Action 876 – Ursa attacks

Rucka, Barrows, Jose and Ferreira are joined by Sidney Teles as Ursa attacks Nightwing and Flamebird in Action 876 (June 2009).

Ursa really comes off as dangerously psychotic, but it is also so easy to hear Sarah Douglas, the actress who created the character, in her dialogue.  She demands Chris return with her to Zod, but has no problems physically wounding him when he refuses.  Flamebird does her best to run interference.

They manage to escape from Ursa, only because they bring the entire Fortress crashing down onto her.

Chris brings the wounded Thara to the only human he knows he can trust, Lois Lane, his “mom.”

The story continues in the next issue.

Action 875 – Nightwing and Flamebird begin

Greg Rucka, Eddy Barrows, Ruy Jose and Julio Ferreira take over as the new creative team as Chris Kent and Thara Ak-Var take over Action Comics 875 (May 2009) as Nightwing and Flamebird.

The two have changed their costumes, which I was sad about.  I really liked the earlier suits. But these are designed to make people think that the powers they display come from the uniforms, not from themselves. Pretty clever, I have to admit.  They root out and capture Tor-An, a Kryptonian living undercover as a human.

Tor-An is one of a number of sleeper agents that Zod has on Earth.  He commands Ursa to bring in Chris, who he knows was freed from the Phantom Zone by Thara.  The connection between these two is not clear yet. It’s sad to see that not only do Zod and Ursa show very little parental love, Zod does not even seem to care much for his lover.

Nightwing and Flamebird have been hiding out in the Fortress of Solitude, with Superman gone.  We learn that Chris has painful and mysterious bouts of rapid aging, explaining why he is so much older than he was in Last Son.  As the issue ends, Ursa shows up in the Fortress.