Review: Action Comics #873

The reveal’s been on the cover the entire time

If you haven’t read Superman in a couple of years, now is the time to head back to your local comic shop and pick up all of the issues featuring the New Krypton storyline. It’s a compelling story that features Kryptonians, bad guys, good guys, political intrigue and a battle for the ages.    Action Comics #873 certainly lives up to its name by bringing the action as the New Krypton story wraps up.

While the banner New Krypton event may be over, the story is certainly going to continue as readers are presented with a plethora of new events and possibilities that could sustain the Superman family of titles for the next decade.

The biggest plot point of this issue deals with the battle above the city of Kandor.  The magic peoples of the DCU show up and pretty much take down 10,000 Kryptonians with one magic word.  We’ve seen Captain Marvel utter his magic phrase before when battling Superman, but toss in a Zatanna twist, and it’s a combo that is way better than the Fastball Special ever could hope to be.

Alura, seeing the writing on the wall, does what seems only natural – get Kandor and the Kryptonians off the Earth where they are not wanted, and to a place they can regroup to continue whatever it is they are plotting.  She accomplishes this by rocketing the city into space, where the Kryptonian crystals grow a whole new planet – a New Krypton if you will (applause).  It’s an interesting way of getting the Kryptonians out of the way, as New Krypton orbits the Sun directly opposite of Earth, which means the powers that be on can’t spy on what the former bottled city is up to.  It also means the Kryptonians can enter and leave future stories without a big build up or explanation of what went on before, just tag it with an Editor’s Note.

Out of site, out of mind seems to be the thinking, but when it is revealed Zod is behind Alura’s actions, it all begins to make sense.  Under General Zod’s control, the planet will  become a military state, with all of the citizens enlisting in the Zod army.   With this closing page reveal, it makes sense why Alura and the rest of her followers were so interested in putting Superman’s foes into the Phantom Zone; not to protect their lost son, but to retrieve their leader, and put away those that might bring harm to their schemes.

It’s too bad they didn’t think about putting Lex Luthor away too.  While Luthor gets very little face time in an issue where he is featured prominently on the cover, his actions do bring Guardian Agent Liberty a calling to see what is really going on.  His investigation is cut short when the mysterious Superwoman appears and gives  Guardian Agent Liberty an unwanted heat vision lobotomy.

The “Who is Superwoman?” arc is going to run for five issues in the Supergirl title, but I’m sure readers are already speculating who it might be.  Since she is in close proximity to Lex, and she is taking on the House of El uniform, I’m going to bet we finally find out what happened to Matrix/Linda Danvers following Infinite Crisis.  I know, it’s a wild shot, but that’s where I’ll place my Luthor Dollars.

Action Comics #873 has a lot happening in it, which means this 22-page issue is jam packed with goodness.  I didn’t really care for the jumps in art thanks to three different artists stepping up to the plate to finish the issue, but story wise, Geoff Johns hits it out of the park again, earning Action Comics #873 4.5 out of 5 Stars.

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