Action Comics #1021

Metropolis Doom! Conclusion

Brian Michael Bendis Writer

John Romita Jr. Penciller

Klaus Janson Inker

Brad Anderson Colorist

Dave Sharpe Letterer

John Romita Jr., Klaus Janson, Brad Anderson Cover

Lucio Parillo Variant Cover

Brittany Holzherr Associate Editor

Jamie S. Rich Editor

Superman created by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster.

Superboy created by Jerry Siegel

By special arrangement with the Jerry Siegel family.

Our cover shows Superman flying through the air with Young Justice right behind him (even those who can't fly are oddly running in midair), while the Man of Steel boldly proclaims that this looks like a job for our lovable teenage heroes. Despite the execution (everyone is so creepy looking!), this cover does portray a thrilling sentiment. Young Justice gets to save the day in Action Comics?! Amazing! Unfortunately, nothing remotely close to that happens in this issue. Between Action and Flash, we're getting a lot of misleading covers right now.

Last time we were here, Impulse, Young Justice and most of the Justice League were knocked out by Brainiac's bomb. It sure made for a couple of dramatic-looking scenes, but conveniently, nobody was really hurt too bad and they all simultaneously recovered in just a couple of minutes. (I always say speedsters should get up long before everybody else, but Bendis doesn't seem to agree.) Anyway, all the heroes are back up on their feet, ready to finally have a proper fight with the Legion of Doom, when Leviathan suddenly shows up and teleports all the villains away.

Leviathan gives a long, boring speech that ultimately says nothing, then starts to leave. Flash asks if he'll help clean up the mess caused by the Legion of Doom, but Leviathan snarkily responds: "What would that teach you?" Impulse says that retort sounded a lot like his dad, which is a very bizarre comment coming from a boy who's father died before he was born (at least in the original continuity). Impulse then apologizes for letting himself get knocked out, accurately noting how unprofessional it was. He then inaccurately refers to Justice League as "Old Justice" (I am 100% convinced Bendis doesn't know there was an actual Old Justice in the original continuity).

And that's that. This massively hyped-up, yet incredibly underwhelming story is now over. Bart and Barry didn't say a single word to each other, even though this is probably their first encounter since Flashpoint. Impulse and Young Justice really didn't do anything in this story, but neither did the Justice League or even Superman himself. Everybody just stood around yelling at each other until the all-powerful Leviathan decided he was sick and tired of Luthor and decided to end it all. This was an awful story with even worse art. And to make matter worse, this comic was released on my birthday! (Granted, it's still not as bad as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, which also came out on my birthday.)

Next time, we'll take another quick look at another Impulse cameo in The Flash #754.