Comic Books

ACTION COMICS #18

• You don’t dare miss Grant Morrison’s stunning, extra-sized final issue of ACTION COMICS!

• It’s no small battle as Superman fights to save all of creation in this epic!

• This issue is destined to be a milestone in The New 52!

• Plus: In the backup story, whatever happened to the men of tomorrow(s)?

Story by Grant Morrison
Art by Rags Morales & Mark Propst
Cover by Rags Morales

Price: $4.99
iFanboy Community Pick of the Week Percentage: 1.1%

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Avg Rating: 3.5
 
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Comments

  1. Glad this confusing mess of a story is ending.

  2. “I need extra arms and legs and eyes in this little world. I need an army of SUPERMAN HATERS.”

    My favorite quote of the whole series. Thank you Grant.

  3. Really? With all the great stuff coming out this week they are asking us to even care about a mediocre book for $5.00 bucks. Buck you DC!

  4. The only way to make sense of this whole arc is to re-read everything while smoking a joint.

  5. I will be buying this because it is Superman… I buy any Superman comic I can get my hands on…. but before I found out Grants time was ending I seriously considered dropping this book… I have never felt that way before…

  6. I have enjoyed this entire run. I am anxious to see how it is wrapped up with a bow.

  7. I haven’t read the last 2 issues because I was saving them until this came out. Now I can read it all in one go. Hope Grant redeems himself because I’m not a fan of the “story all over the place” kinda plot so far.

  8. Looking forward to the conclusion IN A GOOD WAY. This has been a great ride and I’ve enjoyed it a ton. Grant Morrison is the only one I trust to give me my superman fix, and I’m going to miss it. It’s going to be great going back through this run when its done. So many cool moments. Wonder how Superman takes care of lil mstchftlx or whatever the bell his name is. He’s been a cool villain. I love the ways Morrison thinks up to hurt an invincible hero. So creative.

  9. Sorry, I just cannot fathom what would compel a grownup to take the tome to complain about a series that they supposedly dropped months ago. I don’t want to be the guy who accuses people of not being intuitive enough readers to “get” a comic book that doesn’t merely rehash tired amd worn out beats, but then again I guess I just did. You get Lobdell.

    • This guy ^ It’s weird to me when people keep piling on the hate after they’ve dropped the title …move on and discuss the books you’re enjoying.

      For me, the convoluted things in this run have been coming together in the last couple issues. Now we’ll get the climax and hopefully satisfying ending.

  10. Looking forward to smashing through this entire run in one sitting. May not be perfect but is a Damn sight braver than 98% of the “new” 52. All up in the 5th dimension

  11. Is this the most “love it or hate it” comic out there or what!?

    • It could be because usually haters usually drop a book and forget about, but action comics fans love to buy the book and then trash it. Kind of masochistic, but I am not judging, to each his/her own.

  12. I went back and read the first twelve issues of this run before number thirteen came out and it was a great read. I am a big advocate for the re-reading of Morrison’s work, I’ve just started my third re-read of his Batman work and I am picking up so much stuff I missed the first and second times around. I’m sure that a lot of the confusion people are feeling will be helped by re-reading, which I know is a big ask in these modern times.

  13. I’ve been enjoying this. A new take on Mxyzptlk and a multiversal version of Superman. Fun. Can’t wait for Multiversity.

  14. “That was awesome” Chris Farley to Paul McCartney voice

  15. I found this to be an incoherent mess.

  16. I’m usually a big Morrison fan, but I’ve been very underwhelmed with this. This has gotta be the worst thing he’s written for DC… maybe ever? It’s still worth reading and paying for, but maybe it helps because I got most of the series for a discount after trading in comics for store credit at my LCS. There’s some good stuff in here, and maybe I’ll like it more when I reread it all the way through, again. But, after All Star Superman and in the midst of his Bat-saga for the ages, Morrison’s Action Comics can’t help but feel like a disappointment. Is it still better than most other comics? I guess. Probably. Barely.

  17. This was as good an ending as it could’ve been.

    I’ve been a diehard fan of Morrison for a really long time, and this is my least favorite thing he’s done in the capes and tights arena. This run was full of wonderful little moments that simply didn’t add up to much in the end. The parts were better than the sum in this case.

    Looks like I’ll be dropping Action for a while. For all those furiously counting down the months until Morrison’s departure, congratulations. Have fun with Tony Daniel. I’m sure that’ll be a run for the ages.

    Til next time.

    • “Looks like I’ll be dropping Action for a while. For all those furiously counting down the months until Morrison’s departure, congratulations. Have fun with Tony Daniel.”

      – What makes you think we’re hopping back on for Tony Daniel? We’re waiting for a GOOD writer before we hop back on.

    • Glad to hear it.

  18. Holding off reading this until I re-read 0-17. Hopefully it will all come together nicely. Fingers crossed……

  19. The backwards names part ruined this issue. Did not make any sense at all. Superman singing Mandrakk into oblivion in Final Crisis made 10x as much sense as this.

  20. This is one of those things where the author writes something that doesn’t make any sense whatsoever but everyone is afraid to criticize it because by doing so they think they will make themselves look stupid.

    I will go out on a limb and say it. This is bad writing plain and simple. The concept was interesting, but the execution was basically an incomprehensible mess.

    If this is what Morrison was aiming for then congratulations sir, you succeeded.

    • Usually Morrison’s stuff doesn’t translate well in serialized form. It’s all long form which really needs to be taken in in larger chunks than once monthly, which is why his star tends to rise after the runs are through. All the talk about Final Crisis was fairly negative close to the event for the same reasons you’re stating here, but then people realized just how complex of a piece it was. It doesn’t help that one often needs to have basically taken a college course in comics to understand half of his references.

    • “…everyone is afraid to criticize it…”
      Are you kidding me? Have you read the majority of the comments posted about this title in the last year and a half? A lot of people HATE this book. Nobody is afraid of criticizing this run. There are people who dropped the book long ago who can’t resist the urge to come back repeatedly and take a shit on this comic. 😉

    • “If this is what Morrison was aiming for then congratulations sir, you succeeded.”

      This is bad writing plain and simple.
      Changed from addressing an audience to specifically Grant Morrison.

  21. Ive always had very mixed feelings about Morrison. Some of his work i absolutely love and some i absolutely loathe, All Star Superman however may be my favorite work of his and like many others was excited to see if he could really make Superman more exciting. Now that his run is finished I’d go as far as saying that he failed. Superman was probably better off before the reboot which isnt saying much. I wanted to like this run since Supes is my favorite character but there was just so much that went wrong. Stories being interrupted, killing off the kents, inconsistent art, Clarks dead identity beimg reverted through a wish? Or the mastermind behind the whole thing was an evil Mxy? The list goes on and on. Im just glad its over but i really want DC to get their shit together with Superman already/ Lobdells book has been god awful and Diggle has already left. Looks like we have to wait months before i can read a Superman book again.

  22. I have just re-read this entire run and have to say it flows really well as one whole piece and a lot of the oft-criticised “messy” threads do tie up nicely if you let them, It’s not perfect (like “all-star” is IMO) but it is a fresh take on the mythos, which is what the new 52 was supposed to be all about after all. I feel it would have benefited from a more open shipping schedule to allow for more consistent art and whilst some of the back up features added character to aspects of the story it would have been great top see Morrison and his artists have the time to incorporate these elements into his tale themselves.

    There are a couple of points specifically in issue 15 where for me everything locks in and becomes clear

    “He messed up a LOT of things and changed the way it was supposed to be”
    “VYNDKTVX disturbs time when he closes in for the kill”

  23. What a wacky and zany ride. Bizarre and fun in all it’s intricate themes and obscure references.
    If ya didn’t like this run, it doesn’t mean you’re an idiot.
    If you adored this run, it doesn’t mean you’re a genius.
    This is, without doubt, the most polarizing run I’ve ever witnessed.

    • > LIKE <

    • @sitara119 I agree! For every hater there’s been a lover. I found it to be a really great run. Yeah, great. Maybe its my inclination to psychedelic motifs and my gravitation to the different ideas of “time”, maybe it was all of the cool Superman staples that were included, or the way that most issues lived on their own within this huge framework of an assassination attempt, but it was a great ride. I didn’t find it confusing, and like you said, it doesn’t make me a genius The icing for me was Fisch and Sprouse on backups. Well worth my extra dollar, and it added a pleasant, straight forward balance to this “zany” story. I would really like to.see them have the whole book.

  24. I personally thought this was a satisfying conclusion to a fun run. The run wasn’t perfect but it was better than the Superman stories we’ve been getting the past several years. Some people say its confusing, I really didn’t find it confusing.

    Also, Morrison gets Superman, the character should be the glue that holds the DC Universe together, without him that universe is screwed.

  25. I gave it a 4 for the Wanderers!

    But I am happy this run is over. It was too much of a mess.

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