Review: Action Comics #876

For once the doc can’t claim Oedipus Complex

In a world without Superman (again), heroes have risen to take his place (again).  And as is often the case in these tales, the new heroes have a connection to the old, but what of those heroes that have a villain for a parent?  And what happens if both parents are evil?  And what if one of them wants to kill you real bad?

Christopher Kent, aka Lor-Zod, aka the son of Zod and Ursa, has been discovered to be Nightwing, while Thara Ak-Var (does anyone else want to shout out, “It’s a trap!” whenever they read her name?), bodyguard of Alura Zor-El, was outed as the new Flamebird.  Worse, it was Ursa that made the discovery and she’s ready to kill the traitors of New Krypton.

What follows in this issue is a smack down, drag out fight among yellow sun powered Kryptonians inside the Fortress of Solitude.  It’s a pretty brutal fight between Thara and Ursa (Chris was injured in the last issue), and it appears that Thara is out gunned by the consort of Zod.  There are some interesting words exchanged between the two soldiers that leads the reader to believe Thara witnessed her parents deaths, and that perhaps the Zod army, and Ursa, was behind it.

The battle eventually comes to a head when Ursa whips out a Kryptonite tipped knife and begins to stab and cut the helpless Thara, all while explaining little chips of Kryptonite is breaking off into Thara’s system.  This finally causes Chris to react and come to the aid of his partner (lover?).  Fortunately, the growth spurts he’s gone through have allowed many of his powers to become stronger, and he is able to turn the tables on his mother and bring her down.

Oddly, no matter how bad a villain may be, no matter how vile and despicable their actions are, they always beg for their life when threatened with death.  That’s what happens when Chris turns the table on Ursa.  While it is probably a trope we have to accept, I have a slight problem with this as Ursa claims to be a soldier, and a soldier in Zod’s army doesn’t get on her knees and beg for mercy.  Or maybe they do, and that will be the key to bringing down the bad new Kryptonians – get them to cry like little girls.

There’s also some good Lois Lane/Jimmy Olsen action in this issue as the two finally put two and two together and come up with HELL, which causes Lois to start thinking about her father.  The familial saga continues at issues end when Chris shows up at her window with a battered and bloodied Thara in tow.

If you have a title called Action Comics, then there better be plenty of action inside, and this issue features a lot of action.  For a middle chapter in this Nightwing/Firebird saga, the issue certainly didn’t drag like other story arcs.  Greg Rucka keeps the action going from page to page, while Eddy Barrows and Sidney Leles handle the art duties quite well.

For those following the whole World Without Superman/World of New Krypton series, the once coherent storyline is now fragmenting into very distinct stories. DC did an excellent job in getting people interested in Superman again, and getting readers to buy into all the Superman titles before branching off into the different stories.  So while readers probably don’t need to read every Superman title now to find out what is going on in the bigger story, it doesn’t hurt to continue.  And that is the case with Action Comics #876; the high action earns the issue 4 out of 5 Stars.