Comic Review: Action Comics # 964 (DC Comics)

“The guy in the glasses calls himself Clark Kent. Which is impossible because I’m Clark Kent..”

Superman, meet Clark Kent part 2 continues!

The mystery of Clark Kent deepens as Superman gets to the body of this mystery. Continuing from the last issue where Superman saved a falling Clark Kent from becoming pavement paint by a Geneticron goon. Superman takes Clark to his Fortress of Solitude to utilize his Kryptonian technology to analyze and see If this Clark Kent is who he claims. Our protagonist was there on the day that the New 52 Superman died, knowing that one day he would come back in the same way that he himself did. But upon the appearance of this mysterious Clark Kent Superman realizes he is not the New 52 Superman revived. SO where did this Clark Kent come from, what are his true origins? Superman uses his tech to seek the truth to only find unexpected answers that he still doesn’t seem to believe. Meanwhile, Geneticron are storing some villains in storage units for purposes that will be revealed down the road.

What I find very interesting and entertaining is seeing how different this Clark Kent is to our Superman. Apparently, for all we know, this mysterious Clark Kent is human, but there will be more revealed down the road. I enjoy this one scene where Clark writes about his encounter with Superman, describing him to be as heroic as the Superman that passed away. I like the fact that he acknowledges that our Main Protagonist appears to have had his fair share of tragedies and experience more than the one that passed away. I enjoyed that bit with the other montaged parts of Superman with his family, while the rest of metropolis read the mysterious Clark Kent’s  article about the encounter with the Man of Steel.  Near end of the issue, we do get to see a figure that has been lurking around since the beginning of this arc, and although we know his true motives, what we do know is that he is definitely up to no good, which is bad news for Supes, his family, the mysterious Clark Kent and everyone else involved. It’s a pretty good mystery book, which is surprisingly interesting since it has been a long time Superman has had those sorta stories.

As usual Superman scribe Dan Jurgens is doing a Superb (see what I did there? No? Okay I’ll stop) job writing Action Comics. He continues to entice the reader’s interest in this current arc making you think that the story would turn out one way and then flipping the script on you the next. His dialogue is perfect ,each character is exactly who they are in tone and motivation. The pacing of the book is great, it sorta feels like watching a Netflix miniseries in terms of trying to figure out the shrouded mystery that has yet to unfold, but when revealed ,it’ll make people say “what!?’. The art by Patch Zircher is fantastic in this issue and is well drawn, and helps keep the flow of the narrative clear and intact. You don’t get lost, you don’t get bored because everything is drawn in a semi-realistic fashion, which feels like you’re watching a film based his illustrative style and choice of panel layout. The colors by Ulises Arreola do it’s job, providing the atmosphere of each set, ranging from the beautiful yet chili colors of the Arctic and The Fortress of Solitude, to warm or lukewarm areas. The colors give off a sense of temperature that makes the reader feel a distinct difference of the area’s that each character travels to.

This arc is going pretty great so far, what a time to be alive, where tons of great titles from Rebirth are actually doing pretty great, especially the Superman based books. Anyone who is a Superman fan, longtime or newcomer, should definitely check this series out.