Power Girl #10 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray (writers), Amanda Conner (artist), Paul Montes (colorist)

The Story: Terra manages to save Power Girl from the gravity well stuck to her chest. They limp away, back to PG’s apartment, where the comic dork with the pictures of Power Girl comes with his terms. He demands/ requests three things: that she accompany him to his local comic shop, that she take care of two bullies, and help him ask out a girl. The Ultra-Humanite wouldn’t interrupt a plan like that, would he?

What’s Good: Power Girl as a series is about the medium, the culture that surrounds it, its audience and its conceits. This is a book about metafiction. Put on your protective goggles before reading – because Palmiotti and Gray have scripted big sections of this book to laugh at you. I enjoyed this issue making fun of comics, including Satanna trash talking Terra for reusing superhero names (“There’s like what? Two…three…Flashes?”), Power Girl trashing on Satanna’s motivations (“She attacked me because, well, because that’s what people like her do.”), and Terra asking why villains can’t just shut up during fights. The writers have fun laughing at them (and us, because these are sacred cow conventions we’ve come to expect as readers). The fanboy crushes on fictional, chesty women is also aimed squarely at those who buy this book (or Power Girl posters, models, action figures, etc). Gray and Palmiotti also take a shot at the industry (a comic doesn’t show up on time because an artist fell behind schedule) and in the end, Terra trashes on Power Girl in the “totally clichéd hero/friend fights” where she gives Power Girl the chance to say “I know you’re stronger than this” and “this isn’t you.” There are too many more gems than can fit in this space, but leave a comment if you spot more. The art and inks are, as always, clear, clean, dynamic, and fun. The cartoony, self-aware style fits well with the type of humor the writers are building.

Adventure Comics #5 – Review

Superboy Prime Story by Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates (writers), Jerry Ordway (artist), Bob Wiacek and Jerry Ordway (inkers)
Superboy Backup Story by Geoff Johns (writer) Francis Manapul (artist), Brian Buccellato (colorist)

The Story: Superboy Prime fights a bunch of zombies through the offices of the DC editors and creators. Alex Luthor teleports the whole donnybrook back to Superboy Prime’s basement where the climax occurs in blackest night fashion. The backup features our black-shirted Superboy who gets himself in trouble when he goes after a most charming vandal.

What’s Good: Ordway on art, especially with Wiacek, is a great treat, and he caught the flavor of blackest night with moody effects, black-costumed zombies, and the colored emotions. You can also tell that they had a good time drawing about twenty of the DC staffers in various states of shock. On Manapul’s side, the art is evocative and powerful. And he draws a mean Krypto, expressions and all. Manapul manages the expressive faces, those startled reactions and the arriving menace.

On plotting and story, blackest night looked at one of the least sympathetic characters in the DCU and put him through his own grinder, making him find a solution to the blackest night problem unlike any other’s so far. On character, both Clark (Prime) and Conner’s stories are about their feelings and how they fit into the world. Both stories are effective as character pieces.

What’s Not So Good: The tactical choices in these two stories were fine, but where the book fell down for me was on the strategic choices: using Superboy Prime and the whole metafictional angle. Superboy Prime really is the Jar Jar Binx of the DCU. He’s unsympathetic and whiny and it’s difficult to watch him do anything because I didn’t care about him at all. You have to be able to root for someone in the story, or at least sympathize with someone actively trying to accomplish something. Superboy Prime is craven, and in my opinion, even at the climax, unheroic, and is no fun to read.