Superboy #6 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell & Tom DeFalco (writers), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: When Superboy meets Supergirl.

The Review: Usually, I’m all for continuity respect across titles.  The sense of a shared universe feels a lot stronger when certain series make note or call attention to events happening in other books, sometimes even using them to springboard their own stories.  At a certain point, however, all that gets cumbersome, distracting, not a little bit annoying (see the constant reference captions in Suicide Squad #6).  Sometimes, you just want to focus on the story at hand, and no other.

Lobdell has the opportunity of not only writing two titles, but having those titles relate so closely to each other that he can weave one story through both.  In the hands of a craftier writer, this might produce some amazing material.  In the hands of a straightforward, middle-of-the-road writer, it feels like a lot of lost opportunities and sterile repetition.  For anyone who might follow both titles, the opening of this issue must make you feel like slamming your head against a table.  Not only does Lobdell reference the events of Teen Titans #5, he literally copies and pastes the last five pages of that issue into the first five of this one.  I’m not calling anyone lazy, but certainly I don’t think he exerted much creativity in writing that particularly scene.

Things get even more problematic when Lobdell starts bringing in continuity from other series.  Besides the fact that it feels far too soon for Superboy to be having a run-in with Supergirl, you have to question where in the context of her current story arc this scene fits in.  Not to mention the fact that the scene serves no other purpose except emphasizing Superboy’s misfortune with women and that his nature as a clone bodes ill for all, as if that hasn’t been made clear to us many, many times already.

Not really a problem, but disappointing nonetheless, is the fact that the two Super-teens part ways without much of a bond.  Both recognize correctly that they share a common loneliness in this world, and neither knows what to do with themselves from here on out.  It’s really a shame their fortuitous meeting doesn’t result in anything more than a wary connection between them.

Superboy #5 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: What is it about redheads that gets the best of every male superhero?

The Review: One of my long-running complaints about this series has been its inability to take major steps forward in the story.  A lot of what we’ve seen in the past few issues has been the same type of confrontation or information recycled into different scenes, resulting in very little progress for Superboy’s character development other than a lot of repetitive and vaguely pretentious inner dialogue.  In short, it’s been a rather bland read.

It’s also been a bit frustrating to see Superboy demonstrating few, if any, heroic qualities whatsoever.  Last issue he came somewhere close by defeating “Sweety Bum” and “Honey Bunny,” preventing them from further practicing human immolation, but his choice to confront them felt rather arbitrary, motivated more from boredom than virtue.  It really gave no sign as to whether Superboy was actually starting to grow a conscience or not.

Here, it feels like Lobdell tackles both problems at once.  That earlier taste of heroism seems to have rubbed off well on Superboy, as he goes out of his way to rescue Caitlin Fairchild from her uncertain but surely grim fate with “the Colony,” whoever they are.  It’s especially significant he describes her actions as “sav[ing] me from myself,” indicating he can distinguish between what’s right or wrong (with himself, no less) to some degree.  After all, you can’t be saved unless you’re in danger, and since Superboy’s proven that physically, little can endanger him, that leaves only moral danger for Caitlin to save him from.

It’s also important to note Superboy himself decides to move forward with this plan.  Up till now, he’s been acting, or at least reacting, on the allowance of others.  This really marks the first time he’s conceived an affirmative plan of action and carried through with it, which bodes well for what might happen after his upcoming encounter with the Teen Titans.  But let’s not oversell things; Superboy did get help from an outside force, someone who worked with Caitlin and who’s neither Rose nor Dr. David Umber, who’s tried befriending Superboy in Caitlin’s place.

Superboy #3 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: She’s melting—melting!

The Review: From the start, this series has emphasized Superboy’s disconnect from the “outside.”  His virtual existence has prevented him from taking a position on the big moral compass one way or the other, and so far, we’ve mostly gotten hints that he leans toward the dark side.  Now, you don’t get to have “Super” in your name unless you have some tendencies toward the heroic, but whether the real world will bring that out of his is a different matter entirely.

That’s the question we run into in this issue, when he manages to escape the depths of the Earth, only to realize the surface has its own set of hellish experiences.  His first real introduction to humanity is through young swingers Tony and Allison.  Tony reacts to Superboy naturally—and violently—but the surprisingly well-spoken Allison offers a more mixed experience.  She starts out flirty and wise (“We’re just regular people around these parts.  Fragile, even.”), then turns flinty (“—you freak!”) once she suffers the side-effects of Superboy’s powers.

Before he gets the chance to figure out this tricky situation, Superboy gets confronted by another Pen 51 resident, a buxom, fiery, redheaded alien (not Starfire, unfortunately) who tracks him down to…well, she doesn’t give a very good reason, actually.  She accuses him of following her, while the facts are clearly the other way around, and their brief confrontation does little more than establish Superboy’s Kryptonian heritage, which we all, old and new readers, knew anyway.

Superboy #2 – Review

By: Rob Lobdell (writer), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), The Hories (colorists)

The Story: Get a dime every time someone mentions “telekinesis” and you’ll be rich in no time.

The Review: Crafting well-rounded characters takes a great deal of balance in a lot of respects, but probably the most difficult balancing act of all is giving consistency to the character without making them predictable.  At the end of the day, you do want them to be memorable, and staying true to their core personality will do that.  On the other hand, you don’t want them to grow stale, their actions becoming so obvious that readers know the punchline before the setup is done.

Lobdell hasn’t quite managed to figure out how to strike this balance, but he’s getting closer.  The debut issue had Superboy vacillating between the curious innocent and the clinical clone, always a jarring adjustment for you to make when he makes the switch, and making it a little hard to get a handle on the essence of his character.  Most of that innocence has been shed, leaving behind a mostly analytical kid whose inexperience makes him a tad arrogant.

Now we get into the issue of where Superboy’s likability will come from.  We all know the drill about his genetics: half the greatest mensch in the world tossed with the biggest jerk in the world.  At the moment, the Boy of Steel has little resemblance to his namesake, bearing more of Lex Luthor’s aggressive, big-wordiness (in response to Rose’s taunts, he says, “Why don’t we resolve this right now.”).  It’d be nice to see more of the hero lurking inside at some point.

Sadly, it may be another month or so before we see it, as the series seems to be going at a pretty slow pace.  We don’t get much further than we did last issue.  In fact, Lobdell even backtracks for a while to show us more of Superboy’s unrestrained power when he was initially released.  This issue serves mostly as a reemphasis on that point; the impromptu mission to quell a prison riot doesn’t really advance the plot so much as highlight the potential of Superboy’s powers.

Superboy #1 – Review

By: Scott Lobdell (writer), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), the Hories (colorists)

The Story: Look on the bright side, Superboy—you could also be a monkey.

The Review: It seems like no one really knows what to do with Superboy’s character.  The inconsistency in his various portrayals says it all: he’s gone from swinging teenager, to slightly dim pretty boy, to angsty with a bit of rebel-without-a-cause mixed in, to gung-ho Midwestern schoolboy, to awkward worrywart.  You can chalk some of these changes to evolutions in his character, but even in the last year or so, he hasn’t managed to stick to a core identity.

The one thing that’s managed to take off is the revelation of his mixed genetic heritage, love child to the world’s finest hero and the world’s greatest villain.  Here, Lobdell plays up both parts of Superboy’s dual genetic heritage, and throws in a little bit of wide-eyed newborn to the world for good measure.  These elements don’t break new ground in the Boy of Steel’s conception, but at least they refrain from too radical a take on him as well.

In some respects, you can get the sense Lobdell has the right idea of Superboy: restless and edgy, but well-intentioned and even a little innocent under it all.  But the writer also he tries way too hard to sell you on the grim captivity of the clone’s laboratory life: “‘They’ are the people out there.  Beyond this prison of glass and wet…”  The grating narration really could’ve been done away with altogether, and the issue would’ve flowed and been all the better-crafted for it.

Flashpoint: Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager #3 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti (writer), Tony Shasteen & Alex Massacci (artists), Rich and Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: I’ll be a sea monkey’s uncle before I let my daughter get daddy issues!

The Review: If you want people to care about something, you have to let them spend some time with it.  That goes double for fictional characters.  To really get a connection out of them, they need actual things to do, scenes where they can react and show their personality, instead of merely entering a room and laying out a bunch of information just to get the story moving.  When you reduce their roles that severely, it’s impossible to be affected by them, for good or ill.

So despite this issue ending on what’s clearly intended to be a heartwarming note, you don’t feel any warm or fuzzy feelings coursing through you at all.  All the pieces you need for a satisfying conclusion are there: father and daughter reunited, new friend and lover standing by, the bad guys (relatively bad, of course, in context of a whole cast full of scumbags) defeated and dispersed, a ship sailing into the sunset and a metaphorical brighter future.  But the word that best describes your reaction to all this is, “Whatever.”

You can’t possibly expect yourself to give a fig about Rose, even though she’s the focal point of the plot and the title bears her heroic namesake.  In an entire mini, she gets twelve panels of page-time and her number of lines barely surpasses that.  Besides a spirited headbutt against her captors, she does nothing else the whole issue.  She has no value except as a prize to motivate Deathstroke into action.  She’s a living treasure chest, pretty much.

Teen Titans #97 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), Nicola Scott (penciller), Doug Hazlewood (inker), Jason Wright (colorist)

The Story: Who cares how many there are?  You’ve seen one demon, you’ve seen ‘em all.

The Review: If you’re going to dislike a certain writer’s style, it’s probably a good idea to be clear about what turns you off about their work, and an especially good idea if you’re reviewing their pieces for public view.  By now you’ve probably caught on to the fact that I don’t really care for Krul’s writing, and since we’re on the final chapter of his opening story arc on this title, now seems a good time as any for me to get into some specifics.

The man can’t let an issue go by without inserting at least one pontificating homily on whatever theme he has going on in the story.  Readers should be free to infer whatever theme they can get out of the writing, and certainly it doesn’t need to be shoved under our noses.  And can there be a less engaging opener than a preachy monologue?  Red Robin: “…confidence has a lot to do with being a good leader.  But that confidence is not about believing in your own ability.  It’s about believing in your team.”  No one likes a high-minded goody-goody, Tim.

Flashpoint: Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager #2 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti (writer), Joe Bennett & Tony Shasteen (artists), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: One can never tell what lies under the sea…mayhap a dude in a fish mask and high-collar cape.

The Review: Here’s the thing about pirates: expect a lot of hacking and slashing, but don’t expect much in the way of what can be called depth.  Aside from a fickle fealty to their captain and volatile camaraderie with their crewmates, the majority of these ship-dwellers usually never grow as individuals or in their relationships.  It’s one of the hazards of being a genre character.

On the plus side, there’s never a dull moment in a pirate’s life, especially if the pirate in question is Deathstroke and he’s just wandered into Atlantean waters.  We get a grand showing from Aquaman and Ocean Master, who haven’t come off this competent in ages.  If you ever made fun of Aquaman’s League membership, now would be a good time to reconsider that position, since he and his bro pretty much wreck the Ravager’s crew without breaking a sweat.

Flashpoint: Deathstroke and the Curse of the Ravager #1 – Review

By: Jimmy Palmiotti (writer), Joe Bennett (artist), John Dell (inker), Rich & Tanya Horie (colorists)

The Story: Yargh, ‘tis Deathstroke, most fearsome pirate of the however many seas!

The Review: We can all admit we’ve at one time or another fallen for something where the concept is so intriguing, it gets us halfway in before we can step back and think how the execution will actually turn out.  And nothing takes in comics readers faster than putting our favorite characters into the guises of other geeky genres: cowboys, ninjas, and of course, pirates.  Who knows why?  It just does.  Of course, some characters take to these roles better than others.

Fortunately, Deathstroke, being a coldblooded, mercenary killer to begin with makes a perfect fit for the whole pirate deal, and that’s before you get to his eye-patch, beard, and perfectly white follicles.  Slap him with a sturdy ship, roguish crew (with a few metahumans peppered in), and a dashing bandanna-cap, and he’s golden.  Certainly Palmiotti pulls off the idea with much more gusto than Morrison does with Batman in the disappointing Return of Bruce Wayne #3.

The pleasures of reading pirate-Deathstroke are simple, but satisfying: it’s just fun to watch him land someplace, cause some havoc, punk a few things in the chaos, and then take off.  Of course, his swordplay duel with the Warlord aboard the good ship Skartaris offers some classic pirate antics, but his raid on the isle of Saint Helena and its metahuman prison is no less action-packed (love how his grappling hook winds up clawing into one of the guards as it grabs the wall).

Teen Titans #95 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), Nicola Scott (penciller), Doug Hazlewood (inker), Jason Wright (colorist)

The Story: First rule of creepy-island exploring: don’t split up!  Geez, doesn’t anyone learn from movies?

The Review: Writing these reviews can get a little tricky.  A lot of the times, there’s so much to say even about one issue that parsing down the most pertinent points can be a challenge.  And it’s not just the good ones; even a terrible issue—dare I say, especially the terrible issues—can generate a lot of commentary.  I almost never run into a situation where I’ve got nothing to talk about.

But today’s dosage of Teen Titans proves it’s the mediocre material that offers the least interest.  Some decent action goes on, but rather than providing energy to the story, it just goes through the motions, as if Krul’s following the formula for the classic “group in a hostile environment” plot: steal away one, have the group follow, then pick them off one or two at a time, with some dashed hopes peppered in between.

Even not-Ravager’s turnaround feels a bit forced and predictable, since all of us knew from last issue she was a fake.  The whole sequence where she leads Superboy away from the group to backstab him feels very familiar, although you’ve got to enjoy how incredibly thickheaded he is to not see all the red flags: “This place.  It frightens me… Can you not feel the fear in my heart?  Please, you mustn’t let anything happen to me.”  Come on—she’s not even trying!

Most of the plot just feels stale, but there are a couple inescapably pointless moments.  It’s one thing for Kid Flash to fail in his rescue of Cassie and the others—that’s part of the formula.  It’s another to make him go through such a desperate final action, like setting a whole mountaintop on fire as a distress signal, only to have no one take note of it at any point.  They won’t need it to find the enemy anyway, since Rankor essential becomes the mountaintop at the end of the issue.

Teen Titans #94 – Review

By: J.T. Krul (writer), Nicola Scott (penciller), Doug Hazlewood (inker), Jason Wright (colorist)

The Story: If all you know about Hinduism is the Kama Sutra, let me tell you—there’s nastier where that came from.

The Review: In a lot of ways, this current round of Teen Titans has been around each other a pretty long time.  Kid Flash, Red Robin, and Superboy have worked together long before they even became Young Justice, when they were still known as Impulse, Robin, and…Superboy.  This crew has experienced Raven’s rebirth, Superboy’s clone rage, Kid Flash’s sudden age progression and death, and Superboy’s saving the universe—and death.

So it’s discouraging to see how tepid their interaction has been on this series so far.  A lot of what they have to say just goes through the motions of personality, but without any real life behind it: “Wonder Girl’s lasso.  She wouldn’t leave it behind.  Not ever.”  “No sign of her…but there’s a lot of dark cloud cover limiting visibility.”  There’s just something distant and kind of clinical about these lines, making it feel like they’re strangers talking to each other.

The scene where the Titans search through the demon forest and muse on which of them could be the modern-day Rama comes closest to getting an actual team dynamic.  Unfortunately, it’s mostly between Ravager, who we all know is Krul’s favorite, and his original character Solstice.  While the two girls supply most of the energy in this issue (“So this Ramen guy—”  “Rama.”  “Whatever.”), their teammates’ responses never fail to underwhelm (“Me?”  “Huh?”).

Certainly they get no help from Raven, who has lately become a major buzzkill to every issue, increasingly obsessed over her own dark nature.  She kind of has an excuse in this arc, as being in a demonic dimension likely brings out the worst (read: histrionics) in her.  That doesn’t make you stop wishing she’d just get her breakdown over with already.  Then maybe she can move on and go back to the eager-to-please girl trying to get her act together when this title first started.

Teen Titans #93 – Review

By: JT Krul (writer), Nicola Scott (penciller), Doug Hazlewood (inker), Jason Wright (colorist)

The Story: It’s getting dark, guys.  Hey Solstice–lend us a light?

The Review: There’s a very clear separation between what’s good, what’s bad, and what’s mediocre, but it can be difficult to explain what makes them such, especially when something falls in the big, fat binbox of “just okay.”  By nature, you’re not inclined to have much feeling about something middling in quality.  You just stick through it like you would the filler tracks on a club mix, hoping the hit single will pop up next.

Krul’s Teen Titans lands squarely in serviceable territory.  His plotting offers standard fare: kidnapping in exotic locale, possible demonic origins.  The characters don’t come off completely one-dimensional, but they don’t reveal many layers either.  The opening monologue is a good example of Krul’s limitations: it rambles, avoiding having to show anything worthwhile, and re-emphasizes “we’re…a family,” as if the more it’s said, the more it’ll convince you it’s true.

The recent page-count cut may have forced writers to drop scenes or gloss over things they might have otherwise gone into detail with, but this issue features Red Robin telling Superboy that at some point since he rejoined the team, Wonder Girl ceded leadership to him for vaguely personal reasons.  Since Krul chooses not to show this presumably significant conversation to us, we have to assume no one, not even the writer, takes Cassie’s role as leader seriously.

It’d be a relief too if the whole Connor/Cassie (Conassie?) relationship drama can be ignored from issue to issue, since it seems pointlessly angsty and frankly, agonizing over it does nothing for the characters or overall plot.  It seems clear there’s no real obstacle to their being together, and their breakup is likely forced by editorial or narrative necessity—much like the will-they-or-won’t-they plotlines that frequent almost every TV show nowadays.