Action Comics #1050
Cover date: February 2023
"Project Blackout"
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Tom Taylor and Joshua Williamson
Artist: Mike Perkins, Clayton Henry and Nick Dragotta
Lex Luthor has Manchester Black hooked to a machine which will tap into his mental abilities. Perry White, upon entering the Kent home, suffers a heart attack and stroke when he sees Superman with Lois, Martha and Jonathan. A hyperpowerful signal watch calls to Superman from LexCorp. Whatever Luthor wants could bring great change to the Man of Steel very soon. Manchester Black is dead, and Superman and Lex Luthor are on the moon battling one another. Luthor feels Clark lied to him by keeping his superpowers a secret when they were in Smallville. If he wasn't good enough to know the truth about Clark being Superman, then nobody else is. Lex created Project Blackout to use Manchester Black's telepathic abilities. In spite of media evidence of Clark and Jon being the Supermen, a planet wide psychic wave has blocked this memory, forcing people to reject the facts. Luthor did this so the Supermen wouldn't seem relatable to the world at large. Only Lois, Jay, Jonathan and Martha - who were protected by the protective shield around the Kent Farm (along with the Superhero community) - recall that Jon and Clark are Supermen. Clark is worried how Jon will take this news, but the Son of Kal-El is just enjoying what could finally be a normal life. Meanwhile, Lex Luthor is incarcerated in Stryker's Island while his hologram monitors a newly rebuilt, more organic Metallo, while other versions of Kal are being murdered throughout the multiverse. Jon Kent will be needed to investigate.


Action Comics #1051
Cover date: March 2023
"Speeding Bullets" - Part 1/"Home Again" - Part 1/"Head Like A Hole" - Part 1
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Leah Williams
Artists: Rafa Sandoval/Lee Weeks/Marguerite Sauvage
The people of Metropolis and the world are starting a new chapter in their lives. Lois Lane and Clark Kent are happy with their extended family. Jon and Nat Irons are about to open Steelworks Tower, a building that is officially the tallest in the city. They plan to use the technology there to help the world and the universe whenever possible. The City of Tomorrow is growing and evolving to be better. Yet, the happiness felt by Superman and those around him could be short lived, as Lex Luthor is using Metallo for his nefarious plans. During the Steelworks Tower opening the Super Twins (Phaelosians Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra) have been introduced as part of the Superfamily alongside Clark, Jon and Connor Kent, Kara Zor-El and Kong Kenan. Celebration is cut short by an explosion caused by Metallo. The Superfamily goes into action to save people from the blast while Connor looks for the cause, only to be grabbed by Metallo. The Kryptonite powered cyborg must kill Superman and anyone who stands in his and Luthor's way. If he doesn't succeed, his sister will pay the ultimate price with her life./Lois, Clark and Jon Kent have returned to their old farm house. As they get settled in, a supposedly comatose Lloyd Crayton has disappeared. Doombreaker could be free once again. To further complicate things, Jon has secretly taken the bone of Doomsday that turned Crayton into Doombreaker. He believes nobody else can be trusted to protect his father from its power. Jon hides it before investigating a crashed space vessel. A young humanoid girl exits from the ship asking to meet this planet's king. Can Jon trust her, or will she become a greater threat to the Kent family than both Doomsday and Doombreaker combined?/Power Girl and Omen use their psychic connection created during the Lazarus Planet event to help heal the minds of heroes in the DC Universe. Their first patient is Beast Boy, who is stuck in calf form. The trauma of being shot at point blank range by Deathstroke has forced him into this form. He also hasn't spoken for some time. Power Girl battles red animals in her astral form while she attempts to help with the mental anguish within Beast Boy as Omen reassures his physical self. They succeed in fixing the damage, but have Omen and Power Girl opened old wounds in order to heal new ones?


Action Comics #1052
Cover date: April 2023
"House of Metallo"/"Home Again" - Part 2/"Head Like A Hole" - Part 2
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Leah Williams
Artists: Rafa Sandoval/Lee Weeks/Marguerite Sauvage
To buy the rest of the Superfamily some time, Steel and Nat Irons attack John Corben/Metallo, allowing Superman to launch the Kryptonite powered cyborg into space. Frozen, Metallo remembers childhood trauma he and his sister Tracey shared. A communication from her brings him out of suspended animation. She says he must kill Superman and his entire family if he is to see her again. Meanwhile, Superman knows Corben spoke to Lex Luthor. Yet, Luthor is still in prison, and Metallo's new body seems similar to Warworld's Unmade. Metallo has returned to Earth just as extremist environmentalist group Blue Earth plan an attack. Corben takes the Blue Earth soldiers with him. His intent is make his own family more powerful than the Superfamily. Will he succeed? Is Lex Luthor behind Metallo's recent actions and the kidnapping of his sister? If not, who is?/The alien girl who introduced herself to Jon Kent is Princess Glyanna from the planet P'luhnn. Her father's enemy has taken over her world and considers her a traitor. The gigantic Killamek robot has attacked Glyanna and Jon. Yet, as Superman races to rescue his son, Doombreaker arrives at the Kents' front door for help./With Beast Boy healed, Power Girl and Omen must help their next patient – Kara Zor-El. While Power Girl thinks Beast Boy's quick recuperation could be connected to something else, She must understand why Kara is unable to express herself verbally. Kara's mindscape is an almost-too-perfect version of Argo City. Power Girl begins destroying parts of it as therapy. Kara's anger helps her communicate. This is another success for Power Girl and Omen. However, within Kara's psyche is the following message for Power Girl: "Power Girl, can you sense the coming curtain call? - J.S."


Action Comics #1053
Cover date: May 2023
"Unmade"/"Home Again" - Part 3/"Head Like A Hole" - Part 3
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Leah Williams
Artists: Rafa Sandoval/Lee Weeks/Marguerite Sauvage
Metallo's Blue Earth cyborgs have attacked Steel. The rest of the Superfamily, including Superman is fighting them. Metallo believes Superman has hidden his sister thanks to someone who may or may not be her telling him so via messages coming to him within his mind. There have also been orders from someone claiming to be Lex Luthor guiding Metallo's actions. Now, Supergirl has Kryptonite in her bloodstream thanks to the Army of Metallo. While S.T.A.R. Labs studies a surviving Blue Earth Cyborg, Superman confronts Lex Luthor in Stryker's Island. Both men surmise that the voices Metallo is hearing are driving him insane, making it more imperative that he be found soon. They do well to be concerned, for Metallo is losing his grip on reality as he's ordered to kill the Superfamily. To complicate matters further, Otho seems to have attacked Metropolis and killed someone./Without knowing where the Kents live, Doombreaker has been drawn to the area by the crystal Jon had. Meanwhile, Jon Kent and Princess Glyanna head for the planet P'luhnn. Glyanna's family has been blamed for her world's recently limited resources. Thus, civil war has broken out. Fearing for her life, Glyanna sought Superman. She has the son of the Man of Steel to aid her. He does so while Doombreaker finds the crystal to complete his transformation. At the same time, Jon's assistance has led to the ship on which he and Glyanna are captive to inadvertently crash land./In an effort to figure out who is after Power Girl, she and Omen ask Jon Kent for help. Within his mind's language centers, a code similar to what was found in Beast Boy and Supergirl is discovered. However, in the process of doing this, Johnny Sorrow is released. What his plans for Power Girl are will be covered in the upcoming Power Girl Special.


Action Comics #1054
Cover date: June 2023
"Power Like This!"/"Home Again" - Part 4/"Steel: Engineer of Tomorrow" - Part 1
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Dorado Quick
Artists: Max Raynor/Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund/Yasmin Flores Montanez
It seems Otho has killed someone until it's revealed that the victim is actually one of Metallo's Kryptonite powered drones. He, his fellow drones and Metallo have captured the Super-Twins. They want to make the young Phaelosians into cyborgs because Metallo believes Superman has taken his sister. If Otho and Osul are not rescued soon, they could very well bring about the destruction of Superman and his family. After an intense battle with Metallo, whose Kryptonite heart is encased in a Warworld Orphan Box, Superman agree to help the cyborg find his sister. Metallo will still have to answer for his crimes, but his family needs help. First, the Necro-Drones must be shut down to prevent more death. Yet, Metallo is not in control of this robotic army. The soldiers' true master is the Cyborg Superman, and he's about to use Tracy Corben in his next experiment in cybernetics.


Action Comics #1055
Cover date: July 2023
"Tech Alive"/"Home Again" - Part 5/"Steel: Engineer of Tomorrow" - Part 2
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Dorado Quick
Artists: Rafa Sandoval/Lee Weeks/Yasmin Flores Montanez
The Super-Twins, Kara Zor-El, Jon, Conner Kent, John Henry Irons, and the Eradicator fight alongside Superman and Metallo to stop the Cyborg Superman and find Metallo's sister Tracey Corben. The uneasy alliance with the Kryptonite powered man-machine John Corben leads our heroes to learn of his youth. Had John not fired a gun at his abusive father, Tracey would have been killed. Now, John Corben will have to save her yet again, this time from the Cyborg Superman. Yet, Tracey may not want to be rescued, for she has become a Kryptonite fuelled cybernetic organism like her brother Metallo./Glyanna turns out to be a dictator who overthrew her parents. She's allowing people to go hungry on her home planet, and she wants Superman to be her one-man police force to stop the rebellion. She is holding Jon Kent prisoner to insure Superman's aid. Yet, he's fighting Doombreaker. Lois has found a stasis weapon in the wreckage of Glyanna's ship. She fires it to hold the human/Doomsday hybrid in suspended animation. This allows Clark to search for his son and hopefully put an end to Glyanna's reign of terror./Nat Irons and Conner Kent are testing Steelworks' new forcefields and security protocols for Metropolis while John Henry Irons is attempting to convince Terrific Tech to use Steelworks for their projects. The technology John created can protect and power the city. He's managed to convince the board that Steelworks is needed. Yet, there seems to be someone who wants to sabotage John's efforts. Plus, Mister Terrific believes Steel has made some mistakes along the way.


Action Comics #1056
Cover date: August 2023
"Ex Machina"/"Home Again" - Part 6/"Steel: Engineer of Tomorrow" - Part 3
Writers: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Dorado Quick
Artists: Rafa Sandoval and Max Raynor/Lee Weeks/Yasmin Flores Montanez
Though neither wishes to hurt the other, John and Tracy Corben are fighting each other while the Cyborg Superman battles the actual Man of Steel. The rest of the Superfamily aside from Steel is weakened due to the amounts of Kryptonite in the area. The underground refugee camps will be destroyed, Metropolis overrun by drones, and the Super Twins will be the Cyborg Superman's next victims if Superman does not find a way to stop the cybernetic foe. As Connor Kent and Steel deal with the drones, Metallo uses his Warrworld upgrades and Kryptonite heart to rip apart the Cyborg Superman's new body while Henshaw's mind remains in the Phantom Zone. Superman helps Tracy Corben, allowing her and John to reunite. Whatever the future holds for Metallo, he may very well do good thanks to his sister and the Superfamily. Our heroes may not get time to celebrate, however. Knight Terrors are coming to the DC Universe./With Lois watching over Doombreaker, who is in stasis, Superman has been brought to P'luhnn. He refuses to help Glyanna. Yet he does keep rebels and the bratty dictator from killing each other. This is to allow his super senses to find Jon in the lead prison where Glyanna put him. Jon makes noise loud enough for his father to hear, but Glyanna is wise to the plan. She cuts off all the oxygen in Jon's cell. This increases the boy's efforts, though they may not be enough. Jon loses consciousness./Mister Terrific, Steel's silent partner in Steelworks, wonders what John will do for himself. He responds by saying he's using his tech to save lives is what he wants and needs to do to balance out what Amertek did with his knowledge. He continues to do this when he faces Amalgam without his armor and armed with his hammer. John stops himself from nearly killing Amalgam thanks to Mister Terrific, and the cyborg is sent to prison. Yet, who sent Amalgam to combat Steel?


Knight Terrors: Action Comics #1 [of 2]
Cover date: September 2023
"She Has No Strings" - Part 1/"The Stuff of Nightmares" - Part 1
Writer: Leah Williams/Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Vasco Georgiev/Mico Suayan
The villain Insomnia has literally made the world's worst nightmares come true, including heroes and villains, in search of the Nightmare Stone. Power Girl is living her worst fears with a psychotic boyfriend chasing her and her parents wanting to leave her. She realizes she is in a dream state when the young man doesn't even know his real name. Power Girl punches him, only to discover she actually hit Superman. This turns out to be another horrifying vision that wanted to crush her while a computer system seems to be rebooting. Omen has awakened Power Girl. Yet, the psychic is but another nightmare being who wants to humiliate her on stage. Power Girl, whose body is attached to a machine, confronts Omen until Streaky's heat vision burns a hole into Power Girl's roommate./The adult members of the Superfamily are out while the young ones watch a horror movie at home. The Supertwins - Phaelosians Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra - are frightened by their experience with the Cyborg Superman and ask Conner Kent and Kenan to spend the night for a sleep over. This doesn't prevent the Cyborg Superman from becoming the Supertwins' worst nightmare. He possesses Conner. However, that isn't the only terror in the Kent home, for the Cyborg has also taken over Krypto.


Action Comics #1057
Cover date: November 2023
"New Worlds" - Part One/"Home Again" - Part 7/"Super is as Super Does"
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Dan Jurgens/Magdalene Visaggio
Artist: Rafa Sandoval/Lee Weeks/Mathew Clark
Superman is having lunch on a skyscraper with a former convict who, with Superman's influence, has reformed. His super hearing picks up a message from Lois telling him to get back to the Daily Planet pronto. Seems the leader of the Blue Earthers wants to give an interview and asked for Clark personally. With encouragement from Lois, Clark sets out for the interview. Dorian the leader's bodyguard starts shoving everyone around until Norah Stone, the organization's leader, appears. Through the interview Clark is monitoring Norah's heart rate to tell if she's lying. Through most of the interview she is. She tells Clark she's never told her members to hurt anyone. Lie. And how the mission of Blue Earth is to save humanity from alien threats that are trying to colonize Earth. Lie. She tries to justify the deaths that have been caused by the group and then uses an analogy referencing Superman, saying with all that power he has he's a threat and if they were to destroy him would that be murder. Clark enthusiastically says yes. In the end Lois realizes that this young woman is on a crusade. Later Lois congratulates Clark on the interview. Suddenly Clark starts to sweat. He's not looking very good. As he enters the elevator he comes face to face with Stone's bodyguard Dorian who turns out to be more than he seems. He begins to turn green and starts attacking Clark. He says everything is Clark's fault and without his interference they may never have come. After Clark gains some semblance of what has actually happening he's powerless and facing... Superman?/Lois worries about Clark and Jon while Doombreaker floats in stasis alongside her. Meanwhile on the planet P'Luhnn Clark comes to the rescue finding Jon's cell. The princess is none too happy. Neither is the mysterious hologram who has been running things behind the scenes this whole time. The princess lets loose the Killameks but Clark and Jon put a stop to them quickly. Back on the farm Doombreaker gets loose but then disappears in front of Lois' eyes. Back on planet P'Luhnn the princesses' parents apologize for her actions but tell Clark she must have been under someone's influence for she wouldn't have acted this way on her own. Meanwhile Glyanna flies off with her mysterious holographic friend only to find she has a passenger. Doombreaker! Clark and Jon return to the farm for breakfast. Jon asks Clark if it's true he had a mullet when he returned from the dead. He's says it was just long hair. Lois said it was a mullet. It's not a mullet!/Basically Conner is sick of living in Superman's shadow. M'gann tries helping telepathically but Conner gets angry and tells her to get out of his head. He dreams he's the one who died fighting Doomsday and the funeral and memorial were for him. But he's just a stand-in for Superman and when anyone sees him they think of Superman. He flies home in a huff and confronts a worried Ma Kent. Conner goes to his room and sulks.


Action Comics #1058
Cover date: December 2023
"New Worlds" - Part Two/"Secret Identity" - Part One/"Panic at the Parade"
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson/Gene Luen Yang/Greg Hahn
Artist: Rafa Sandoval/Viktor Bogdanovic/Travis Mercer
Continuing from last issue the Blue Earth leader's associate, now in the guise of Superman, pounds on a powered down Clark hoping Metropolis and the people of Earth see the destruction being caused and will blame it on Superman. Clark goads the fake Superman to pull out all the stops using super hearing and heat vision until he's finally expended. Clark finishes it with a left hook taking down his opponent. Later Norah Stone talks with reporters again putting down Superman and telling the people of Metropolis she has "exciting" things to show them. Back at the Kent apartment the Super Team gathers with the so called super twins. We find out they're going to school at Steelworks and Otho got into a fight after someone insulted her brother. While Lois admonishes her for fighting there's a click at the door. Clark none the worse for wear stumbles in. Kara decides to take the kids to the bedroom for storytime. She reads to them a book from the great library of Kandor. The House Fables of Krypton. She begins to tell them the story of Red Son and Starchild. After explaining to John Henry how Norah weakened him so her associate could have his powers Superman says he can feel his powers slowly coming back. In the meantime he asks if John Henry has anything for him to use until his powers come back in full. At a secret sanctuary Norah speaks to a being coming from a well surrounded in green mist. She explains how the powers she bled from Superman can now power a team of their own. She also believes she can turn one of the Supers to their side. The beings in the mist sound pleased. Meanwhile at Steelworks John Henry forges a steel suit for Superman. He takes it for a test spin./In a story that takes place several weeks before the current "Action" story Kenan Kong, the Super-Man of China, fights alongside the Super Family. Suddenly the super twins accuse Kenan of being a spy. They bust into his apartment to try and prove it. They find a board linking all the Supers. We then flashback to the Bat Man of China and Kenan standing over a corpse of a reporter who was investigating the secret identity of Superman when he had a stroke. The Robinbot says it was heat exposure. The heat affected a certain part of his brain as if targeted by a laser perhaps. Or heat vision. Bat Man tells Kenan he should go to Metropolis and take up with Superman and his family and find the truth. Kenan tells the team they could trust him he just needs to know their identities. Supeboy says no! Kenan's robot scans the team prompting the twins to fight him. After Kenan stops the fight his robot is through with its scanning. Its investigation concludes that Superman is Clark Kent. This startles Kenan who suddenly collapses after hearing the news and appears to be dead./Bibbo take the super twins to the parade where they wreak havoc until Superman saves the day.

Action Comics Comic Book Index

Introduction

This listing is done in the order for when a comic book issue was published.

Note: Remember, the month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic was on sale.

The Writer, Penciller and Inker for each issue is listed under the Comic's Title and Date.

CONTENTS:

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You can read reviews of all the Superman related comics (from October 1999 onwards) in the Mild Mannered Reviews section of this website.