Mild Mannered Reviews - Regular Superman Comics

Action Comics #763

Action Comics #763

Scheduled to arrive in stores: January 26, 2000

Cover date: March 2000

2000 Shield No. 13

Writer: Joe Kelly
Penciller: German Garcia and Kano
Inker: Marlo Alquiza

"Sacrifice for Tomorrow"

Reviewed by: Nick Newman (NNewman8283@yahoo.com)



Energy conduits encircle the world. The chaos is so complete that it takes Superman less time to burrow through the Earth than to fly back to Metropolis.

Brainiac 13 looms over Metropolis. Superman hovers in front of him, until he sees the citizens of his city. They have all been converted into B13's slaves. Distracted by his shock, Superman is caught unaware as Brainiac hurls him through a building.

In the bowels of Lexcorp Tower, Lex and Brainiac-possessed Lena float inside of the Kryptonian war suit. They begin to power up the weapon.

Outside, Superman and a newly rebuilt Kelex fly towards Brainiac 13. Suddenly, the Kryptonian war suit bursts through B13's chest, breaking up the giant robot. Superman tells Lex that they have to work together, but he responds by slamming Superman into the pavement. Getting up he sees hordes of robots, slaves to Brainiac 13, descending on Metropolis. He rushes to stop the robots, and begins to communicate mentally with Kelex. He tells his robot to link up with the war suit, no matter what it takes.

Inside the suit, Lena/Brainiac reaches forward and triggers a small button, releasing an enormously powerful electromagnetic pulse. The robot warriors fall to the ground. Brainiac 13, however, is unharmed. As Superman continues his ineffectual attack on the giant automaton, Kelex begins to work on the war suit.

Brainiac 13 grabs Superman and begins to envelop him in liquid cables. Luthor, following Kelex's plan, begins to draw the power from B13 into the suit. Kelex urges Luthor to stop B13 using the suit before Superman dies, but Luthor hesitates, just like Superman knew he would. Superman sends Kelex a command to wake Tornado.

Instantly Red Tornado awakes from his enslavement and flies at Brainiac 13. Luthor hurries to disengage before Brainiac 13 is sucked inside the suit, but Kelex informs Luthor that he lied. As Brainiac 13 is sucked into the suit and Luthor and Lena are removed from its innards, Superman flies to find Lois. Confirming that she is all right, he flies back to Luthor. He finds Luthor holding Lena, and Brainiac 13 trapped inside the suit. Superman looks around at Metropolis for a moment, wondering why it hasn't reverted back to its normal state yet, and when he looks back the suit and Lena are gone.

Sitting high in his new tower, Luthor contemplates those last few moments. Brainiac 13 told him that Luthor has lost everything he owned, but it could all be given back to him. Metropolis will change back, unless B13 gives Luthor the code to maintain it. And in return B13 wants Lena. Luthor argues at first, but then he solemnly holds out Lena to the giant robot...

Superman floats outside of Luthor's window. He tells Lex that he knows that he is responsible for Metropolis staying like this, and he knows it cost him Lena. Superman tells Luthor that he will make him pay if it is the last thing he does.

5Story - 5: A great ending to Y2K. It was an exciting story until the last few pages, but Lex's sacrifice of Lena really drove it home. The past few months I have been thinking how stupid it is that Lex has a daughter, and now the new teams do something about it. Very cool.

5Art - 5: Garcia, as always, was awesome. But even better is the fact that you can't tell his pages from Kano's. That is going to make the switch over so much more seamless. A few pages stand out in particular. The last page with Superman's face through the glass was awesome, as was the picture of Red Tornado attacking B13.

3Cover Art - 3: The issue's only flaw, and a minor one at that. The art on the cover wasn't anything spectacular, and it just really didn't do anything for me, especially after some of the other covers we have gotten this month.



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