Action Comics #886
I’ve mentioned before how much I am enjoying the current direction of the Superman titles, especially Action Comics, and this weeks offering of #886 is no exception. In fact for a continuity cop for myself, this issue has raised the bar somewhat.
The main story featuring Chris (Lor-Zod) and Thara as the latest incarnations of Nightwing and Flamebird, is a telling of the Kryptonian creation myth and the tale of love and betrayal of the original divine duo. It a beautiful tale, full of the standard mythic archetypes and nicely illustrated. Okay, it’s not Alex Ross, but it suits.
What has really fired me up is the back-up story featuring Captain Atom. He seemed to have rather easily deflected criticism and retribution from the other heroes regarding his time as Monarch, and now with the assistance of the Shadowpact, he aims to take on Mirabai. The land here he and Natasha were trapped in, the kingdom of Mirabai has been revealed to be Sorcerers’ World.
Prior to the Final Crisis, erm, Infinite Crisis, erm possibly even Zero Hour back in 1995, Sorcerers’ World in the thirtieth century was what the Gemworld would one day become. This new view of the DC mulitiverse now states Gemworld is but one path to the Sorcerers’ World. I wonder if the old silver age tale of the offshoot of humanity, the Homo Magi remains in continuity? I do believe that there has been some mention of them in the past couple of years.
What I really liked about this is how the writer obviously knows his continuity, not only mentioning Myrra the home of Nightmaster, and the Land of Nightshades; also the Green of the Swamp Thing, the Grey of Matango, the Red of Animal Man (the Vertigo series at least) and even the Jejune realm of Vext!
It was nice to see the tip of the hat to those Vertigo series that featured characters that have returned to the all-ages DCU, as one thing I have been a little frustrated with was the total absence of reference to the old Animal Man series. After all, shouldn’t young Maxine Baker be practically a god nowadays?
That very feature, of retro-continuity and revamp is the only thing that detracts from the first story in this issue. How long will it remain in continuity this time? The DC Multiverse seems to reboot itself every ten years or so. I would hate to think that all this current crop of stories will be wiped away the next time a writer turns their attention to Krypton. The continuity originally lasted say thirty years, taking the pre-Crisis Silver Age as the longest lived example. Lets have the continuity remain in place for at least another thirty years this time.
Else what was the point in the title FINAL Crisis?
[...] that’s what Marvel is trying to do – create a movie universe in parallel with the comic multiverse. On the other end, the Fantastic Four movies sucked pretty hard, and there’s little hope that [...]