3-2-1 Action!
I’ve been a fan of Kurt Busiek’s Superman run since its start, and now it’s over, so I’ve been ditching my floppies, going cold turkey on Superman comics, and instead buying the trades of the stuff I like.
The 3-2-1 Action trade captures a mixed bag of Busiek super-stuff; there’s a single-issue that explores Jimmy Olsen’s “secret origin,” a Mark Evanier/Steve Rude tale from the late nineties created off an unused Kirby plot for the Jimmy Olsen comics, and a three-parter from Action Comics in which Busiek tries to make sense of the mess that was Countdown.
I don’t mind mixed bag trades, normally; it only bothers me if the bag has crap in it, and the main story in here is sorta crappy. I say that as a HUGE fan of Busiek and a growing admirer of penciler Brad Walker.
It’s just hard to get over the whole “Jimmy Olsen has superpowers now” idea, because that idea is dumb. One minute, he’s got all these freakish abilities; the next, he’s asking for membership in the JLA? Huh? This is NOT Jimmy Olsen, and as hard as Busiek tries, even he can’t polish this turd.
The other stories are good; Steve Rude’s Kirbyesque work on the final tale is especially fantastic. It’s just the majority of this trade that’s kinda lukewarm superhero nonsense.
Yet a crappy Busiek comic is still better than most books on the stands, so there’s that.