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Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Action Comics #872 Action Comics #872

Action Comics #872

Scheduled to arrive in stores: December 10, 2008

Cover date: February 2009

"New Krypton" - Part 7: "Brainiac Lives"

Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Pete Woods
Inker: Pete Woods

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



Kal and Kara are still demanding to know the identities of the Kryptonians that killed the humans, but an undeterred Alura wont budge. She insists it was accidental and that though he may think highly of humans there are many out there determined to harm them. Leading Kal and Kara into Brainiac's ship she reveals what she has decided is Kandor's legacy... to repair the universe by undoing the Coluan's mass kidnapping.

Alura leads them into a chamber to reveal more horrors... humans, aliens, all manner of life trapped in amniotic fluid; among them are the Creature Commandos second world war soldiers and a lost astronaut named Ace Arn, a shapeshifting man able to adapt his own dna.

Clark demands they all be released but Zor and Alura reveal for all their work they can't seem to deactivate Brainiac's self destruct code. Kara interjects that if they don't change their ways they'll all be compared to Zod and his army of criminals, Kal agrees and again demands the names of the Kryptonian cop killers... Alura is easily able to push his buttons... does he really care more for his surrogate father than his entire race?

Steve Lombard sneers to Ron Troupe that Gor and his comrades have instilled fear and doubt where once hope and faith was inspired by the words 'look up in the sky'. Commander Gor mumbles something about attaining the Projector if they do as Alura says but is distracted by a copy of the Daily Planet slapping him in the face, reading they have been declared murderers doesn't help his cheery attitude but he still heads into a fight with Metallo and Reactron. Strangely as soon as the cyborg duo are confronted by Gor; they surrender.

Meanwhile Lex Luthor is attempting to activate a dying Brainiac. The coluan is defiant that he cannot be controlled and will never surrender his data but Lex laughs and shows him exactly who is in charge by taking over his programming.

Back in Brainiac's grounded ship Zor begins to question his wife's aggression and why she refuses to ease their integration with Earth by handing over the killers. Alura admits finally that SHE was behind the plans and that she gave the order to kill. Zor, Kara and Kal are crushed, however before they can react Gor arrives with Reactron and Metallo 'captive' ready to be sent to the Phantom Zone. Superman refuses permission, especially with his 'brother' and 'son' trapped inside the Zone... but it's all too little too late and Metallo initiates a trap. Lex uses Brainiac's body to activate the ship and release all the lost people inside. A clueless Alura smiles, she believes it was their hard work that finally released the trapped civilisations but as Brainiac drones begin to activate they realize something has gone wrong. Distracted, Superman, Supergirl and their new allies, the Creature Commandos, spring into action to destroy the drones.

Outside the ship Metallo activates his new body and its deadly green kryptonite rays rendering Gor and his soldiers weak while Reactron in his new body activates his Kryptonian power source... gold k!

Gold Kryptonite can mimic the red sun for fifteen seconds shutting down their powers enough for his other cosmic abilities to power up and kill.

Back in Sam Lane's bunker, the maniac general applauds Luthor's skill in reprogramming Brainiac but now the corpse of Doomsday is his next mission... or is it really a corpse?

Sam smiles that the war against the Kryptonians is gathering new allies as days go by and we see Flamebird and Nightwing hiding in the shadows somewhere in Gotham. Flamebird points out that they must not get involved or reveal themselves as yet, with the secrets they are keeping, it's best to wait it out... then suddenly we see the monument of Kal and Connor and its rebuilding... are these two 'heroes' connected to Superman or Superboy in some way?

While this is all going on Agent Liberty has found the trapped Legionnaire once befriended by The Guardian and demands to know what it can reveal about how Doomsday was released and where he was released from...

Back in Kandor, during the fighting, Zor-El leaps in to protect his daughter from Reactron, and is hit by a blast of gold kryptonite. Powerless and up close to the villain Zor tries to pull back... Reactron smirks and blows a hole through Zor's chest.

Kal screams out for his uncle, is he dead?

Elsewhere the Science Police and new leader, The Guardian, enlist the help of earth's super community, to intervene in Kandor's plans...

To be continued....

3Story - 3: This issue I'm sad to say wasn't a winner for me... the Creature Commandos? Big whoop. Nothing was fleshed out about them and literally a page after their introduction they're battling away... ok then.

A LOT happened - which is a good thing but perhaps too much to squeeze in, and still achieve a well told chapter. This issue seemed to jam in far too much to be enjoyable...

I was disappointed that Lex took out Brainy so very quickly... (how come he's a behemoth of a man one minute and in these pages suddenly he is smaller than Luthor?)

I like the fix of Reactron though he comes across as a clone of Corben which is a shame.

Doomsday's not dead... big surprise there! Nightwing and Flamebird pop up in a blink and you'll miss it cameo, while Agent Liberty was able to track down the Legionnaire from the Adventure Comics special somehow... To top it off the killing blow to Zor was explosive and potentially far reaching... but dulled with a conference with The Guardian. One gripe I have is that Zor wasn't treated in at all the same respectful way Jonathan was awarded... I hope Kara's father isn't dead because this WAS a sensationalist death if so.

Also because Aunt Alura is a grade 'A' Biatch I'd rather she went...

3Art - 3: Nothing really amazing to write about to be honest, it just comes across as capable and able to tell the story, Sorry Pete, I've seen you really kick butt with layouts in the past - this issue wasn't one of your best - it's very clunky and cluttered...

3Cover Art - 3 (Newsstand): Dull. I don't care for the Creature Commandos enough yet so to have them take over the cover leaves me a little cold, especially as Clark is dwarfed by them. As above... 'capable' but not the best.

1Cover Art - 1 (Variant): Wha... what? Sorry folks I'm not sure what to make of the variant...

Ugly cyborgs (those new suits are TERRIBLE) attack two snoring superheroes!

ICK!


Mild Mannered Reviews

2009

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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