Action Comics #6

writer: Grant Morrison
artist: Andy Kubert

"I promised an opportunity unique in all time and space, and I always deliver."

That's one of the opening lines of dialogue in this issue, and it's hard not to imagine that Grant Morrison wrote it with his audience in mind. Every now and again, even if it's just your reputation, it's okay for a writer like Morrison to remind the reader that he's fully aware of expectations.

This issue delivers. Early issues focused a great deal on Superman's formative days in Metropolis, his introduction to the world (and nemesis Lex Luthor), as reimagined by Morrison, tightening the lens on the most important aspects and breathing new life into them, taking the myth of the Man of Steel and making it that much more mythical. (That, by the way, is Morrison's style in a nutshell.) After the introduction of Brainiac and the bottling of Metropolis, the story took a swift turn into the relatively abstract, as Morrison attempts to give us the big picture without belaboring the point he was originally making. Now that we know who's in the driver's seat, this issue seems to be saying, it's safe to let loose.

The Legion of Super-Heroes has been a part of Superman and DC lore in general for decades, but few writers seem to realize what exactly that means. That's what Morrison corrects here, very quickly and very well. Most of the Legion's stories keep them in their youth; it wasn't until a few years ago, thanks to Geoff Johns, that they could be seen as adults, carrying on the same legacy that they helped created when they visited the young Clark Kent (there's a fine point made about that here, too). It's the adults Morrison employs as he surges ever forward in whatever he's got planned for Superman.

Really, who doesn't want to find out?