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..."