direction, I'm not into Waids style really, and after his horrible Phantom Zoners run and Xa-Du I'm not particularly excited about this.

I mean the only nice part was when Pa Kent helped Superboy focus in on the fight but otherwise the plot is pretty stupid and again the art sucks. Feels like a baby 🍼 Disney cartoon. more

Waste of space.

This was terrible, a big fat nothing burger here. Global warming yawn. Besides that writing is practically non-existent

I would give this a higher score but the Forevers was a joke like the ish could have gone without them and just have Manheim selling telemeres to random rich people seeking mortality because the whole Forevers fight and panels were just gid awful and silly.

But I'm keeping a decently high score because otherwise the rest of the story was really good for me. We find out that Paul was innocent and didn't kill Bokyn, it was his daughter Penny who killed the man. Paul took the hit for her to make up for all the bad he did as her father. I liked how this even refers back to Harley Quinn (2018) #54, pretty sure that was the Sam Humprhies run?

I enjoyed the dialogue and the little twist nothing ground breaking or epic but a damn fine read. Superman is conflicted about this but he leaves Paul in jail and lets things flow. He talks to Lois about it and they have a nice tit for tat. I like how Lois in these issues boost her man up and tries to keep him grounded instead of trying to tear him down like in those horrible bonus stories by Rainbow Rowell during the Gail Simone runs. more

I enjoyed this ish as much as 1082. I like the dialogue and feel like the panels flow nice. It's not a complicated story but it's good and I like the side characters like Scorch too. And Manheim being the culprit behind all of this buying off Paul and others to steal there "telemeres" which are used to make others stay young and live longer. The only catch is those who lose these telemeres lose their life time and feel there time shortened, getting side effects of hopelessness and emptinnesss. more

The sole saving grace of Action Comics #1028 is that it exists outside the current "All In" disaster, sparing readers from that incoherent mess of a storyline. Unfortunately, any relief is short-lived, as this issue replaces one set of problems with another, offering up a misguided attempt to "modernize" Superman's world in ways that completely alienate long-time fans.

The central issue here is the portrayal of Lois Lane, who, in this story, is framed as the all-knowing sage tasked with helping Superman recover from—brace yourself—losing hope. Yes, Superman, the Man of Tomorrow, the symbol of resilience and optimism, apparently needs to be lectured back into shape by Lois, who draws on her "vast experience" as an award-winning journalist to play therapist to the greatest hero on Earth. This dynamic is not only absurd, but it completely undermines Superman as a character. If this is the writing that had greeted me when I first started reading Superman, I would have stopped right then and there.

Lois has always been a key part of the Superman mythos, but her role is simple and effective: she gets into trouble, cries for help, and Superman saves the day. How hard is it to understand and stick to this formula? It's classic, it works, and it gives readers what they want—a heroic Superman. Instead, this issue flips the dynamic, turning Lois into the alpha figure and Superman into a lost puppy, as if the writers are deliberately trying to invert the roles to push some kind of modern messaging. The result is a story that feels alien to everything Superman fans have come to love about these characters.

And let’s not ignore the elephant in the room: this kind of storytelling is a major reason why sales are in the toilet. The people in charge seem to have no idea who their audience is or why Superman has endured for decades. Readers don’t come to Superman for forced ideological posturing or "message over myth." They come for stories of hope, heroism, and inspiration. When you discard those core principles for the sake of fixing what isn’t broken, you alienate the very audience that made these characters iconic in the first place.

In conclusion, Action Comics #1028 is a case study in how not to write Superman. It takes everything that made the character and his world timeless and replaces it with a heavy-handed attempt to reshape the dynamic into something unrecognizable. It’s frustrating, disappointing, and another sad example of why the Superman franchise is struggling to connect with readers today. more

Wow an Action Comic that was actually pretty solid, not perfect but you know after those last 10 or so trash issues this deserves a 9 just for changing the direction.

What I really appreciate about this issue was it's focus on Clark Kent this time around. We've had a lot of Superman the last few arcs so it's refreshing to see Clark going around doing some old fashioned journalism. The beautiful inky and heavy art of Inaki Miranada doesn't hurt this ish either!

So this ish goes back and refers to an issue all the way back to the late 700'snwhen Superman made Major Disaster turn good... But here he's caught trying to rob a bank and accidentally murders someone in the process, as soon as Superman shows up though Paul (Disaster) surrender no fight.

As Clark he goes to other villains turned good like Mighty Bruce and Aubrey Sparks (Scorch). Both have similar explanations that most metas still have to live regular lives and some just can't stay on the straight and narrow facing normal problems your average Joe faces with the addition and extra temptation of having super powers in the first place. Clark wants this answer to be beyond a "it's society's fault" kind of answer to Paul falling back on crime, but is finding no other conclusive answers to this betrayal of his trust as Superman.

The dialogue is meaty and feels like a good old fashioned talkey comic which I like when done right like this. It ends with Clark getting attacked and somehow actually getting cut and KO'd by a mysterious figure. Whoever did this has to know Clark is Superman and used a weapon capable of doing damage. more

Is it finally over this arc? So rushed and lackluster all around.

Oh wow Xaa-Du was really Martian Manhunter fooling the Zoners in the end. What is this Scooby-Doo?

And now it's back to total garbage. The only purpose this ish served was having Xa-Du return from the pit Aethyr threw him into. Otherwise it was a compilation of meaningless hunting and capturing of generic uninteresting Zoners.

This is really creatively bankrupt to say the least...

Can we have a massive kill off of characters soon? Kill the entire Super family with the only one who survives is Conner. Boom there is your #1100 issue ending. Kill them all and focus back on Superman. Put all the supporting characters back where they belong in supporting roles. (Ex: Lois, Jimmy, Perry White) Make Action Comics a Superman book again. No one cares about these characters. The only reason I buy every month (Week now...) now is to keep my run going, it isn't because of the writing or art. more

Reluctant to give this a better score than 2 that I've given previous issues but this was less frustrating and annoying to read through. Maybe it's the art it's too simple and too cartoon but I like the simplicity. The colors pop out real nice and the simple line work makes reading the rather horrible story more bearable.

But this whole Phantom Zone breakout feels unoriginal, rushed, and with so many heroes in this comic showing up it falls flat. I mean Dr. Light shows up which is pretty cool idea but it's only like one or two pages.

Superman getting almost killed by a gang of Phantom Zoners in the heart of the zone only to be saved by Mon on time was pretty nice. But Waid is not living up to his rep in this Superman run I've seen better from him. more