Today, I felt like I should shoot from the hip with my review of Action Comics #866. It will be the last comic reviewed until after Worlds because I will be attending and bringing the reporting to the site. Don’t worry all is well in the land as when I return you can expect all the titles you have been hoping to get glimpses of. I originally planned to do a review of the Sub-Mariner cards in the MUN set and their relation to the limited series that tied into the Initiative, but I decided it best I do so after Worlds after I got about 3 full days of deck time with all the members of the Illuminati, for now let’s stick to the review…



Action Comics #866 bears that “Sightings” logo DC kept pointing out in its comics prior to the start of Final Crisis. Basically, it’s marketing, but with regards to the comics themselves they are sign post that important things are taking place with relation to the future of the DCU. There is much confusion around the web as to whether or not these titles are actually tie-ins as well to the Final Crisis event. We all know how that has become a curse word in the comic industry.



In this instance whether or not it is a tie-in or just a sign post to larger things, it is definitely a re-imagining of a long standing Superman villain, Brainiac. I have been waiting for a moment like this to get back into reading Superman titles and I am so happy that time is upon us. Superman now has a credible villain, with credible purpose and plot. In my opinion this has been lacking from Superman titles for a long while, picking up titles here and there featuring the Man of Steel, always to be disappointed, now Brainiac arrives on the scene and Geoff Johns makes it as if we have never seen or knew Brainiac at all, and if you thought you knew, now you know, you never knew. Soak that statement in for a second and then ask yourself, why? Why have you not gone to pick this issue up?



Let’s get into the particulars. Geoff Johns definitely starts off the right way by rewinding time for the reader to a point where we first think we know of how devastatingly devious and calculating Brainiac is. We are taken back to the moment he captured the shrunken city of Kandor. General Zod is defending the city when Brainiac ship arrives along with Brainiac Robots, overwhelming the Kryptonian forces. The shear menacing threat that Brainiac is to the Kryptonian is conveyed quite clearly within these panels, drawn very well by Gary Frank. Many sites are complaining of Frank’s Christopher Reeve rendering of Superman, the simple answer to that is to most Reeve is and will forever be, Superman.



Geoff transitions from this back story to the office space of the Daily Planet and its comedic relief with ease and great capability displaying the dual-nature of Superman/Clark Kent with even greater capability. Someone tell me why is it that Morrison is writing Final Crisis making all his revamp ideas become tired continuity when it is clear Geoff has the better grasp on the content and characters and pleasing more readers? Superman hears Brainiac’s ship in space and quickly flies to its location which happens to be right above the Kent Farm. Superman battles a Brainiac Robot and Geoff’s uses the confidence Superman conveys in fighting this foe for the umpteenth time to illustrate that even the Man of Steel has no clue who Brainiac really is. The environment transitions keep the story on pace along with Geoff’s handling of each situation and magnifying its significance to illustrate and make Brainiac’s “true” existence a mystery.



The issue ends with a view of Brainiac’s ship and a number of bottled cities, it’s almost reminiscent of the fortress of Solitude and its contained eco-environments and experiments, finally to the flesh and circuitry Brainiac in the midst of it all with the simple, yet deep question, who is Brainiac? There is a lot on the horizon for this series and I am going to be following the ride, as a member of my Trinity this title automatically gets elevated to Prime Status for you the reader to follow, this is the 1st part of a 5 part series and I will be there every step of the way. Take a look at the next 2 titles in the series and satiate your appetite. By the way I definitely think it is time for some new VS Reflections Brainiac cards, don’t you?

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