Action Comics #1102
"Kingdom of Zod" Part 6
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Montos
Colorist: Ivan Plascencia
Cover Artist: Lucas Meyer
Publisher: DC Comics
No matter how hard the creators try, it seems like a big line-wide crossover can't help but derail the momentum of a title…
Everything that Happens Now is Happening Now
Superboy (Clark Kent, from Earth's past) and Supergirl have chased General Zod's recently resurrected wife Ursa to Krypton's past. She wants to save the planet from its inevitable destruction, and they want to stop her so that they don't cease to exist.
Under Krypton's red sun, their powers begin to fade—and young Clark isn't too great with his to begin with. So before long, they've all been arrested and brought before a very alive General Zod, who understandably thinks they're all nuts.
In the present day, old Clark, Jon, and Conner have taken refuge in the lead tunnels, where they are reunited with Lois and Lana. The altered Kryptonite finally proves to be too much for Lana, and she collapses.
Back in the past, more bad things happen, and past Zod gets the idea to take their time machine for himself…
What Happened to Then?
I'll be honest up front. I have not been feeling this crossover. The Kryptonite Kingdom was silly enough when they first introduced it in Superman Unlimited, and now we have modified Kryptonite making people zombies, Zod resurrects Ursa, and then she kills him, and now we have time travel too?!
It's just too much.
Mark Waid is doing the best he can with this, and I'm of two minds with Young Clark's involvement here. On the one hand, I'm glad that we haven't completely stopped the adventures of Superboy now that the adult version has returned, but dragging him to the present—and then to the distant past—is just too much.
There's still some great characterization here, and I love seeing Kara get to actually be the older cousin for once. The scene where she tells Clark to use his heat vision and he's like, "What's that?" was funny, and also showed that she has no clue how old her cousin is at this point. But the stuff on Krypton is just chaotic and seems like a way to have their cake and eat it too, by which I mean they killed off old Zod, but now we can get the younger version as a villain so he can still fight Superman in the end.
As for Superman, he's still got one eye all messed up, and everyone is succumbing to Kryptonite poisoning. And I'm just counting the pages until this whole crossover is over and the books can start doing their own things again.
When Will Then Be Now?
As I said earlier, Mark Waid tries his best here. The story is utter nonsense, but that's the crossover as a whole at this point. He continues his usual strong characterization, and it's especially nice to get to see him writing Supergirl again. The more and more ridiculous stuff that happens around young Clark, I do find myself wondering just how they're going to mind-wipe him when he does get back to the past; otherwise, there's just paradox on top of paradox going on here.
The art from Montos is solid, and again there's a lot going on here. His figure work is strong, and everyone has a distinct look. He does a lot of close-ups on faces and has a thing with showing lots of teeth, though, which gets a little distracting. And some of his camera angles, like the splash page where Supergirl decks Ursa, aren't the most effective to show the action.
Ivan Plascencia is our colorist, and he gets to do a lot with reds and greens here. Krypton is, of course, under the light of a red sun, and so everything there has a reddish tint to it. The buildings and machinery are cold and sterile, which fits what we know of the culture. In the present day, there is Kryptonite everywhere, including sticking out of all the people, so lots and lots of green gets used. He does manage to vary things up enough that it doesn't get as repetitive as I make it sound here, at least.
Soon!
Action Comics #1102 is an okay issue that has its usual strong characterization, but it's bogged down by the increasingly ridiculous Kingdom of Zod crossover. I believe this title will start telling its own stories again next issue, and hopefully the young Superboy will soon be back in his own time so that we can experience more of his adventures there.