Supergirl in Action Comics Presents: Doomsday Special #1

Since we learned about the conversion of Action Comics from a Superman solo book to a Superman Family anthology book, I have been hoping for a Supergirl solo story. 

Supergirl Woman of Tomorrow ended over a year ago. The last page of that book has her watching Ruthye execute a repentent Krem. The Supergirl solo book ended over three years ago and ended with an arc where she was infected by the Batman Who Laughs and turned into a villain. 

Thankfully, in the main Superman books, we have been given bits of a more heroic, intelligent, and optimistic Kara. But these were simply bread crumbs. And I wanted a meal.

So I was pretty thrilled when I came across this story about the Action Comics Presents: Doomsday Special #1, solicited for August! 

The book is written by Dan Watters with art by old friend Eddy Barrows. And here is the solicit!

It is a creature beyond reason—and the only force in the universe strong enough to kill Superman. It’s Doomsday, the living embodiment of death, destruction, and evolution! In the wake of Dark Crisis and Lazarus Planet, King Doomsday now sits on a throne of skulls across a river of blood, holding court over the demons that swarm in the depths of Hell...and he may have just found a way back to the land of the living. It’s now up to Supergirl and Martian Manhunter to drive the beast back and see that he never again returns to our earthly plane—even if they must die to do it! Plus: the return of Bloodwynd, the debut of the Doomhounds, and a clue to the next big Superman event!

So I admit that the title highlights Doomsday, a character that I think is overused. But this is a Supergirl and Martian Manhunter adventure as they try to stop Doomsday. 48 pages! And Bloodwynd!! Holy 1990's!

We finally will get a Supergirl adventure where she is at the center of the action ... and hopefully not evil, angry, overly traumatized, or sad! 

Okay, I won't curse the darkness! There is a lot to love here. 

Review: Dark Crisis The Deadly Green

When it was announced that the big bads in Dark Crisis were Pariah and the The Great Darkness, I anticipated that the writers would be leaning into two of the bigger stories that came out in 1985. 

One, of course, is Crisis on Infinite Earths. That would explain all the multiverse stuff and obviously Pariah's presence.

The other though is American Gothic, the Alan Moore Swamp Thing arc that looked at horror manifesting in the DCU during the instability of the Crisis. That arc starts with the formal introduction of John Constantine and ends with a battle on the plains of Heaven and Hell. We see Swamp Thing tangentially touch on the Crisis in Swamp Thing #46. That arc introduces the Parliament of Trees. It ends in Swamp Thing #50 where the Great Darkness is revealed as the shadow of God, the Anti-light. In that issue, Earthbound magical heroes perform a seance to lend what meager powers they have to the side of good. In the end, Swamp Thing is profound, Mento is insane, Zatara is dead, and the Great Darkness has created an uneasy truce with the original Light. 

Dark Crisis The Deadly Green really leans into that American Gothic arc and in particular that issue of Swamp Thing. From a super-hero seance, to a profound character speaking from the ultimate darkness, to Swamp Thing playing an important role, it all resonates. Without knowing that issue inside and out, I wonder if readers pick up and those reverberations. In particular, Constantine speaking to three aspects of the Great Darkness is a sort of inverse of four heroes speaking to the Darkness in that issue, a very sneaky back door homage. Alan Scott almost perishing in flames (like Zatara did) is also a decent echo. 

And a key plot point of the main Dark Crisis book is tucked away here too. 

All that, from the homage to the key plot point, makes me wonder why the creator list of the book reads like a phone book. It sports three writers - Ram V, Daniel Watters, and Alex Paknadel. It has four artists - Daniel Bayliss, George Kambadais, Tom Derenick, and Brent Peeples. I suppose that the number of creators doesn't matter if the story works. But the art styles flipping about did pull me a bit out of the story. 

All this makes me wonder if I should just review Swamp Thing #50 here.

On to the book.