The Weekly Panel of Steel #6

There's only one contender for the Weekly Panel of Steel this week, as far as I can tell. It shouldn't matter anyway, for when you have a comic as good as Paul Cornell's Action Comics has been, it should be relatively easy to find a winning panel.

Good thing too, as we've been without a Panel of Steel all month long. Better late than never, I suppose.

This weeks pick comes two pages in after Superman gets tired of listening to the Cyborg Superman prophecy their destruction. After all, with three Doomsday's bearing down on them, they don't have time to listen to his nonsense.


One punch to the chest later, and the Cyborg Superman's central node is now in Superman's control.

God damn, if it isn't nice to see a confident Superman again, much less one with a little sense of humor too! That made this weeks Panel of Steel an easy choice.

Script by Paul Cornell
Artwork by Kenneth Rocafort
Colors by Brad Anderson
Letters by Rob Leigh

Action Comics #901
Reign Of The Doomsdays Part 1
July 2011
Copyright (c) DC Comics

Ten Days of Action Comics #10

And so we bring our ten day celebration of the centennial issues of Action Comics to a close with today's post. Following the pattern that we've established over that last nine days would mean we're showing the cover to Action Comics #1000. We're going to have to wait another 8 years for that one, so instead we're going for a two-fer by combining day ten with this week's Weekly Panel of Steel post and take a look at what's inside the issue.

With well over twenty collaborators involved, we had a wealth of panels to choose from. Pete Woods has been a phenomenal Superman artist for the past five years now. (Geez, has it been that long since Up, Up and Away!) If anyone deserves the honor, it's him. Dan Jurgens revisited his iconic Death of Superman storyline for a page, so there was that to choose from. Rags Morales packed a whole issues worth of emotion into his one page recap of the destruction of Krypton. And then there was contributions by Ryan Sook, R.B. Silva, Gary Frank, and Brian Stelfreeze...

All of these creators made it almost impossible to choose, so I went with the sentimental pick instead.


That's right, the band's back together again!

Anyone who has been reading my blogs for the last two years knows that the Death of Superman storyline was the moment I became a lifelong Superman fan. How could I not pick the awesome two-page spread of all of the major players from that era back together in one room.

And when it's drawn by Jesus Merino, whose style I have enjoyed for well over a decade now, it's even better. I, for one, can't get enough of his work, so I was thrilled to see him helping out at the tail end of the Black Ring storyline. I'm hoping that he sticks around the Superman stable of artists for the foreseeable future (like a post-Grounded Superman gig would suit me just fine).

So there you go...Superman is back in Action where he belongs and everything is right with the world.

Life is good.

Script by Paul Cornell
Artwork by Jesus Merino
Colors by Blond
Letters by Rob Leigh

Action Comics #900
The Black Ring Finale
Reign Of Doomsday
May 2011
Copyright (c) DC Comics

The Best Worst of 90's Cover Gimmicks Week, Day #4

Our next cover gimmick is actually one that I still have a lot of time for, the chromium cover!

Superman (Vol. 2) #82

From a visual standpoint, they hold up nicely and really make the colors pop. If any gimmick has to make a comeback, we could do a helluva lot worse than this one.

It's gotta be better than polybags, eh Johnny Storm?

Pencils by Dan Jurgens
Inks by Brett Breeding

Superman (Vol. 2) #82
October 1993
Copyright (c) DC Comics