Superman is back from the timestream, but that doesn’t mean everything is finished, there’s one loose end to tie up before he calls it a day. Not to mention on the home front, General Sam Lane has come to meet his grandson, and he’s not happy!
Title: Action Comics #999
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Art: Will Conrad
Color: Ivan Nunes
Letters: Rob Leigh
Publisher: DC Comics
What You Need to Know:
Superman and Booster Gold fixed the time stream, Lois and Jon are safe, and Sam Lane is coming to dinner. Not all is well in the Kent household, and Superman has a loose end to resolve of his own, but first, an asteroid is headed for Earth, and only he can stop it!
What You’ll Find Out:
We open on General Sam Lane arriving at the Kent household, Jon is elated to meet his maternal grandfather officially, but Lois is less impressed. Lois remembers the way her father was covertly planning a way to take down Superman, which Sam openly talks about. Sam believes that as long as a being like Superman exists, countermeasures to defeat him have to be in place. Makes sense to an extent, honestly. Lois wrote an expose revealing the covert operation, getting it officially shut down and discrediting her father.
Love Jon’s 1000 hat
Meanwhile, Superman is in space, there’s an asteroid headed in Earth’s general direction, but it’s destination isn’t important, it’s contents are. Constrained within the asteroid is a crystalline structure that, when exposed to Earth’s atmosphere, hardens to an insane degree, where even someone as strong as Superman can’t crack it.
Superman has plans for that crystal, find out what they are, pick up a copy of Action #999 today!
What Just Happened?
Elephant in the room, this issue is somewhere between filler prior to 1000, and resolving loose ends from Jurgens run, I like the idea of not leaving things up in the air, so I’ll call it a wash. The argument between Sam and Lois is pretty basic and surface level, not to mention he basically parrots Batman from BVS or any other maniac. Pretty uninspired. The end is pretty sweet on both counts though, Superman is a good guy.
The art team does fantastic work this issue, with tons of detail and shading, although I don’t always like the way Will Conrad draws mouths. I like the scenes in space and the fortress of solitude, especially the ones involving a certain unnamed villain I left for you guys to discover.
Really felt like the art carried this issue from one heartfelt moment to another, nothing groundbreaking, but a sweet resolution to Jurgens run, despite the fact I thought we were doing exactly that in the Action Comics special in May
Rating: 7/10
Final Thought:
All in all, I feel like this issue was acceptable, not great, but like I said, at the end of a long run an issue wrapping things up is pretty necessary so I won’t rail on this one too hard, next stop 1000!!!!
If anyone ever wants to contact me, look me up in my group for the love of comic books , I also have several comic pages dedicated to my various true loves, Batman, Spider-man, Marvel, Oldie Goldies, Indie Comics and Hats! (Long story on that last one haha) or on Twitter @johnbatusijack
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