By: Geoff Johns (writer), Francis Manapul (artist), Brian Buccellato (colorist)
The Story: The Boy of Steel, Part Five: In this 30-page issue, Luthor has the drop on Superboy, who is then forced to gather rare and difficult ingredients for something very surprising that Luthor is doing. In the meantime, Conner’s journal gets filled up with a lot of up-close data that Conner gets from observing Luthor.
What’s Good: I’ve harped a lot in my reviews about how I like realistic art. Manapul is definitely stylized, with unconventional takes on texture and shading, but I love it! He goes old school with those lines trailing behind people to show motion and has some very dynamic poses (check out Superboy tackling a bizarro guy or the appearance of Brainiac). Color work by Buccellato, as always, compliments Manapul well. The colors, tones and shadows are all subdued, giving an older feel to this art.
As much fun as it is to meander over the art, the story is what I tuned in for and Johns delivers the emotional punch. This is the final issue in this arc of Conner trying to figure out what bearing his heritage has on him. It is not a coming of age story so much as a rite of passage one. Conner’s quirky note keeping is great and comes to a head here, face to face with his father and the true nature of what Luthor is inside. The dialogue works without more than a couple cutesy moments from Lori and the ending satisfies.
What’s Not So Good: Not much to complain about here, unless you get me quibbling over Superboy travelling through interstellar space and stealing stuff from the Fortress of Solitude (demonstrating unimaginable power), while at the same time, being worried about a giant octopus, amazons on winged horses, and a T-rex (demonstrating not very much power). But, this is supposed to be a story of wonder and adventure and character, so if you take it for that, these quibbles become fun.
Conclusion: Solid ending to an interesting arc. Too bad Johns and Manapul are leaving.
Grade: B
-DS Arsenault
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