Action Comics Weekly #633: Making stretch happen

This week: Green Lantern, Black Canary, Nightwing and Speedy, Superman, Phantom Stranger, and Blackhawk

If I thought the previous issue had a lot of segments that felt a little drawn out in order to reach a story conclusion in the next issue (or in the one after, in the case of Green Lantern), this issue continues that trend to an even greater degree.

The Superman strip’s Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson doing a Blackhawk cover for some reason.

“Apocalypse” by James Owsley (Christopher Priest), M.D. Bright, and Romeo Tanghal

Green Lantern faces off with Malvolio, who is clearly far more powerful than him. He’s blasted through a planet by the villain. He flies away, finding a yellow sphere in space that he assumes is some resistance to Malvolio. Instead, it’s some kind of shrine to him where Hal learns that he’s back in Priest’s sector, which Malvolio has carved out a kingdom for himself. Malvolio rips through the side of the sphere to confront Hal again, with the entire sphere exploding around them as the chapter ends.

Malvolio is presented as a completely mad Green Lantern that’s extended his life somehow, but in action, he doesn’t really feel that different than Doomsday, a powerful threat that seems beyond even the hero’s greatest abilities. As much as I like Owsley’s work elsewhere, I’m looking forward to seeing Green Lantern move forward without him.

“Knock ’em Dead Part 10” by Sharon Wright, Randy DuBurke, and Pablo Marcos

Black Canary took a minor wound from Cat Maddox in the previous issue. She and the cops are still on the lookout for Cat, but instead learn that the body of Deb Tilden has washed up on the nearby shore. We learn that Cat left Deb to drown, and Canary uses this to track her hidey hole to a tunnel just off the water.

She learns that Cat has her ex-husband Ken Glazier as well, leaving her to potentially rescue or avenge him in the story’s concluding chapter.

DuBurke’s changes to his art style isn’t helping his storytelling much, but the last few chapters of this tale have just been far too little to maintain this length.