Action Comics #1018
The Legion Of Doom has Superman on the ropes in Action Comics #1018, by writer Brian Michael Bendis, artist John Romita Jr, inker Klaus Janson, colorist Brad Anderon, and letterer Dave Sharpe. While the last issue set things up rather well for this story, Bendis focuses more on ancillary events than the battle against the Legion.
Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman battle the Legion Of Doom, but it’s not going very well. Red Cloud watches the action and flashes back to her days on Star City. She was doing a story on S.T.A.R Labs employees disappearing when one of the scientists attacked her. They decide to get rid of her by throwing her into an interdimensional void, but she wakes up and fights back, getting knocked into the void anyway. Instead of dying, she gains her powers and takes revenge on the scientists. In the present, Superman gets blasted by Luthor, but Wonder Woman pulls Luthor away from him. Superman tells fire chief Moore to clear the area, and she flashes back to the day before when she met with Clark Kent and told him that she’s going to run for mayor. She asks him if he could get Superman to endorse her, and he admits to her he is Superman. He tells her he’ll support her if she can keep his secret for two more days. Suddenly, the Legion Of Doom’s headquarters appear overhead, and he attacks it, but they strike back and reveal their newest ally- Leviathan.
Most of the book is flashbacks that don’t really add anything to the story at hand. Is it interesting to know Red Cloud’s origin? Sure. Is it needed in this story? Not at all. Her place in the issue, in general, is pretty weird. She’s just watching the fight, not getting involved, and then she starts thinking about her origin, which has nothing to do with what’s going on in the present. It plays a bit into Bendis’ new portrayal of S.T.A.R. Labs as shady, but other than that, it’s very much out of the blue. The flashback with fire chief Moore at least ties into the battle against the Legion Of Doom, but her wanting to be the new mayor plays more into what Bendis has been doing in the book than the story at hand.
Bendis is known for focusing on his original characters, and he does it to the detriment of the story he’s telling. Watching Superman and his friends battle the Legion Of Doom would be a great story, but this issue mostly skips over that, so Bendis can flesh out his OCs and progress his plotlines. He could have cut the Red Cloud flashback, and nothing would have been lost. That little change would have made this a better issue.
John Romita Jr’s art is excellent, but he’s sort of wasted on this issue. Romita’s one of the better action pencillers around, and Bendis doesn’t really take advantage of this at all. However, he still makes the flashback scenes look good, his character acting, making the scenes work.
Action Comics #1018 is a big disappointment. Bendis pushes his OCs and furthers his plots, but skips out on the big fight, which is a very Bendis thing to do. Maybe the next issue will actually focus on the big moments, but this one is a bust. Romita’s art is very good, but it would have been nice to see him get to illustrate more of the battle against the Legion Of Doom. This comic is basically all the problems with Bendis’ writing in a nutshell- focuses on his OCs to the detriment of the story, skipping most of the fight, and progressing plots that don’t fit into the story he’s telling.
Grade: D
