Saturday, August 16, 2008

Action Comics #868 Review

Recently reviewed by me at CBR: Action Comics #868, about which I write the following sentences: "As you may have heard, Geoff Johns is introducing the 'real' Brainiac in this story arc (of which 'Action Comics' #868 is part three), right after he did something similar with Toyman earlier this year. It's Johns' way of saying, 'you haven't seen the real character yet, all the other versions were just the advance scouts' (or in Toyman's case, toys). There must be something in the DC drinking water, because Morrison said the same thing about Darkseid going into 'Final Crisis.' Or, more likely, it's a clean way to pave through the inconsistent continuity of past decades. It's almost impossible to reconcile the various deeds and behaviors of Brainiac over the years, but if you say, 'oh, those were all different (robot) guys,' it makes things a lot easier. I'm not necessarily a fan of such an approach. Especially since it's been popping up regularly this year, but this particular comic, 'Action Comics' #868, is exceedingly well-drawn and cleanly told. I may not particular like the concept, but I like the execution enough to recommend it."

Read the entire review HERE.

6 comments:

Chad Nevett said...

THE REAL CHAD NEVETT

EVERYTHING UNTIL NOW WAS JUST A WARNING

GRAPHICONTENT JANUARY 2009

Timothy Callahan said...

I hope this is true. Will the Real Chad Nevett be slightly bulkier? More badass?

Chad Nevett said...

He will discuss Joe Casey's work not issue by issue, but panel by panel.

Timothy Callahan said...

Wow. Can't wait.

NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME AGAIN.

Marc Caputo said...

I'm back among the living! We're pulling out of Florida in the a.m., hoping to avoid any hurricane-like trouble and it's back to NY!

NY - where a new computer, a new job and, most importantly, THREE WEEKS OF BOOKS await me!!

James said...

Hmm, the more I think about it, the more the reveal of the "really real" Brainiac was pretty disappointing. I mean, it's like you say, he's like everything we've seen before, only with MUSCLES! That's... that's boring. I was really digging the creepy-creepy vibe, and was hoping that'd be more central to the character. Like the shapeshifting techno-parasite of the animated series. It seemed the borg "I will assimilate all" stuff came from there, or is that from the comics? I don't know much Brainiac.

I guess there's still a chance that this is just another robot, some beefed-up protector-drone before we see the REALLY really real, fucked-up Brainiac (all the Matrix-pod stuff was spot-on, and the skull-ship is mega-ace, he should look like THAT stuff). Probably not, though.