Superior #7 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Leinil Yu (pencils), Gerry Alanguilan (inks), Sunny Gho (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Nicole Boose (editor)

The Story: Will Simon/Superior make a deal with the devil to save Earth.

Four Things:

1. Has a popcorn-y summer movie feel. – I can totally see this being a summer movie and I’m sure Millar has either already signed with a producer or is hard at work securing such a deal.  That’s not a bad thing because this could be a lot of fun to see on the big screen.  The story is linear, doesn’t ask too much of the reader and has a happy ending.  This comic could be adapted without too much fuss.  Yay!

2. Great linework. – For me, the real star of this series has been the Yu/Alanguilan art team.  Even if the art is a much more realistic than I like, I can still appreciate what’s going on here.  The hard thing with realism is that you have to nail it and that takes special artists to not give us faces that fall apart when you stare at them for too long.  Yu and Alanguilan are up the challenge.  They also do a pretty good job of capturing the super-powered action, which is (again) hard for realistic artists to pull off (for the same reason a photograph almost never has the vitality of the real thing).  My only fear when I see a comic like this is that they’re inspiring other young artists….who are far less talented….to draw like them because this is NOT a style that looks good when it isn’t done well.

Superior #6 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Leinil Yu (pencils), Gerry Alanguilan (inks), Javier Tartaglia (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Nicole Boose (editor)

The Story: Now that we know the origin of the power that turned a little boy into Superior, we have to see what evil this Faustian bargain will bring.

Five things: 

1).  A well told story, even if it is a little predictable.  If you follow Mark Millar at all online, you see that most comments about him relate to the way he hypes his projects or how he often has movie deals lined up before the comic miniseries is finished.  It’s hard to imagine what’s so objectionable about a guy marketing his creator-owned material or a guy taking a movie studio’s money when they offer it to him (especially because I’m sure it puts money in the artists’ pockets too), but for some reason Millar’s behavior drives some fans to distraction.  That distraction is unfortunate because Millar really does write well.  There’s nothing too ground-breaking about the story in Superior, but the script is well-written and both this issue and series have hit all the appropriate dramatic beats at just the right time.  It’s easy to take professional story-telling for granted, but then you read a hot mess like Fear Itself and realize that this stuff is harder than it looks.

Superior #4 – Review

 

By: Mark Millar (writer/creator), Leinil Yu (pencils/creator), Gerry Alanguilan, Jason Paz & Jeff Huet (inks), Sunny Gho & Javier Tartaglia (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Cory Levine (editor)

The Story: The cute reporter gets into the Superior game and the big bad villain is revealed (kinda).

What’s Good: I’ve enjoyed Superior and this is issue 4 out of 6, so it is naturally going to be a transitional issue.  If you understand that going in, you’ll be fine with the story as Millar and Yu are mostly moving the pieces around so that they can wrap up the story.  It is enlightening to see who and what the creators think are important.  There is a huge focus on the reporter, Maddie, who goes to great lengths to finally meet Superior.  But, I was a little surprised that our focus also drifted towards Simon/Superior’s parents and the actor who played Superior in the movies.  I honestly don’t know what role those folks are going to play, but I’m sure that Millar has something up his sleeve.

One very cool moment in this issue revolved around a role reversal between Simon/Superior and his buddy Chris.  If you remember back to the first issue of the series, Chris was the ONLY friend who stuck by Simon when he was wheelchair bound by disease and actively took up for Simon when the other kids teased him.  Here we get to see Simon/Superior return the favor when Chris runs into the neighborhood bullies.  One thing that I love about Simon/Superior is that he is super NICE.  Most stories where a young person gets power/fame/money have an obligatory portion of the story where they crap all over their friends and fall in with a bad crowd.  Sooooo glad that we aren’t forced to see that, but Millar is too good of a storyteller to go down that path.

And, the kinda shocking part of this issue happens right at the end when the space monkey shows back up.  Last issue there was an allusion that Simon may have unwittingly made a Faustian bargain to get his powers.  Here the monkey makes an offer to the head bully and it just reinforces that notion.  Of course, in true Millar fashion, he doesn’t beat around the bush by calling the source of power some vague “supreme evil” or anything like that.  He just goes for the “S”-word and in so doing will get his comic banned from Sunday School.  That’s kinda what I love about Millar: He is willing to push the envelope in his stories.  It doesn’t always work, but you don’t do new and exciting things by playing it safe.

The art is mostly a plus for me.  I love Yu’s layouts.  He always manages to put the viewer’s eye right where they need to be to appreciate that scene.  That’s really a gift that you appreciate when you see other comics doing it wrong.  Put this skill in the category of “harder than it looks” and “underappreciated”.  There are also huge kudos for the design of Superior himself.  I love that he’s drawn as a big, muscular dude who is wearing a uniform versus a nude man without genitals who just has a costume added by the colorist.  It’s also more work to do it that way because I’m sure that the rough layout had a basic human form onto which the costume is drawn.

Superior #3 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer/creator), Leinil Yu (penciler/creator), Gerry Alanguilan, Jason Paz & Jeff Huet (inkers), Sunny Gho & Javier Tartaglia (colors), Clayton Cowles (letters) & Cory Levine (editor)

The Story: Now that Simon Pooni has been transformed into Superior and kinda gotten a hold of his powers, it’s time for him to start getting into some heroic action.

What’s Good: This comic really has a big heart and I think it accurately depicts what would happen if a ~11 year old paraplegic boy suddenly did get super powers: He wouldn’t immediately just start proclaiming himself as Superior, puff out his chest and save the day while stopping to pose for the cameras.  He’d probably fix things and then hide from the resultant attention out of fear that he’d possibly done something wrong or that his parents would find out.  So, as we go though this issue, which is really an exploration of Simon’s coming to grips with his ability to save lives, it was a neat choice by Millar to not have it readily apparent how the space station was saved except for some blurry images on camera phones and the random eyewitness report.  I really enjoyed this approach much more than if Simon had posed at the scene of his heroic act and announced himself because it emphasizes that this is really a little boy in a superhero’s body.

Of course, this cannot simply be a comic about a little boy becoming a superhero…  There must be some conflict and drama!  For that we return to the mysterious Space Monkey who granted Simon’s wish to become Superior in the first place.  I don’t want to give away the very cool twist on the final page, but it looks like Simon might have gotten himself into a bigger situation than he originally bargained for.  Can’t wait to see how that shakes out.

The art in this issue is pretty strong.  One of the things I like about Yu’s pencils is that he draws Superior as a guy wearing a tight uniform as opposed to drawing a nude man who happens to get colored red later.  Superior still has bulgy muscles that show off anatomy, but he also has fabric bunching in all the right places.  Nice to see a little more realism in that regard that we usually do.  Yu also has a couple of scenes that allow him to just go crazy drawing architecture, space stations, submarines, etc.  Some of this looks like it might have been sampled from photos, but I don’t really care.  It is just nice to see an artist show commitment to excellent art extending beyond the main characters in the scene (although sometimes the “main character” is a submarine).  I’m unsure what Yu’s background is, but this is always something you see from artists who were trained as professional illustrators and it is sometimes missing in comics.

Dean’s Drive-by Reviews

My pull list is way, way too long and every week there are a few titles that don’t get the full review treatment by me or my colleagues here at WCBR, but they still deserve a mention of some sort…

Thunderbolts #150 – Sheesh! Is Jeff Parker on a can’t miss string right now, or what?  This is my pick of the week in a pretty strong week of Bat-books.  I love the bastardized team-up between Avengers and Tbolts that leads to a duel of sorts in some alternate universe with talking frogs.  And….we get to see Captain Steve smash the All New Crossbones (with heat vision)!  How great is that?!?  Kev Walker’s art is just perfect for this title too.  My only criticism is that Marvel could spare me the Wikipedia entry on the history of the Tbolts and I always hate getting these old reprints in the back of my issues.  I never even bother to read them and hate paying the extra buck.  Grade: A-

Superior #2 – Mark Millar can do feel-good story telling!  This comic is really Big with superpowers.  This issue was just a blast as we watched this kid learn how to use his new powers.  Ever wonder precisely HOW Superman goes about flying or shooting lasers from his eyes?  Well, this at least shows you what it’s like the first time you try those tricks.  Can’t wait to see what happens when the space monkey comes back!  It goes without saying that Yu’s art was very good and I love the championship belt in his costume.  Grade: B+

Superior #1 – Review

By: Mark Millar (writer), Leinil Yu (pencils), Gerry Alanguilan (inks), Dave McCaig (colors) & Clayton Cowles (letters)

The Story: A young boy get’s his wish from a space monkey.

What’s Good: This is very good and understated Mark Millar.  Superior is absolutely nothing like his recent creator-owned projects such as Nemesis or Kick Ass.  There is no wanton violence, no ethnic slurs, no sexuality, etc.  This is just a nice little story about a hard-luck kid who gets his wish granted to him.

This is probably a minor spoiler, but the story revolves around a teenage boy who was a star athlete at his school until he develops multiple sclerosis.  The MS robs him of his ability to play sports and even the ability to walk, but what hurts most is that all but one of his friends drop him; not necessarily out of cruelty, but simply because kids are often too self-centered to make sure to include their handicapped old friend.  Then one evening, he wakes to find a space monkey on his bed who grants him one wish and before you know it, he has morphed into Superior (a Superman analog). Now what??

There are a LOT of ways that Millar can go with this story.  Will we learn more about that space monkey?  Will it play out like the movie Big, but with super-powers?  Will the kid go on a mission to save the world?  Will he beat up the bully?

However, the best part of this initial issue was Millar characterization of the boy’s last remaining friend.  We all know people like this kid, they’re just super nice people.  They stick by their friends even when it isn’t easy and we all wish we could be a little more like this nice kid.