Superman: Earth One (Hardcover review)

by J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI • Art by SHANE DAVIS and SANDRA HOPE

I really don’t like Superman. I give him opportunities to impress me every so often; and I am a fan of Superman: Red Son, but for the most part, he just doesn’t interest me. At all. His back story is completely uninteresting: a dude with the unlimited power who happens to fall into a field and found by the two most wonderful parents in comic book history, raised to be a decently happy guy. Oh, his planet was destroyed. Actually, I always like the part of the origin when pops has to send his son to a distant planet while his own is destroyed around him. But the Clark Kent stuff…I just never feel any emotional resonance to this guy.

Earth One is no different. I did like seeing a young Clark Kent completely abuse his powers to get whatever job he wanted. It also made the scene of his completely failing at the Daily Bugle that much better. This is not a humble Superman at all…until he has to be.  JMS’s story is interesting for the most part, but the pacing was a little awkward. It felt like a three act play missing the third act. Too much time was given to Clark wandering around Metropolis brooding about the fact that he has too much power, and not enough time to develop the struggle between him and Tyrell, the villain. Speaking of, the villain is the best character of the story. Followed maybe by Olsen, whom I’ve never liked more as a character than when reading him in this. Mainly because Olsen is the true definition of what a “super man” is. A guy who, when faced with death, will stand tall and take its photo. Meanwhile, Kent is cowering from responsibility. In fact, it’s seeing Olsen that prompts Kent to do something. But come on, if you were Kent—a guy with almost unlimited power, and you saw this meek little photographer showing more balls than you have in your entire life, wouldn’t you have to man up too?  Scratch that statement earlier. Olsen is the best character of Earth One. But it’s still a really damn good, and underused, villain.

Final Crisis: Rage of the Red Lanterns – Review

By Geoff Johns (Writer), Shane Davis (Art), Sandra Hope (Inks), Nei Ruffino (Colors)

The Story: The prelude to the highly-anticipated DC event, “The Blackest Night” starts here with the scheduled execution of the greatest Green Lantern. However, a few entities still crave revenge against Sinestro and they won’t stop at nothing until their anger and hatred brings them their vengeance. With blood and rage, the red ring is born and judgment for the massacre of sector 666 is due. Enter the Red Lanterns.

What’s Good: Disregard the “Final Crisis” label, and read this as if it’s the beginning of the story following the Green Lantern Secret Origin arc (GL #29-35). Rage of the Red Lanterns begins in a familiar formula, in the way we read the Sinestro Corps Special; where we have the villain giving us a haunting monologue as a new-colored ring is born. Green Lantern fans won’t be disappointed as Johns is effective in teasing readers of the events to come following this prologue. Right away he introduces two storylines that will have us salivating for the upcoming issues: the blockbuster battle between the Lanterns, and the next conflict between Hal Jordan and Sinestro.

What’s Not So Good: Although Geoff Johns gives us an exciting prelude, there are a few details that are a bit bothersome. First, there are a few things that just seem a bit too unnecessary. Words such as “rage” and “anger” and “hatred” seem to appear on every page where there’s a Red Lantern. I understand that the Red Lantern’s ring is fueled by such things, but those words either need to go, or need to stop being sprinkled so liberally. And second, the use of blood or red energy is just too much. It’s so much redness, it’s ridiculous seeing so many beings puke blood red– there’s even a splash page dedicated to it where you’ll see a bunch of blood pouring out of so many creatures’ mouths. My biggest WTF moment has to go to the Red Lantern kitty, who’s also full of rage and puking blood.

Conclusion: Rage of the Red Lanterns is a must-buy since it is the beginning of DC’s most promising event. Even if you haven’t exactly kept up with the Green Lantern series, this is a good place to start and get caught up on an epic DC story. Ditch Final Crisis, and get on this title.

Grade: B

-Ray Hilario

A Second Opinion

The Good? The banter between Sinestro and Hal is classic. Even near his death Sinestro acts justified and lays it on thick to Hal. The Red Lanterns are vicious and make the relentlessness of the Sinestro Corps almost wimpy by comparison.

After seven months of Secret Origins it’s great to see the next big step of the Green Lantern saga take place. It’s jolting and does a fantastic job of pumping up the reader for what’s to come. I’m not saying Secret Origins was a bad thing – I loved it – but I’m glad the series is finally moving forward rather than looking back.

The Silly? That Red Lantern cat! Gratuitous and very unnecessary.

What’s Not So Good? $3.99 – but we do get more pages of story.

Conclusion: Tired of Secret Invasion and Final Crisis? Rage of the Red Lantern may be just what you need!

Grade: A-

– J. Montes

Superman/Batman #49 – Review

By Michael Green, Mike Johnson, Shane Davis (pencils), Matt “Batt” Banning (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

Batman and Superman continue their quest to rid the world of Kryptonite. Along the way they duke it out with the Government and an old ally from Clark’s past.  It’s an emotional chapter, especially when the fate of Superman’s existence is placed in peril. Sounds pretty simple, but there’s A LOT of good stuff in here.

First of all. the dialogue is fantastic. A lot of writers seem to think that these characters have similar personalities because they have similar goals. Thankfully, that isn’t the case here. Each has their own inner monologue and right from the start we see the evidence of this. The US Government has Lexcorp putting Kryptonite bombs together “just in case.” When they arrive, Superman discovers Lana Lang and Lexcorp have thousands of caches of Kryptonite stashed, and rigged to blow. This would effectively exile Superman from Earth. The button is pushed, and he’s betrayed by his high school sweetheart. Among all the positives this book offers, my biggest gripe is with Toyboy, mostly because he’s such a stereotype. When he creepily accepts a Powergirl robot as payment for doing the right thing, I was done with him. Luckily, he’s only there for a few minutes.

The very detailed art is a true highlight of this book, Each page tells as much as it can with as few panels as possible. This is most evident with Superman, specifically his second confrontation with Lana. After Superman and Batman get everything sorted out, Supes returns to Lexcorp. He doesn’t say much. The image of him floating menacingly, with no detail on his face other than his glowing red eyes is enough. Very cool.

This comic has a lot of action in it, and I was able to get into what was going on right away. This is a credit to both the writing and the art teams. The book’s concluding scenes really tie everything together and speak volumes for the characters.  I was able to pick this up, get right into it, and enjoy it without reading the rest of the series. I think that’s as high of a selling point as anything. (Grade: B)

– Ben Berger