Comic Book Review: Action Comics #869

The Brainiac story arc has been an enjoyable read. Johns continues to impress with his talent at world building as Brainiac gets a much needed makeover for New Earth’s continuity. I am confident that Johns will deliver another solidly crafted story. Let’s do this review for Action Comics #869.

Creative Team
Writers: Geoff Johns
Pencils: Gary Frank
Inks: Jon Sibal

Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Brainiac’s androids rampaging through Metropolis. Supergirl tells Lois that Brainiac is here. Lois tells Supergirl to fly away and save herself. Supergirl responds that Brainiac attacked her world and abducted the city of Kandor. Supergirl says that she wants to run away, but that she cannot. That Kal-El didn’t and neither will she. (Damn! How do you like that! For the first time ever, a writer has actually gotten me to enjoy Supergirl’s character for at least this one scene.) Supergirl then attacks the Brainiac androids.

We cut back to Brainiac squeezing Superman’s head. Brainiac says that he has downloaded all of Superman’s memories and that Superman is frightened of what Brainiac will do to Supergirl. Superman says that he won’t let Brainiac abduct his home.

Brainiac scoffs at Superman. Brainiac says that Kal-El is a Kryptonian. Yet, Superman considers himself human. Brainiac says that Superman is born of an amalgam of worlds just like Brainiac. Brainiac says he is connected to every living being in his bio-shell. However, Brainiac would still never consider himself anything but Coluan. Brainiac says that he would never betray his race as Superman has.

Superman then rips open the cord running for Brainiac to his bio-shell. Brainiac drops Superman and reels in pain. Superman then takes down Brainiac with one punch. Superman then hears a voice from Kandor calling out to him. Superman goes up to the bottle holding the city of Kandor.

Suddenly, an electrical beam extends from the bottled city and into Superman’s forehead. A voice then tells Superman to calm down. The voice says that this is not Brainiac’s doing. That it is Kandor’s.

Superman asks if this is his father. The voice responds that this is not Jor-El. Superman says that the voice sounds just like his father. The voice answers that he supposes that he does sound like Jor-El. The voice then reveals that he is Jor-El’s brother: Zor-El.

We see inside of the bottle Zor-El and his wife, Alura, standing outside on their deck looking at Superman. Zor-El is using a device to talk to Superman. They ask Superman if he has seen their daughter (Supergirl). They want to know if she made it to Earth.

We cut back to Earth with Supergirl still brawling with the Brainiac androids. During this scene we also see the staff at the Daily Planet having to fend off an attack by one of Brainiac’s androids. We zip back to Superman on Brainiac’s ship. Superman replies that Kara thought that her parents were dead. Superman also comments that Zor-El and Alura look so young. Zor-El explains that people do not age as quickly within the confines of the bottle cities.

Zor-El continues that they were in Argo City when Zor-El heeded his brother’s warnings of impending doom. Zor-El took one of the Brainiac androids that General Zod recovered after the attack on Kandor and used it to attempted to recreate Brainiac’s force field technology. Zor-El succeeded in creating just enough to generate a dome over Argo City that protected the city from complete destruction when the rest of Krypton died.

Brainiac’s ship then spied the domed city of Argo and began to integrate Argo City with Kandor. Anyone who was deemed redundant was slaughtered. Zor-El knew that their time in Argo was limited so they formulated an escape plan to follow Kal-El to Earth. Unfortunately, they only had time to get an escape pod for Kara. They sent her to Earth to find her baby cousin and to watch over him.

We see Argo City explode as it is fully assimilated into Kandor. Suddenly, the electric connection between Zor-El and Superman breaks as Brainiac is back up and ready for round two. Brainiac has his ship’s tendrils grab Superman and bind him. The tendrils then connect to Superman’s head.

We cut to one of Brainiac’s androids getting the upper hand on Supergirl. Suddenly, a red beam shoots down from Brainiac’s ship and envelops Supergirl. A tendril from Brainiac’s ship then reaches out and grabs Supergirl and pulls her into the ship. Lois is horrified.

We see Brainiac’s ship over Metropolis and see a giant force field forming around Metropolis. We cut back into the ship where Superman is bound in a bio-shell. Brainiac then gets a bottle and hooks it into one of his machines. Brainiac scoffs that the Earthlings call Kal-El “Superman.” Brainiac says that there is nothing super about Kal-El.

We see a huge flash of energy engulf Metropolis. We then see Metropolis shrunken down and inside of the bottle that Brainiac had hooked into one of his machines. Brainiac stares at the bottled city of Metropolis.

Brainiac then states that Superman’s mind is small. Brainiac asks how much data will Superman’s brain store before it turns into sludge. We see Superman screaming as he is overwhelmed by the stream of information being downloaded into his mind.

We then see a projectile being launched from Brainiac’s ship. We cut to Ma and Pa Kent in Smallville. Ma Kent tells Jonathon to look up into the sky. They see the projectile from Brainiac’s ship streaking across the sky. Jonathon says that it looks like it is headed toward the sun.

We hop back to Brainiac’s ship. Brainiac says that he just launched his solar-aggressor. That in less than fifty-seven minutes the solar-aggressor will reach Earth’s sun. That the sun will flare up and then the Earth will be incinerated. Just like Krypton. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Action Comics #869 was another good read. Johns delivers a wonderfully constructed issue. Action Comics #869 has a enjoyable flow as the reader gets treated to a fine blend of action and drama. Johns cranks up the intensity with this issue as he manages to fill the reader with tension as they sit at the edge of their seat and quickly turn each page to see what is going to happen next. This issue possesses plenty of energy as the story hits its crescendo by the final six pages.

Action Comics #869 is well paced as the constant action throughout this issue keeps the story moving at a quick pace. This issue is a nice change of pace from the earlier issues in this story arc.

Johns also turns in a nicely plotted issue. Johns has crafted an intriguing and complex story that has plenty of substance to it. Johns has maintained laser-like focus with this story arc and continues to progress the story in a clear and logical fashion. This is a well thought out story arc that shows the type of work that Johns puts into plotting his long story arcs.

Johns serves up plenty of quality dialogue. Johns has a great feel for the various characters and is able to give them well formed external voices. Johns’ character work continues to impress me. Johns continues to do a fine job with Superman’s supporting cast. I love that the staff at the Daily Planet are getting some panel time in each issue.

However, the best character work was the fantastic job that Johns does with Supergirl. I am one of the biggest haters of the little red S. Anyone who has been following The Revolution for a while knows this. However, I have to admit that Johns actually got me to like Supergirl for the first time ever. The reader got to see such an impressively heroic side to Kara’s character.

Usually, Supergirl is written as a bimbo who easily waltzes through the opposition in order to save the day for the rest of the helpless heroes. That is most definitely not the case in this issue. Instead, Johns shows us Supergirl full of fear. Supergirl wants nothing more than to run away and hide.

Instead of turning tail, Supergirl displays a heroic heart and some real grit as she knuckles up against the Brainiac androids. That is how a character earns my respect. Easily dispatching foes while delivering insipid quips does nothing for me. However, seeing a character have to overcome their own fears and tackle a force that is greater than them always appeals to me.

I like the way that Johns compares and contrasts Brainiac with Superman. Both characters are products of more than one world. While Johns has Brainiac remain loyal to his home planet, Johns presents Superman as the personification of the American Dream. Superman is like your typical American who has a culture that they descend from that is combined with their current American culture. Superman would never consider him just Kryptonian. Instead, he would probably label himself a Kryptonian-Human kind of the way that mi esposa considers herself a Dominican-American.

The more that DC restores Superman’s glorious and storied continuity the better. Even though Big Blue is most definitely not my favorite super hero; the fact remains that he is still the greatest superhero character of all time. Superman served as the beginning for the Super Hero comic book genre. This is definitely one character that deserves to retain his long and impressive history.

Johns gave a nice explanation of how Argo City survived the destruction of Krypton. And the subsequent integration into Kandor was an effective plot device to place Kara’s parents into the bottled city of Kandor. It should be interesting to see how Kara reacts to the fact that her parents are still alive.

What is the most impressive aspect of Action Comics #869 is that despite all of the continuity work that Johns is performing on this story, he manages to do it in a fashion that is decidedly new reader friendly. The reader does not need to know much of anything about Superman’s past in order to fully understand and enjoy this issue. Johns seamlessly integrates enough information and back story into the fabric of the story so that long term readers do not get bored while the newer readers are educated.

Johns ends Action Comics #869 with an awesome hook ending. The final six pages of this issue are fantastic as Johns cranks up the intensity of this story to a fever pitch. Superman gets captured. Supergirl gets captured. Metropolis gets shrunk down and put into a bottle aboard Brainiac’s ship. Then Brainiac launches his solar-aggressor so that the sun will flare and Earth will be destroyed like Krypton. That is how you end an issue in style. I cannot wait to see what happens next.

Frank and Sibal combine to deliver some incredible artwork. Action Comics #869 is wonderful looking issue. Even if you are not a fan of the fact that Frank draws Superman just like Christopher Reeves, the rest of the artwork is exceptionally well done. Frank draws an imposing Brainiac. Frank also manages to pack plenty of emotion into the facial expressions of each of the characters.

The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.

Overall: Action Comics #869 was another well crafted issue by Johns that presents an excellent mixture of action and drama. We get plenty of nice character work to compliment a captivating plot that hooks the reader into the story. Action Comics #869 should have mass appeal given the balanced nature of this issue. If you have not read Action Comics in a while then I would suggest giving this title a try. Johns is doing his best to make this title a consistently solid read each and every month.