I'll take KRYPTONITE POISONING for $600

All right, we're in the homestretch with the 80 pg. beast of an issue that is Action Comics #600. If you missed the previous installments, check here and here.

Closing things out is a tale that seems a little out of place, as I don't instantly think Man-Bat when I think of classic Superman villains that deserve to be highlighted in an anniversary issue. Have no fear, however, as our investment in time and bandwidth is going to be rewarded as Mike Mignola handles the art for the last eight pages. If you're going to have a Man-Bat story, you could do a heckuva lot worse than have the master of mood, the Svengali of shadows, the general of gothic, handling the pencils.

Let's check it out.

The Dark Where Madness Lies

• Written by John Byrne
• Drawn by Mike Mignola
• Lettered by Bill Oakley
• Colored by Petra Scotese

Speaking of Mike Mignola, he wastes no time in giving us a beautiful image of Man-Bat soaring high in the nighttime sky.

He has come to the wilderness to seek solace amongst the shrill songs of his brethren. Down below, he finds the perfect cave and soars in only to be confused by the absence of bats that would normally make the cave a bustling community. It doesn't take him long to find out exactly what has spooked his bat brothers.

Yes...it's the same cave that Superman has decided to ride out his bout of kryponite poisoning in, and unfortunately he's in no mood to make new friends. In fact, the more he tries to soothe the crazed Kryptonian, the worse it gets and the worse his delusions become.

In his rage, Superman knocks Man-Bat around the cave like a pinata. Whatever he does to try to calm Superman, it only works to make him more enraged. It's only when Superman has Man-Bat facing the sharp end of a stalactite that he realizes he's been out of control. Even enraged, Superman will not kill.

In control of his faculties once more, Superman explains that its the kryptonite rays from his exploded planet that is doing this to him. The rays were too strong for the lead that was in the caves to block out. Another shock wave could kill him. Luckily for him, he has an idea of someone who could help. Unfortunately, he's still too weak to seek him out. Man-Bat takes it upon himself to find the one person who can help the Man of Steel.

So who is it?

He only shows up in shadows here, but those wings are a dead giveaway.

SO, WHAT DID WE LEARN...

Anniversary jam issues are usually a mixed bag. Chances are, there's something in there that's good, and hopefully you end with more winners than losers to make the extra price involved worth it.

This time around, we go three winners and two meh's. I think I'll call that a win and slide this book back in it's bag and backer, and head back to the longboxes for another pick.

All characters and artwork reproduced are (c) DC Comics

Up next...Action Comics Weekly!

I've finally come down off of my Vision-fueled, continuity high and am ready to get back on the wagon of accessible comics.

Will the Randomizer take it easy on me, or will he throw in some Young Avengers/Iron Lad tomfoolery to really push me over the edge?

The suspense is killing me, so let's get on with it already and let the Randomizer pick the next book up for review...

...and the next pick is Action Comics Weekly #614 from August 1988, published by DC Comics!

So as I was double checking the publishing date, I forgot that for the weekly books they listed the actual date that it was released on. It turns out that this book was released on August 23rd, and not only was that just three days ago, but it was also my birthday! It's another one of those happy coincidences that makes doing a random blog like this a lot of fun.

But wait, there's more...for with DC in the midst of their next attempt at a weekly comic with Wednesday Comics, we get to take a look at their first attempt (or at least the first one that I remember).

But wait, there's still more...for with DC in the midst of a run of Action Comics without Superman, we get to take a look at their first attempt with this concept (yeah, he's got an ongoing two-page story in this, but it's hardly the focus of the series).

That's right, we're back in the heady post-Crisis days of the late 80's and John Byrne was wrapping up his relaunch of the Superman titles. Who would want to follow that act up?

With Action Comics, apparently a whole lot of people did, as they went with an anthology format on a weekly basis. Superman gets a token appearance with a two page story in each issue. It's a cool nod to Superman's presence in this title for the past 50 years, and also a nice swan song showcase for Curt Swan.

Green Lantern was the defacto headliner while a succession of B and C stringers followed including the Blackhawks, Secret Six, Deadman, Phantom Stranger, Wild Dog, and Speedy.

It's another 48 pager, so I'll probably break it up over the next couple of days and post one or two stories a day to give each feature a chance to have a little spotlight all to itself.

Speaking of spotlights...it's time again to admire an awesome cover, this one by Mike Mignola. It seems like he's been doing Hellboy for so long, that it's nice to see him do some old-school superheroes, especially some from the cosmic end of the spectrum. I just recently picked up his Cosmic Odyssey series that he did with Jim Starlin, and seeing this cover reminds me that I need to finish reading that.

So make sure you come back tomorrow as we kick off our review with Peter David and Green Lantern!