Action Comics #963 Comic Book Review/Recap

Action Comics #963. Who Is Clark Kent?

Action Comics #963 Comic Book Recap

Metropolis, in the early morning, Lex Luthor holds a press conference for the battle between superman and the monster Doomsday. The monster is gone but the biggest story of the year is about to go up to the podium. Superman died not long ago and yet, he returned to battle the monster. But now, somehow, Clark Kent, a seemingly average man, is seen in the same vicinity as the man of steel himself. If superman is Clark Kent, how can they stand side by side?

Luthor calls Clark Kent to the stage before an ocean of reporters and civilians. Clark Kent tells his story while the civilians berate him for superman’s collateral damage. Clark says that he was working on a case to expose the secrets of the company Geneticron Corporation. The company caught wind of his meddling and his life was in danger. Since Superman resembled Clark Kent, the man of steel offered to take the reporters place. Kent went into seclusion far away. At this time, the crowd grows anxious. They don’t believe his lies. A man aims to prove that Clark Kent is superman so he reveals a hand gun and pulls the trigger with Clark Kent in his cross hairs.

The police took the gunman down and Clark along with Luthor and Perry White escapes through the back entrance. Unbeknownst to Lex Luthor and Perry White, the last son of Krypton was watching the entire thing.

Noon, Perry White has an agent strap Clark Kent to a lie detector test. Common questions are answered proving that Clark is telling the truth. Perry apologizes for the lie detector but Clark knows that the order came from their new boss, Lex Luthor.

Hours later, with the help of Jimmy Olson, Clark Kent will resume his investigations into Geneticron. While at the corner of the street, Clark notices that this is the exact same spot that he was at during the Doomsday attack. The 4 arrested Gunmen were caught by Luthor in the lobby of this building and the severely damaged vault is still closed off to all reporters and the police.

Jimmy brings up an image taken from the daily planet’s rooftop camera. Batman was in town with superman. But the case: That is the exact same case that houses the lie detector. It wasn’t Luthor after all.

Clark is pumped so, he marches into the Geneticron lobby demanding for a meeting with their CEO. A suited man approaches warning Clark that if he continues harassing the company then his team of lawyers will start suing the reporter and the Daily Planet.

Minutes later, Clark is still not defeated. Jimmy offers a distraction while the reporter sneaks past security. It’s not long before security discovers a trespasser. Clark takes one down but now he is forced to run up towards the roof. Along the way, he takes down another security. Arriving on the rooftop, Clark engages another enforcer, but this time, he is outmatched. Against the ledge the security lifts the reporter over his head and he throws Clark towards the pavement.

Superman saves the civilian from hitting the pavement. It’s finally time for the two men to have a talk.

Action Comics #963 Comic Book Review

The first action comic’s story arc in DC Rebirth is done and it set up a big mystery for us. Who is Clark Kent the civilian? He truly believes that he is only Clark Kent, the guy from Smallville Kansas and that he went into hiding after superman told him to. And he is only back now. My guess is that he is a clone. That seems to be the answer to everything in comics so that’s what I gravitate to. I honestly hope he’s not a clone or from a parallel dimension. But that doesn’t leave many other guesses. He could have gone through what the justice league 3000 went through. If you don’t know, in the far future, test subjects were injected with the DNA and memory of the justice league. The league members acted like a virus and they eventually rewrote the DNA of their host into theirs. The league essentially killed their host in order to survive. In my opinion, this is a unique way of reintroducing a favorite character into existence after their death. So I hope when we do get an answer, it would be something this cool.

The one thing that stood out in this issue is that it mainly focuses on the civilian Clark Kent. Everything was said from his perspective. He truly is a reporter that wants to uncover the secrets of Geneticron. Here are a few things we know about this company so far: the gunmen in the lobby offered a distraction for another team to steal doomsday out of the vault somewhere near the top of the Geneticron building. Mr. Oz is always an easy guy to point fingers at but I don’t think he is leading this company. He could be the guy who orchestrated the escape of Doomsday so that he may take the monster to add to his strange collection.

So that begs the question: who is behind Geneticron and how did they obtain Doomsday? We know one origin of Doomsday according to Lois Lane, but this is the new universe and certain origins are changed. Is Doomsday still a weapon bread to live and die for centuries just to be harnessed into a weapon of pure destruction? He still has a hatred for Kryptonians evidenced by his attack on Jon. But that’s all we know so far.

It turns out that Batman arranged for the lie detector test as a favor to superman. That being said, it seems like Batman and superman are getting a bit friendlier by the month. Superman is still not yet an official member of the justice league so it appears that he is only a close contact.

From the cover art, the next issue promises the long waited conversation between the civilian and the man of steel. I’m actually quite hyped for it. Every issue seems to get us closer to an answer and I love it.

So that’s it, this issue was great but there are so many other wonderful DC rebirth titles. Which ones are you following right now?