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Superman Post-Crisis #53
Superman: In the Name of Gog
Superman faces off against the Silver Banshee, Preus, Doomsday, and, worst of all, Gog, who returns for another attempt to fulfill his promise to kill Superman.
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 2005
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51 people want to read
About the author
Chuck Austen
431 books16 followersChuck Austen (born Chuck Beckum) is an American humor novelist, comic book writer and artist, TV writer and animator. In comics, he is known for his work on X-Men, War Machine, Elektra, and Action Comics, and in television, he is known for co-creating the animated TV series Tripping the Rift.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
In his most recent prose novels, Chuck Austen has been going by the name Charles Austen.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 15, 2014
Chuck Austen is a name to be feared in comics. He wrote some of the worst superhero comics for Marvel and DC in the early to mid ‘00s before being blacklisted by both and eventually disappearing from comics altogether. You see his name on a book? You run away from it!
Earlier in the year I read possibly the worst X-Men book ever, Austen’s The Draco, but, even though I knew it was going to be bad, I had to read his Action Comics run. This is the run where he not only alienated readers who boycotted the title, but retailers too who chose not to stock his comics. So I had to find out: was Chuck Austen’s brief stint on Action Comics the worst Superman has ever had?
Well, no question it’s bad - REALLY bad. But considering Superman is one of those characters who seems to have far more crap comics than good, I’m not sure I could say Austen’s run is the worst I’ve read, though it’s down there.
In the Name of Gog collects the second half of Austen’s run. The book opens with a storyline that has FILLER written all over it, featuring a character called Banshee (who looks like the female Shadowman!) who screams at stuff until Superman beats her with ice breath. Yawn.
Next we meet a character called Preus, a former guard from Kandor, the bottled Kryptonian city. He wants to kill Superman for some reason, maybe because he’s nuts because Austen says so, so what better way than to recruit racist rednecks to help do this, right? After he’s done literally fucking who knows how many human women to death, he uses artificial kryptonite to weaken Superman. So the artificial kryptonite works on some Kryptonians but not all? Whatever, Preus is such a horrible one-dimensional character, I don’t want to dwell on him for too long.
We meet another filler character in Repo Man whose entire story is that he’s a small, skinny man and he wishes he were BIG. Preus gives him artificial kryptonite which apparently gives him the ability to Hulk out, which he does, and fights Superman and Superboy because he’s a tool. He changes back to normal for no other reason besides the page count nearing the end for that story.
Austen resurrects the pointless and boring feud between Lois and Lana over Clark. Apparently this was something that enraged fans when this came out but for me it was just plain dull. It is quite pathetic and derogatory towards Lois and Lana’s characters though.
Oh and Hawkman shows up too, confirming that whenever this dude makes an appearance, it’s a warning that the book you’re reading sucks. It’s the Hawkman stamp of crappiness!
And that was it for Austen’s run: one failure compounding after another! DC tried to get him to write under a pseudonym once they realised having his name on the title was massively hurting sales figures (ironic considering Austen’s real name is Chuck Beckum) but he was rightfully insulted, and the two parted ways. Austen has never worked at DC since - this book was a career killer!
And yet that’s not the end of this volume - there are still two more issues to go. A writer called JD Finn, someone who had never written a comic book before, or since, this book, stepped in to clean up Austen’s mess and clear the way for a new writer (I think it was the brilliant Kurt Busiek) to win the audience back.
Who is JD Finn? Nobody knows but it’s likely a pseudonym perhaps for an editor or a writer or two who got roped in to do a serviceable job on the, ahem, “plot”. Having read these two issues and their ambitious yet disjointed time-jumping scenes, the only writer whose name popped out to me was Grant Morrison. Could Morrison be “JD Finn”?
Gog “kills” Superman and manages to clone himself multiple times leading to a futuristic War of Gog where an army of Supermen, led by Doomsday no less, begin an epic fight across the stars. But Superman’s not dead, remaining Gog’s prisoner for years, becoming old with him, as their feud continues through the years and Gog’s mission to save his parents proves more and more futile. More time-travelling ensues, things jump backwards and forwards in a confusing sequence, and everything is put right by the end. Gog is defeated, Superman is alive, everything’s back to normal.
It certainly reads like some of Morrison’s comics (albeit the less successful ones)!
So that was Chuck Austen’s Action Comics run: just terrible, as expected. Where is he these days? He’s a producer on an animated show called Steven Universe. Almost makes me want to watch it just to see if there’s racism, sexism, xenophobia, and brain-dead characters littering that kids’ show - but there probably isn’t!
I’d like to say this is rock bottom for Superman comics but there are quite a few bad ones out there. It’s certainly bad though - avoid, unless you’re curious to see what all the fuss over Austen’s work was about!
Earlier in the year I read possibly the worst X-Men book ever, Austen’s The Draco, but, even though I knew it was going to be bad, I had to read his Action Comics run. This is the run where he not only alienated readers who boycotted the title, but retailers too who chose not to stock his comics. So I had to find out: was Chuck Austen’s brief stint on Action Comics the worst Superman has ever had?
Well, no question it’s bad - REALLY bad. But considering Superman is one of those characters who seems to have far more crap comics than good, I’m not sure I could say Austen’s run is the worst I’ve read, though it’s down there.
In the Name of Gog collects the second half of Austen’s run. The book opens with a storyline that has FILLER written all over it, featuring a character called Banshee (who looks like the female Shadowman!) who screams at stuff until Superman beats her with ice breath. Yawn.
Next we meet a character called Preus, a former guard from Kandor, the bottled Kryptonian city. He wants to kill Superman for some reason, maybe because he’s nuts because Austen says so, so what better way than to recruit racist rednecks to help do this, right? After he’s done literally fucking who knows how many human women to death, he uses artificial kryptonite to weaken Superman. So the artificial kryptonite works on some Kryptonians but not all? Whatever, Preus is such a horrible one-dimensional character, I don’t want to dwell on him for too long.
We meet another filler character in Repo Man whose entire story is that he’s a small, skinny man and he wishes he were BIG. Preus gives him artificial kryptonite which apparently gives him the ability to Hulk out, which he does, and fights Superman and Superboy because he’s a tool. He changes back to normal for no other reason besides the page count nearing the end for that story.
Austen resurrects the pointless and boring feud between Lois and Lana over Clark. Apparently this was something that enraged fans when this came out but for me it was just plain dull. It is quite pathetic and derogatory towards Lois and Lana’s characters though.
Oh and Hawkman shows up too, confirming that whenever this dude makes an appearance, it’s a warning that the book you’re reading sucks. It’s the Hawkman stamp of crappiness!
And that was it for Austen’s run: one failure compounding after another! DC tried to get him to write under a pseudonym once they realised having his name on the title was massively hurting sales figures (ironic considering Austen’s real name is Chuck Beckum) but he was rightfully insulted, and the two parted ways. Austen has never worked at DC since - this book was a career killer!
And yet that’s not the end of this volume - there are still two more issues to go. A writer called JD Finn, someone who had never written a comic book before, or since, this book, stepped in to clean up Austen’s mess and clear the way for a new writer (I think it was the brilliant Kurt Busiek) to win the audience back.
Who is JD Finn? Nobody knows but it’s likely a pseudonym perhaps for an editor or a writer or two who got roped in to do a serviceable job on the, ahem, “plot”. Having read these two issues and their ambitious yet disjointed time-jumping scenes, the only writer whose name popped out to me was Grant Morrison. Could Morrison be “JD Finn”?
Gog “kills” Superman and manages to clone himself multiple times leading to a futuristic War of Gog where an army of Supermen, led by Doomsday no less, begin an epic fight across the stars. But Superman’s not dead, remaining Gog’s prisoner for years, becoming old with him, as their feud continues through the years and Gog’s mission to save his parents proves more and more futile. More time-travelling ensues, things jump backwards and forwards in a confusing sequence, and everything is put right by the end. Gog is defeated, Superman is alive, everything’s back to normal.
It certainly reads like some of Morrison’s comics (albeit the less successful ones)!
So that was Chuck Austen’s Action Comics run: just terrible, as expected. Where is he these days? He’s a producer on an animated show called Steven Universe. Almost makes me want to watch it just to see if there’s racism, sexism, xenophobia, and brain-dead characters littering that kids’ show - but there probably isn’t!
I’d like to say this is rock bottom for Superman comics but there are quite a few bad ones out there. It’s certainly bad though - avoid, unless you’re curious to see what all the fuss over Austen’s work was about!
October 1, 2019
I was on such a roll: One great book after another... and then I hit this one. I didn't love the volume that preceded it, but I hoped that the next one would tie up the loose ends and bring some explanation to the... less favorable moments. Instead, I got a rapidly aging Superman with little to no explanation as to why that was happening (You can't just say kryptonite! We need more explanation than that!); Lois and Lana being catty with each other and with Clark rather than being the developed, interesting characters that they are (I mean, come on--there's no way Lois would think that Clark was doing anything unseemly just because she found lady's underwear; this is Clark Kent we're talking about. She married the guy, but it seems like she hardly knows him at all); and a time travel plot that was just confusing and even, by the end, utterly pointless. And that happened because Superman did something that Superman would never even do--tell a child he was going to find his parents even though he knew they were dead! That is not how Superman would have handled that situation at all. In fact, there were many moments he wasn't written much like Superman in both this volume and the previous one--a bit cockier than he should be. I wouldn't nitpick over that, except the rest of this volume WAY didn't work. That said... it wasn't exactly one-star bad. It was just... meh, and... this writer doesn't really get Superman or time travel stories. (Or, at least, he didn't with this story arc.) I did at least like the Superboy parts, and the Martian Manhunter appearance was pretty cool. Plus Superman staying true to his integrity while being time-tortured was pretty solid. But... that's about it. Honestly, I was kind of bummed; the first volume had some promise, even if it wasn't perfect. But this one... just didn't work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 18, 2025
Allez, partons du principe qu'il s'agit d'une note de 2.5/5, car il y a - peut être - un soupçon de curiosité qui s'est échappé de cette lecture comparé au volume précédent.
Attention on reste sur une histoire ennuyante, plate, sans aucun intérêt. Des personnages complétement à côté de la plaque (Bonjour Gentil Doomsday ... what ?), une écriture fade qui n'amene finalement à aucun changement intéressant, parce que oui, soyons fou, effaçons tout pour revenir à un status quo initial.
Une perte de temps, même si voir Gog évolué doucement à éveillé doucement cette curiosité, mais peut être simplement parce que je compare simplement au volume précédent...
Bref, l'arc est fini. Merci, passons à autre chose !
Attention on reste sur une histoire ennuyante, plate, sans aucun intérêt. Des personnages complétement à côté de la plaque (Bonjour Gentil Doomsday ... what ?), une écriture fade qui n'amene finalement à aucun changement intéressant, parce que oui, soyons fou, effaçons tout pour revenir à un status quo initial.
Une perte de temps, même si voir Gog évolué doucement à éveillé doucement cette curiosité, mais peut être simplement parce que je compare simplement au volume précédent...
Bref, l'arc est fini. Merci, passons à autre chose !
April 2, 2024
Just when you think Chuck Austen and DC editorial can't get worse readers get. Superman fights for his life and others against Gog, Doomsday, Preus and others for reasons no one could explain. The dialogue was abysmal but somehow not as bad as the plot. Lois and Lana acted ridiculously out of character. The book was the very definition of throwing in the towel. The art was fine but nothing could overcome this disaster. Overall, gross.
November 6, 2018
Just kind of a dumb mess.
March 24, 2019
It started out...not great.
Had a pretty decent conclusion.
Had a pretty decent conclusion.
May 28, 2023
A muddled at best Superman storyline. I believe this was received poorly at the time and DC had to bring in a new writer for the final issue or so to undo all the damage, and that issue is probably the only good part. It is at least a bit weird and perverse.
One of the villains in this storyline becomes the authoritarian ruler of a bunch of white supremacists or something, and he makes them supply him with women whom he FUCKS TO DEATH and just, like, what?!
C-
One of the villains in this storyline becomes the authoritarian ruler of a bunch of white supremacists or something, and he makes them supply him with women whom he FUCKS TO DEATH and just, like, what?!
C-
March 12, 2016
Chuck Austen continues to drown established characters in the quagmire of his writing, exemplified here in this Action Comics volume. Former threats to the Man of Steel begin rearing their heads in new places all across this disparate story. The opening act sees Silver Banshee adopt a new host before facing off against the Creeper, who now works at the Daily Bugle in his spare time. The xenophobic Preus gathers a commune of human worshipers to use as cannon fodder, building a twisted kingdom that not even the Martian Manhunter can allay. A wannabe repo man gets a crystalline gift that turns him into a rampaging hulk bent on tearing apart the Kent farm, and an intelligent Doomsday plays hide-and-seek with the Justice League. Behind it all is the time-travelling Gog, who has made it his mission to kill any and every incarnation of Superman for the destruction of Topeka during the Imperiex War. As the battle rages into the future, a tortured Superman apparently inspires both Doomsday and Gog to repent and undo the damage done by their past selves. Gorgeous cover art from Ina Churchill and Arthur Adams sadly hides the muck spewed within by Chuck Austin. The inconsistent plots, unfeasible character portrayals, and convoluted plot twists continue to suffuse every title Austin touches. In the name of Gog, choose another book for your Superman fix because this volume is pure blasphemy.
February 20, 2012
Superman is far from my favorite hero, yet I enjoyed this story greatly. It captures the spirit of what he stands for and does so with moments of savage brutality. I also love seeing Doomsday in action.
January 11, 2011
Fills in a bit more back story about Gog, one of the main villains from 'Kingdom Come'
April 5, 2012
Hands down, one of the worst Superman stories that I have ever read.
August 13, 2024
Por el nombre de Gog, qué realidad es esta.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews