Review: Action Comics Vol. 9- Last Rites

Quick Summary

Pros: The first crossover collected here is entertaining and full of the event’s more action packed moments.

Cons: The second crossover collected here is not collected well. The end of the second crossover is left out entirely.

Overall: Though the two crossovers seen here are entertaining when viewed in full, the manner in which they are collected here does not quite do them justice. The first turns out to be average; it still feels as if you are missing out on story elements but it flows together rather well. The second is terrible and does not read well in such a fragmented way. Overall, reading this volume alone is not the ideal way to experience these two events.

Review Notes

This collection is only a small part of two large crossovers. The first crossover is collected in Superman: Savage Dawn (our review of which can be found here). The second crossover is collected in Superman: The Final Days of Superman (our review of which can be found here). Reading this book on its own is possible, but the experience will be significantly fragmented. See our Savage Dawn reading order here and our Final Days of Superman reading order here for more information about how to read this event.

Story

Action Comics Vol. 9: Last Rites, by Greg Pak and Peter J. Tomasi, is solely a collection of pieces from two separate crossover events. The first, involving Savage Dawn (Review), works out alright. The story is a bit fragmented but manages to deliver the relevant information to tell what ends up being a pretty average story. However, the chapters collecting portions of The Final Days of Superman (Review) do not work out in quite the same way. Instead, this volume collects two chapters heavy on information and light on substance and then fails to give the storyline a conclusion. Overall, reading this volume on its own proves to be a subpar way to experience two otherwise entertaining crossovers.

(spoiler free review)

The volume begins with a few chapters from the Savage Dawn (Review) event. These chapters are entertaining and immediately relevant to what has been happening in the Action Comics series. Reading this portion of Savage Dawn (Review) by itself certainly does not give readers the complete picture, however it does fix that storyline’s pacing problem. By cutting out some of the slower and more irrelevant chapters, this collection is actually able to trim some of the crossover event’s excess bulk. It still isn’t a fantastic read but it definitely isn’t bad either.

It also helps that the collection itself makes the reading process a little easier. Each chapter opens with a quick summary of the chapters from other series, detailing the highlights readers would have missed by just reading this volume. These summaries are more extensive than the ones readers would have seen in Superman: Doomed (Review), a crossover event that tried something similar. Even the event’s conclusion is summarized at the very beginning of the next event.

Unfortunately, the crossover portions of The Final Days of Superman (Review) are nowhere near as entertaining as the rest of the collection. The two chapters collected here are mostly focused on delivering information and providing exposition; there is very little actual action or excitement. While stories like these are appreciated every now and then, the actual payoff from this information happens almost exclusively outside of this series. This means that fans reading Last Rites by itself will be missing out on everything this volume gets them excited to read.

In addition, the conclusion to The Final Days of Superman (Review) is completely left out. Savage Dawn (Review) is at least summarized when it closes, making it even more unusual that no ending is given here. The actual execution of this storyline is entertaining when viewed in full but is simply pointless when viewed from just these few pieces.

(spoiler free review)

Art

Though we’ve been a little critical of Aaron Kuder’s work in some of our previous reviews, I am happy to say that his work here is some of his best work yet. His structures and layouts here all look great and his work has a nice level of detail to it. In particular, he does a wonderful job in portraying Superman in various states of confidence; when Superman seems at his lowest point, the artwork reflects these emotions.

The following two chapters, penciled by Paul Pelletier, Dale Eaglesham, and Scot Eaton, also look nice but don’t quite bring the same level of emotion. Instead, things look a bit more generic overall and don’t really stand out in any sort of memorable way. This doesn’t mean this portion of the book looks bad, it just means that it is rather average through and through.

Continuity

Action Comics Vol. 9: Last Rites continues the story from in Action Comics Vol. 8: Truth (Review). However, the vast majority of this volume involves the Superman: Savage Dawn (Review) and the Superman: The Final Days of Superman (Review) crossover events. For more details about how these crossovers work see our reading order for Savage Dawn here and Final Days of Superman here.

The current Action Comics series wraps up in this volume. However, the Action Comics series starts back up again with Action Comics Vol. 1: Path of Doom (Review)

This volume also references stories from other comic books, detailed below:

• Superman’s lack of powers comes from his altercation with HORDR_Root in Superman Vol. 1: Before Truth (Review).
• Wonder Woman mentions that the Supremacists have attacked Superman before. This was in Batman/Superman Vol. 5: Truth Hurts (Review).
• The Justice League United has their origins in Justice League United Vol. 1: Justice League Canada (Review).
• The original Metallo armor mentioned here was designed back in Action Comics Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel.
• Near the end of the Savage Dawn (Review) arc, Vandal Savage mentions Superman’s fight against the Grey Walkers, the Suicide Squad, and Parasite. These fights occurred in Superman/Wonder Woman Vol. 4: Dark Truth (Review)
• The background behind the Batman seen in this volume can be found in Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy (Review).
• Supergirl began to lose her powers at the very end of Supergirl Vol. 6: Crucible.
• The Superman seen at the end of this collection originally appeared in Convergence but his background in this universe is detailed in Superman: Lois and Clark (Review).