Review: Action Comics Vol. 6- Superdoom
Quick Summary
Pros: There is plenty of action and some cool fight scenes. The book starts out with a neat examination of Superman’s psyche.
Cons: The story is collected in a poor way, leaving the arc’s conclusion out entirely. The number of plot lines going on here make the book more chaotic than it needs to be. The artwork is not that great.
Overall: For the most part, this is a pretty average book that tells an alright story but falls victim to a number of errors. Here readers will see a unique take on Superman that throws him in a number of cool battles while also exploring his darker character traits. However, the collection’s end becomes far more confusing than it needs to be and completely leaves out any trace of a conclusion. This makes this a hard book to read without knowledge of Superman: Doomed and not something many fans will get too excited over.
Review Notes
It is worth noting that this collection is only a small part of a much larger crossover. The full crossover is collected in Superman: Doomed (our review of which can be found here). Reading this book on its own is possible, but the experience will be significantly fragmented. See our Superman: Doomed timeline here for more information about how to read this event.
Story
Action Comics Vol. 6: Superdoom is a just one portion of the Superman: Doomed (Review) crossover event. The stories collected here mostly focus on Superman himself and show how he reacts to a virus that is threatening to take over his mind. This means that there is a lot of explosive action but also an interesting personal struggle. However, the number of plot threads here make the story’s message far more confusing than it needs to be and the ending is completely left out of this collection. This makes Superdoom an average quality book that provides some solid entertainment but ends in a way that will frustrate many, especially those who have not read Superman: Doomed (Review).
(spoilers start here)
The majority of this book is focused on the action and fighting that is inherent to any story about one of Superman’s most violent enemies, Doomsday. This time, Doomsday’s personality has taken over Superman’s mind and is pushing him to spread death and destruction everywhere he goes. This situation pits the Man of Steel against a wide array of heroes and villains, who he fights in increasingly epic battles. These battles inject tons of action into the collection and are sure to make it instantly appealing for anyone who enjoys watching Superman beat up his enemies.
However, this focus on fighting does not mean that this volume is without a story. Superman’s struggle to stay in control, despite Doomsday’s influence, is a central theme in the book that comes up constantly throughout the read. It shows how immensely powerful Superman is and how much he has to hold back on a typical basis. It also emphasizes Superman’s status as an outsider and brings up doubts and insecurities that he has harbored even before being infected. All of this comes together to provide a neat look at Superman as a character.
Unfortunately, this character examination is muddied by the sheer amount of plot threads going on in this story, especially toward the end. At first, the narrative is pretty straightforward, Superman has a self-control problem and is struggling to fix it. However, by the collection’s end, this straightforward narrative is made more chaotic by plotlines involving Lois Lane’s mind control, the various actions of Superman’s friends, and the invasion of Brainiac’s ships. The collection tries to do too much in too little time and suffers because of it.
While on the topic of the book’s conclusion, the biggest problem with the collection is that it presents a poor snapshot of the Superman: Doomed (Review) event as a whole. Superdoom tries to smooth the transition from between missing story pieces by starting each chapter with a brief summary of what readers missed. This is not ideal, but is passable for the most part. That is, until the end. The last main issue of the crossover, collected here, ends on a massive cliffhanger. Yet the next issue simply starts the event’s epilogue with absolutely no explanation as to what happened in the event’s conclusion. For those going into this book without reading the whole event, this will make no sense and will provide a completely unsatisfactory conclusion to an otherwise decent story.
(spoilers end here)
Art
The artwork in Superdoom does little to redeem the average quality story. Artists Aaron Kuder and Scott Kolins draw the majority of the book, with both artists sharing a similar art style. On the plus side, both artists do well in paneling pages and drawing detailed backgrounds to intense scenes. It also helps that their styles are so similar, allowing the book to remain mostly consistent, with only a few artistic changes disrupting the flow.
However, despite consistency and nice backgrounds, the characters are what brings the artwork down. Faces are oddly structured and seems unnatural in the majority of scenes, especially when more intense emotions are being portrayed. This is a problem throughout the collection and significantly impacts how the entire book looks. It doesn’t completely ruin the visual quality here but definitely keep it from being anything above average.
Continuity
Action Comics Vol. 6: Superdoom continues the story started in Action Comics Vol. 5: What Lies Beneath (Review). However, the vast majority of this volume is a massive crossover with multiple series that come together to form the Superman: Doomed (Review) event. For more details about how this works see our Superman: Doomed timeline here.
The story here continues in Action Comics Vol. 7: Under the Skin.
This volume also references and continues the stories from other comic books, detailed below:
- The entire premise of this story relies heavily on Brainiac’s invasion of Earth back in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- The beginning of this book makes a few references to Superman’s fight against Ghost Soldier, his rescue of Subterranea, and his friendship with Baka. These events happened in Action Comics Vol. 5: What Lies Beneath (Review).
- The death of Dr. Light is mentioned. He died during Trinity War (Review).
- The events of Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 1: Power Couple (Review) are mentioned a few times. This includes
- The origin behind Doomsday’s recent appearances.
- Soldiers being set to kill Superman and Wonder woman.
- Lex Luthor’s previous kidnapping of Superman happened in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- John Henry mentions working with General Lane in the past. This was in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- Lois Lane’s connection to the Collector started in Superman Vol. 4: Psi War (Review).
- Sergeant John Corben’s past with Superman and Brainiac is what put him in his current condition. This past is detailed in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
- Supergirl’s involvement with the Red Lantern Corps begins and ends in Supergirl Vol. 5: Red Daughter of Krypton.
- Superman’s fight with Mongul is brought up a few times. This fight is chronicled in Batman/Superman Vol. 2: Game Over.
- Superman’s initial fight against Xa-Du is told in Action Comics Vol. 3: At The End Of Days.