Action Comics #1100
An Issue in Four Parts
Written by Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson, Sophie Campbell and Dan Slott
Art by Skylar Patridge, Ryan Sook, Daniel Sampere, Dan Mora and Lucas Meyer
Colors by Ivan Plascencia, Ryan Sook, Alejandro Sanchez, Tamra Bonvillain and Giuliano Peratelli
Letters by Steve Wands, Becca Carey and Dave Sharpe
Cover Art by Ryan Sook
It seems like just yesterday I was standing in line waiting to be let into my local comic shop as Action Comics #1000 hit shelves on a sunny Wednesday morning back in 2018. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it and I still cherish every single copy I was able to grab that morning. Action Comics #1100 is a great anniversary issue and I proudly grabbed a bunch of copies from my local store as well, but it’s vastly different from it’s #1000 counterpart. It doesn’t hit the heights that #1000 did, but I still found a lot to enjoy.
Action Comics #1100 is broken down into four stories. The first two seamlessly complement each other and make up this issue’s main story, while the last two take place in different parts of the world and serve very different purposes. Before we dive into this issue, it’s important to note that this is a very different anniversary issue than #1000. Whereas #1000 contained many more creative teams and told vastly different stories all based around Superman’s history, this one focuses on just four different creative teams, and each story has something to do with the current overarching Superman story.
To put it frankly, if you aren’t caught up on the current state of Superman and the titles that follow him, you will be pretty lost at what’s going on in most of this issue. I would highly recommend getting up to speed on what’s going on in Action Comics, Superman, and Superman: Unlimited, as well as D.C. K.O., to grasp the full scope of this impactful issue. That being said, let’s talk about the issue itself and some stuff that really worked for me in this one. Spoiler Warning for Action Comics #1100 Now in Effect.
Past, Present and Future
The first two stories are essentially two chapters of the same tale. The first story, Mission Failure, written by Mark Waid, and the second, Superman Meets Superboy, written by Joshua Williamson, make up Action Comics #1100’s main story, and it’s no secret that this initial tale was my favorite part of this entire issue. Mission Failure concludes Superboy’s battle with Epoch. This battle has spanned quite a few issues of Action Comics up until this point, and Epoch has posed a massive problem for the Boy of Steel. With Martian Manhunter, Mary Marvel, and Booster Gold taken off the board in the last issue, a de-powered Superboy (clad in armor made of pieces of the vessel that took him to Earth) fights as hard as he can against this near-invincible foe from the future.
Epoch has the upper hand for the entire first portion of the fight, ultimately destroying Superboy’s armor and weapons in the process. When all hope seems lost, and he’s been beaten down, Superboy begs Epoch to see his parents one last time. Epoch is shocked to have the all-powerful Superboy groveling at his feet and takes his chance to gloat, but that little lapse in judgment gives Superboy all the time he needs. Through the use of Dr. Gordon’s machine, he gains his powers back, Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, and Mary Marvel make their return, and the pseudo-Justice League takes down Epoch. Epoch gets sucked back into the time stream after his suit is destroyed, and with him now gone, the pseudo-Justice League finally gets to their main mission: using Superboy to find his future self. Superboy and the League say goodbye to the Kents and leave Smallville as they enter the time stream.
Before we move onto the next part of the story, it’s important to point out that we not only say goodbye to Smallville and the Kents but to artist Skylar Patridge as well. Partridge has been a mainstay with Mark Waid on Action Comics over the past year, and her art was a perfect match for Clark’s early days in Smallville. Her art brought a youthful feel and nice levity to Clark’s early days, and I’m going to miss seeing her art every month. She absolutely nailed the tone of Waid’s narrative. Her art is some of the first art I’ve reviewed for Comicbookclique, and I hope to see her return to Superman’s world in the future. I look forward to where her art pops up next, and I’m proud to say Patridge’s final Action Comics pages were a joy to view. Superboy and the league’s battle against Epoch couldn’t have looked better, and I’m glad she got to draw one last emotional moment between Superboy and the Kents.
Ryan Sook takes over the art for Mission Failure at this point, and this was my favorite part of the entire issue, despite any timeline issues it may cause Clark in the future. I don’t want to spoil too much of this part, but essentially, Booster Gold takes Superboy on a “greatest hits” journey through his life where he sees some of the biggest moments in his history play out in front of him. Does it break a lot of time travel rules? Absolutely, but it looks great, it’s a really cool part of the story, and it shows Superboy that everything he’s doing now only leads to something greater. Our journey through Clark’s life eventually comes to a stop when a massive time disturbance hits the ship as the group finally finds who they’ve been searching for all along: Superman. One last thought on this section: shoutout to Ryan Sook for his tribute to the iconic Action Comics #252 cover.
Waid’s story ends, and Williamson’s story begins as the main story continues in Superman Meets Superboy. Daniel Sampere handles the art duties on this one, and it looks gorgeous throughout and features some brilliant colors from Alejandro Sanchez. After disappearing at the end of D.C. K.O., Superman finally makes his return. After being saved from a void at the end of time (god, I love comics) by Superboy, they reunite with Booster Gold, Martian Manhunter, and Mary Marvel. Superman won’t say where he’s been, just that it's a long story (which I cannot wait to see in Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand Special #1). Superman is shocked that he was saved by his younger self, and the interactions between the Boy of Steel and the Man of Steel are incredibly wholesome, just as anyone would have expected. I won’t spoil the ending of this story, but I enjoyed it. I’m excited to see how this Superboy continues to grow over the next story arc. Williamson has been absolutely killing it over on Superman, and his addition to Action Comics #1100 capped off a wonderful first story in this issue.
Game Night Turns into Fight Night
Writer Sophie Campbell’s Game Night, featuring the dynamic art stylings of Dan Mora, deals with a meeting that has been a long time coming. The pizza is hot and ready, and everyone is getting salty at Mario Kart on a game night at the Kents’ apartment in Metropolis. The fun and games come to a close soon, though, as Superboy Prime accepts Supergirl’s invitation. Prime comes face-to-face with the man he killed long ago: Connor Kent. Connor doesn’t want to hear anything about this newly reformed Superboy Prime nonsense, and it doesn’t take long for the duo to come to blows. Pleas from Kara to Connor to stop and be professional for the sake of dealing with El Caldero fall on deaf ears.
This was a really cool second story in this issue, and I really liked Campbell’s characterizations of Connor Kent and Prime, and I loved the meta joke from Prime she made about herself. As for the art, what else is there really to be said about Dan Mora, right? He’s gold no matter what he’s featured in, and there’s a good reason he’s consistently ranked among people’s favorite artists. Tamra Bonvillain is on colors for this one, and it was nice to see the original World’s Finest duo reunite on this story. Her colors have always been a great compliment to Mora’s work, and it’s a pleasure to see them get to team up once again. Last note on this one: loved the cameo appearances from not just Krypto but Streaky the Supercat!
A Deadly Start to the Future of the Superman Family
Finally, we reach our third story that deals with the Kryptonite Castle of El Caldero. Now, if you haven’t been checking out Superman: Unlimited, this one might be a little confusing for you, but writer Dan Slott does a good job with the exposition to get people caught up. The big thing about this story is that it sets up the massive Superman crossover coming up called Kingdom of Zod. Bruno, the leader of the Krypto-Nights, is revealed to be none other than General Zod, and with Zod now in control of such a massive amount of Kryptonite, it can’t be good for Superman or the rest of the DC Universe. The art, featuring pencils by Lucas Meyer and colors by Giuliano Peratelli, does a fantastic job of getting that sickly green Kryptonite color to seep onto every page and panel. Kingdom of Zod is shaping up to be a massive focal point for the Superman family for the next little while, so if you’ve been thinking about jumping into Superman’s books, now is the time.
Action Comics #1100 celebrates where Superman has been and looks ahead to where he’s going. I loved what each creative team brought to this landmark issue, with each story featuring great writing and eye-catching art. Mark Waid, Joshua Williamson, Sophie Campbell, Dan Slott, and their art teams did the Man of Steel justice in an issue that isn’t just a celebration, but a reminder that Superman is timeless.