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A review by unladylike
Action Comics #1000: The Deluxe Edition by Brian Michael Bendis, Scott Snyder, Geoff Johns
3.0
I picked this up so I could read all the new Bendis-written Superman tales, but his one issue in this deluxe collection is actually the weakest part of the whole thing! It's mostly a disconnected anthology of classic Superman tribute one-shots by various well-known writers. I liked some of the nods to Tom King's exceptional and unique Mister Miracle series, but his actual writing of Superman was not my favorite.
The most interesting thing in this collection for me was the reprinting of Action Comics #1! Like most people exposed to this culture, I've seen the famous cover of Superman's first appearance countless times, but I had never actually read that introductory iteration! And wow, it hit me like a real, unexpected super-punch! Within the first few pages, Superman is confronting implied rape and domestic violence, and stopping the execution of a wrongly-indicted woman named Evelyn Curry (stowing that first real background character name away in my brain in case it pops up as an easter egg elsewhere). He's also kind of a jerk, aggressively bullying people who haven't done anything wrong and catching them off-guard with no effective explanation, and then cowering and defaulting to sexist and rape culture-based power dynamics when interacting with Lois Lane and a mobster-type douchebag named Butch (who definitely appeared in one of the earlier, more recent comics in this collection, and who I didn't know anything about until having read AC#1).
I was super impressed by how much information and story Simon and Shuster were able to pack into that first issue! Certain elements from that 1938 debut have been obviously ret-conned, so it was interesting to see what the first intentions were and imagine how Superman might have otherwise developed if he remained in that reality and trajectory.
The most interesting thing in this collection for me was the reprinting of Action Comics #1! Like most people exposed to this culture, I've seen the famous cover of Superman's first appearance countless times, but I had never actually read that introductory iteration! And wow, it hit me like a real, unexpected super-punch! Within the first few pages, Superman is confronting implied rape and domestic violence, and stopping the execution of a wrongly-indicted woman named Evelyn Curry (stowing that first real background character name away in my brain in case it pops up as an easter egg elsewhere). He's also kind of a jerk, aggressively bullying people who haven't done anything wrong and catching them off-guard with no effective explanation, and then cowering and defaulting to sexist and rape culture-based power dynamics when interacting with Lois Lane and a mobster-type douchebag named Butch (who definitely appeared in one of the earlier, more recent comics in this collection, and who I didn't know anything about until having read AC#1).
I was super impressed by how much information and story Simon and Shuster were able to pack into that first issue! Certain elements from that 1938 debut have been obviously ret-conned, so it was interesting to see what the first intentions were and imagine how Superman might have otherwise developed if he remained in that reality and trajectory.