Originally Posted by
Easybroth
I was confused by the characterization of Lex Luthor, he's overweight, insecure, slimy, apparently easily flattered, are those all normal character traits of his? I figured insecure, but the other ones threw me off. He's not likable at all, but doesn't seem to present a real threat at this point to Superman, but I assume that changes.
The overarching villain this arc was the Collector of Worlds, essentially a giant alien nerd who wants to collect all failing worlds, including Earth and Krypton. I thought it was interesting one, but isn't that a Justice League level event too? It took Darkseid appearing to get them to show up in JL: Vol. 1. The world (minus the shrunken bubble of Metropolis) is on the verge of annihilation and only young Superman is on the scene?! Makes me wonder what kind of colossal threats the JL is going to face in their next volumes, if this didn't get their attention. But, I probably shouldn't try to apply such logic to these things.
As the arc went on, there's a temporary flash forward, Superman is shot in the head with a microscopic bullet, there's the introduction to the Anti-Superman Army which was confusing. The Legion of Superheroes shows up at one point, which I didn't even know they existed. Their names were so foreign to me, i.e. "Saturn Girl", that they sounded like knock off superheroes as opposed to 'real' ones. It's never fun having to re read and just be confused, but I was able to follow the story well enough, but issues #4-#6 weren't as enjoyable to me as the rest of the series.
Action Comics, Vol. 1 started very strong with three solid issues, but it started to lose me towards the end, however the ending was satisfying enough and it does a good job of establishing Superman as a hero of Metropolis/humanity going forward, and a public that is increasingly aware and more comfortable with his existence. I didn't care for the dialogue at points, it felt unnatural. Some odd lines that stuck out, presented completely out of context: "I'll raise you light!" and "I am an alien...a real life alien."
Some suggestion on this site as well as some others make it look like I should keep reading Action Comics for another volume or two, and that might be the plan. I've also seen the suggestion of reading Volume #1 of Green Arrow, which seems more likely what I'm going to do. Three volumes of Action Comics will have me a good year or two ahead in publication, and I'm not sure if I want to do that.