PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Mantis-Ray]

Ya know I like the Unmade.

They are a pretty decent villain squad, with some fun gnarly space barbarian designs. They make a good addition to the whole Warworld setting and give Mongul some distinctive lieutenants. If they ever made a Superman videogame, they could make for some good bosses.

Plus as I heard this once before, several of the members actually have backstories, more so than say the Black Order from Thanos.

[Quinlan58]

The Unmade are GREAT ideas for Mongul's liutenants, all visually distinctive and badass, varied in concept, all of them giving off that vibe of being potentially excellent video game bosses, yeah.

Execution-wise? They've been decent, but haven't lived up to that promise yet. Orphan helping the rebellion carries no weight to it yet (though Darling's inclusion on the side of Mongul might yet make them a highlight), Mother jobbed in a most unimpressive way, the actual character that was first called "Unmade" at the start of this arc hasn't been seen since that battle IIRC. Teacher's been good so far. That amputee veteran Warzoon that called out the other Warzoons pledging loyalty to Mongul for just faking it, then insulted Clark and the Authority as soon as they arrived and finally advised Mongul to kill Clark before it was too late is probably the best executed character PKJ has introduced, though. Where is he, anyway?

[HsssH]

I think this is related to earlier discussion about Byla and the trainer dude - there are too many characters and many of them feel a bit undercooked. I know that people want to see Lois, Steel and other characters that appeared in the backups, but I think that those pages could have been better used in fleshing out Warworld's cast and that would have made the main story stronger.

Alternatively Secret Files special could have helped as well, but I think that in this case "less is more" would have worked out better.

[Vordan]

I think this is related to earlier discussion about Byla and the trainer dude - there are too many characters and many of them feel a bit undercooked. I know that people want to see Lois, Steel and other characters that appeared in the backups, but I think that those pages could have been better used in fleshing out Warworld's cast and that would have made the main story stronger.

Alternatively Secret Files special could have helped as well, but I think that in this case "less is more" would have worked out better.

At one point he did say we were supposed to get the backstories of the Champions in the backups. Didn’t happen unfortunately. I get DC wanted to try to highlight other characters like Martian Manhunter but I agree that something like the backups should have been reserved for fleshing out the other characters in the main story.

[Mantis-Ray]

At one point he did say we were supposed to get the backstories of the Champions in the backups. Didn’t happen unfortunately. I get DC wanted to try to highlight other characters like Martian Manhunter but I agree that something like the backups should have been reserved for fleshing out the other characters in the main story.

Yeah back-ups centering on the rest of the Warworld setting would have worked really well and expanded on the supporting cast not in focus.

I would say the thing is that PKJ was clearly told at first to make the Warworld Saga an entire series length setting so he prolly expected to delve into all this overtime but it got cut short with the higher ups wanting him back on Earth sooner than expected.

Like I don't envy PKJ here, he has to work with a lot from what is clearly an editorially mandated direction due to being a remnant of the 5G initiative.

Which hilariously enough is prolly a better status quo than most heroes would have gotten in 5G apparently. Everyone else would have died though granted Didio did want to turn Superman into a fascist while working on 5G.

[Vordan]

He has mentioned that juggling the large cast was a challenge and if he had gotten to pick the roster he would’ve gone smaller so I do think he recognizes that not every character got equal development. All the same I’d like to see the Authority stick around as Clark’s team. Maybe PKJ could cut it down and rotate the members Superman takes with him out to space? Like next time it’s just Black, Middy, and Apollo, and then it’s Nat, OMAC, and Lightray? That might work better in terms of handling the cast. I’ve still been satisfied with his handling of Clark and Mongul and ultimately those two are the main draw for me. Long as Superman himself is handled well I want to see the run keep going.

Next it’s just Clark and Steel so I think things will get more page time to be fleshed out.

[Yoda]

The current backups (which has been in like 3 issues) with Lois and Steele are actually connected to the main story. How many months of wasted pages were devoted to that awful Bibbo backup and a utterly forgettable Martian Manhunter backup? Those were complete wastes that should have been used to flesh out the main story more. Because while I have really enjoyed it, it has felt weirdly rushed and decompressed at the same time.

[Mantis-Ray]

The fact PKJ was actually able to make a decent story out of this is a bit of an achievement.

I mean if you look over at Spider-Man which is undergoing an editorially mandated direction and the general negative reception its getting, it makes PKJ managing to make lemonade out of the lemons he was given pretty impressive.

Here's hoping after this all ends several of the remaining threads gets followed up in future arcs. Hell maybe Mother can come back and show off her capabilities in full. She is some kind of ancient eldritch abomination, it wouldn't be unbelievable if she survived Mongul's spear-shot.

[Vordan]

Mother jobbing to make Mongul look good is actually fine with me. That’s a writer using his OC to prop up an already established character rather than the other way around. Mongul needed some wins after a long period of jobbing and the old Mongul getting killed off has let the new one step up and redeem the name.

[Mantis-Ray]

Makes me wonder whats gonna happen to Mongul after this.

Presumably if he's not straight up killed off, I'm curious what he'll be his status after Clark beats him. Maybe he becomes a warlord in exile and decides to seek the other Olgrun fragments with the remnants of his power base.

[Ra-El]

The current backups (which has been in like 3 issues) with Lois and Steele are actually connected to the main story. How many months of wasted pages were devoted to that awful Bibbo backup and a utterly forgettable Martian Manhunter backup? Those were complete wastes that should have been used to flesh out the main story more. Because while I have really enjoyed it, it has felt weirdly rushed and decompressed at the same time.

Imagine the amount of developtment the Authority members and the Unmade could have had in those back-ups.

[Vordan]

Feels good to see Kon and Steel together for the first time in ages. Looks like Natasha is confirmed to make it through the Warworld Saga.

[The Frog Bros]

Feels good to see Kon and Steel together for the first time in ages. Looks like Natasha is confirmed to make it through the Warworld Saga.

Man, I can't wait to see Federici and the "classic" outfit. Can only imagine how good this will look in color.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Feels good to see Kon and Steel together for the first time in ages. Looks like Natasha is confirmed to make it through the Warworld Saga.

Is this for Kal-El Returns?

[Vordan]

Is this for Kal-El Returns?

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.