Action 877 – healing Flamebird

Greg Rucka, Sidney Teles and Sandro Ribeiro continue the story of Nightwing and Flamebird, and the sleeper agents on Earth, in Action 877 (July 2009).

Ursa digs her way out of the Fortress, and finds Tor-An, still imprisoned.

Lois Lane calls on Dr. Light to help heal Flamebird.  Dr. Kimyo Hoshi brings her up to the roof, and expends a lot of solar energy.  Her Kryptonian cells soak it up, and she heals much faster.

But this has a big down side, as Sam Lane is shown satellite images of Flamebird on the roof, and her picture is matched with Thara Ak-Var.  As Flamebird recuperates, Nightwing heads back to the Fortress to retrieve Tor-An.  He finds that Ursa has killed him.  With his identity exposed, he had no further use.  Mother and son fight, until they spot military jets approaching.  Ursa leaves, but Nightwing fights the fighter planes.

As the story ends, we meet two more Kryptonians.  Az-Rel and Nadira were sleeper agents, but don’t seem to concerned with staying undercover, instead becoming a sort of Kryptonian Bonnie and Clyde.  These are not entirely new characters.  They are based, loosely, on the Az-Rel and Nadira who appeared in the Phantom Zone miniseries in the 80s.

The story continues in the next issue.

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.