By Rob Siebert
Editor, Fanboy Wonder

We’ve got a lot to get to this week, and I’ve got a lot to say. But just so this particular post doesn’t stretch itself too long, I’m doing to divide my reviews of this week’s “New 52″ titles into two installments. Today we’ll talk Action Comics, Batgirl, and Animal Man. Tomorrow, I’ll do Detective Comics, Justice League International, Green Arrow and Hawk & Dove. Let’s dive in…

TITLE: Action Comics #1
AUTHOR: Grant Morrison
PENCILLER: Rags Morales
PUBLISHER: Isn’t it obvious?
PRICE: $3.99
RELEASED: September 7, 2011

When I got this issue home, I went straight to my library and whipped out the first issues of All Star Superman, Superman: Secret Origin, Superman For All Seasons and Superman: Birthright. I wanted to compare how those different writers and artists have introduced us to their versions of the Man of Steel, as Grant Morrison and Rags Morales are doing here…

- In Superman For All Seasons, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale played up Clark Kent’s farm boy roots by having Jonathan Kent narrate the story.
- In Superman: Birthright, Mark Waid and Leinil Yu started on Krypton with Jor-El and Lara, then brought us to a 25-year-old pre-Superman Clark in South Africa, as he was discovering his powers.
- In All Star Superman, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely got the exposition out of the way quickly, and sent us right into Clark Kent’s life as it is today.
- In Superman: Secret Origin, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank  went the farm boy route, with a teenage Clark discovering his powers.

To its credit, Action Comics #1 doesn’t do any of this. This issue largely looks at Superman from the people’s perspective. As in: “There’s a man out there who can bend steel with his bare hands, fly, and shoot lasers from his eyeballs. Holy crap! What do we do???” It’s a more cynical look at the Superman myth to be sure, but it’s also more practical (as practical as superheroes get, at least). Let’s be honest. If something like Superman showed up in the real world, people would be terrified. That’s not a post-9/11 thing, it’s a humanity thing. It would especially be true if Superman was doing what he’s doing in this issue.

It would appear that this is a bit more of a thinking man’s Superman, who’s more concerned with social justice than the law. Our hero kicks the issue off going after some corporate douchebag, with wide-eyed cops staring on in awe. ”You know the deal, Metropolis. Treat people right, or expect a visit from me,” he says. This is a great little scene, at it makes a great statement about who the real bad guys are in the modern era.

Later on, we meet an energy drink sipping Lex Luthor, who’s been hired as a consultant to the army to bring Superman into custody. The man he’s working with? General Sam Lane, Lois Lane’s father. As for Lois, she and Jimmy Olsen are still journalists with The Daily Planet. Oddly enough, Clark Kent apparently works for an opposing paper (The Daily Star?), and has been sending Jimmy tips for the last several months. We end the issue with a cliffhanger that should definitely bring folks back for more next month.

What really resonated with me about this issue was that despite having no reservations about using his powers to dangle a corporate mongul off a rooftop and then scare him half to death, this character is still very much Superman. He’s still an idealist, but also a bit more brash, which I suspect is a byproduct of this character being younger. Fans who’ve called Superman out for being too soft-spoken might be surprised when they open this issue. This new mindset, combined with brilliant art from Rags Morales, have put Action Comics on my must-read list for the forseeable future.

***

TITLE: Batgirl #1
AUTHOR: Gail Simone
PENCILLER: Ardian Syaf. Cover by Adam Hughes.
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: September 7, 2011

This one’s going to be a harder sell, because in the eyes of many (myself included) DC is fixing something that isn’t broken with Batgirl.

In 1967, Barbara Gordon made her debut as Batgirl, and to this day is still the quintessential version of that character. But in 1989, Alan Moore’s classic The Killing Joke saw Barbara shot in the stomach by The Joker, and paralyzed from the waste down. For the next two decades, Barbara Gordon was the wheelchair-bound hero Oracle, who essentially acted as the DCU’s information guru. She became a symbol of perseverance and triumph in the face of tragedy. Now, this reboot sees Barbara back in her original role as Batgirl. Her time as Oracle is still more or less intact. In this issue we learn that The Killing Joke took place three years ago, and that through “a miracle,” Barbara can now walk again.

A miracle, huh? Yeah, okay…

As one would expect, the big theme of this issue is that Batgirl is getting accustomed to being able to use her legs again, both in the field and in her everyday life. She moves out of her father’s house and into an apartment with a roommate, and shakes off the rust on the battlefield. But when she finds herself face-to-face with a gun-wielding villain called Mirror, Batgirl unexpectedly freezes, flashing back to that horrible moment with The Joker. Now the big question is, will Barbara be able to overcome her fears and defeat Mirror?

Like Superman, Barbara’s age has been scaled back. She appears to be in her early ’20s. To Gail Simone’s credit, she’s able to write Barbara as a younger girl, and not the grown woman she’s written in Birds of Prey over the years. It’s actually a bit reminiscent of the Stephanie Brown book, which I’m going to miss tremendously. It’ll take some getting used to, but Simone will make it work. Ardian Syaf continues to do tremendous work, and it’s nice to see him continue to get the spotlight.

It’s going to take awhile for me, and probably a lot of people, to think of Barbara Gordon as Batgirl again, because she’s been Oracle for so long. Who knows? Maybe this character will never be able to outrun (no pun intended) Oracle’s legacy. But if DC is going to do a Barbara Gordon/Batgirl book, they definitely gave it to the right team. Simone knows the ins and outs of the character as well as anybody, and Syaf’s art is top notch. I’m definitely curious to see how this book progresses over the next several months. It looks like Nightwing will be making a guest appearance in November. Personally, I’m wondering if a certain Clown Prince of Crime will be showing up…

***

TITLE: Animal Man #1
AUTHOR: Jeff Lemire
PENCILLER: Travel Foreman
PRICE: $2.99
RELEASED: September 7, 2011

Animal Man wasn’t originally on my pull-list for this month, but this book has gotten such rave reviews, I had to see what all the fuss was about.  I’m glad I did.

We open the book to an odd first page: A magazine interview with our main character, Buddy Baker. We learn that he’s now an animal rights activist and a part-time superhero, who has a role in a soon-to-be-released indie film. But at heart, Buddy is a family man, living with his wife Ellen, and their two children. In this issue, Animal Man stops hostage situation in the children’s ward at a hospital, then comes home to a rather alarming scene involving his daughter and several animals…

What surprised me about this book was how creepy it was. I knew Lemire was going for a horror vibe with this book (as Brian Azzarello will apparently be doing with Wonder Woman), but I suppose I don’t read a lot of true horror comics. I’m big into superheroes and sci fi obviously, and there’s some crime and noir thrown in there, but not a lot of horror. At one point, Animal Man actually bleeds from his eyeballs (shown left)! There’s also a pretty tense moment where Buddy dreams about his family being victimized. The cliffhanger is also a pretty freaky moment.

The combination of the horror tone and the family-oriented nature of the character should make for a very interesting book. I wasn’t a big fan of Lemire’s work on Superboy, but I’m excited about this book. I’ll definitely be coming back for more.

Front page image from ifanboy.com. Action Comics page from newsok.com. Batgirl page from idlehands1.blogspot.com. Animal Man page from gfbrobot.com.