Creative Staff:
Story: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Ivan Reis, Joe Prado
Colors: Alex Sinclair
Letterer: Josh Reed
What They Say:
Guest-starring the Justice League! Locked inside the Phantom Zone, the Earth stands poisoned and its heroes lie dying, with no idea how to escape the deadly Kryptonian trap. But an even deadlier threat invades as Rogol Zaar teams with those who have been imprisoned inside the Phantom Zone to use Earth to escape, not caring if they destroy the planet to do it.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
While I’m enjoying a bit of what’s going on over at Action Comics at this time, and I’m enjoying the overall take on the character, Brian Michael Bendis orchestrates one of the things I dislike about comics. Shoving the whole world into the Phantom Zone for a bit, and having it dealt with just within this series, is frustrating as hell because of how it unfolds. Especially as it’ll never touch on the massive PTSD people would experience worldwide. Ignoring that aspect leaves us with a good bit of chaos as the world begins to fall apart, which provides Reis and Prado a whole lot to work with – and guest appearances by the Justice League. For me, I far more enjoyed what Rogol Zaar is up to and that just feels wrong.
Zaar, having realized what’s happened now within the Phantom Zone, is playing it smart as his big plan is a realistic one – to a degree. Head to Earth, grab the Phantom Zone projector, get the hell out, let the world collapse within the Phantom Zone for the sin of sheltering a Kryptonian. It’s all very Zaar and it definitely is a solid plan for someone like him. What he deals with at the start is Jax-ur, who is still just looking out for himself and not quite realizing the scope of what’s going on. But once he does, it’s a delight to see Zaar call together all those that will align under his banner at the moment and head to Earth to sow chaos and destruction amid everything else going on. It’s a little overkill but it’s worth it for that final two-panel spread with him riding across the Phantom Zone.
On Earth, ugh, well, it’s just a mess. Livewire has shown up at STAR Labs to try and steal anything only to discover the whole place is falling apart because of the Phantom Zone – and the scientists there quickly opt to blame here. Hell, even Superman starts to when he gets there because he’s stuck in the habit. The book wants to deal with a lot of things in a short time here as we see Superman trying to reassure people whole setting up a plan to deal with the whole event. It doesn’t help that half the Justice League is down from illness thanks to the meshing into the Phantom Zone and whatever other shenanigans are going on. We do get a small team starting to try something but it feels very ill-defined and the use of the League feels awkward at best with how they’re presented. I don’t get the feeling that Bendis has a handle on these characters from the limited interactions we get with them.
In Summary:
While I’m digging Bendis’ run in Superman as a whole, the frustration of world-shattering events like this within the book – and from the outset – just rankles me even after all these decades of reading comics. I didn’t expect it to be as small as it was with the fires and everything but I dislike the whole go super big thing from the get-go. While the Superman/Justice League side didn’t do much for me, I enjoyed what we got out of Jax-ur and how he was trying to handle the strange creature that is Rogol Zaar. It made for some good dialogue, a bit of appropriate snark, and a setup for what should be a crazy bit of action the next time around as we get a cross-Zone invasion going on. I’m still iffy on Bendis at times with this book but Reis and Prado deliver some great stuff out of the ideas Bendis is coming up with.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: September 12th, 2018
MSRP: $3.99