Leviathan and Lex Luthor have brought war to Metropolis and Superman will need all the help he can muster. Minor spoilers for Action Comics #1020 follow.
The past couple of issues of Action Comics have been a bit lackluster, to say the least. They’ve been messy, disjointed, and just generally uncharacteristic of Brian Michael Bendis. His stories, regardless of how you feel about the plot, are almost always extremely tight and near perfect storytelling (storytelling and plot are two different things). But over these past three issues, Bendis hasn’t been on his A-game. And he isn’t here either. In fact, this is probably the worst issue of his run so far and it doesn’t help that the art isn’t great either.
The plot of this arc, as a general concept, is actually pretty great. Post-Event Leviathan and Pre- “Doom War,” it’s an intriguing story to have Leviathan and Lex Luthor team up to bring down Superman. In fact, it’s a great story idea. The problem with the story has been the execution from the start. The non-linear storytelling was not a good decision at all. It was unnecessary and does nothing but hinder the story being told. In fact, we’re not even at the first page that was shown to us in this arc yet. There was no reason needed for this storytelling method. All it does is create a messy, slightly unfocused narrative out of a relatively simple story.
That doesn’t mean there aren’t some nice moments in this issue, there are, but they are few and far between. The best moments though from Conner Kent and Superman. Conner has been missing for some time, only having reappeared in the pages of Young Justice. As such, Superman doesn’t really know who he is. This could’ve made for an even more distracting sub-plot in this issue, but Superman immediately accepts him for who is, trusting him to help. It’s a nice moment that validates Conner being reintroduced as well as creating an instant comradery between the two. However, one or two moments does not make a good comic.
As for the art in this issue, it’s some John Romita Jr. and Klaus Janson’s worst work in a long time. So much about this issue is sloppy. From the faces to the poses to details, so much about this issue feels rushed or done haphazardly. Even though I’m not the biggest fan of Romita’s work, this is very abnormal for him and Janson when working together.
The faces throughout the issue are often expressionless and lack any emotion whatsoever. The detail work throughout, mostly from the inks, is distractingly too much. And a good portion of the time, the poses characters are in feel lifeless and stiff. There are some great moments, accentuated by Brad Anderson’s always great colors, but again, they are few and far between.