Detective Comics #1and Action Comics #1 - Eric's Review

Grant Morrison penned the script to Action Comics while Rags Morales handled the art chores. Tony Daniel both wrote and drew Detective Comics. I've lumped these titles together because they both get one thing right that so many of the other books this week did not:

The villain.

Morrison's Lex Luthor squares off against a younger, more inexperienced Superman who's more concerned with confronting social issues than alien menaces. Luthor sees himself as the hero rather than the villain, and thanks to Morrison's careful scripting, he makes a convincing argument. What's more, he has a plan to take down this Superman and to prove that the strongest man in the world may be no match for the smartest.

Tony Daniel hits all the necessary beats with his Batman story, giving us glimpses of the Batcave and the Batsignal and giving Bats an opportunity to interact with Commissioner Gordon and with Alfred. More importantly, Daniel writes a convincing Joker who is every bit as relentless and driven as Batman and (probably) even more insane. The Joker's escape from captivity early in the book is rather inspired, as is the revelation that the issue-long game of cat-and-mouse he plays with Batman is part of a larger agenda.

The interplay between hero and villain in both Action and Detective leads to two of the better last-page cliffhangers you're likely to find among any of this week's DC titles. 

The last page of Detective Comics is particularly brutal and not for the squeamish.