Superman and Doomsday are still kung fu fighting. Minus the actual skill and grace of martial arts. Lex Luthor continues to be a stand up hero who is just a little cocky. Jonathon remains a small child who can stand in for the audience who didn’t read Death of Superman and have Lois explain things to (who also geeks out over how awesome Super Lex is). Lois somehow has some of the worst flowery prose internal monologue possible. And Superman is less of a dick then he has been the last two issues, he is just generally a moron. Yeah Superman comics are awesome… It is just more of a big fight comic here. You’ve seen it before an will again. The fight isn’t that great, we still have random mysteries of why Clark Kent is there watching, but not a thing is resolved here. This is just part three of however many. So instead I will just go on about how stupid Superman is in this issue.

The first time Doomsday and Superman fought, what did Superman do? Yes he died, but what was his tactic? This larger than life hero who has out smarted some of the greatest minds in the galaxy, out witted 5^th dimensional beings, created miraculous scientific achievements and wonders in his spare time just for Jimmy and Lois can be entertained for a day…he just punches Doomsday a lot. Never has a plan, just throws fists, sometimes he uses his heat vision, but general it is punch, punch, punch. In this issue, in the middle of the fight with Doomsday, Superman says to himself “I am smarter now.” This means he has a plan right? Yeah it is just to punch and use his heat vision.

Superman’s punch punch plan even gets criticized by the nameless observer who maybe is just a stand in for the editor who wanted to say more but didn’t. The plan also results in a giant crater the size of a city block, which must make everyone who loved the mindless destruction in Man of Steel super happy. Sigh.

I will give them credit for trying to make Doomsday a real threat. Ever since his first appearance every subsequent outing he has become less and less. Everyone is treating him like the biggest threat ever, which is good, there needs to be a few larger than anything else epic villains. I just wish the comic was written better.

The art is still pretty good. The action looks pretty neat. I kind of feel like there was a continuity jump where the issue starts with Luthor’s armor torn up, but I could also be mis-remembering. Really this entire story makes me realize how much I want Lex Luthor to be the Superman of Action Comics. But he would probably have to suddenly turn into a giant jerk, and Superman would be a good guy…actually yes please let’s do that!

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