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Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Action Comics #879

Action Comics #879

Scheduled to arrive in stores: July 15, 2009

Cover date: September 2009

"The Sleepers" - Part Five

Writer: Greg Rucka
Penciller: Diego Olmos
Inker: Diego Olmos
Cover: Andrew Robinson

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



Assassin is overjoyed to meet four Kryptonians rather than the 2 he had expected and instructs his orc/zombie/monster army to attack. They do but Az-Rel and Nadira are able to flee as Thara is temporarily overwhelmed and Nightwing chases after the sleepers.

With her helmet removed in the struggle Assassin reads her mind. He learns of Alura, Zor, Kara, the sleepers plot, the church, Ursa, Chris Kent, Brainiac, a magic flower and a phoenix. Chris interests him most of all and Assassin smugly promises to kill Chris in front of Thara. This manifests the hidden power within her and she becomes Flamebird herself - the real one. She kills the army of orc things and rushes to find her soulmate.

Assassin radios in to 7734 that there have been developments in the mission but in the meantime we catch up to the two sleepers and their fight with Nightwing.

Az-Rel reveals that in legend one of the duo of Nightwing and Flamebird will die for the love of the other. Chris shrugs the legend off and races to save a falling bridge - again the sleepers use the confusion to escape and Thara now normal again arrives to help. The two give chase when they realize Nadira and Az-Rel have fled.

Lois Lane stands in Arlington National Cemetery, at the grave of her father. Another of her celebrity friends, Mon-El, arrives and Lois asks him to scan the grave. The body in the grave is almost identical to that of the real Sam Lane but the parties responsible for creating a duplicate forgot to count his teeth. Lois knows her dad has twenty eight teeth and thus it dawns on her finally that her father is still alive...

Sam Lane in the 7734 base is mighty hacked off at the performance of his team until Assassin reminds him that Thara was possessed be something powerful. Sam reminds his cohorts that 7734 is not to be made public yet and that's when he notices Mirabai has vanished. She reappears and leads Sam to the basement where she rewards her boss with two hostages... somehow she has captured Az-Rel and Nadira!

To Be Continued...

1Story - 1: WHAT??

1. Thara has a rip off of the Phoenix Force now... ok...

2. Lois has taken 33 weeks to realize her father is alive even though Jim Harper, Jimmy Olsen, Lucy Lane & Kara all pretty much spelled it out for her... and it took wisdom teeth to discover it - not the gargantuan mass of evidence? ok...

3. 7734 are to remain a secret organization yet they have launched several pretty public attacks in this title, Supergirl and in Superman. ok...

4. Lois has the entire DCU on speed dial. ok...

The hunter with the glowing eye and tattoos is now named Mirabai after a Hindu Mystic Songstress. ok...

5. Az-Rel and Nadira were running around for four chapters, were able to fight off Nightwing, Flamebird, weird orc men, Assassin, but were caught off camera by Mirabai... ok...

Can you tell I think someone dropped the ball here?

1. If you rip something off at least don't do it so obviously... Nightwing presumably can change into a giant flower if we're following that formula, right?

2. Why are they writing Lois as a complete and utter incompetent? I thought she was an incomparable Pulitzer and Kerth award winning investigative journalist?

3. Let's see what 7734, the ultra secret anti-Kryptonian organization has done so far:

Birth of Reactron, attack on the presidential address, attack on Kandor, death of Zor-El, attack on Chris, robbery in the Fortress, death of Superwoman, attack on Nadira and Az-Rel... seems like everything they do is public or at least, if Lois was on top form, would have clicked to earlier - for God's sake Jimmy is closer to the truth than she is even now...

4. Every appearance so far has been with a cameo of a superhero...

5. Worst insult of all - a key story point is totally written off... even though its been worked towards for four chapters already. Not only that but by some lame character with a love of tattoos that would make a Romulan or Maori jealous.

Oh and let's just add the Captain Atom back up feature swallowed up ten pages.

A big fat mess... and now there is a crossover within a crossover, just to make it more irritating.

1Art - 1: I hate the phrase "as an artist/writer myself..." so I won't use it.

The art is rushed art this month - plain and simple.

Flamebird and Nightwing's armor changes with each panel. All the women have a dislocated spine, Mirabai's tattoos jump all over the place.

The Brainiac minions look nothing like themselves here - they look like T800's with Flash's earpieces.

The coloring is so brash, one presumes to cover these mistakes and lacking environments with excessive textures, layers and renders that it overpowers your senses.

3Cover Art - 3: Nice and arty cover, non-descriptive of the book but still pretty cool, considering how badly the two leads have performed so far. though perhaps this is a little too 'kick ass' a pose methinks...


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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