Superman: Action Comics: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition, Book 3

Superman: Action Comics (DC Rebirth) #5 + The Oz Effect

by Dan Jurgens, Rob Williams, Guillem March (Illustrator)

Since the dawn of the DC Rebirth era, one villain has been standing in the shadows, plotting the destruction of Superman and all he represents. His name: Mr. Oz. Now the Man of Steel is about to find out the true identity of his newest nemesis...and everything he thought he knew about the world will come crashing down.

To put the pieces back together and solve the mind-warping riddle of Mr. Oz, Superman will begin a quest the likes of which he's never faced before. Teaming up with Lex Luthor. Time-traveling with Booster Gold. Waging war against General Zod...and his even more ruthless son. Fighting to preserve his own family, Lois Lane and Superboy...even against Superboy's own grandfather, General Sam Lane.

A new era is about to begin. To face it, Superman will need every ounce of his strength, his courage and his belief in truth and justice. But what does that mean in a world--or worlds--where truth and justice mean nothing?

Find out in Superman: Action Comics: The Rebirth Deluxe Edition Book 3! This collection contains the conclusion of legendary Superman writer Dan Jurgens' Action Comics run. Collects Action Comics #985-999 plus Action Comics Special #1.

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

400 pages, Hardcover

Published December 4, 2018

About the author

Dan Jurgens is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for his work on the DC comic book storyline "The Death of Superman" and for creating characters such as Doomsday, Hank Henshaw, and Booster Gold. Jurgens had a lengthy run on the Superman comic books including The Adventures of Superman, Superman vol. 2 and Action Comics. At Marvel, Jurgens worked on series such as Captain America, The Sensational Spider-Man and was the writer on Thor for six years. He also had a brief run as writer and artist on Solar for Valiant Comics in 1995.

Reviews

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book had so many fun moments. Booster Gold is on the cover so you just know there’s going to be some time bending shenanigans going on. The biggest plot point is Superman wanting to go back in time to the destruction of his home world to get some much needed answers. This causes more problems along the way and it’s a fun time all round.

This rounds out the arc for Action Comics Rebirth and it’s been a blast. I’ve enjoyed this run just as much if not slightly more than the main Superman run.

[Richard Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a little longer than expected, but life got in the way. After kicking off with a two-parter by Rob William and Guillem March about Supes and Lex, Dan Jurgens returns with two major arcs that ultimately work together as one. The first of these is “The Oz Effect” and finally reveals the identity of the enigmatic Mr. Oz. While I won’t reveal those secrets here, one of the best story developments is the moment in which Superman ponders whether the world is far too corrupt to save. It’s graphically represented by a series of word bubbles surrounding the hangdog Man of Steel as he has a bit of personal time. This leads straight into “Booster Shot”, a time-travelling adventure with Booster Gold that incorporates multiple threads of Superman history. Really, it’s a big ol’ fan-service arc, but it’s fun while it lasts. The volume peters out a bit with the final two stories, extracts from annuals and specials about the life of Lex Luthor. While they are fascinating in and of themselves, and Francis Manapul’s art is sublime, they do feel slightly incongruous after two fairly major arcs. Now that this is done, I head boldly into the Brian Michael Bendis era. Been looking forward to that.

[S.E. Martens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this volume to be kind of clunky overall. We begin with a story about LexCorp computer chips being used by the Machinist to control people and animals around the globe. Lex claims that they were stolen and teams up with Superman to stop the threat. I love Lex, but didn't particularly vibe with this story.

Then, the "Mr. Oz" who has been controlling things behind the scenes through the "Rebirth" issues is revealed to be . . . Jor-El?! Plucked from his timeline at the moment of Krypton's destruction and now convinced that Earth sucks, humanity is the worst, and he has to convince Superman to turn his back on the Earth.

This leads into the Booster Gold team up story arc, because Superman decides the logical thing to do is travel backwards in time to the moment of Krypton's destruction to fact-check Oz/Jor-El. Ohh-kay.

Only, Superman and Booster Gold find a different version of Krypton, where space travel was allowed and Zod and Jor-El worked together. But they don't stay there, they bounce around to the future instead.

Normally I enjoy time travel and alternate universe stories, but this was too chaotic for me. There was some stuff with Booster's family that actually made me care a little bit, but then it was back to yet another planet/timeline.

I actually really liked What Would Superman Do? - it had some nice introspection and I enjoyed seeing Superman questioning the use of the Phantom Zone and deciding that it was inhumane. Interesting!

Unfortunately, I didn't really care for the closing story as much, which paints Lex back into the villain corner... An elderly Lex Luthor from seventy years in the future travels back in time to kill Superman. I guess it's meant to cement his destiny as evil...and then we get him being particularly douchey at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. I hate to see the character just get dragged backwards like this in terms of development. Also, it seems like he doesn't own the Daily Planet now? Despite that being a main plot point in the first collected volume of the Action Rebirth comics? I am still so genuinely confused by the timelines/realities merging. *sigh*

[Alek Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very lackluster end by Dan Jurgens. The first two issues by Williams were honestly throw away issues that again tried to play with the Superman and Super Lex relationship.

Then we get to the big Oz Effect event. I honestly just didn't get the point of Oz Effect. Mr. Oz believes that the nature of humankind is evil and that Superman is wasting his power on humanity. That no matter what humanity will never embrace his symbol of hope. To prove this he orchestrates multiple events of cruelty and destruction. Where his followers are influencing and manipulating people to make bad decisions. He then tries to use these manipulated scenarios to convince the Kents to leave Earth and start a new Krypton called Bliss. The characterization of Jor-el felt very wishy-washy as well as his interactions with his reunited son. To me it destroyed the image of Jor-el as part of the reason why Kal-el is Superman. But the biggest problem I had was that it had no connection to Geoff Johns' Doomsday Clock. Other than Dr. Manhattan being the force that spared Jor-el it revealed nothing about Dr. Manhattan's intentions.

After Oz Effect is the slog "Booster Shot". Superman for some reason needing proof that Mr. Oz was indeed Jor-el, decides to go back in time. This creates a long Booster Gold adventure that holds no importance other than to have an ending were Superman watches his parents die while not being allowed to stop it. It shoehorned in a Zod story arc that was just immature and tedious while a slightly more interesting Lois Lane story happens in the background.

One other thing that bothered me about this end run was how the artwork near the final issues was just creepy. Like it wasn't bad but the angles of Superman on certain pages... I almost mistook him for Bizarro.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Booster Shot" was good fun, lots of time-hopping adventure with a solid "shadow of our fathers" theme overlaying the entire thing (even touched upon with Zod's kid). I thought "The Oz Effect" arc was a little clunky though - I guess the return of Jor-El should feel bigger or more definite, but I wanted more than a shallow "humans are flawed and I'll save you from them" from this arc. Only at the very end did Jor-El's return rise above supervillain-level motivation. You never believed Clark might be tempted to leave with Jor-El, so he's just a misguided evil man until we see how he's been manipulated in turn. And since he's probably being manipulated by a character I refuse to acknowledge being part of DC's superhero universe, I expect (and hope) I'll never see how this particular thread plays out.

[Ben · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel like I got to know Dan Jurgans better as a writer after these 3 volumes and it also sums up how i felt about how this one wrapped up… He meets expectations by delivering stories that honor the characters and source material, and reinforces the quintessential comics mold - rather that breaking it. Similar to Geoff Johns, where it’s clear there’s a respect and appreciation for the thing, and combined with generally competent storytelling… it works.

So I’m left wishing this run could’ve pushed the envelope more, experimented, and tried some new things. But I also had fun with the comfort food aspect of familiar stories and popcorny action - it’s in the title after all.

No surprises, and a little disappointed in not totally resolving some unanswered questions in the Oz Effect arc, but overall I wanted some decent Superman comics and I got them.

[Benjamin Kimble · Rating 4 out of 5]

The mystery of who Mr. Oz is finally gets answered and it’s… Jor-El?! He survived Krypton and has been watching Clark grow and become the beacon of hope we love while becoming a cynical old man himself. Jor-El is crazy and thinks that humanity is beyond saving, that they must be destroyed. Superman won’t accept that, because he’s Superman, so Jor-El goes to Jon and gets him to follow. It’s an interesting story that challenges Superman and his whole life because this is the man that sent him here. Viktor Bogdanovic is on art for this and I like what he does. He’s got a stylized Capullo like art style but his is tuned more to Superman. Then we have Booster Shot, where Superman goes back in time to learn the truth about everything but unknowingly creates divergent timelines. Booster Gold has to follow him and together they have to make it home. Once home Clark helps Lois and her father reconcile. I really liked this part because Sam Lane hated Superman, Sam and Clark disagree on pretty much everything, but Clark always does the right thing. Jurgens had a solid run on Action Comics and I’m really sad to see him go.

[Ben Muralles · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine but unremarkable, the art was similar quality (aside from the great short Manapul comic).
The remaining mysteries of the run all finish here, was the mysterious Oz worth the buildup? Not really. It was fine, but it really didn't payoff enough for all the buildup it got.
The time travel adventure with Booster Gold was fun, but it was strange having Booster as Superman's voice of reason.
The highlight was probably Lois' adventure and reconnection with her father.

[Chris Flynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Rebirth Action Comics comes to an end without any major missteps, but also without anything that stuck out to me as amazing either. All the stories/arcs in the volume were good, but never crossed the line to exceptional. It's a bit of a bummer after it started so strong. But overall the volume is still enjoyable.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

The majority of this final installment in Dan Jurgens's run deals with the bombshell truth of who the enigmatic Mr. Oz is. It sparks a big retcon, an interesting adventure, and an exploration into Clark's Kryptonian history in fascinating ways. It also leads into a team-up with Booster Gold, who always brings the fun! A solid wrapping up of Jurgens's story!

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maybe the volume I liked the less from this run. Oz was built up to be a great antagonist, and he’s a complex one, but the idea of a father returning to seem good but being bad is something we’ve seen before with Thomas Wayne, so it didn’t feel particularly special to me. Booster Gold stories are always fun, not my favorite, but he’s got a great personality.

[Eye-ra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I surprisingly enjoyed this more than the fourth Tomasi Superman solo book. The main meat of this book had Superman go through a hell of a lot and I’m glad that booster gold got some time in as well!

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A unspectacular and meandering end to the Jurgens Rebirth Superman run. It had somewhat ran out of steam towards the second volume, but this was dissapointing. Not bad, but not particularly memorable either.

[Chris W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable but definitely not nearly as solid as the first. 2 volumes. Also tons of set up with Mr. Oz to only be extremely disappointed with who he really is.

[El Neo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had fun reading this! Nowadays, that's all that really matters to me. The team-ups with Booster Gold and Lex Luthor reminded me of the fun of the DC Comics Presents title.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about the identity of Mr. Oz. Somewhat moral quandry about whether the human race is too sucky to keep it going.

The Booster Shot arc was fun, but ultimately not amazing.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great Bogdanovic art.
Stories in here are the worst of this run. The Williams stories inparticular.

The end of the thanksgiving issue was great. Very emotionally written.

[Nick Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Middling at best. Other reviews are sprinkled with word like “lackluster” and “peters out,” and they aren’t wrong. Closer to 2.5 than 3.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love these deluxe editions. So many Superman/Action stories included. Love read these stories and slowly catching up. Next issue Action #1000!

[Matt Kaiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars

Definitely a disappointment after the first 2 books in this series. The part with Booster Gold is so fun and there are some other solid moments like when Clark helps Lois and her dad improve their relationship. Those really good things are what elevate this book, but if those bright spots weren’t in it, this thing wouldn’t be above 2 stars. On the whole, the writing is pretty weak, the story is kinda flimsy, and there’s some pretty unfortunate character assassination of Jor-El.

[Batusi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven but mildly enjoyable entry that delivers serviceable superheroics with a few notable missteps.

The plot follows Superman as he faces off against a new version of the Superman Revenge Squad while also exploring the mystery of Mr. Oz’s true identity.

The story has its exciting moments, but unfortunately these get overshadowed by some heavy-handed lecturing and convoluted time travel.

[Jack Phoenix · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jurgens run on the Rebirth of Action comics comes to a satisfying close, though it wasn't fanciful or fun as the rest.