Comic Books

ACTION COMICS #8

It’s the epic 30-page conclusion of Grant Morrison and Rags Morales’ majestic opening storyline!

$3.99 gets you front row seats to the ascension of the DC Universe’s first Super Hero as The Man of Steel goes toe to tentacle with the all-new Brainiac for the final fate of Metropolis!

Written by Grant Morrison
Pencilled by Rags Morales
Inked by Rick Bryant
Lettered by DC Lettering
Colored by Brad Anderson
Cover by Rags Morales & Brad Anderson

Price: $3.99
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  1. I’m still a little annoyed on how Superman gets his costume. It’s seems way to convenient to just put on his Kryptonian gear and then suddenly have it changed to blue and red.

    Having said that I am excited that this could be two issues in a row where I enjoy this series. I want to like it but Morrison is not making this easy.

    • “easy” isn’t really Morrison’s thing.

    • This series though has been labeled more as an action orientated, less mind fuckery Morrison in the beginning. While it’s no where near as fucking the mind like his Batman run at points….I don’t know why this series couldn’t have been more ‘fun’ then the first issue/

    • i really rather liked how he aquired his costume.
      it’s better than him making it. i find it difficult to swallow that so many superheroes are master seamstresses.
      i mean, you never see peter parker sew anything ever and yet he is capable of making a awesomely detailed spider suit.
      of course, that was back in the day. i suppose them making their own happens less these days.
      my favorite is how the punisher(in rucka’s current run) just spray paints a skull on a black t-shirt. spooky.

    • Actually, early in Spiderman, in the 60’s he would sew his costume.

    • I think that’s Sitara’s point, Curl – Peter does sew his costume, but we never see him sew anything else or otherwise develop his costume-making skills; he just CAN because he needs one.

  2. I love the big Morrison issues!

  3. i’m buying this DESPITE morrison.

    dude is as hit-or-miss as it gets.

    • Agreed. He’s done some classic stuff but sometimes i just can’t follow his storytelling from page to page. I find myself getting lost and having to reread a 2-3 page sequence over and over again.

  4. who’s the next artist?

  5. Bleh. This will be the last Action issue for me…until they replace Morrison with someone new. I know he’s popular and all, but I just can’t get into the dude. Later, Supes.

  6. I’m about to drop Superman, but I can’t see myself dropping this soon. I’m glad we are out of the confusing Legion interlude. I will have to go back and reread the run, maybe I missed something.

  7. Lol @ calling this arc “majestic”

    i would be more inclined to call it over thought, tired to hard muttled garbage. but if you want to call it majestic then sure….

  8. i’m stoked for this! top of the pile.
    i am eager to see insectoid brainiac in action.
    this has been a great arc from the start. i hope it ends just as strong with fast pacing and furious Action.

  9. the grand finale Braniac is going down!

  10. I liked the first issue of this. I though Morrison was going to spend some time having a de-powered superman be a progressive hero going after corrupt politicians and arms dealers like he did in the late 1930’s. So far we haven’t seen much of that. Though I liked the side story about Steel. In fact I think it would be cool if they just had Sholly Fisch take over the book. I am going to stick with the book for now.

  11. Happy to see the end to this arc especially considering how far off in left field the legion issues were. I’m getting this to see how it ends then I’m going to be switching to wait for the arcs to end and then pick up all of them on the cheap digitally in one sweep. Morrison reads much better in trade anyway.

  12. Looking forward to this. As always. I’ve genuinely enjoyed the entire series so far.

    • Me too, I think it’s been great. My only complaint is there were a few sloppy lookin panels here and there, but overall I think it’s been really good. I’m suprised that folks post so much negative about this book, I know “everything is subjective” but it seems to me Morrison is delivering quality month in month out.

    • Morrison is always very polarizing. He never does what readers expect, and some people can’t handle not having their expectations met.

      Also, haters gonna hate.

    • agreed.
      haters gonna hate and bitches gonna bitch.
      it’s like death and taxes: a sure thing.

  13. I been really enjoying this series as well, no hating over here.

    • fuckn’ RON JEREMY. awesome avatar. i almost met him once. he was at the local hustler shop for pics and autographs. couldn’t get outa work.
      funny sidenote. that shop closed down and is now a pre-school for children. hilariously inappropriate.

  14. @sitara I was at Bern’s Steak House with some friends and he came in with his mother. He was really cool and friendly to everyone who noticed who he was. I couldn’t pass getting a pic with the legend of flith lol.

  15. What a rubbish issue. 4 artists is too many and the plot was all over the place and dull.

  16. felt a little rushed. though the fight between superman and braniac/metal zero was good.

    would have liked it to just be 40 pages in issues 8 & 9 rather than 30 pages in one issue.
    overall it was a very good opening arc, issue 9 seems to be on another earth before 10 brings us back to this hunter guy vs. superman.

  17. AC #7 was easily the best issue so far, Morales’ art looked great, the story was moving, the pieces starting to fall into place, where the larger story is going, woah!

    On a side note, what’s up with STEEL, the way he’s arms and legs look? Not into it.

  18. Yeah I’m tired of this book. I’m gonna drop it which as a Morrison fan depresses me. This series just isn’t fun to read and Morales not keeping up for a full, monthly schedule is getting tiring. These two guys, and DC in general, drop the ball on this series which should be a flagship title. Also, I am not sticking around to see Obama in a Superman suit….nothing political about this view, just that it wasn’t funny the first time in Final Crisis and it won’t be funny here.

    2/5

  19. It’s too bad, I gave it the best shot I could, but I guess this book just isn’t for me. The art changes in particular really didn’t help, I thought there was a back-up story at first, because of the stark contrast in style. I didn’t find any part of the story engaging, it all felt routine. So long Action Comics.

  20. I’m a Morrison “hater,” and this run has solidified my dislike for his style of writing.He’s doing the same things to Superman that he did to Batman; throw a billion small nods to characters and plots to give him an ongoing story, while making the lead character some omnipotent god that “knows everything that’s going on” behind the scenes. Since none of the plot points in this story interact well with the rest of DC, in a year from now Morrison will ret-con it all by using some time-travel or parallel universe ploy and say that he knew what he was doing from the very first issue, and how really Superman knew everything too, so it will be easy to solve.

    I know, I’m ranting, but this was a chance here to tell a down to Earth, original Superman origin, and instead Morrison used the pages as his canvas to tell convoluted, confusing stories with no real payoff of action or emotion.

  21. this was very disappointing. Constant art changes were jarring, very wordy, story arc ended weak in my opinion. I usually like Morrison but glad to know I now have a Morrison run I can point to to define the type of morrison i don’t like. Sooo much potential for this series that was wasted. May not even be back to this series in trades. 2.5 out of 5 D-D-D-Dropped!

  22. I’m keeping it on my list simply because I love Superman but, I’m sorry – I found the plot in the first arc to be totally scattered. I know many have expressed this sentiment before me and that I’m not breaking any ground here, but shit: FOCUS! If DCs idea was to bring in new readers, you’d think their flagship hero’s oldest title would be a little more straight forward. Agree w/ Thompsonville saying that this would read much better in trade.

  23. getting dropped after this issue then the full arc going on ebay 1st 3 issues awesome and even thow after #6 it got a bit better its still not worth carrying on it is hit and miss and for me its a big miss

  24. I don’t know even why I bother, I got to the store and they had pulled this for me even though I could have sworn I cancelled this. So I let it slide figuring what the hell…. WHAT THE HELL INDEED!! This has been the same from issue #1, just a low down messy looking, boring hard to finish title. This issue, as soon as I opened it and saw that poor excuse for a Lex Luthor ( I believe people have been calling him sloth in this title) drawing and characters I really had no idea who they were. As the issue continued and I became less and less intrested I just started looking at the artwork and I must say if not for the Superman uniform or S on his chest I do not think you would be able to tell who he was either. The characters are not recognizable and almost just sloppy messes and really killed it for me and I dod not even finish this issue; I think I am going to take it back to my comic shop and ask for a refund………!! Rated this 0, had to put a 1 because we all know there is nothing lower. So on that note can we add a rating to this? Since we have POW and I know it’s not nice however; I think for helpful constructive criticism and that fact that an issue like this we really need to let someone know!! I know the staff here at IFanBoy really do not want or need negative promotion however; I think this should really be done. Call it the DOP; drop of the week. Let me know what you think, and please understand I am not bashing anyone just trying to maybe get our voices heard a little bit more since IFanBoy is picking up steam and people in the industry seem to be taking notice. This would then cut through all of the comment reading and just show in red the DOP and maybe the publisher hears about it and sees it and then when sales drop they can see why…..!!

    K

  25. DC needs to hire an editor to read the books before they publish them, they’re so busy marketing shit no ones taking time to see just what they’re trying to promote, maybe time to get out now before DC consumes itself. Maybe they never read “The Emperor’s new clothes”. I’m sure Classic has a comic version.

    • Curlibusj – You also made a great point and mind you a lot faster than I. I am done with this title, I mean it I am calling my store and canceling it and bringing the book back for a refund.

      SORRY ACTION COMICS DROPPED!!!!!!

      K

  26. I thought it was cool when Superman was battling Brainiac and his costume was like transforming temporarily. Does anyone have any thoughts or theories on why that was happening/what it means?

    • @Craig: It looked as though he was changing into Starman…..The Golden Age version.

      Cause the colors match the character and the staff he was holding was very similar.

    • @craig: My only theory is that it’s a “smart suit” that adapts to the fashion/color scheme of the environment/planet he’s nearest to. The suit was white before he put it on, then it changed into the colors of his Kryptonian family and their crest. It only started to change when he was being tossed around into the different bottle cities.

      @TNC: It wasn’t a staff. It was the spire he broke off of a building in the bottled city he smashed into. It did resemble Starman’s costume though.

    • Thanks for some clarification on what the heck was going on with his suit. I was genuinely confused by this. I feel like sloppy writing and artwork made it difficult to make sense of that little sequence.

  27. is it me, or was this and Justice League alright at the beginning and just went to shit?

    • I’ll agree this went to shit but I actually still really enjoy Justice League. Of course I am also a die hard Jim Lee fan so take that bias into consideration.

  28. well fuck me, fellas. i thought this was good.
    glenmorgan all doped up and fessing up, the strange costume color change, the reveal that dr.irons is icarus and young lex as a chunky, bratty know-all who is forced to rethink the world in which he lives and come to terms with being wrong about everything.
    i like the exchange between brainiac and superman. metal-zero fighting with himself and infecting brainiac with emotion.
    the mystery of why that skyscraper changed superman’s suit.
    great stuff and i want more.

    • Ohhhh I thought that was Lex who was giving Clark information! I was like wow lex is so f’ing manipulative and he really works all angles. Thanks for clearing that up, I’m enjoying this book also.

    • i thought it was lex at first as well.
      i think that the colorist fucked up because his skin tone is much lighter in that panel than the ones when he’s in the armor. the same thing happened in issue four and everyone got them mixed up, too.
      that’s my biggest complaint about the arc.

    • I am a month behind but this book is great. I really am surprised at all the negativity.

    • i think its lex, not seeing the logic behind steel doing that.

    • go back to issue four. dr. irons is drinking the same kinda drink this issue as he did that issue and has the same bust statue when he reveals the armor from behind the book shelf.
      he quit working with lex because of the things they were doing to supes, why wouldn’t help clark take down the people that he doesn’t to begin with.
      it’s right there.

    • *why wouldn’t he help clark take down the people that he doesn’t like to begin with.*

    • Wow sitara, thanks for pointing that out – I was sure it was Lex until I read your post, and now I see that it is Dr. Irons indeed.

      Except for the Legion diversion, I’ve loved reading the new ACTION COMICS! I love Morrison’s new spin on the Superman mythos. Plus, I honestly have no clue from month to month where he’s taking his story. The only downside to this title has been its art, specifically Rags. What a pity they didn’t get someone better to help jumpstart this wonderful new take on DC’s first hero.

      P.S. Another thing I’ve loved? How Morrison has worked Daily Star editor George Taylor into continuity. 🙂

    • @bionicdave
      glad i could be of some help and to hear more love for ActionComics is always welcomed.
      i too love the george taylor addition.
      i need to buy some superman volumes from the 1930’s through 60’s so i can understand more of the crazy homages and off-beat referrences that morrison loves to throw in the mix. i love that shit.
      the costume changing colors still puzzles me.
      challenge!

    • Flex Mentallo has really turned things around for me. I dropped Action with #4, but then when I finished Flex I had that sinking feeling that I acted in haste. So I grabbed 5-8 and read it all together and really enjoyed it. Superman isn’t a character I have an immediate affinity with but I learned not to doubt Morrison. Also, thank you, Sitara for your very vocal support of this title it was just the push I needed to give it the extra shot to really gel with me

    • damn. you have no idea how good it makes me feel to know that my constant yammering actually yielded some good.
      you are more than welcome, sir.

  29. Like many others, I too wanted to love this book long with the Superman title. I so badly wanted to enjoy Superman comics after jumping back in to reading comics. Action Comics has been terrible in story and art. I will give it a try again when a new creative team comes on.

  30. I hate the art work and the look of Superman. I am on the verge of dumping this series!

  31. I liked the artwork towards the end of the book more than I liked Rags Morales’ art. Glad this arc has come to a close. Lets move on to more craziness.

  32. I enjoyed this. Lots of interesting threads left dangling and that’s the way I like it. Long-term storytelling. The art was a little wonky, but I don’t think it was all that detrimental. I’m still on board. Even if I’m the only one.

  33. Thought the art in this issue was a mixed bag. So far I have really enjoyed this series, this finale really fell short of expectation though. I’m hanging around but taking notes for where the emergency exits are.

  34. Not holding my attention.

  35. I totally loved this issue. Well, almost anyway. I didn’t really notice the big difference in art styles, expect for the last couple pages of course, which I didn’t really like. This was a great opening arc, with lots of threads hanging at the end and I look forward to the next arc where we hopefully see some more time jumping, like in this arc.

  36. Action Comics #8 wasn’t all it could have been. Lex Luthor is so boring, and this version of Brainiac has not really brought anything new to the table. Did we just witness the origin of the new Fortress of Solitude? The art was good, except for that awful slash page with the weird smile… ugh!

    Please check my mini-review here:

    http://bit.ly/IdqseH

    Comments and feedback are always welcome!

  37. I read this tired last night and gave it a second read today. I enjoyed it. It’s a cool setup for Superman and Morrison still has plenty of pieces moving at once.

    The art has suffered from the new schedule crunch for most of the run but it’s still solid enough. What I took away from this issue was that the more artists we see draw the new costume the more obvious it is that the look is a bad idea. Brad Walker struggled with it. Jim Lee has designed a costume so filled with unnecessary details that it’s difficult to get right. On the other hand, the standard Superman costume is so perfectly simple that it’s hard to get wrong.

    • there is a lot of detail. i bet a lot of artists struggling with the monthly schedule curse his name on those late nights during crunch time. doesn’t seem like jim lee did any favors for the artists with some of these new designs.
      i do like them as a fan.
      this seems to be the costume that is the most difficult to keep consistant.
      i still like the collar, though.

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