Adventures of Superbro: Xa-Du

At this point mostly everything from Morrison's Action run is forgotten and retconned out of existence. One notable exception is Xa-Du, a new villain introduced by Morrison. He is not a major player in current comics, but he does appear from time to time here and there. So lets have a look if anything interesting was done with him after Morrison's run.

First post-Morrison appearance happens during Superman: Doomed crossover. His role is not big there and this crossover is real big so it is definitely not worth getting it only for Xa-Du's appearances. But is it any good? I'll probably cover in a separate post. Anyway, important thing is that Xa-du was written by Greg Pak during that crossover and he'd end up using him in a bigger role.

Superman has to face a mysterious enemy in Batman/Superman #16-20 and Batman dubs him as Superman's Joker. In the end it is revealed that Xa-Du is behind everything here, I think that it is a very good New 52 Superman story and you definitely should pick it up. Unfortunately it generated a bit of negative publicity when it was published and I think it is mostly ignored due to that.

Some people were annoyed that Superman needs a Joker, but I think more annoyance came from it being a bit of anti-All-Star Superman story. Remember the girl that wants to jump from the building and Superman saves here? Yeah, Xa-Du kills her. There are also smaller things like Xa-Du using miniature Kandorians as bullets to kill people instead of curing cancer. Eventually it is revealed that Superman managed to save the girl, but I think that the story never really managed to move past that initial negative reception.

There is also Batman/Superman Annual #2 that continues with Xa-Du's "revenge". It is pretty good, but unfortunately it is only a set-up for another story that we never got. Main reason for that is probably that Truth was starting at the same time. Funny enough it could have worked as a set-up for Truth, but DC's editors went in another direction and this story was left behind. Either way it is collected together with previous story in Batman/Superman Vol. 4: Siege and this collection is worth getting. It has good Xa-Du stories and good Superman stories. Rare thing.

Then Rebirth hits and it is only natural that Orlando, big fan of Morrison, decides to use Xa-Du in his Supergirl run (#9-11). And well, as most of Orlando's DC work it isn't any good. To makes matters worse it has very confusing continuity due to Rebirth messing things up even more than New 52 did. Anyway, easy skip.

There are few short cameos in Bendis' Superman and Cloonan's/Conrad's WW, but nothing really memorable or worth getting if you are not interested in those runs in general. Then there is obviously Superman and the Authority by Morrison with short cameo, but you have read it already anyway, right? Only highlight during this period was short story by Visaggio/Jung in Cursed Comics Cavalcade anthology. It is pretty good and fits well with what Morrison and Pak did.

I think that Phillip Kennedy Johnson is the best writer currently working at DC. Naturally I was excited for what he might do with Phantom Zone and its god/creator/whatever Aethyr. With Xa-Du living in Phantom Zone it was a safe bet that he'd appear as well. So what happens? For one reason or another story that he teased was given to Waid and we got Phantoms storyline in Action Comics #1070-1081. 

I never rated Waid's writing very highly, but I think this was real bad. Like he on purpose wanted to shit on everything that more talented writers had done over the years. Only to restore some simplistic Silver Age morality to Superman's dad. Which then got "overwritten" by latest Superman movie. Good riddance.

So anyway, get Batman/Superman Vol. 4: Siege and Cursed Comics Cavalcade. Maybe Doomed if you are into such things. And obviously Morrison's Superman and the Authority.

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