By: Matt Kindt (story), Tom Derenick (pencils), Tom Nguyen & Allen Martinez (inks), Gabe Eltaeb (colors)
The Story: Stargirl gets into Martian Manhunter’s head—and wants out.
The Review: So…I pulled one of those lame Microsoft Word boo-boos that you always seem to pull off just at the very moment when you think you’ve finally become immune: I accidentally shut down my computer and impulsively, for absolutely no reason at all, clicked on “Don’t Save” when my unfinished document asked me what I wanted to do with it. That document was the basis of this review. Hence the lateness, which I’m very sorry about.*
Anyway, as I recall, my review of this issue originally began by saying how much I enjoyed Kindt’s ideas for each of the Leaguers’ personal prisons. Instead of aiming straight for their physical weaknesses or greatest fears or some other trite target, Kindt dug deep to find more interesting anxieties and obsessions. That said, he can’t afford to give individual attention to every Leaguer, not with combined roll calls of all three teams on his plate. We do have a plot we need to move on to.
Unfortunately, Kindt, perhaps unwilling to let go of a good idea, decides to spend a third of this issue going over the same material again. I believe the term “diminishing returns” was made for situations like this. Whereas earlier glimpses of the Leaguers had a quiet but powerful tension as they struggled to come to terms with their personal demons, Kindt apparently decided that louder is better this time around. Consider Green Lantern’s explosive freakout at being called a terrorist, Madame Xanadu’s spiral into dark magic, and Aquaman’s environmentalist rage:
“This is more than genocide! This is extinction! And they’re going to pay! All of them. Anything that walks on two legs…will die!”
These scenes are over-the-top, but the beatification of Stargirl is where it really gets excessive. Don’t get me wrong; I appreciate Stargirl’s cheerful outlook against the largely grim backdrop of the DCU these days, but that attitude is best expressed in action, otherwise it just seems like naivety: “They all just seem so afraid. Like they’ve lost all their faith. Stuff works out. If you work hard enough.” And if this isn’t smarmy enough by itself, J’onn has to reiterate the point later in a pages-long monologue that reeks of After School Special: “It’s her youth. Her optimism…that things will always get better. …That good will prevail.” Then, to really drive the point home, Stargirl says in passing to J’onn, “For some reason [this prison] doesn’t have a hold on me.”
It’s puzzling how Kindt can spend so much time emphasizing Courtney’s virtues without giving them an underpinning in her background. Despite a couple flashbacks to her secret origin, you don’t really get a sense of where her values come from and how she’s maintained them. They just come packaged with her because that’s what people expect, which is hardly a dimensional approach to a character who’s already in danger of being a too one-note.
Derenick makes an attempt to emulate Doug Mahnke’s statuesque figures, but he doesn’t quite make it there. Whereas Mahnke’s characters often look sharp and regal, there’s a more rounded quality to Derenick’s lines that isn’t nearly as striking. The one thing you do take away from his art is how broad and pushy it is, which no doubt contributes to the issue’s overall loudness. In terms of emotional variety, Derenick can manage a few different shades of anger and rage, and little else besides.
Conclusion: Redundant, repetitive, and not nearly as well executed as his previous issue, it once again convinces me that it’s time to put this title on the Drop list.
Grade: C
– Minhquan Nguyen
Some Musings: * Although I’ve never needed an excuse to be late with my reviews, to be honest. I just have a gift for it, I guess.