By: Scott Lobdell & Tom DeFalco (writers), R.B. Silva (penciller), Rob Lean (inker), Richard & Tanya Horie (colorists)
The Story: When Superboy meets Supergirl.
The Review: Usually, I’m all for continuity respect across titles. The sense of a shared universe feels a lot stronger when certain series make note or call attention to events happening in other books, sometimes even using them to springboard their own stories. At a certain point, however, all that gets cumbersome, distracting, not a little bit annoying (see the constant reference captions in Suicide Squad #6). Sometimes, you just want to focus on the story at hand, and no other.
Lobdell has the opportunity of not only writing two titles, but having those titles relate so closely to each other that he can weave one story through both. In the hands of a craftier writer, this might produce some amazing material. In the hands of a straightforward, middle-of-the-road writer, it feels like a lot of lost opportunities and sterile repetition. For anyone who might follow both titles, the opening of this issue must make you feel like slamming your head against a table. Not only does Lobdell reference the events of Teen Titans #5, he literally copies and pastes the last five pages of that issue into the first five of this one. I’m not calling anyone lazy, but certainly I don’t think he exerted much creativity in writing that particularly scene.
Things get even more problematic when Lobdell starts bringing in continuity from other series. Besides the fact that it feels far too soon for Superboy to be having a run-in with Supergirl, you have to question where in the context of her current story arc this scene fits in. Not to mention the fact that the scene serves no other purpose except emphasizing Superboy’s misfortune with women and that his nature as a clone bodes ill for all, as if that hasn’t been made clear to us many, many times already.
Not really a problem, but disappointing nonetheless, is the fact that the two Super-teens part ways without much of a bond. Both recognize correctly that they share a common loneliness in this world, and neither knows what to do with themselves from here on out. It’s really a shame their fortuitous meeting doesn’t result in anything more than a wary connection between them.
And the narrative has really stepped up its melodrama game, hasn’t it? Superboy’s always been angsty and melancholy, and a little too articulate and wordy to feel accessible, but he really takes the cake with lines like, “I feel like a pawn in a conspiracy so vast, so complicated that I’ll never be able to grasp my role.” The dialogue doesn’t fare much better. On the last page, Ravager tells Superboy, “I have my heart set on a lot of tears, recriminations, and prolonged agony.” Not only does it just feel awkward and silly, it’s also completely out of character for such a rough-around-the-edges mercenary like Rose to talk like that.
If anyone has used this series to improve and refine his skills, it’s Silva, who’s become better, bit by bit, with each issue. While he still brings an inescapable cutesiness to everything he draws, he’s scaled it back quite a bit, allowing some of the intensity to seep through and give the scene the weight it needs. No matter what comes down the pike in terms of the script, Silva remains a credit to this title.
Conclusion: And just like that, the good grace it received last time goes out the window—completely. With so many problems in the writing and plotting, it just makes to send this title at last to the Dropped List.
Grade: C
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: – It seems like Krypton was just riddled with self-created disasters, wasn’t it? We got Worldkillers, murderous clones, and I believe even the meltdown of its planetary core was a problem the citizens left unaddressed until it was way too late.
– So I’m to assume Superboy has telepathy now, too?