My Week In Comics 4-27-11

I only bought two books, but one was huge. More on that shortly. First...

Batman Incorporated 5: I'm not quite sure what was going on in this book. Maybe I need to re-read the previous two, or maybe it's just getting ridiculous. I did enjoy the first meeting between the Bruce Wayne Batman and the new Batwoman, though. And she called him "sir." I thought it was weird, but I look at it as an outgrowth of her military training. She's dealt with the Dick Grayson Batman before, but with Batman, Inc. getting off the ground, it's obvious to her that the original Batman is the five-star general.

Action Comics 900: As befits such a milestone issue, this book contained 96 pages. A large chunk was devoted to the main stories, which have finally dovetailed -- the finale of "The Black Ring" and the continuation of the "Reign of Doomsday." And yes, the return of Doomsday was a Lex Luthor machination. The Luthor story, and his confrontation with Superman (hey, he's back in his own book!) after gaining godlike powers as a result of merging with the being that created the energy spheres, was superb. The "Doomsday" storyline, in which the captured Superboy, Steel, Supergirl, Cyborg-Superman and the Eradicator have been trapped in an endless maze of sorts, felt out of place. Two separate stories instead of one that swung back and forth between the two plotlines might have been better. The other mini-features in the book have their own charms, but one in particular made a splash in the news.

In "The Incident," written by screenwriter David S. Goyer, after causing an international incident by joining a peaceful demonstration in Tehran (kind of ripped from current headlines), Superman tells the U.S. national security adviser that he's going to the United Nations and announce that he plans to renounce his U.S. citizenship. "'Truth, justice and the American way' -- it's not enough anymore," he says. He wants to act more on a global scale to help the world without being seen as a tool of the U.S. government.

This has caused consternation among some pundits, including right-wing creep Mike Huckabee, and it's being seen as coming at a bad time in light of Osama bin Laden's death at the hands of U.S. Navy Seals. As if DC Comics has any control over real-world events. Honestly, though, I don't see it as a big deal. First, it's a comic book. It's not real life. Secondly, even if Superman's being a U.S. citizen mattered (which it doesn't, except perhaps to right-wing nuts), who knows if it will even stick? Shorter stories appearing in special issues such as this tend to exist in their own little worlds. They may or may not be seen as in continuity. The writers of the regular Super-books may never even deal with this in any way.