Action Comics #22 Review
rating: 3
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DC Comics was unexpectedly in need of finding another creative team for Action Comics after writer Andy Diggle announced he would be no longer writing the title before his first issue was even released in comic book stores. Diggle's abrupt time writing the historic title only resulted in one issue, #19, being written by Diggle. Action Comics #19 was one of the best issues of the title since the beginning of the New 52 and it was unfortunate that Diggle's time on Action Comics was very brief. While Diggle's name was listed on issues #20 and #21 of the title, the artist, Tony Daniel, who was originally paired with Diggle to illustrate the title and who has had experienced with writing comics in the past, took over writing duties in issues #20 and #21. Daniel left the title after completing issue #21. It was recently announced in an interview posted on the USA Today website that Greg Pak, who is currently writing the Batman/Superman title, will take over the writing duties of Action Comics. Artist Aaron Kuder will join Pak in issue #25 of Action Comics, which will be released this November. Until then, the current writer of the title Superman, Scott Lobdell, will be writing Action Comics. Artist Tyler Kirkham is joining Lobdell on another brief arc of Action Comics before the first issue of the title by the creative team of Pak and Kuder is released in comic book stores this fall. In Action Comics #22, titled Atomic Knights, part one, Dr. Hector Hammond, who is a villain in Green Lantern, has escaped from S.T.A.R. Labs and is orbiting in space. He encounters an alien named Straith, the first knight of the Pax Galactica. In Metropolis, Clark Kent is with Cat Grant, another writer at a party when he notices, with the benefit of his x-ray vision, that an actor named Harlan Quint is powered by infinitium. Clark was already suspicious that he saw a sample of infinitium at the party. He believed the only amount of infinitium that matched the sample he saw was in his possession in his Fortress of Solitude. From space, Dr. Hammond calls upon Superman to join him in Earth's orbit. Superman arrives and the villain points out the damage Straith did to Hammond's weapon, which possessed a photon reactor capable of severely damaging cities on Earth. Dr. Hammond tells Superman where Straith is located and Superman and the alien engage in a physical confrontation. Before the battle reaches its climax, another alien, Lourdes of the Pax Galactica, accompanied by two other allies, commands Straith not kill Superman and that they unite against the force referred to as the Lexus. Tyler Kirkham's art stands out in panels involving the aliens of the Pax Galactica and the battle scene between Superman and Straith. Kirkham's artwork sets up for what will follow next as Superman will join forces with the Pax Galactica against the Lexus. Action Comics #22 by Scott Lobdell and Tyler Kirkham is available now.