MANILA, Philippines — September 2011 will always be remembered as the DC Reboot month. Love it or hate it, DC has been very successful in creating noise surrounding their new universe.

I estimate the hype to last at least s i x mo r e months before the next big thing in comics is announced and fanboy hysteria is redirected somewhere else – because in comics, there is always the “next big thing”.

Fortunately, DC has quality titles to back up all the hype surrounding their new direction. Today, I’ll be reviewing a special title that lived up to the company’s aspirations for their first month’s releases. This is a comic book that brought something contemporary to the table, pleasing old-timers and drawing in newbies at the same time.

Action Comics

In the spring of 1938, the world’s first superhero story appeared in Action Comics issue 1, introducing Superman. Fast-forward to September 7, 2011 and we have a totally different Action Comics issue 1 in our hands. And it’s good.

In this month’s Action Comics, we have a radical reinterpretation of Superman as a socialist crusader in T-shirt and jeans. In Issue 1, he is rather ruthless and threatening, although his intentions are good. He uses extreme force to make a rich criminal, Mr. Glenmorgan, admit to his corruption, using illegal labor, having no safety standards, and bribing city officials.

Superman’s stance is clear. He wanted to prove that the law applies to both the poor and the elite. And he was willing to get his point through to his audience no matter what the cost, even if it meant clashing with the police.

In the comic, he engages in a verbal war with the police, debating with them, challenging them to take care of the city’s real scum, like the corrupt Glenmorgan, instead of letting him do all the work.

He intimidates them by warning one of the detectives about an ulcer, which he obviously gleaned using his X-ray vision. It seems to be a vicious cycle in the new DC universe, where heroes are feared and hated, but they seem to act in a way that adds fuel to the fire.

The Daily Planet, the institution that Clark Kent is so closely identified with in popular culture, prints false stories putting Superman in a bad light. This is a universe where Superman just can’t get a break.

Spooky Superman

Even the way Superman is drawn

and colored is very eerie. In the scene where he is holding Mr. Glenmorgan in the air, his eyes are beaming red, in an almost sinister fashion. Superman gets even spookier when he drops the corrupt businessman, pretending to let the old man fall to his death for his crimes, so as to scare him into confessing his wrongdoings.

I breathed a sigh of relief when he caught Glenmorgan before hitting the pavement, but I was still very disturbed by this show of aggressiveness. It definitely got my heart pumping, and for a reborn universe, that is a good sign. This is definitely not the Superman your grandpa grew up reading. This isn’t even the Superman you grew up reading, for that matter.

Personally, my problem with Superman in recent years has always been the shortage of new possibilities, new stories that could be told about DC’s flagship hero. I felt that writers just couldn’t come up with anything fresh for Clark Kent anymore. There were no bigger threats that he could face, since he faced them all already. His personal life was so strong, which in comics means boring. Clark and Lois were a perfect couple who didn’t have that much tension between them. Any problems they encountered were literally alien in nature.

No Dead End

I thought Superman reached a dead end in terms of storytelling, but I was gravely mistaken. DC knew the solution, and while controversial, it had to be done. They had to tell a new Superman story from the very beginning. They had to reinvent the hero who had somewhat lost his relevance, while still making him a figure of justice and leadership. So far, it’s been a job well done.

On the business side of things, Action Comics is doing its job of sucking in new and old readers alike. Next to the new Justice League series, it was probably the most anticipated title of the DC reboot.

A full week before the first issue of Action Comics was released, it was already reported to be sold out, and due for second printing. The newspaper and internet coverage of this ongoing series had been crazy, and because of all the hype, retailers increased their orders until the whole print run was absorbed.

Take note, this was only a small taste of DC’s groundbreaking month of September. Action Comics is just one of the company’s new ongoing series looking to pave the way for a better and brighter future for the largest and most diverse English language publisher of comic books in the world.

Founded in 1934 as National Allied Publications, DC Comics virtually created the comic book when it published the first ever comic of all-original material. This month, the publisher that started it all starts again.

So come in, watch your step, and make yourself at home. It’s the Big Bang of the new DC universe and The Worlds’ Greatest Heroes are back, better than ever.