Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 3: Warworld Revolution
(Collects: Action Comics #1043-1046, Action Comics Annual #1 (2022) and Superman: WarWorld Apocalypse #1)
by
Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Si Spurrier, Ricardo Federici (Artist), Will Conrad (Artist), Fico Ossio (Artist), Brent Peeples (Artist), Dale Eaglesham (Artist), Ian Churchill (Artist), Brandon Peterson (Artist), Max Raynor (Artist), Miguel Mendonça (Artist), Lee Loughridge (Color Artist), Trish Mulvihill (Color Artist), Dave Sharpe (Letterer)
My rating: 3.75 of 5 stars
Finally got my hands on the Superman: WarWorld Apocalypse one-shot book that concludes this saga.
I reviewed the first two volumes and found that they were fantastic. You can check out the reviews for Vol.1: Warworld Rising and Vol.2: The Arena by clicking the links!
The overall saga of Superman’s fight to save his distant “family” from the despotic Mongul has been a blast from the start and now we get the grand finale where we learn the final fate of Superman and his Authority as well as the citizens of WarWorld itself.
The journey has been a hard one as a weakened Superman answered the call for aid from a group of aliens called Phaelosians who it turns out, are descendants of Krypton who had once upon a time founded their own colony, only to be attacked and enslaved and now dying out under the rule of the despotic Monguls. Superman and his handpicked team of Midnighter, Apollo, Enchantress, Natasha Irons, Manchester Black and a new version of OMAC and Lightray have flown across the known universe to fight the good fight – only to find themselves weakened, enslaved and fighting day in and day out for their lives. Slowly over the story thus far, Big Blue showed why he is the iconic hero he is and inspires a revolution while his team-mates work to keep contact with Earth and each other to fight back.
Now the story comes to a rampaging, explosive conclusion as Superman makes his way through the bowels of WarWorld to find an arcane, primordial power to keep it out of Monguls hand while his fellow prisoners, gladiators and many others fight to break the chains both real and metaphorical. Meanwhile The Authority builds to their showdown with Monguls Unmade warriors while back on Earth, Lois and Steel fight to get control of and harness the power of Genesis to save Earth as well as help our teams plans.
It’s been a hell of a powerful journey that was a return to form for Superman in my view, after many years and it while its not perfect, this is a solid finale to close of this story as well as lead us into the new era of Superman that has begun on his return to Earth. There is action and drama aplenty to be had in this third act:
Midnighter is faced with a mind-controlled Apollo in the midst of the final battle; Omac is fighting for the bad-guys with a dark resurrection of his friend Lightray as the price, a price that his entire team may well pay. On top of that, Kal El faces new challenges and even betrayal as he has managed to find the great power at the heart of the planet that everyone us seeking, only to come into final conflict with Mongul; meanwhile The Authority has to fight back the worst that WarWorld has to offer so that they can buy time for Natasha Irons to put their plans into effect in the heart of WarWorld and lest we forget, her plan depends on team Superman-family back on Earth being able to hold up their end of the plan to save and use the Genesis energy.
The tension is very well built by Kennedy’s script and the characterisation is solid and consistent, with some nice character development for our crew. The few lighter moments come from Manchester Black and even the very unlikely source that is Midnighter, but somehow it works! The action is exciting, the emotional stakes can be felt throughout and despite the many stories intertwining, it all coheres extremely well and even the epilogue at the end struck just the right note for the moment for the most part. This story honestly made me want to read more of Superman after many years and really made me want more of this incarnation of The Authority, more so than anything since they were rebooted by the New52.
There’s not much to say about the artwork that I haven’t already said in the preceding reviews but it bears repeating that the team does a stunning job! It’s a very well balanced job, there’s detail where needed and there’s panels and pages both simple and explosive and it all seems very well suited to the moments being showcased. It’s quite impressive.
Overall it is a great storyline for Superman fans and a really good, solid finale in this volume. Heartily recommended!
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