PKJ Action Comics Discussion and Spoilers

[Last Son of Krypton]

Oh ****. This was fast.

[Vordan]

I’m glad Manchester Black at least wasn’t explicitly killed (and even got to kill off one of Mongul’s elite!), wonder where he’s going to end up with Supes and the rest defeated?

[sifighter]

I’m glad Manchester Black at least wasn’t explicitly killed (and even got to kill off one of Mongul’s elite!), wonder where he’s going to end up with Supes and the rest defeated?

I’m assuming laying low in a telepathic disguise waiting for his moment (escape or to help the revived gladiator superman revolt).

[WAKANDA FOREVER!]

Or he could control you know who

[Quinlan58]

I felt it was kind of underhanded what Superman did to his team. Only two of them knew he was weakened and the others had it sprung on them when they were already on a Warworld.

It would be like a General leading soldiers into a horrible battlefield and than saying “hey, you know those guns I gave you? Well, they’re broken and falling apart. Good luck.”

Yep. Probably not what PKJ intended, but it definitely comes across as him so desperately wanting to be perceived as still the shining light in the dark that he'll endanger his team to keep up the charade. Not too worried about this because hopefully it means O.M.A.C. will call him out on it.

Interesting that the two members that knew are the ones with a villanous past. It's because of their abilities, of course, but it's still an interesting coincidence.

[sifighter]

Or he could control you know who

Look that’s a good thought but honestly if I just saw the guy kill Superman and half the hero team I helped form to fight the guy on an alien planet far from home and friends I’m using my mental abilities to run and hide for a bit. No shame in saying the leader, the team, and the plan all went to hell time to run.

[Quinlan58]

Notes while reading the issue:

• That opening page with the Authority in full formation is just so hype inducing.
• The United Planets have at least a drone, and maybe even an agent, in Warworld, to be able to record that. I wonder if that'll come into play at some point.
• Superman said in the Batman special that the UP had denied him help, yet here we see them questioning whether he has called for aid. Is this just a continuity error, or did someone block his call for aid before?
• Cool to see everyone taking it for granted that Superman will win. "We should be seen assisting this endeavor" is on-point.
• Oh, so the Daxamites hadn't been retconned out of existence?
• Evil Durlan Chancellor from last issue is still evil, and really likes his dramatics. Dude outright stood up and turned his back on the others just so he could dramatically turn to face them.
• Evil Durlan Chancellor (his name is Thaaros) spouts xenophobic rethoric and exacerbates wounds from previous conflicts to turn everyone against the Warworld endeavor.
• Thaaros reminds us that this is a new Mongul, which hadn't been acknowledged by the others when he was mentioned before.
• And just after Thaaros reminds us of this, Clark underestimates Mongul by assuming he's just like his father.
• New Mongul better have one hell of a vision or this will be disappointing.
• Manchester Black is the first to react after the fight starts, and his first action is giving orders, and after said June does what he asked for he compliments her. Good way to show he's a leader.
• "Mother" is still weakening Clark after the white stripes were revealed. She can also perceive the duality of Enchantress, and shapeshift. Oh, and a sense of humor, or at least irony.
• I'm betting June's not dead. It's a losing bet but I'm still betting on it.
• Natasha's role here seems to be "the one that's not used to the carnage".
• Apollo asks for trash-talk and gets silently shanked. It looks really silly and makes Apollo look like an idiot. Midnighter immediately going "GAAAHHHH KILL YOU" just makes it look even sillier.
• Once again, we get Manchester Black emphasized as the one who keeps his cool in this mess of a situation.
• The one with the Orphan Box is "Teacher", right? Interesting to see him claim that the current Mongul would still be in chains if not for him. Interesting that he only refers to him as "the one you call Mongul", implying he doesn't. Mongul must be really grateful towards him to let him get away with that lack of reverence.
• This really is the "Manchester Black is a badass" issue, isn't it?
• "They never asked for your hel-" gets punched "One of them did." Stone cold.
• Mongul refers to his younger days as "when I was a knotling". Good way to show even the current leader of that totalitarian nightmare is affected by the propaganda.
• Was Mongul's choice to no longer burn the planets and corpses of their victims for energy motivated by just this trap, or was that only a side-benefit and there was another reason?
• O.M.A.C. implies Apollo's not dead yet.
• The baby ("Darling"?) knows Lia's name. Is that because they're telepathic, or did Mongul research Clark's team before?
• Lia gets killed because of she tried to be a compassionate hero, and didn't understand the situation. In a Superman book, where he's knowingly walking into a trap to save people and underestimates the situation anyway.
• On the one hand, Lia reassuring Clark that she doesn't regret joining him and that she fully believes in his ideals and that he'll still pull off a win is a real gut-punch for Clark. On the other hand, Lia using her dying moments to shill Superman is deeply silly.
• All the chants of "MONGUL" in that scene really help sell the despair here.
• O.M.A.C. is on the panel where Clark's crying after Lia's death. Hopefully this means he isn't going to get sidelined after this and will call out Clark on this.
• Clark getting stabbed from behind is an appropiate interruption for this scene.
• Apollo gets stabbed from the front, Superman gets stabbed from behind.
• Good choice to have Natasha be the one reacting to Clark's "death".
• Thaaros still being blatantly evil even before we get his villanous smirk.
• So no one back on Earth will be informed that Clark lost.
• Thaaros implies Warworld is a match for the entire United Planets and no one contests this.

Overall, fun issue, exquisitely drawn (Clark vs Mongul, Manchester Black vs Teacher, a few of the panels with Orphan and Mongul stabbing Clark were specially good), though I did have some problems with it. Oh, and the Martian Manhunter back-up was fun too.

[Vordan]

Clark did send a request to the UP for aid, but Thaaros blocked his request. We saw that last issue someone came to Thaaros with Superman’s plea, and Thaaros was going to answer it until he heard that the Phaelosians were involved. After that he threatened to kill the messenger if he told anyone else about the request or said the word “Phaelosians” again. We don’t know why yet.

Backdrop of all this United Planets politicking is really enjoyable for me, it helps raise the stakes even more. I wonder if the next arc post-Warworld is going to be Clark investigating why the United Planets didn’t respond to him?

[WAKANDA FOREVER!]

I feel you sifighter. I'm sayin from the shadows

[Robanker]

Well. That's one helluva way to establish this new Mongul.

[Nero]

I'm really digging on how the new Mongul is being written because this is the way Mongul should have always been. At the rate he's going, this new Mongul is going to be one of Superman's key villains (on par with Luthor, Brainiac and Zod).

[HsssH]

At the end of the day Manchester Black is Superman mythos character, while others on Authority aren't (or at least not yet) so him being show as badass, while others aren't doing that fine is ok in my book. Last thing we need is someone like Midnighter saving the day.

[Bored at 3:00AM]

Glad they got rid of those morally compromised Guardians of the Universe so we can get the equally morally compromised United Planets.

Yay.

[rpmaluki]

At the end of the day Manchester Black is Superman mythos character, while others on Authority aren't (or at least not yet) so him being show as badass, while others aren't doing that fine is ok in my book. Last thing we need is someone like Midnighter saving the day.

Amen to that!

[The Frog Bros]

Trying my best not to read these too closely 'cause I haven't read the issue yet, but I can only surmise that PKJs Twitter feed has been, shall we say aggressive, following the issue's release.