Read a review of Action Comics #1061 from DC Comics, written by Jason Aaron with art by John Timms as Bizarro returns.
We reviewed the book on the Stack podcast. But in the interest of highlighting more about the title, here’s a summary of the conversation with our thoughts. And if you prefer the longer audio version, that’s below as well!
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Action Comics #1061 Review:
Jason Aaron makes his debut on Superman with this issue, which brings back Bizarro and makes him a powerful magician.
Host Justin Tyler said he was “surprised by this,” particularly because Bizarro is “such a tough character to do… I like where the issue ended a lot, and I love Jason Aaron, so it’s well-written. It’s just Bizarro is one of those characters… I guess is not my favorite.”
Pete LePage also came off as hesitant about the issue. Though he thought it was a “very interesting setup,” like Tyler he found the Bizarro dialogue “hard sometimes.”
Alex Zalben went even further, saying that “Bizarro speak drives me insane,” and compounding that there’s a sequence where Bizarro also does the Zatanna backward magic talk, which he also doesn’t love in general. “I was like, I’m dying, literally dying reading this comic book.”
That aside, LePage thought the art was “really glorious,” and Zalben added that he loves Jason Aaron’s books, “they’re some of my absolute favorite books.” However, he felt that Aaron was “being too reverent of Superman here.” Comparing this book directly to Batman: Off-World by Aaron, which throws Batman “into the worst situation possible and pushes him to the extremes… this is a little too dense. It’s a little too careful for Jason Aaron, which I wouldn’t expect because he’s a writer who always takes chances. I don’t hate this. I think it’s still a fun story and the idea of Bizarro, because he’s the opposite of Superman, embracing magic, something that Superman could be hurt by, makes a lot of sense… But it’s a little too careful. I want him to take more chances.”
Action Comics #1061 Official Synopsis:
SUPERMAN SUPERSTARS BEGINS! JASON AARON WRITES SUPERMAN FOR THE FIRST TIME, JOINED BY FAN-FAVORITE ARTIST JOHN TIMMS! THE WIZARD, BIZARRO! Jason Aaron writes Superman for the very first time, teaming up with all-star artist John Timms to present a startling new vision of the Man of Steel’s strangest foe. When Superman’s doppelgänger discovers a dark secret about himself, it unleashes the most dangerous version of Bizarro the world has ever seen.
