Action Comics #1000

Out of all the milestone comics I have read over the past 5+ years, this one is probably one of the best.

How do you do justice to a comic that has put out 1,000 issues over the span of 80 years? It’s hard, but not impossible. DC Comics did a splendid job assembling some of their best creators to put together this book and it really shows.

As far as the stories that culminated through this book: I was really impressed with Dan Jurgens’ leadoff story showing that how over the span of years, people always clamored for Superman, and Superman always tried to be there for everyone only to realize, that after all of this time he always had a team behind him. Regardless if it was other heroes like Batman, Wonder Woman or even Maggie Sawyer, the Earth was in great hands. What was even better was how the tributes came in the story (pay attention to all of the easter eggs) from people of all walks of life, and love him or hate him, Superman has been an icon all of this time because his character touches everyone, one way or another. 

Speaking of Maggie Sawyer, I was impressed with Marv Wolfman’s story which involved Sawyer helping out someone who wasn’t in control and her actions saved his life. Also jumping back a bit, many of you Superman fans should enjoy “Never Ending Battle” by Peter Tomasi as we see glimpses of Superman from his earliest beginnings to the present and it was a fun read.

So far, the only story to have let me down was Paul Levitz and Neal Adams’ “The Game.” The story really fell flat in so many ways. It was a good chance to really examine Lex and Kal-El’s relationship, and it went nowhere. But the gem, in my opinion, was “The Car” by Geoff Johns with Olivier Copiel doing the artwork. In this story, we find out what happened to the iconic car on the cover of that very first book and its occupant. I would have loved to see a full issue of just this story alone.

Also Tom King’s “Of Tomorrow” was touching, and poignant, and so very meta. Superman is 4 billion years and kicking, and comes back to Earth one least time to say good bye to his foster parents. If that’s not enough, it was Clay Mann’s artwork that gave us glimpses of Christopher Reeve in Superman’s look.

I could go on and on but I would wind up spoiling things but of course some of you want to know if Brian Michael’s Bendis’ debut is worth it. Let me simply say that it depends on if you are a fan of his work. Some people complain that he is too wordy and not enough action. [Ed.–no pun, I’m sure.] Well, you just have to read and see for yourselves, but I liked it, thought it was well-balanced, and curious about the cliff hanger. Jim Lee’s work was phenomenal as well.

Bottom Line, if you are a comic fan–not just a Superman fan, but a comic fan–you cannot miss Action #1000. Most of us never thought we would see a day any comic would hit a thousand issues. This is by far one of the best milestone comics in a long time and you cannot miss it. There is something here for everyone and it sets the bar for every comic that will cross the 100 mark over the next few years. There are so many cameos and easter eggs that this book will be worth reading through multiple times to catch them all.

4 Doomed and exploded planets out of 5