Review: Action Comics #1086

Action Comics #1086 came out last week, the finale of the quick G.Willow Wilson/Gavin Guidry story and the end of the 'Superman Superstars' brief imprint on the title. 

Perhaps with the excitement around the Supergirl book, this issue was bound to sort of fall flat. But after reading it, I was struck with the fact that I had no idea what the point of the story was. Was this a 'climate change' story? A 'AI is scary' story? A 'look .. killer whales with frickin' lasers' silly story? A 'Superman is weary' story? All of it? Not enough of any?

Part of the problem is the villain of the piece and the conflict that comes from it. What is Kilg%re hoping to get out of this? Is he just a robot? Did he really think a big robot was the right way to fight Superman? Did his machine thinking really fail him as badly as it does? Without the understanding of the goals of the villain, I felt a bit lost.

And the ending, of a rather defeated and emotionally exhausted Superman, also felt tacked on and out of the blue.

Gavin Guidry brings his cleans style to the art and has some fun with the sillier parts of the story, like robot killer whales. 

But in the end, this 'Superman Superstars' mini-imprint ends with a whimper. Outside of the Waid Phantom Zone story, I think they all were a bit lackluster.

On to the details.

Last issue, Kilg%re arose from the ice to confront Superman. Kilg%re has been destroying a lab hoping to stem global warming.

Somehow this robot form is able to hold up against Superman. It is strong enough to throw Superman back. And ... this is important ... his machine learning has made him incredibly intelligent and able to predict Superman's actions.

So, Kilg%re is like an AI which is has learned enough to be near omniscient and able to stymie our here.

But why is it doing what it is?

He wants the polar caps to melt to open up trade lines for ships. And that will somehow open up energy resources for machines. 

So is Kilg%re a capitalist? An investor? 

And why would better shipping lanes increase energy for machines?

And why is that necessarily progress when you think of the devastation of the polar caps completely melting?

Actually the ultimate goal is to have the superior machines rule the world.

So does he want to kill off humanity by melting the polar caps? 

I just don't get it.

After tossing Superman around by anticipating the Man of Steel's attacks, Kilg%re sends robot enhanced killer whales under his control to destroy the lab leaving Superman to fly off and rescue.

The two then skirmish again with Kilg%re grabbing Superman who uses the close proximity to fry Kilg%re's circuits with heat vision, freezing the robot in their tracks.

So the amazing machine-learning brain didn't anticipate this very standard tactic and attack? Remember a few pages ago when it knew just what Superman was going to do?

I always thought that Kilg%re could jump his consciousness into any circuitry but here it is trapped in the mecha. 

I don't mind the sentiment of Superman saying that it shows courage to refrain from killing an enemy. 

He then chucks Kilg%re into orbit.

In the end, this felt like a complete non-threat.

Perhaps the only moment worth giving a big thumbs up was this. When Superman tells the scientists they are doing well and flies off. 

He's Superman.

They feel some hope.

Nice.

But then we get this odd ending.

Superman worries about all the threats he can't fight against. Is that climate control? AI? All of it?

So glum!

Lois hugs him and says he should take a bath and watch TV.  Things will be better.

Such an odd way to end this story that frankly didn't make the most sense. From the first parts belittling of Clark as a reporter to Kilg%re's plot of opening trade lanes to this worried Superman at the end, it just baffled me a little.

I guess bring on Mark Waid's Superboy stint in Action!

Overall grade: C- (raised by Guidry's smooth lines)