Action Comics #644 (August 1989) - Review

I love 80s comics. I don't know why, but I do. However, the majority of 80s stuff I have read from comics' Big Two I have never read in actual floppy form. I have a massive trade paperback collection, where I have gotten to read many of the Big Two's 80s output from that time.

I struggled to find a comic to review for this blog when I saw my copy of Superman in the Eighties, a trade collecting a sample of the Man of Steel's adventures during the time of neon, jazzercise, and glam metal. I leafed through it when I read quickly through the last story in the book, and I decided, "Hey, I'll review this one!"

The scans come from said trade paperback. It's a good trade if you can find it, collecting some of the best Superman tales from the Me Decade. It also contains a great introduction by the legendary Jerry Ordway, who worked on Superman back in those days. There are only two issues I have with this trade: the pages are printed on what seems to be the same paper regular comics were printed on. Also, the trade has a cover gallery, but they are not of the comics collected in the trade. I had to go to Google to find the cover of this comic. You may have to go online to find a copy as it is from 2006. I was lucky to find this on the shelf of a comic store at a local mall.

The late 80s, much like the last couple years, were a fresh start for the Man of Steel. When Crisis on Infinite Earths hit, Superman was given a reboot. Many elements of the mythos were removed for various reasons, like his teenage career as Superboy (as a consequence, his adventures teaming up with the Legion of Super-Heroes were considered non-canon), and the removal of Supergirl and many of the Kryptonians he encountered over the years (It was felt that they were redundant). History repeats itself, indeed. So, let's look at Action Comics #644!

"Doppelganger"
Plot: George Perez and Roger Stern
Script: Roger Stern
Pencils: George Perez
Inks: Brett Breeding
Letters: Bill Oakley
Colors: Glenn Whitmore

I love the cover. It grabs the eye by showing what looks like Superman, yet not. The costume is all wrong color-wise. He looks menacing, with a shadowed face except for evil-looking white eyes and standing in rubble. I think it was drawn by George Perez, so that has cool points already for me. I know there is an accent mark over the first e in Perez, but I have no idea how to type it, so my apologies for that.

This comic starts with Superman flying back to his boyhood home of Smallville, Kansas. He was called there by Lana Lang, saying someone called "Matrix" was becoming a handful.

"Did I leave the super-oven on in the Fortress of Solitude? Ah, that's gonna bother me all day..."

He discovers that Murry's Place, a small business in Smallville, I'm assuming, was wrecked. And nothing else was. The cops and building inspector explain that it happened at night, and one deputy was said to have joked that only Superman himself could've caused such destruction, but he was in Metropolis, so he couldn't have been responsible. The Man of Steel figures Matrix was behind it...and for some reason, he also deduces that Matrix was posing as him.

We also get a bit of a recap of who Matrix is and how...Matrix came to Smallville.

Your new Supergirl for the upcoming 1990s! Enjoy, fans!

Yeah, the Superman creative team really liked Supergirl, and wanted to revive the character (Kara Zor-El was killed in Crisis on Infinite Earths). However, the higher-ups did not want her to be a Kryptonian, because at the time, they felt having her be a Kryptonian would hurt Superman's branding as "The Last Son of Krypton". Personally, I would've just said she was the "Last Daughter", but that's just me. I'm silly like that.

So, to get around it, they came up with this origin for the Post-Crisis Supergirl. Essentially, she was a shapeshifting artificial lifeform created by an alternate world's Lex Luthor to help liberate said alternate world from three tyrannical Kryptonians. She used psychokinetic abilities to mimic Superman's powers. Yeah, comics are weird.

She ended up the only survivor of that world, and as such, Superman decided to take her to his so she wouldn't be alone. He also left her in the care of his parents because he figured, "Hey, they raised me, they won't have any problems raising another being from another world." Then, Superman was having some personal troubles and needed to leave Earth for a while, so he asked Matrix to keep an eye on his parents for him. No pressure.

"You want me to what? What's going on?"

Based on that panel, one can assume Matrix has been hanging out with Walter White. Anyway, Superman also reveals that Matrix has been living as Clark Kent (evidently as a strange way of doing what Superman asked him/her to do), and somehow blew up his apartment...which was not mentioned earlier in the comic. Okay. How did he learn this?

Lana tells Superman that Matrix has come back to the Kent farm, and Ma and Pa Kent are trying to calm him down.

"After breakfast, I'm going to the Robinson Crusoe shipwreck cosplay party!"

Matrix rants about staying on the farm and helping Ma and Pa work on it, Superman observing from outside. He tries to think of a way to convince Matrix that he is not Clark Kent, but Matrix suddenly starts saying what Clark is thinking. Matrix panics and sees Supes out the window, then blasts him.

"Oh, my God! That man's got my face! And a much nicer outfit!"

Superman recovers and finds Matrix has taken Lana and the Kents away. It's revealed he has taken them to an abandoned quarry. The three try to convince Matrix he isn't Superman, but Matrix is too confused, even changing his tattered clothes into a darker take on Superman's classic costume.

"Please tell me I got Superman's costume right...Oh. I am NOT good with colors."

Using his visual powers, Superman follows Matrix's heat trail to the quarry. Matrix rants about a recent kidnapping she was a victim of thanks to Lex Luthor, which he could not know about because the Kents never told him about it. Superman realizes that somehow his and Matrix's minds have linked up, which explains how Matrix can remember things and was able to say what was on his mind earlier. Despite this, Superman is able to ambush the crazed Matrix.

"*Kool-Aid Man crashing noise* OH YEAH!"

Superman checks on his parents and Lana. He then tries to get Matrix back to his senses, but Matrix is too convinced he is the real Superman, and they start to fight. The fight uses some of the trademark Perez tricks, including the usage of panels to help move the action.

"WHY YOU LITTLE-!"

We briefly cut back to Metropolis, where Karen Faulkner at S.T.A.R. Labs is trying to contact Superman. The reason, the Will Payton Starman needs his help.

"That's okay, I can wait. I'll just stand here with my hands behind my back..."

Back in Smallville, Superman and Matrix's brawl take them back to the building the Kents and Lana were hiding in. They try to flee the collapsing building, but Lana is injured by rubble. The Kents try to get her out of there, but the fight is causing the building to collapse.

Superman hears Ma Kent's cries for help, and saves them from the falling building.

"Man, if I wasn't Kryptonian, this would hurt."

Superman confronts Matrix, explaining that during a self-imposed exile in space (long story), he had been given a Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator. Matrix had accidentally activated it somehow, and it caused their minds to be linked. Matrix hallucinates that Superman is a Silver Age-styled General Zod, threatening to find a way to destroy his new world. Matrix completely flips out and blasts Superman with psychokinetic energy. In an AWESOME sequence, Superman takes the blast, and just marches right up to Matrix and talks him down.



"IMMA BLAST YOU Ah, crud."

Matrix realizes how much he has screwed up, and decides to leave Earth to find himself, and as penance for disgracing the name of Superman.

"Did I leave the oven on in Smallville? Ah, that's gonna bother me all day..."

This comic isn't a bad story. It has an epic fight scene and we get to see Superman go back to his boyhood home. Its big weakness is that it has trouble standing on its own. You really are going to have to have read previous comics to have a full idea of the story. The fact that I did not see any editor's notes about what issues previous events happened in does not help.

As for the art? It's George friggin' Perez! What more do you want?! His art is incredible here! It's wonderful to look at! It's actually one of the highlights of this book, it's very pretty to look at. His layouts are really neat, too.

Do I recommend this book? Again, it's not a bad story, but it does have a bit of trouble standing on its own. As for the trade I got this issue's scans from, Superman in the Eighties, pick it up if you find it. It's got some neat stories in it. For my next review, I want to take a slight jump forward to 1991 with Captain America as he takes his first steps into the Streets of Poison...