PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Last Son of Krypton]

ACTION COMICS #1049
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON
Art by MIKE PERKINS
Backup art by DAVID LAPHAM
Cover by STEVE BEACH
Variant cover by NATHAN SZERDY
’90s Cover Month variant cover by ROGER CRUZ
1:25 Kal-El Returns arc variant cover by MARIO “FOX” FOCCILLO
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 11/22/22
“KAL-EL RETURNS” PART 5—THE EPIC CROSSOVER BETWEEN ACTION COMICS AND SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL CONTINUES!
We’re only one month away from the mammoth Action Comics #1050, and tensions between the Super-Family and Lex Luthor have never been higher. Meanwhile, in the Fortress of Solitude, Steel, Supergirl, and Kong Kenan repel an alien invasion!

Nope, Kal-El Returns goes from 1047-1049, and Federeci isn’t slated to be the artist for any of them. Looks like he’s drawing the arc that comes after, or maybe just doing a small portion of Action 1050.

Oh right. He is slow, and should draw months in advance.

[Hypo]

Action Comics #1046 Preview
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Fico Ossio
Backup Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Backup Artist: David Lapham

[Jeffrey2]

What's up with the trunks? A one-off for the Return of Kal story?

[Vordan]

Incredibly happy to see Kenan included in the big Superfamily team up! Part of me wants to make an Appreciation thread but 2022 is almost over so I think I’ll just hold off for 2023

Definitely NOT imagined, as you’re basically proving. MASSIVE Walt Simonson fan and would be hard-pressed to choose a favorite work by him, but there are clear connections here

https://twitter.com/phillipkjohnson/...wUvvee3clesH7Q

Thought this was interesting, seems like PKJ took a lot of ideas from Walter Simonson’s Orion run.

[Frontier]

Action Comics #1046 Preview
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Fico Ossio
Backup Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Backup Artist: David Lapham

Getting pretty epic!

[Vordan]

Despite them calling Kal-El Returns a crossover it doesn’t look like that’s true in the strictest sense of the word. There isn’t one overarching plot running through Action 1047-1049 and SSOKE 15-18. Clark’s stuff seems set in the Fortress and Jon’s stuff is mainly set in Metropolis. Lex does seem to be a concern in both books, but I kinda think you might be able to stick with just Action or SSOKE and not be confused.

Also looks like Kal-El Returns isn’t the Metallo arc. Metallo is in it but the next arc kicking off in Action 1050 seems to be the proper Metallo story drawn by Federeci. Can’t wait for that!

[The Frog Bros]

ACTION COMICS #1049
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON
Art by MIKE PERKINS
Backup art by DAVID LAPHAM
Cover by STEVE BEACH
Variant cover by NATHAN SZERDY
’90s Cover Month variant cover by ROGER CRUZ
1:25 Kal-El Returns arc variant cover by MARIO “FOX” FOCCILLO
$4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)
ON SALE 11/22/22
“KAL-EL RETURNS” PART 5—THE EPIC CROSSOVER BETWEEN ACTION COMICS AND SUPERMAN: SON OF KAL-EL CONTINUES!
We’re only one month away from the mammoth Action Comics #1050, and tensions between the Super-Family and Lex Luthor have never been higher. Meanwhile, in the Fortress of Solitude, Steel, Supergirl, and Kong Kenan repel an alien invasion!

Think I need that Steve Beach cover in poster form on my wall.

[HsssH]

Also looks like Kal-El Returns isn’t the Metallo arc. Metallo is in it but the next arc kicking off in Action 1050 seems to be the proper Metallo story drawn by Federeci. Can’t wait for that!

Thats sounds better than anything I heard about Return so far

[HsssH]

I'm just going to complain about the art again. Trainer dude looks like a different character in this issue and in the last page he even looks a bit like the hooded figure that was helping Mongul in previous issues.

I'm still enjoying it, but man I'm getting annoyed when I think about how great this story could have been if we got 1 or 2, instead of 10, people drawing it.

[Vordan]

Meanwhile I loved the art here. Annoying it might be that Action doesn’t have a consistent artist, but Fico gave us cool pages like this that I don’t think a more realistic artist such as Federeci could have:



And as for Kryl “looking like the hooded guy”, that’s because he is the hooded guy! That’s the big reveal, that he’s been secretly helping Mongul the whole time.

[HsssH]

Well then PJK will have to do some explaining in the finale because that reveal makes no sense to me.

[Vordan]

We’ll see what his motivations/backstory are, I expect the story he told Clark before was either a total or partial lie, but it explains why the hooded figure disappeared for so long after Clark and the Authority were defeated. He went back to being Kryl and groomed Clark for the task of retrieving Olgrun’s Fire. That’s what he’s been after the entire time, both Clark and Mongul were just means to an end for him.

Otherwise though I dug the issue. Clark solving a riddle let’s him show off his brains, and being willing to sacrifice himself even for an “unliving child” was another good character moment of the sort I’ve greatly enjoyed in this run. Whole thing felt very Dark Souls-esque and I enjoyed that.

I’m hoping that Conduit’s exposure to Genesis will change his power set, it sure seemed to be affecting the Kryptonite in his cells. Hm I wonder if that’s connected to the “secret of Kryptonite” that Morrison set up and PKJ said he wanted to resolve but needed to clarify with Morrison first? I still think the big bad behind Genesis is Aethyr and he’s the one the Superfamily will be fighting in that team up that’s been teased. Hopefully Conduit and maybe Xa-Du will be involved in that too.

[HsssH]

I'm really not a fan of such reveals when the character in the very same issue almost dies and complains about Superman wasting time and risking it all to save him. If this was all part of his big plan to get the fire then he should be screaming at Clark to save him, not that he should be left to die.

[Vordan]

I wonder if Thao is going to be the character PKJ mentioned he created to survive who will now die? Going off of the backup where the Genesis fragment is destroyed and Thao’s fate seems sealed. Would be a very bittersweet ending to her tale, she helped save her people at the cost of her own life.

I'm really not a fan of such reveals when the character in the very same issue almost dies and complains about Superman wasting time and risking it all to save him. If this was all part of his big plan to get the fire then he should be screaming at Clark to save him, not that he should be left to die.

You forget: there’s things on Warworld that can resurrect the dead. Mongul was killing and reviving Clark over and over during Future State and the Warworld Saga itself. Kryl knows Warworld’s secrets, that was his big pitch for why Mongul should ally with him. I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a private means of resurrecting on his own. Likely he would rather Kal leave him to die so that Kryl could feel better about stabbing Kal in the back.

[Mantis-Ray]

Ooooh loved this issue, fun stuff. Superman fighting a worm, solving a puzzle, and then facing the huge-ass construct monster.

And the art's really great, very kinetic and detailed, looks quite gorgeous even if the faces look a little weird sometimes.