Preview: ACTION COMICS #961

[Vanguard-01]

Part of it was, if memory serves (keeping in mind that books published in the same month are not contemporaneous), that:

Hal was in space
Diana was, well, working a job in fast food
Bruce was dealing with Bane's release of all the Arkham Inmates
Wally was dealing with what he believed to be the return of Barry Allen
Martian Manhunter WAS present; he was Bloodwynd

Wonder Woman was actually in space herself at the time. The fast-food thing was earlier.

[manofsteel1979]

Yet strangely enough,most of those who were unavailable for the fight that day (including Diana) were suddenly available to gather at the United Nations building to mourn in Justice League #70,which apparently happens later that same afternoon. Ah,comics...

[Pamp_Lusa]

Once again Wonder Woman written like a pompous overbearing fool in a Superman comic, she's like "I've faced beasts stronger than you, Yes I am Formidable!" followed by her getting the wind knocked out of her with a kick in that big mouth of hers. It's pathetic

[Tayswift]

Once again Wonder Woman written like a pompous overbearing fool in a Superman comic, she's like "I've faced beasts stronger than you, Yes I am Formidable!" followed by her getting the wind knocked out of her with a kick in that big mouth of hers. It's pathetic

that was bad writing, but at least she wasn't on her knees with two broken arms. it's a revolution here.

nice cliffhanger

[Pamp_Lusa]

Bad writing which is unfortunately the norm of late, these days this how Wonder Woman's written outside her eponymous book, I don't know whether he was deliberately trying to ridicule Wonder Woman or whether Jurgens actually thinks this is a legit portrayal of a powerful woman, either way I'm growing really sick of it

[Green Goblin of Sector 2814]

The art was incredible. And while I can't say that the actual dialogue or text of the book is the best, I am interested in where the story itself is going. So, while not a masterpiece by any stretch, its just....a solid/decent Superman comic. Its good to be enjoying Superman again.

[Rikdad]

Lex's words are more meta than Jurgens knows. "I heard you the first hundred times, Kent." We've read this for four issues straight, dude. Get moving.

This captures my thoughts exactly; often if not always, when a character in a story criticizes another character's dialogue, that's a case where the writer should have corrected the flaw in the first place, because what the character finds annoying, is annoying. I'll pile on a bit – it's not just that there's repetition within this arc: It also repeats previous Jurgens-Doomsday stories, such as Superman using heat vision from a distance while his expositional thought balloons tell us why, and the threat of Doomsday suddenly becoming more serious when he targets a vulnerable victim besides Superman.

I think the Superwoman cameo and the redundant dialogue have the same root cause: Editorial is handing out directives for the writers to carry out, and the coordination is minimal. There was nothing about the blink-and-you-miss-it Superwoman cameo that was engaging, but when narrated in flashback in the Superwoman title, it had a lot more meat on the bone.

Likewise, I suspect that the tempo of this story started with someone deciding that there'd be a six-issue arc that had to reach a certain ending (which we'll see in the next issue) and that "six" really should have been a "five" or a "four."

OR: The extra space could have been used for a better purpose than to have various lines and fight dynamics repeat. IMO, it's fascinating that this Lex isn't the psychopath that post-Crisis Lex was. Having Superman go into more depth on that rather than notice it and move on would be an interesting use of the six-issue length. It actually got me interested as a topic – Are there different grades of self-absorbed Luthor? Merely a jerk vs. criminal? But it was quickly dropped.

That said, I didn't react to the Superwoman cameo negatively… it just seemed to be perfunctory rather than bad. And the redundancy is dragging this arc out needlessly, but it still has my interest. I just wish there were six issues worth of content filling out the six issues worth of space.

[Tony]

Hmm are we doing spoilers yet?

[mace11]

To be fair though Maxima was a powerhouse. She was the only one of the JL B-squad that wasn't taken down nearly instantaneously. She was in the mix for quite some time.

Maxima is really powerful.
Green lanterns are really powerful too.
Guy is really powerful.

[Sacred Knight]

He wasn't in that story. I think at that point Guy didn't entirely know all the ropes yet of the yellow ring he had; he wasn't a Green Lantern anymore then. Or maybe just reckless writing. Either way all I know is Guy gets his face smushed in immediately upon meeting the creature, and his eyes swell shut and he's basically out of the fight for all intents and purposes from that point forward.

[andersonh1]

He wasn't in that story. I think at that point Guy didn't entirely know all the ropes yet of the yellow ring he had; he wasn't a Green Lantern anymore then. Or maybe just reckless writing. Either way all I know is Guy gets his face smushed in immediately upon meeting the creature, and his eyes swell shut and he's basically out of the fight for all intents and purposes from that point forward.

Yeah, Guy was pretty much a brainless, gung-ho jerk at that point, and that can be traced back to the way he was written in the Giffen/DeMatteis Justice League series. He should have been considerably more effective against Doomsday than he was, even with the yellow ring, but at that time he tended to rush in first and think later, if at all. He's grown a lot as a character in the decades since. He'd do much better now than he did then.

As for the issue itself, it needed a good plot twist. Part One of "Path of Doom" set up a lot of interesting plots, but parts two through four have been one long fight sequence. Its' been enjoyable, but the plot hasn't moved very far along in four issues, so it had begun to feel slow. Superman being knocked for a loop, wondering if he's about to die again, and the sudden appearance of those men working for/with Mr. Oz to immobilize Doomsday was just the kick in the pants the story needed. I need to go back to part one and see if these are the same men who were taking Doomsday in part one.

Jurgens has done a great job in making Doomsday the unstoppable force of nature that he was during his first appearance. Even with Superman trying to think his way through the fight, and put into practice what he's learned about fighting Doomsday, it still does no good. I wonder if New 52 Superman could have ripped this Doomsday in half like he did New 52 Doomsday. They just seem like such different creatures, with different levels of power.

Good issue, and I love that Jon gets to go into outer space.

[Kevin Street]

Likewise, I suspect that the tempo of this story started with someone deciding that there'd be a six-issue arc that had to reach a certain ending (which we'll see in the next issue) and that "six" really should have been a "five" or a "four."

I agree with you. There's nothing wrong with a good punch-up, but this has already been an issue or two too long.

OR: The extra space could have been used for a better purpose than to have various lines and fight dynamics repeat. IMO, it's fascinating that this Lex isn't the psychopath that post-Crisis Lex was. Having Superman go into more depth on that rather than notice it and move on would be an interesting use of the six-issue length. It actually got me interested as a topic – Are there different grades of self-absorbed Luthor? Merely a jerk vs. criminal? But it was quickly dropped.

This does seem to be a beat that the story will return to. They've set up an interesting conflict between Lex and Superman that's different from the usual thing. Superman is convinced this Lex is as bad as the old one, and absolutely does not want that jerk wearing the S-shield. Meanwhile Luthor feels that Metropolis is his city, and the current Supey-come-lately is some kind of pretender who brings nothing but trouble. (IE: Doomsday is apparently this Superman's old enemy.) They've both got legitimate beefs.

I'm not really interested in good guy Lex Luthor, but I am interested in how an apparently good Lex Luthor could drive Superman crazy without even trying. That is, Superman keeps waiting tensely for the other shoe to drop and Luthor to go full villain, but it never seems to happen. Hopefully the book will get back to this.

[Robotman]

This issue was ok but it can basically be summed up the same way the last few issues went down. Superman and Doomsday fight, Superman is worried about the safety of his family, Lex is jealous, Jon acting kind of annoying, Mr. Oz looks on and makes cryptic comments.