PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Venomized-spider-man]

decent option for me would be mark waid.(if willing to put aside nostalgia for silverage and hate for 90s "anti heroes" or some shit like that aside...)
worst case?geoff johns or tom taylor..
best case...alan moore comes back to write superman cause why the hell not.

Monkey paw he writes Twilight of the superheroes

[D.Z]

Wish can I get more non Earth 0 Superman stories.

[Vordan]

https://twitter.com/phillipkjohnson/...IDhhjKOsKx6HHg

Will the authority team continue in Action comics?

I (and others) have other hopes for the Authority, but that's all very TBD. You will see some of the Authority members going forward in Action, though.

Well HssH can breather easier at least. Doesn’t look like there’s anything concretely planned for the Authority separate from Superman just yet. Manchester Black will definitely play a role in what’s to come, Apollo and Middy are likely to be involved too. Maybe Lightray depending on if PKJ plans on following up that LIGHTRAY IS tease or if he wants to just let that stay ambiguous.

[HsssH]

Manchester Black will definitely play a role in what’s to come, Apollo and Middy are likely to be involved too. Maybe Lightray depending on if PKJ plans on following up that LIGHTRAY IS tease or if he wants to just let that stay ambiguous.

Well, thats like most of the Authority team

[The Frog Bros]

Ahhhh that makes sense.

At the very least I would be excited for an Authority book, prolly more so than the upcoming Batman Inc one. At least I generally like everyone on the current Authority roster while Batman Inc is gonna be stuck with Ghost-Face Killah and Clown-boy as the main leads.

Legend of the Liquid Bat Swords.

[Mantis-Ray]

So I finished The Arena trade and this question popped up in my mind, what happened to that Unmade with the blade arm that stabbed Apollo?

Like every other member of Mongul's group was specifically dealt with at various points, Teacher, Darling, Orphan, and Mother, but I don't remember what happened to the blade guy.

He did get a big introduction, being introduced with the rest of the team and did take down Apollo in a spectacular faction, but again I don't recall what happened to that guy. Weirdly enough the original solicit for the Midnighter focused issue was of Superman facing Mongul's greatest gladiator champion which is presumably that guy.

[Vordan]

So I finished The Arena trade and this question popped up in my mind, what happened to that Unmade with the blade arm that stabbed Apollo?

Like every other member of Mongul's group was specifically dealt with at various points, Teacher, Darling, Orphan, and Mother, but I don't remember what happened to the blade guy.

He did get a big introduction, being introduced with the rest of the team and did take down Apollo in a spectacular faction, but again I don't recall what happened to that guy. Weirdly enough the original solicit for the Midnighter focused issue was of Superman facing Mongul's greatest gladiator champion which is presumably that guy.

That guy specifically hasn’t reappeared. The “Unmade” however seem to be a catch all term for anyone Mongul has killed and resurrected to serve him. Apollo for example was also referred to as an “Unmade Champion” and seems to have been Mongul’s replacement for the bladed guy. OMAC was also designated as among the Unmade:

E328FB2D-6153-4783-9E89-C0FE0562072B.jpg

[Vordan]

[Ascended]

Personally I hope Clark *does* keep the Authority as his own team. Bruce has the Outsiders and Inc., Diana has/had JLD, and I like the idea of Clark running the Authority as the group he gets his hands dirty with, and does the things the United Planets doesn't have the political clout to handle and the League doesn't have the balls to do.

But I don't need the same roster. Morrison's group is fantastic, but PKJ didn't cook it up and he's the one in charge so if changing the membership is what it takes for him and DC to commit to the Authority as Clark's personal squad, then cool.

Anyway, finally got to the LCS for the last couple issues of the Warworld arc, and I think it ended fairly well. Maybe not as strong a finale as one could hope for, but part of that is likely the art; hard to equal the incredible work Mendonca has put into this title. Art was still solid, don't get me wrong, but Mendonca has that science fantasy/pulp flare that most comic artists lack and it's a perfect fit for Clark and elevated the story.

I do think that the Mongul fight could and should have been more epic in scope. I know this has been "gladiator Clark" but the guy can still take a ton of punishment, and I'd expect more spectacle for the last battle with Mongul. Clark didn't feel like he was in a last-ditch fight for his life and Mongul went down a little too easy, I think, after nearly two years of build up.

Still, it was a solid ending. And I know I'm late to the discussion, but I've been saying that if PKJ can stick the landing on Warworld, this story would go down as a classic must-read. Now that it's over, what do we think? Did PKJ pull it off? Is this gonna be one of those arcs we recommend to new people a decade from now?

I think I'd have to read it again, in its entirety, but....I think maybe it is. Odd to say given how long the story ran, but I think it could have used another issue to explore the final battle; a lot happens in these last pages, and we don't really get the time to sit with those things and process them, it all hits fast and hard and after taking so much time to establish and live with each step of the story, it felt rushed, here at the end. Still a solid ending and I'm satisfied though.

Looking forward to Clark's return and the Metallo arc. Not crazy interested in the Kal-El Returns arc, since I think Taylor's SoKE has been on the bland side, but it should be fun seeing how PKJ deals with the more earthly and mundane elements of Clark's life.

[HsssH]

To me it misses a bit that "instant classic" mark due to art and backups. And well, the actual villain wasn't dealt with so who knows how this will look when PJK ends his entire run.

[Hypo]

[Ra-El]

The Top Secret variant cover is what? Teasing something new or Jim Lee didn't finished it yet? Maybe it's just Harley Quinn getting kryptonian powers.

[Ascended]

To me it misses a bit that "instant classic" mark due to art and backups. And well, the actual villain wasn't dealt with so who knows how this will look when PJK ends his entire run.

The inconsistent art definitely hurts. The fill-in artists were all decent-to-good but Mendonca has such a particular style, the fill-in's were really glaring, and didn't necessarily fit the tone of the arc.

The backups I'm writing off when it comes to whether the story makes the cut of "classic." They're backups, largely disconnected from the main plot, and I doubt they'll be included in collections unless DC needs to fill some extra pages.

The ultimate Big Bad of the story isn't defeated no, but when looking at it through the lens of the Big Bad, the whole saga is a big long origin tale, so leaving him to be defeated another day feels viable. Mongul was the primary antagonist of the saga and he got handled, which is enough (for me).

[Vordan]

I definitely think it’s up there with the best of say Morrison Action or Pak Action in terms of being a great story in Superman’s ongoing, but it didn’t hit the status of something like All-Star Superman or Secret Identity. Primarily because of the art, Federeci is fantastic but he’s also slow, and something like this deserves a consistent art team who can bring it home. Peterson’s art doesn’t do it for me at all. I thought the final Superman/Mongul brawl was good but it needed more pages of the two of them just beating the shit out of each other. It may have been cliche but I loved Supes giving up the Fire of Olgrun to save the kid and Mongul being dumbfounded he would do something like that. There were also a bunch of callbacks to the start of the Warworld Saga, OMAC quotes Superman’s eulogy for Lia when they sacrifice themselves to bring her back for example, and overall I was satisfied.

We were supposed to get backups fleshing out the Champions more and I think not having those hurt a bit, plus PKJ also had to juggle giving the Authority something to do which also ate up page space. What the Saga succeeded doing was flesh out Warworld as a setting that can support future stories, positioned Mongul as the villain who reflects the nurture aspect of Superman’s character, set up a future conflict with the United Planets and Warworld, and gave a story that kicked Superman to his lowest point and tested his values in an entertaining way.

I’m excited to see PKJ use the Superfamily and what his plans for Metropolis are, especially with Metallo.

[HsssH]

The backups I'm writing off when it comes to whether the story makes the cut of "classic." They're backups, largely disconnected from the main plot, and I doubt they'll be included in collections unless DC needs to fill some extra pages.

Someone here, or in another thread, wrote that they picked up Arena collection and it had tales of Metropolis and Martian Manhunter backups. Hopefully at some point DC will do Superman: Warworld Saga collection (deluxe edition?) and it will skip those stories.