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Man Of Steel, Belted: 'Action Comics #1000' And The Return Of A Super-Accessory

This week, Action Comics becomes the first American comic book to reach #1000, though that numbering comes with an asterisk. More important: the return of Superman's red trunks — and yellow belt.
Buckle Up: The cover of <em>Action Comics</em> #1000, by Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks) and Alex Sinclair (coloring).

It's not about the numbering.

You'll be hearing a lot this week about the publishing milestone DC Comics' Action Comics has achieved, with the publication of issue #1000, on shelves (physical and digital) today. And I don't mean to dismiss that achievement, believe me. It's 2018, and periodical publishing is a lot like the Man of Steel in the penultimate panel of 1992's "Death of Superman" storyline: Beaten to a bloody pulp and hovering at death's door.

(This metaphor has been arrested before it devolves into theorizing about which developments in the marketplace could prove the allegorical equivalent of that storyline's life-saving Kryptonian regeneration matrix. I'm also sparing you my whole thing about how comics publishing just needs to transform itself, figuratively speaking, into a cyborg, a clone, an alien and an armored dude with a techno-sledgehammer, because this is only paragraph three and I don't want to lose the Normals yet. Buy me a beer

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