ACTION COMICS #809

I'm a sucker for a good murder mystery, especially one on a luxury cruise liner, and I got ACTION COMICS #809 as a freebie. This is a stand-alone story, and it reminded me, in no small way, of the Action Comics I read 20 years ago when I still really cared about super hero comics.

Joe Kelly's writing is better than what I got in most DC titles all those years ago, but this story (though the writing is technically proficient) is an average filler tale. It's worth about the 60 or so cents I paid for a DC comic in the early 80's, but at $2.25 I can see why things are the way they are in comics sales.

Pascual Ferry is a good comic book artist, and I can see in his art the potential to be even better. As is the case for many comic book artists, this job is just waste of Ferry's talent, especially if the most imaginative thing he can do here is slap slabs of steroid-pumped muscles on Clark Kent and some silicone teats on Lois Lane, making the character virtually indistinguishable from any other cartoon bimbo in this comic. If it wasn't for the fact that Kelly uses the former Miss Lane as a lip leech on Clark, I wouldn't know whom the hell she's supposed to represent.
[DRECK, DULL, READABLE, PRETTY GOOD, EXCELLENT]