Comic Book Review: Action Comics #869

Action Comics #869

Writer: Geoff Johns
Penciller: Gary Frank
Inker: Jon Sibal
Letterer: Rob Leigh
Colorist: Brad Anderson
Cover: Frank G. Anderson

Story: Brainiac part 4

Action Comics has been running with Superman in its pages for 70 years. Because of that, and the fact that Superman is so powerful, many comic fans don't like him or Action Comics. Geoff Johns prooves that age and power doesn't make for a dull read.

Superman has found Brainiac, but in doing so he's led Brainiac to Earth where he plans to take Metropolis and shrink it down like he did the Kryptonian city of Kandor.

And there's the brilliance of a Geoff Johns story. He keeps true to history ans still updating the concepts to be more appealing to modern readers. We have shruken cities and we have Brainiac, now a buff, bald, green-skinned collector of cultures. Now Brainiac isn't a scrawny egghead hiding behind a force field...He's a conquerer as physical formidable as he is intellectually. He flies a shiny ship with a skull on its front and uses robotic skeletal drones for his grunt work. Johns's Brainiac wraps all of Brainiac's past since his appearance in 1958 into one package.

While I like Johns's Brainiac, I have to say I'm getting a little frustrated with the continuing revision of Superman's history and his villains. In the 50 years since he first appeared, Brainiac has undergone a seemingly constant metamorphosis:

July 1958: Brainiac first appears as a bald, green-skinned villain

February 1964: Brainiac is learned to be a robot, still has green-skin and is bald. Now has diodes on his head.

June 1984: Brainiac transfers his mind into a skeletal robotic form.

March 1988: Brainiac is a Coluan scientist who transfers his consciousness into Milton Fine on Earth. He has the green skin, bald head, and diodes, but now posses a moustache and goatee.

1998: Brainiac puts his consciousness in Doomsday but gets forced into a robotic body dubbed Brainiac 2.5

2000: Brainiac 13 comes from the future to take over Brainiac 2.5

2004: Superman travels to the future and battles Brainiac 12

2003: More future Brainiacs as Brainic 6 sends his daughter Brainiac 8 into the past who joins the Outsiders as Indigo before revealing her true nature.

2007: Brainiac is a nontech swarm

And now the new version...50 years, 10 changes and future versions...That's a lot. It's about time to let him alone.

The story was good, though, and the art decent. I felt some of the panels, even though there was fighting going on, seemed static. But Gary Frank does a great job of making Brainiac menacing. But then so does Johns.

Best Brainiac line: "They call you Superman. Why would they call you that when you are not a 'man' at all? And 'super'? There is nothing super about you. Not like me."

Rating: 3 1/2 Worms - Great characters (except Supergirl, but I didn't mention her before now for a reason), good action, good art, but loss of worm for mucky Brainiac history...I need someone to explain what is what with him.