You know Superman has been in one interesting state for the past year. He’s just returned in Action Comics and he’s still Grounded in this book. I decided to grab issue #711 of this title because of the fact it has Livewire in it and she is one of my favorite Superman characters. Of course what I got in the midst of being part 9 of one giant story was a nice surprise on many fronts. Self contained, good story, great reveals, and a nice note to one obscure character that isn’t used often in the DC Universe. On to the review which is full of wonderful things.
I’ll deal with the elephant in the room as I review this issue being while J. Michael Straczynki is still listed on the book I do believe by this point in the game Chris Roberson is doing the major part of the scripting on this series.. This issue is just impressive in being part of the larger storyline and yet being one self contained story. It takes place in Las Vegas and Superman having dealings with Livewire when Jimmy Olsen summons him there. So now in the midst of all this chaos Livewire is causing this havoc you have another character helping out in his own way being Iron Munro. This is why I also got a major kick out of this issue since Roberson dug this one straight out of the obscure and made it work beautifully. For those who don’t know Iron Munro is the illegitimate son of the character Hugo Danner from the book Gladiator by Philip Wylie. Yes that extra bit including the Livewire part of the issue made me absolutely happy.
Eddy Barrow’s art on this issue is mind blowing. I think that’s what caught my eye as I was going through this issue for he just cut loose with every bit of this issue. Every bit of the pages just pop out at you. From the pure wonderful action pieces set up in the comic to one splash page that’s just beautifully done. The entire issue is just this nicely paced storytelling and art piece and nothing seems off about it. I swear Barrow just saw this script and I swear he just went to town with it and you can tell there was a lot of fun to be had by all the parties involved with this issue. It’s amazing to believe that the story has been picking up steam in the latter part but I’m not going to argue at all.
Yes if you couldn’t tell I absolutely enjoyed this issue from cover to cover. From the appearance of a great obscure character to a great surprise near the end of the issue that no one is ever going to see coming until you see it. Every bit of this issue is done with pure gleeful love and you can’t help but appreciate the craft of this issue. I have to say I hadn’t read Grounded since the second part and I was so pleasantly surprised to see how the issue came together. It feels like a completely different piece than what it started out as but you know what there are no complaints here. I just loved this issue and now I plan on finishing up the last bit of this run and hoping that Roberson gets to stay on as the main writer since honestly his work is extremely good on this book. I want to see him fully cut loose with this title. If Eddy Barrows is along for the ride? I won’t have any problem with that either. I think Grounded is finally starting to totally redeem itself thanks to their work.
