Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Adventure Comics #6 & Gotham City Sirens #7

I should probably be doing my Accounting homework instead of posting comic reviews, but what can I say? I may physically be back at school, but mentally, I'm not quite there yet... Speaking of not being there mentally, I went and brought a bunch of comic books today for pretty much no apparent reason. I was checking out eBay earlier because I've been wanting to pick up the full run of the Aquaman series from the 90's. Unfortunately for me though, the full runs I found were a little bit too expensive for my taste. From eBay, I went to the Comic Collector Live website to see if one of their participating shops had some cheaper Aquaman books. I wound up finding the comic where Black Manta kills Aquaman's son, which is something I'd been interested in reading for a while now, so I decided to pick that up, and that's where the trouble began. The comic shop I was ordering from had one of those, "Spend $25 and your order ships for free!" deals going, so I figured, "Eh, I can spend $25 here." By the time it was said and done, I'd picked up the full run of the Simon Dark series, a Question mini-series, a Son of Vulcan mini-series and the entire Manhunter series. Now, those of you who read my post from last night may be wondering why I decided to buy the Manhunter series after my remarks. I may not have liked the first 5 issues, but the next couple of issues were pretty good, and since I was splurging anyway, I figured, "What the heck?" Anyway, enough about my day, here are my thoughts on Adventure Comics #6 and Gotham City Sirens #7.

Adventure Comics #6: Writer: Geoff Johns. Artist: Francis Manapul.

Lex Luthor arrives at the home of his brain-addled and physically handicapped sister's house and lays Superboy out with some Kryptonite. Lex's niece pleads with him not to kill SB, and SB winds up playing to Lex's ego by telling him that he's full of it when he claims that if it wasn't for Superman he could right every wrong and cure every disease in the world. Lex assures SB that he can, and SB challenges Lex to prove it by fixing Lex's sister. Lex agrees to the challenge, and holds his niece at gunpoint while he sends SB out to gather the various ingredients he'd need to heal the sick woman. SB gets the items, and Lex gets to work, coming up with a concoction that not only heals his sister's mind, but that heals her body as well. SB is shocked that Lex was actually able to do it, and then Lex proceeds to stick his sister with another needle, undoing all of the work he did, leaving the woman a wreck again. When SB asks why Lex did what he did, Lex explains that he only wanted to prove that he COULD do it, and that once Superman was dead, he'd cure his sister again. SB decides to beat Lex up, but Lex winds up getting saved by his buddy, Brainiac. The two villains teleport back to Brainiac's ship, and Lex explains that as far as he's concerned, SB isn't his son, he's simply a failed experiment. Lex then indicates that he was creating another "child", this time with Brainiac... Wow, that sentence just sounds wrong... Anyway, SB meets up with his old Young Justice/Teen Titans teammates(Red Robin, Kid Flash and Wonder Girl)and tells them that after witnessing what Lex had done, he knows he could never turn out like Lex, and he ends up throwing his Lex Luthor/Superman journal into the campfire ending this issue, as well as Francis and Geoff's run on this series.

I know this is going to raise the ire of many of my fellow fanboys, but I'm glad Geoff won't be writing SB's adventures anymore. Now before I begin to get death threats, allow me to explain. Geoff Johns is my current favorite writer. I even gave him my writer of the year award for 2009! However, I HATE the whole, "Superboy is half Superman, half Lex Luthor" thing. I've never liked that idea, it always seemed so unnecessary to me. SB had been an established DC character for 10 years or so before Geoff did the SB/Supes/Lex thing, and for me personally, it hurt SB's character more then it helped it. If anything, Geoff should have introduced a new character with the duel Superman/Lex Luthor DNA instead of forcing it on SB. That's probably why I haven't enjoyed this series as much as I figure I should have. I hated that stupid Lex/Supes journal SB was always writing in. I never really understood the purpose of it... He's Superboy, not Boy Luthor, or Conflicted-boy... Anyway, thanks for bringing SB back from the dead Geoff, but please, stay away from him now!

Score: 6 1/2 out of 10.I wish Lex would talk in the third person more often... That would make him even more awesome!

Gotham City Sirens #7: Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: David Lopez.

This is a Christmas issue that shows what the Sirens are up to for the holidays. Catwoman spends some time with Dick Grayson and they reminisce about their missing friends and loved ones, Poison Ivy hangs out in a tropical rainforest and takes down some drug traffickers and Harley Quinn goes home to her loser family. After facing nothing but grief from her family, Harley returns home to the Siren's headquarters(which was recently rebuilt)and spends the rest of the holidays with Catwoman and Ivy.

Meh. For some reason this comic just never clicked for me. I really can't figure out why, but I just didn't like it. I've been enjoying the past few issues of Sirens, but this one just left me bored and annoyed. Like I said, I can't quite put my finger on it, but there was just something... Off(I guess)in this one for me. Oh well, hopefully I'll like the next issue.

Score: 5 out of 10.Damian: "Are you going to suit up or get drunk with the tramp?"
Dick: "*sigh*I'm going to get drunk with the tramp..."

17 comments:

  1. I agree with you that it shouldn't even be a question of if he's more Superman than Lex but I did like this opening arc. I don't know what it is but I really enjoyed reading it, I hated that Bart was reduced to a small role in this issue whereas Cassie and Tim were both featured more prominently though.

    And Sirens was...um...yeah, hoping its better this month.

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  2. Good point about Bart, JT. I didn't even think about that. Where was Bart and SB's story? Eh, I just couldn't get into this arc because of SB constantly questioning himself. I like the arrogant SB, not the pensive/wistful one.

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  3. So if he's not in Adventure Comics anymore the only thing left for them to do is add him back to the Teen Titans right? Or The Titans since Donna, Cy and Starfire are leaving...

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  4. Is he not in Adventure anymore though? I know Geoff is off that book, but is SB leaving as well? Either way, whether he stays or goes, SB and Bart BOTH need to head back to the Teen Titans so they can get rid of some of the deadwood there.

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  5. I believe Adventure Comics is gonna be about The Legion now although I may be mistaken. I agree both SB and Bart need to make their way back to the Titans.

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  6. Gah, if it's about the original Legion, I might just be dropping this series... If it's about my beloved Threeboot Legion, I'll be doing my happy dance!

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  7. Just looked it up, apparently it'll jump between the Legion, Supes, SB, Supergirl, Mon El and a few other people affiliated with The Big Blue Boyscout.

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  8. Well, I'm stuck with this series until issue #12 since I'm subscribed to it, but I guess we'll have to see if I'll be sticking around for issue #13...

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  9. Hm...we'll see what ya do. Also what else is Dan Dido notable for writing?

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  10. See, I'm on the other end of the spectrum for both of these - I enjoyed Sirens; silly as always, backstory for Harley. I mean, sure, it didn't advance the plot forward that much, but I did enjoy it.

    And on Adventure Comics, well, I enjoyed it. Artwork was good, story was interesting, Luthor was even more of a bastard than normal...

    Oh, and the word I had to put in to post this comic:
    eccyadve
    Riiiiiiiight...

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  11. Jason: I know Dan wrote some Superboy stuff at the VERY end of that series, as well as one of the recent BN tie-ins(Weird Western Tales maybe?), but besides that, I can't think of anything...

    Nagash: I'm still not sure why I didn't like this issue of Sirens... Maybe I was in a real bad mood when I gave this a read. As for Adventure, I just don't like the "Lex Luthor is my father!" thing. I never did, and I probably never will. That's just one of my DCU pet peeves.

    "eccyadve"? I always like when that word is a real word. For some bizarre reason that always puts a smile on my face.

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  12. You know you'll have to elaborate on why you don't like the whole Lex Luthor is my father thing. The symbolism behind it is always good - a good guy has to step away from the evil shadow of his father. It works.

    The word this time was unbrapo

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  13. I think my main problem with the SB/Lex connection is the fact that SB was already an established character before the Lex revelation came to light. SB had been around for a good 10 years or so, had his own backstory and everything, so foisting Lex on him just seemed unnecessary.

    I always thought it would have worked out so much better if Geoff had just created a new teen character, stuck them on the Teen Titans and then revealed that the new character was the well meaning clone of Lex and Supes. That way the new character would be SB's half brother, Lex would still be in the picture, and you'd have a new teen hero as well. I guess I just hate when all of a sudden a writer comes along and radically changes a character's origin.

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  14. See, I didn't even know that, you know. Never really liked things to do with Superman. All Star Superman was his brilliant peak. So was Red Son. So's Superman/Batman. And Lois & Clark. Everything else, not so much.
    I do prefer the Big Red Cheese.

    Isn't that what half of comics are about? :P
    And Frank Millar even does it to himself ;)

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  15. Ha, for a guy who says he doesn't really like Supes, you sure do have a lot of things listed there, Nagash!

    Change is of course instrumental to comic books, or there would be stagnation... But that doesn't mean things have to be changed 180 degrees! Oh, and the Frank Millar line made me literally laugh out loud!

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  16. I love that Nagash dislikes Supes but likes Smallville. Lol That just amuses me.

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  17. Well two were limited series and one was a TV show, so, you know, that last one doesn't count ;)
    And Superman/Batman stars two people, so that only half counts.

    Do you want some retcon with your anger? It might save you from a Red Ring...

    Cause it doesn't follow the mythology too tightly, had good stories and didn't have him wearing his pants on the outside?

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