The action-packed continuation of Morrison’s ACTION COMICS is everything the previous issue made me hope it would be. Superman’s trying to hold off a horde of alien robots as well as John Corben, now the “Steel Soldier”. But as it turns out, he’s not in it alone as another Superman character makes his (costumed) New52 debut.

This is an excellent example of how to make an exciting action comic. There’s lots of well-rendered scenes of Superman fighting off Transformers lookalikes and grappling with Corben, but not a splash page in the bunch (excepting the final ominous cliffhanger page). And just because Superman’s in the midst of things doesn’t mean that we don’t get to see what the rest of our cast are up to as they come to grips with what’s going on. And there’s a lot going on, between the action and the mystery of the robots’ origin. The only downside here is that, at some points, the script produces some really awkward transitions between simultaneous scenes that I think could have been better accomplished separating them page to page rather than panel to panel.

This issue also sees the start of actual backups rather than “behind-the-scenes” stuff, though this backup feeds into the main story as well, which is probably a good way to wean readers who aren’t used to backup stories into the concept. The backup is quite good as well, with Brad Walker’s art being an especially high point (especially compared to the main issues sometimes unfinished-looking work from Morales). It’s a good start for the backup features that I hope future issues can follow.