Action Comics #961

Written by: Dan Jurgens

Art by: Stephen Segovia

Coloured by: Arif Prianto

Lettered by: Rob Leigh

The fight with Doomsday continues as Superman an Wonder Woman attempt to keep him at bay and away from Superman's family. In the previous issue, Superman had a brief respite as Doomsday fled from their fight underground. Remembering that Doomsday has an instinctive need to hunt Kryptonians, Superman flies off to protect Lois and John, followed closely by Wonder Woman. As the family reunites and Superman tells them to get as far away as possible, a sound in the distance informs him that Wonder Woman has just re-engaged with Doomsday.

This issue starts back with Lex Luthor in Metropolis, helping to stabilize the city following Doomsday's attack. He briefly comments to the now de-powered Clark Kent that he believes that he has no powers no, otherwise he would be helping. Suddenly, debris begins to fall from one of the buildings, threatening to crush a family when they are saved by a blur that is revealed to be the new Superwoman. Back with Superman, he leaps into the fight with Doomsday, telling Wonder Woman to get his family somewhere that Doomsday won't be able to reach them. Just as he begins to wear down, however, Doomsday is suddenly subdued by several people in masks carrying strange new energy weapons. I enjoyed the pace of this issue like I enjoyed the pace of the previous issue. While it did have lots of action, it also had several quieter and more personal character moments that let the story breathe. The one major critique that I have is for the arc as a whole, which has boiled down to mainly repetition after being dragged out a bit too long.

The artwork is still great, showing lots of little details and making the action flow naturally. You get a really good sense of just how powerful Doomsday is when he makes his attacks, which does a good job of showing just how powerful Superman and Wonder Woman are to withstand them and attack back. Beyond that I don't have much to say that I havent said previously, the artwork is enjoyable and Segovia is doing a good job picking up where Kirkham left off.

While I ultimately enjoyed this issue by itself, the main issue with the arc so far has been Doomsday. While I actually do enjoy the character, the problem with him is that he lacks any real character. His motivations are simple and he has very little personality, leading to arcs where the rest of the cast needs to be even better than usual in their characterization to make up for the gap. Unfortunately, I don't believe that this has been happening as much as it needs to this arc, which leads us into a situation where, unfortunately, while the book may be quality, I am simply waiting for the arc to end so that we can get into something with a bit more meat.