Superman – Action Comics, Volume 6: Superdoom

Action Comics (2011)

by Greg Pak (Writer), Aaron Kuder (Illustrator)

Doomsday is here.

The most brutal force Superman has ever faced is back, killing all life everywhere he goes. But defeating the beast is just the beginning. The evil of Doomsday has taken root inside Superman himself, turning him into an even deadlier, more destructive monster…and leaving the Earth defenseless for an invasion from beyond.

However, Superman does not fight his battle alone. Lois Lane. Lana Lang. Steel. Batman. Some are superheroes, others just everyday people of extraordinary bravery. It will take all they have to pull Superman back from the brink. It will take all Superman has to save the planet from its enemies-and himself…

Writer Greg Pak (BATMAN/SUPERMAN) and artists Aaron Kuder (GREEN LANTERN: NEW GUARDIANS) and Scott Kolins (JUSTICE LEAGUE) lead the charge against Doomsday -the Last Son of Krypton's greatest challenge yet!

Collects: Action Comics #30-35 and Annual #3.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superman, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

200 pages, Paperback

First published June 16, 2015

About the author

Greg Pak is an award-winning Korean American comic book writer and filmmaker currently writing "Lawful" for BOOM and "Sam Wilson: Captain America" (with Evan Narcisse) for Marvel. Pak wrote the "Princess Who Saved Herself" children's book and the “Code Monkey Save World” graphic novel based on the songs of Jonathan Coulton and co-wrote (with Fred Van Lente) the acclaimed “Make Comics Like the Pros” how-to book. Pak's other work includes "Planet Hulk," "Darth Vader," "Mech Cadet Yu," "Ronin Island," "Action Comics," and "Magneto Testament."

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 2 out of 5]

(B-) 68% | Satisfactory
Notes: Beset by blackouts, it's sufficient for the gist of it but useless to persist with it, all tent-poles no skin: a storytelling sin.

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Don't waste your money on this, just read Doomed. It collects all of this plus the extra stuff needed for volume 6 make sense. In fact, the only thing in this one I hadn't already read, was issue #30 with Harrow & Ghost Soldier.
Not worth it, in my humble opinion.



What happens in that issue that you need to know about?
Harrow can control ghosts, Ghost Soldier works for her, and she is convinced Superman needs to die. She thinks he's simultaneously too powerful and too soft. And then he goes and proves her point by kicking her ass, and then letting her live.
Boom!
I just saved you the price of admission. You're welcome.



This really is the same shit that's in Doomed, except this time around you're missing so much (pertinent) stuff, that it doesn't pack the same punch. In fact, the ending is totally missing.
That's Right! The outcome of the battle?
NOT IN THIS.
Please, I'm begging you to listen to me! Move on, and don't bother with volume 6. If you buy it, you'll be sorry you wasted your money.
And if you borrow it from somewhere, you'll be sorry you wasted your time.



The overall story is fine (I really enjoyed the Doomed arc), but I think it's annoying when DC wastes my time with cash grabs like this one.
4 stars for the story, 1 star for being greedy bastards.

[Chad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Skip this collection and read Superman: Doomed instead. You're only getting about 25% of the story reading just this one collection and you're going to be really confused. I hate when DC does this.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

A different, but enjoyable, take on the Superman/Doomsday story arc.

EDIT: Same story here as with the previous volumes.

[Gavin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hrmmm...

No,clue what just happened. Too many gaps, apparently they just published it without having it include crucial story ideas.

I liked the ends, as in the moral and growth of Supes from the event, but the getting there seemed silly and stupid.

More bearded Clark! Less blue monkey monster boy. We already have BAMFs thanks. Also, stop trying to make Krypto into Ghost from GoT.

More Luthor as a goodie anti hero. I love him and Batman in their shared bits. Comedy gold that the Joker and Supes could never duplicate.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

The plotting for Action Comics has been a lot about "refurbished-New 52" Superman in multi-arc stories against new and retread threats. This volume starts out pretending to be a turning point in that progress -- whatever makes Doomsday doom-ish has infected Supes -- it's new. But the story stretches too long, and we have to retread Lana Lang and Lois Lane and Supergirl's teen angst, and it trails off into a somewhat tepid conclusion and aftermath.

[Kyle · Rating 2 out of 5]

"Doomed" is a half-way decent storyline, but this volume is just a collection of the chapter ones for that event. I mean, you can sort of piece together what happens in between the issues collected here, but it is in no way a substitute for the entire thing. My advice would be to skip over this volume altogether and go directly for the "Doomed" TP to get the full experience.

2/5 (because as a TP collection, it makes no sense)

[Cale · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is another one of those graphic novels that serves to collect the title series in spite of it not capturing the entirety of the story. We get pieces of the Superdoomed story here, with significant gaps left in as it takes place in other titles as well. These issues seem to focus more on Lana Lang and Steel than even Superman. If you're not familiar with the overall story already, you're going to be left wondering here, as most of the major plot points appear to take place in the crossover titles. The stuff that's left is okay, but not really enough to support a TPB on its own. I will note that this volume does include the epilogue, which is the high point of this collection (even with its horrid ending). There's nothing particularly memorable about the art, and this is really just a piece of a larger story, so reading it on its own will be practically useless. With the rest of the series, it earns a little more, but honestly not enough to recommend it (the whole Doomed storyline is pretty bad, to be honest).

[John Yelverton · Rating 1 out of 5]

Throughout the decades, Superman's invulnerability has made it virtually impossible for many writers to come up with worthwhile villains for him to fight. As a result, the majority of Superman books dealt with emotional issues and issues of conscious. They then created the ultimate Superman villain in Doomsday, who was a mindless beast bent solely on destruction. DC's New 52 version of this ultimate villain is to turn him into an emotional issue and issue of conscious for Superman. And that's why the New 52 is awful.

[Robert Reiner · Rating 1 out of 5]

If this was my first exposure to comic books I’d probably never read another comic book again. This collection was awful. Imagine trying to read a book where you skip ahead every 4 chapters or so. That’s what it was like reading this. It gives you bits and pieces of a very lengthy Doomsday storyline that takes place amongst multiple DC titles. I had no idea what was going on so 1 Star for awful storytelling. And frankly 1 star for the art too. Usually even if the story is bad I can appreciate the artwork but this didn’t even have that going for it.

Disappointing.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okay version of the Doomsday storyline. Not everything is here making it a little tough to follow at times.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Superdoom picks up where What Lies Beneath, Volume 5 of Action Comics, left off. Superman meets Harrow, the real boss behind Ghost Soldier's attempts to kill. His face off with her, leads to a battle with the undead. This fight only lasts one issue, because apparently Doomsday, one of Superman's deadliest enemies, has somehow escape imprisonment. Upon defeating Doomsday, it appears Superman is infected with some kind of virus that is making him become Doomsday himself! Now it's a battle of wills between Clark Kent & the essence of Doomsday to fight for control of Superman's body. Meanwhile, Brainiac's back and his attempts to conquer Earth leads to millions of people going under a coma, and the Justice League are trying to come of with a quick solution while they also must deal with a Doomsday-infected Superman who is now going out of control before abandoning them in the moment of crisis.

This one, like Superman & Wonder Woman: War and Peace, contains fragmented pieces of the Doomsday story arc. However, unlike War and Peace, it has most of the important single issues to present at least half of it, rather than just a quarter. At least, more importantly, it shows the aftermath of the Doomsday event too. And this one, while it is still a classic superhero showdown, it also a battle of self-control, as more of the story aspect revolves around Superman's newfound appetite for destruction. He is already known to fight with restraint, but now here, this restraint is leading him to decide whether to unleash his deadly potential or leave Earth to spare them from his chaos. Also, the aftermath has Clark even doubting if the world needs Superman, considering all that happened, but shows that Lois, and likely others too, do appreciate having Superman around because both sides give balance to each other, which is nice to see as the reason he's an icon. But like other reviewers said, it's likely better to read Superman: Doomed instead, as that one tells the complete saga, combining Superdoom with other Superman comics of the New 52 to give a correct flow of the story. Of which, I will take a look very soon as I want to know this saga in its entirety.

[Gerry Sacco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was fine

[Nicholas Karpuk · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's easy to bag on Superman. The almost knee-jerk reaction many fans of super hero comics have is to say he's boring and too powerful. In some versions, yes, that's fair, but even a boring character can be fun. King of the Hill's protagonist Hank Hill is so boring that it comes back around as interesting. The trouble with most Superman writers is that they lack the courage to follow through on the big S's personality traits and their potential results.

Let's say you view Superman as a goody-goody. That's fine. Goody-goodies can be loads of fun. Pearl from Steven Universe is my favorite version of that, because they get flustered when moral ambiguities muck up their world view.

Let's say you think he's an authoritarian stick in the mud. That's also fine. Benson from Regular Show, Liz Lemon from 30 Rock, and every character Adam Scott has ever played are all great stick in the muds, whose straight-man antics set off amazing stories and great jokes.

But the problem here is that bad writers refuse to give Superman any flaws in his character. I want the Superman whose ethics lead him to start childhood fitness programs in Metropolis, who makes bank robbers apologize to tellers for being rude, who blushes when women make passes at him.

A few versions have done this, but many have not. For comic book writers, that's not gritty. It's not cool. It's not tough. Guess what, nerds, Superman is none of these things. Quit trying to look bad-ass.

Pak's version of this story exemplifies my problems. The Superdoom story is perfectly serviceable, but he stuffs it full of inner monologue that's supposed to take the place of strong, character defining actions.

This book also reminds me why I rarely read flagship character books from the Big 2. It feels like I'm getting half the story, and the editorial staff just assumes I'm a huge nerd who will buy the other two or three graphic novels that fill in the rest of the plot line. I'm not being sold a complete product, but a part of a franchise.

When I buy a full arc of Squirrel Girl, I get a fully story. I don't have to also buy Squirrel Girl Corps, Squirrel Girl Unlimited, and the limited run of Deadpool Vs. Squirrel Girl to understand the full scope of what's happening. But if I pick up Batman, Spider-man, or Superman, I'm guaranteed to need a Wikipedia trip to figure out why I'm supposed to understand this part of the Spider-Verse, or why the hell Supergirl is a Red Lantern.

Maybe they need to hire writers who actually know LESS about these universes sometimes.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 1 out of 5]

I must admit I'm biased on any Superman story that includes the New 52 version of Doomsday. At first I enjoyed the story at first with the previous version of Superman/Wonder Woman. Unfortunately the whole Superdoom story has made me sick.

The fight against Doomsday is a horrific ordeal and its one that basically spread to endanger the world. So much fury and death. I hate these stories.

F

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

via NYPL - "Hey, let's put half a crossover story in a collection by itself. It'll be good to present a story with escalating stakes, paper-thin characters and absolutely no emotional resonance without half of its plot points, including the big resolution." - Somebody in DC Collected Editions, I can only assume.

[Matt Piechocinski · Rating 2 out of 5]

This would probably have been okay if read in sequence with the other titles that made up the storyline ... D.C. does a HORRIBLE job "packaging" their trades sometimes ... this is the result

[Batgirl_ALT_21 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Superman, infected with the Doomsday virus orchestrated by Brainiac, who puts a billion people to sleep or animates them to his will & manages to infect Lois Lane to become a Brainiac telepathic. Huh, not exactly my cup of tea, and it is clearly an extension of the main SuperDoom arc.

I liked the tie-in with the Justice League and how we had some call-backs to Baka, Ghost Soldier, & Dr. Veritas. The illustrations were also brilliantly done but the plot in this specific arc was severely lacking.

Essentially Superman is infected with the SuperDoom/Doomsday virus. Wonder Woman & the JLA + Luthor come to his aid. Luthor wants to confine Superman but Wonder Woman lets him escape. Superman tries to return to his normal way and help the citizens of Metropolis but he can't control the virus and nearly kills many. Superman tries to take off into the woods with Senator Lane hot on his heels with the military. Metallo tracks Superman down with a nuke and dies in the process, but the nuke releases Kryptonite into the atmosphere, weakening SuperDoom. Batman tries to formulate an antidote by working with Superman's past villains/allies (Harrow, Ghost Soldier, Luthor & Dr. Veritas). They access the Phantom Zone for a potential cue, but it releases one of the OG villains of Krypton. Harrow raises their army of the dead to try to fight him off. Lex Luthor breaks into the mainframe thanks to Batman & Dr. Veritas, who open it for him. They manage to remove the Kryptonite from Earth's atmosphere which helps to strengthen Superman. Wonder Woman is concerned and tries to track down Superman to no avail but she isn't the only one. Lana becomes concerned as well when she tries to call Clark and gets WW instead. Lana assists Steel with aiming a laser at the Brainiac mothership that arose from a black hole, and we kinda cut away at multiple points, but Superman, who left Earth, runs into Supergirl as a Red Lantern who implores him to return, and apparently, Superman saved the day by throwing Brainiac's ship into a black hole.

Superman returns to Earth, healed but weakened (WE laser shot him with a Krypton beam upon entering Earth's atmosphere) & Supergirl catches him. Supergirl & Superman return to the fortress of solitude, where Superman learns that Candor has been taken, and 13.2K people were killed due to the hyper-sleep state Brainiac put them in. Clark goes back to Smallville to get the story and comes across Lana, who sees her old pal Clark, but is upset because she lost her father due to the Brainiac attack. Lana reveals that she & Steel are dating as Clark gathers testimony on the main story. Clark returns to Metropolis after meeting up with Bruce, who reveals that he covered for Clark Kent's absence. The next night, Clark writes a piece on why we don't need Superman and is greeted by Lois Lane, who is pissed and tells him what he wrote was trash. Lois then goes on to write a piece that implores Superman to return not only to be the good their city needs but to see all the good that has been done in his absence.

Overall, the premise was intriguing, but the execution was lacking and pulled the reader in a million different directions. I wish this plot were marketed as a JLA event as opposed to a Superman-only arc. Some moments felt rushed, and others dragged on too long. 4.5/10 ⭐️. I hope Vol. 7 is better than this extended SuperDoom arc.

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 1 out of 5]

Od razu nadmieniam. To nie jest zły komiks sam w sobie, bo historia jaką prezentuje nam Greg Pak jest niezła, a i kreski Aarona Kudera i Scotta Kolinsa dają tutaj radę, chociaż nie są czymś zjawiskowym. Ten tom ma inny koszmarny problem. Fragmentacja i żądza "piniądza".

Na dobrą sprawę 98% tego co tu mamy, znajdziemy w evencie pt. "Superman: Doomed". Jest tu tylko jeden odrębny wątek, który skupia się na spotkaniu Clarka z niejaką Harrow, tą od Ghost Soldiera z piątego tomu. Babka przedstawia swoje racje, nasyła na herosa armię duchów, które jednak nie chcą go atakować i udowadnia, iż w razie konieczności podjęcia drastycznych kroków, Kent zawsze wybierze mniej krwawe rozwiązanie. I to tyle.

Potem mamy pojawienie się Doomsday'a. Infekcję Kenta, który sam zamienia się w potwora. Jego wewnętrze zmaganie się ze sobą. Przybycie Brainiaca czy Supergirl jako Czerwoną Latarnię. Nie da się w logiczny sposób przeczytać, bo "Superdoom" nie jest pozycją, która ma status stand-alone. Należy ją czytać na przemian z :
- Superman Volume 5: Under Fire,
- Superman/Wonder Woman Volume 2: War And Peace
- Batman/Superman Volume 3: Second Chance
- Supergirl Volume 6: Crucible

Tworzy to taki rozgardiasz i luki w fabule, że każdy kto myśli o zakupie MUSI kupić resztę, aby zrozumieć, co się tu dzieje. I jeszcze byłbym w stanie to zrozumieć, bo kiedyś jak się chciało czytać jakieś wydarzenie między różnymi tytułami to trzeba było sobie zakupić poszczególne zeszyty. Teraz, w XXI wieku w zasadzie jedno jedyne logiczne rozwiązanie. Nabyć "Superman: Doomed", gdzie na ponad 500 stronach zebrano całą historię. I to tamten tytuł jest godny polecenia.

Szósty tom Supermana bowiem to tylko skok na kasę, a słaba autonomiczna, króciutka historyjka nie jest warta aż tyle, by usprawiedliwić zakup całości. Posunięcie bardzo dziwne, bo topowy tytuł New 52 pt. Forever Evil wydawnictwo mogło wydać całkowicie oddzielnie. Szkodzi to marce, nie pozostawiając mi innego wyboru jak stanowczo doradzać ten tytuł. Absolutnie nie jest to wina autorów tych tytułów, a kretyńskich posunięć marketingowych, gdzie włodarze z DC chcieli zarobić dwukrotnie na tym samym. Cierpisz na nadmiar kasy i jesteś tym typem kolekcjonera, który musi mieć wszystkie numerki - tytuł dla Ciebie. Reszta niech maszeruję po "Superman Doomed". Może unikniecie frustracji z bycia zrobionym w balona.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 3 out of 5]

“You’re not just good ol’ Clark Kent anymore, are you? You’re in a whole ‘nother world.”

“Yeah. Go on, buddy.”

“Fly with the eagles…I just hope they appreciate what they’ve got.”

In the wake of Forever Evil comes SUPERDOOM! And it’s just as silly as it sounds!

I think this getting tangled up in a lot of crossover nonsense and stuff that’s happening in Nu52 Justice League absolutely hampers a lot of the energy and drive that buoy the first Greg Pak volumes. It feels like you’re only really begging a third of the story and that’s always frustrating, no matter how many of these things you’ve read like I have.

BUUUUT, that said, it’s still awesome seeing Pak and Kuder committing fully to adding new stuff to the book. We get more Lana Lang (who essentially is a featured co-Star at this point). More John Henry Irons. More follow up on the first eighteen issues with the return of Metal Zero and Brainiac.

It’s just neat to see someone handling all the comic book bullshit of crossovers and line-wide stories while also not losing what makes THEIR version of the title work in the first place. Kuder just keeps leveling up throughout. Having Kolins playing the support artist too rules.

It’s just fun comics (even if the title under Pak still hasn’t entirely hit its stride just yet, but that’s coming!)

EDITED TO ADD: Collecting Action Comics #30-35 & Superman Annual #3.

[AviChaim Snyder · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wasn’t impressed with the previous volume, and this one left me genuinely disappointed. The same issues with the art persist; characters lack individuality, with Lana Lang and Lois Lane almost indistinguishable aside from their hair color. Outside of the non-human entities, the visuals felt flat and unremarkable.
The writing also struggled. It often dragged, repeating the same emotions and thoughts across multiple panels. Instead of showing the characters' experiences, Greg Pak frequently resorts to over-explaining, telling the reader how everyone feels rather than letting the story speak for itself. Most frustrating of all, the main storyline involving Doomsday is resolved off-panel, which feels like a huge letdown after the buildup.
There are promising ideas here, but the execution falls flat. A disappointing read overall.
Grade: D

[Marco · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not an overly good comic.
Having been part of a multi-title crossover, this volume reprints only those segments in the Action Comics title. This makes the reading experience a rather disjointed affair, because this is only part of a story.
And, as it appears, not even the really interesting part. That apparently happens in another book.
The many artists working on this - some of whose work I don't like - do not exactly makes this better, either.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't mind this arc, actually thought it was pretty good, better than Death of Superman, certainly- but there's nothing here that isn't collected in the Superman: Doomed tpb. This is just half of a story, and unlike Superman Vol 5 there's no extra stuff here, so there's really no reason for this collection to exist. So either skip this entirely and go to vol 7 if this arc doesn't interest you, or read it from https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2....

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superman - Action Comics Vol. 6: Superdoom

Superman has defeated Doomsday, but in a final act of mindless defiance, the monster has unleashed millions of spores over the skies of Smallville. Inhaling all of them before they can infect anyone, Superman begins to transform into the aberration.

Fantastic artwork makes this plot work, as we can see the fight between Doomsday and Superman drawn large on the page.

[Dave · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm cheating here as I didn't actually read this volume more skimmed it. It's a waste of time, just by the Doomed collected edition. The art was good though so it can have an extra star.

In general superman titles are shit at pulling collected editions together, the Bat family tie ins are much better handled for some reason.

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

As other reviewers have noted, the story is convoluted due to missing information. The idea behind the comic, Superman is “transformed” into Doomsday and loses control of his own emotions, is wonderful, but the missing comics leave the reader wanting more exposition. Three stars, if only for the great premise.

[superhero fan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll be honest, I forgot I was reading this crossover and finally finished it. It wasn’t the best but it gets a 3 star. I thought the action comics issues were the best of the crossover, I’m giving the rest a 3 star too. It’s just getting a 3 star, bc this crossover was slow. But it was brainiac and I do love me some comics with brainiac.

[Paweł · Rating 1 out of 5]

Nic sensownego w tej książce nie da się przeczytać nie śledząc jednocześnie serii Superman/Wonder Woman. Wszytko w sumie zawiera się w tomie "Doomed" a historia jest całkiem niezła. Ten zbiór nie ma żadnej racji bytu.

[Andrew Kubasek · Rating 4 out of 5]

Too many "crossover event" parts missing, but otherwise really good.

[Aly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lois came through in the end and that saved this one for me.