3 out of 5

From early in their career, Grant Morrison has always seemed to favor long-form storytelling. Yeah, stories should (generally) have beginnings and ends, but whether an arc was two issues, or something multi-parted across multiple arcs, Grant’s tales have often come bundled with an awareness of their ephemeral nature, and thus how they can tip to previous stories, while also being mindful of that tale’s inevitably limited longevity. Thus, the “long-form” is of a very macro style, and I think this is what’s given a lot of Grant’s writing – for the big two or on their own characters – an extra notable zing, which is putting it lightly.

They did some puzzling and flawed but amazing and kind of awesome work with their long run on Batman; in Grant’s tour through the DC stable as the rewrite-and-revitalize person, it could’ve been assumed that they would be put on Superman at some point. But this was also a stylistic transition point for Grant, at least in my mental chronology, and that made their assignment to the book not really as exciting as it was with Bats.

Plus: Superman is a hard character to write. Batman, you can get by by faking badassness to an extent, and distract us with a mystery or action. Supes is the invincible boyscout. Try to show us something new.

Grant’s “new” came along with yet another universe reboot at DC, and presented as Superman wearing jeans and a chubby Lex Luthor. And we were reintroduced to a version of Jimmy, and Lois, and Steel, and Brainiac, and I kept telling myself that Grant’s first Batman arc was underwhelming (and still is, though gains context with the long-form in sight), but still, Grant Morisson’s Action Comics #1 – 6 falls pretty flat. Maybe it’s because they’ve already given us two rather definitive takes, via their legendary JLA run, and then even more focused with All-Star Superman. Smartly, Grant doesn’t try to repeat those beats, but what else is there? So they kinda write him as Superboy: new to Metropolis, snarky, using his powers to complement his upstart journalism career and go after political baddies… until Lex Luthor and an alien threat come into the picture.

But even besides this being not a necessarily original take – which has hardly ever mattered with writers as inventive as Grant – I think the real problem is that the book is lacking that long-form vibe. There’re some habitual tics of Grant’s, where they include characters and concepts which make no sense now but will be clearer later, but it comes across as just that: moreso a template and not anything that really requires our attention. There’s simply not much of a hook, or a “voice” to these characters or world; it is, instead, Grant Morrison cycling Metropolis and its cast through a Grant Morrison polish, with big pseudo science and off-panel events.

Artist Rags Morales is also not much of a complementary fit, functioning better as an artist of static shots and not able to imbue his pages with either the necessary dynamism or enough flavor to fill in the gaps of Grant’s characterizations. Notably, when Brent Anderson starts to assist on pencils, it gives Rags’ somewhat bubbly style some edge, and helps the pages out. But overall, Rags is another aspect of the book’s initial lacking identity.

Both things which are helped by Grant jumping completely elsewhere for issues 7 and 8 for a more fittingly outrageous arc (maybe notably not directly starring this new 52 Superman) that involves time travel, anti-Supermen, and characters from the archive, plus Bats art mate Andy Kubert – if the opening Batman arc was a bit off storywise, Kubert at least added so much energy visually, and that’s repeated here. The issues still have a kind of template feel, but there’s enough ridiculousness and compression in them so as to distract, and successfully entertain.

The trade collection of these issues puts the backups from Sholly Fisch and artists ChrisChross and Brad Walker all together at the end, which is an okay decision. They are mostly pablum focusing on Steel and Ma and Pa Kent, and don’t add much to the story, but these arguably could’ve been better in the original places to give better juxtaposition versus Grant’s stuff. I dunno, either way. But it’s good, for completion, that they’re included, and it’s that plus covers plus sketches / background notes from Grant and Rags that make the trade a worthwhile purchase… even if its contents are mostly ho-hum.