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The Wrap Up Show at FMF-- Action Comics #5

Systemsfailing

So, this is kind of embarrassing.  You see, I wrote a piece on Action Comics #5 for last week's Flashmob Fridays but was kind of shocked when it didn't show up in the Friday roundtable post.  I thought maybe I had been kicked out already for saying I really didn't get Carl Barks' comics the previous week and that Alan just hadn't told me yet.  I had finished it up last Wednesday, well before out deadline but somehow I never emailed it.  So for the week, I get to show up on our Monday Wrap Up Show, talking a bit more about Action Comics #5 and how so far this seems to be a series of unfulfilled potential.

In this last few years of political, economic and social upheaval in the United States, I think Morrison is on the right track in trying to redefine Superman. The 21st Century started out with a Superman that somehow tried to renounce any American citizenship and even was proclaimed as standing for “truth, justice and all of that other stuff.” But like the times when Superman was created, the “American way” is either corny, an anachronism or a lie depending on your views of the country. And how does the country’s #1 adopted son respond to that? That’s the story that it felt like Morrison was trying to tell in the first two issues of Action. How does the ultimate boy scout live in an era where the Boy Scouts are eventually sent overseas to fight wars that no one understands while those who stay home get rich and fat? 

You can read the full review here.