Action Comics #866

A new story arc gets underway in ACTION COMICS #866, a set-up issue that never really does more than just that, set things up.  Following a flashback to the appearance of Brainiac's Terminator-like evil robot on Krypton thirty-five years ago, story jumps to present and introduces some new faces to the Daily Planet's newsroom, including decidedly busty gossip columnist Catherine Grant, who clearly has "eyes" for Clark, and snide sports columnist Steve Lombard.  After the introductions, Superman gets a sense that something ain't right and thus springs into action.  Hey, this is "Action Comics" so no surprise there.  Turns out something nasty is speeding toward Earth.  A meteor?  Not bloody likely.  This "thing" turns out to be a robot much like the one we saw on Krypton in the opening flashback.  Superman suspects Brainiac is behind it all, but before he can put the robot out of commission, it manages to take a blood sample from the Man of Steel's forehead...and transmit the data to Brainiac.  As mentioned above, it's all set-up at this point, so it remains to be seen whether this storyline will deliver or not.  Nevertheless, there's some intriguing albeit slightly old-fashioned stuff going on in these pages and with Geoff Johns at the helm, prospects for this one seem relatively strong.