Action Comics #843 (SPOILERS!)

[Jack Zodiac]

Man, what a finish! This arc was packed with action from the beginning and the ending delivered in spades!

In the last issue, Livewire had transmitted the team of heroes' actions all across Earth in order to contact Mr. Terrific so he could direct them through the ship and to the power dampening station where Superman dove headfirst, and powerless mind you, into the core while entrusting his team to disrupt it long enough for him to get beyond it and regain his powers. They apparently fail, but Superman soars back to the team, telling them that their powers were only repressed psychologically, not physically.

With everyone's powers back, the team sets to task to disrupt The Auctioneer's Ops. Their plan works and Superman gets his attention, forcing him to teleport back to the ship and face them directly. Leslie takes the energy being that is his Ops hostage while Superman negotiates a "bid" with him to leave Earth alone. In the end, The Auctioneer agrees to leave the planet be and Superman promises not to have Leslie send every bit of Ops's information across the galaxy for every one of his clients and competitors to peruse. With Earth saved and all of its landmarks and heroes restored, Superman affirms that he is really Superman for everyone on Earth.

Great, awesome issue! The art was fantastic, as usual, but the real highlight of this issue was the action and the characterization. It had all of them facing off against a being of incalculable power and beating him at his own game. Livewire quickly became an incredibly likeable character in just these three issues, progressing from pain-in-the-ass annoyance for Superman to budding heroine. Even if she doesn't side with the angels all the time, she still won't ever seem like a true villain after this. Whether that was intentional or not, I enjoyed it.

On top of that, it set up a couple of future plot points. First and most importantly is the third Kryptoninan on Earth, which is what I'm sure Johns and Donner will start off with. Then there's the strange ship The Auctioneer was persuing towards Earth and whatever was inside of it.

All in all, an incredible story by Kurt and Fabian with amazing art from Pete and some fun covers from Dave Gibbons. The only downside to it was that it was too short a run from such a great team.

[jerrymcl89]

I really loved this whole arc. I liked how Nightwing, who so often seemed to be dumped on in most of the books, including his own, was shown in a good light -when no one had powers, he was the best guy there, as he should be. I liked that the new Aquaman got introduced into the larger world. I liked the use of Livewire as a temporary, of-necessity hero. I was amused by the inclusion of characters like the Veteran, who I assumed would never be seen again. And, of course, it was good to see a focus on Superman as the hero of even the heroes. Hopefully Johns and Donner have some equally good ideas for what to do next.

[Jack Zodiac]

Ah, I almost forgot about Kurt throwing the new Aquaman in there. Yeah, seeing him out of water for the first time was fun, especially since he want from the deep sea to deep space. And him being surprised by his own strength out of the ocean was interesting. I can't wait for his own book to start developing his powers.

And using The Veteran was awesome, since I also thought we'd never see him again after he showed up in Robin. Also, Striker Z was in the splash page when all of the heroes were let loose! :)

[Jack]

The Auctioneer is a goddamn fantastic villain. Quite possibly the best new villain for a long time. I wish this team had a longer run. Maybe they'll be back..

[The Shadow]

A GREAT issue!
What a fun story!!!

Anyone know who the lady in black at the top in the centre and the guy in the red and white are in the splash page of escaping heroes?

[mrc1214]

I love this book. I hope Johns and Donnor can keep the great stories coming. It was awesome how Busiek took C&D list characters and made them cool. Like Bluejay(i think thats his name). Very cool book. Great job.

[Jack Zodiac]

A GREAT issue!
What a fun story!!!

Anyone know who the lady in black at the top in the centre and the guy in the red and white are in the splash page of escaping heroes?

The woman in black with the colorful boots is Halo. She was in The Outsiders for a while. And the guy in the red jacket with the goggles is Striker Z. He was a Chinese stuntman who became a superhero and joined The Power Company.

Anyone have any idea who the second hulking brute on the furthest platform is? I can tell the one is Girder, but the other one looks like he could be either Killer Croc or Clayface with pants on. :p

[saintsaucey]

I was a little iffy on the first issue but i was actually interested in this issue. Live Wire is great. I loved her in this and in the superman animated series. (I thought they had created her, I guess not)

Buesik did good writing a great scifi adventure. When Morrison leaves Allstar I nominate Buesik to take over.

Nice set up for Donner and Jons (i think its jons) At third kryptonian and an incoming ship Can't wait.

[jaguarshark]

Great arc, for what it was. I especially love that, despite clearly being a fill-in arc, it actually helped set up the next creative team's story.

[Jack Zodiac]

I was a little iffy on the first issue but i was actually interested in this issue. Live Wire is great. I loved her in this and in the superman animated series. (I thought they had created her, I guess not)

Yeah, she was introduced in the animated series first, and only recently (like, less than a couple of years ago) in the comic. She's joined the ranks of Harley Quinn and Renee Montoya.

[sgt pepper]

Ha! Superman wins by threatening intergalactic identity theft. Hi-larious.

[Slumber Hulk]

I have to say I didn't buy this arc because the cover art was offputing to me. If they slap a new face on it I may buy the trade.

[Jack Zodiac]

The cover for the trade is also done by Gibbons, so I doubt it's going to look different from the individual covers. Unless it was the newpaper format you didn't like, in which case it may be different. Personally, the covers were part of the fun on this run. Especially the way Kurt references them in Superman #655, when Clark runs into the writer of those articles aboard a plane to see Callie.

[Guts/Batman]

I loved the covers. They were freakin awesome. "Superman to aliens: We:ll smack you up!" That's awesome. I can't get that out of my head. And hell, they were relevant to the story. That have that going for them.

This was a great arc. I am seriously considering dropping this title when Johns comes onto the title because of my boycott of everything Johns, Rucka, Winick, Loeb, and Metzer related.

[Jack]

I loved the covers. They were freakin awesome. "Superman to aliens: We:ll smack you up!" That's awesome. I can't get that out of my head. And hell, they were relevant to the story. That have that going for them.

You've got to love, too, the way the text of the final cover was all Pro-Superman.