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It wasn’t immediately obvious, but Dan Jurgen’s latest Action Comics story arc was always all about Zod. Besides “All About Zod” being a great title for a sitcom, it’s also made for a few surprises as Jurgens brought the focus to Cyborg Superman. This issue solidifies Zod as a major future threat for Superman, but is it an action-fest or a great drama?
So what’s it about?
Superman and his friends have been sent to the Negative Zone by Zod via Superman’s own tech. Meanwhile, Superman’s wife and son are in great danger as Zod wants them dead!
Why does this matter?
Patch Zircher and Dan Jurgens have made this a big fight comic with high stakes. This issue takes that a bit further and gives Zod a mirror aspect to Superman’s life that’ll pay dividends for future stories.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
I love how annoyed he is.
I have to hand it to Jurgens, I did not see where this story was going. Last issue, Jurgens sent Superman and his friends into the Negative Zone presumably to rot forever and he also swung the balance of power by sending Cyborg Superman there too. Supergirl and a few other friends remained on Earth with Zod–doing his best “I’m the greatest ever” impression–dividing this issue between two locations. This gave Jurgens ample time to have Superman and the heroes figure out what is going on while also parlaying Zod’s power claim into a big fight sequence. By the end of the issue, everything comes together with a wicked new twist on Zod that fans will need to see to believe.
Zircher knows how to go big with comic book art. The Negative Zone looks great in this issue, all blues and floating clumps of rock giving the place a weird and somewhat horrific look. The biggest win as far as the art is seeing how damn powerful Zod is and how easy it is for him to take out Superman’s rogues gallery. Up until now, it wasn’t quite clear how powerful Zod was, but Zircher draws him easily handling Superman’s villains with nary breaking a sweat. There’s also an excellent fight scene between Zod and a Kryptonian robot that’s a lot of fun.
Uhh, what is happening?
It can’t be perfect can it?
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The inclusion of the mysterious man in green who has been watching over Superman for over a year gives this issue an obnoxious deus ex machina element that cheapens the resolution a bit. Really, there’s a lot of seemingly random resolutions due to sheer luck or happenstance, which can make much of the heroes’ winning less than heroic.
Is It Good?
This is an action packed issue that juxtaposes Zod being triumphant and Superman getting his bearings in the Negative Zone. The entire issue is paced well and shakes out to a major new turn for Zod fans won’t want to miss.
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