by Paul Cornell (writer), Pete Woods (pencils & inks), CAFU (pencils), BIT (inks), Brad Anderson (colors), and Rob Leigh (letters)
The Story: Lex Luthor fights Mister Mind for control of his own fantasies.
What’s Good: It’s always a pleasure to read a comic that feels wickedly smart and it’s even more special when this comic turns out to be a mainstream superhero book.
Cornell delivers a wonderful probing of Lex Luthor’s psychology through several dreams/fantasies that Mister Mind subjects Lex to. Every single one of these scenes is ingenious and perfectly representative of Lex’s character. At one point, he’s Prometheus, bringing the fire of the gods to humanity and at another, he’s Dr. Frankenstein. It’s creative, lively stuff that you can tell Cornell is having a ball with.
Yet, what really makes this issue even more special, and surprising really, is just how funny it is. When you’re getting a book that is more or less a meditation on Lex Luthor, I think it’s natural to expect something dark and brooding and while this issue definitely has those moments, it has a hefty amount of absurd humour. Mister Mind is a frequent source of physical comedy, for example, and when he speaks to his mysterious master, it’s done in a fourth-wall breaking style that made me smile. Cornell also makes the most of the sheer absurdity of the character and his appearance; there’s a scene with the little caterpillar in a Wild West saloon that needs to be seen to be believed.
While Lex’s dreams all provide strong insight into his character, Cornell skillfully plays with the idea that these dreams are more what we (and hence Mister Mind) think Lex’s psychology is like. The result is an interesting mix of truth and expectation and when Lex rebels against the veracity of these fantasies, it’s very interesting. It also needs being said that there is one dream in particular, where Lex essentially plays Superman, which is completely hilarious.
The robot Lois Lane also continues to be a great character; through her wit and insight, she’s a fantastic presence for the book, while her self-awareness, and comfort, with being a robot leads to a couple of laugh out loud lines. I absolutely love “Lois Lane” and am thrilled that she’s going to be in it for the long haul.
Pete Woods’ art remains incredibly polished, but still filled with character and very human facial expressions. The book feels really slick and high budget, but still very personal to the characters it focuses upon. Were it not for Manapul’s Flash, I’d say this was the best looking book out of DC right now.
That said, it’s the tight dialogue that is without a doubt this issue’s greatest strength. From Lois’ humor and insight, to Lex’s dry wit and dismissal of Mister Mind, to Mister Mind’s generally pathetic demeanour, there are great lines aplenty this month.
What’s Not So Good: I can see some readers being somewhat peeved at the lack of general narrative progression this month. In some ways, it does feel more like an outstanding one-shot than part of a story-arc. After all, Lex spends almost the entire issue lost in a mental maze and, once he gets out of that maze, he’s pretty much right where he was last month, barring a little bit of knowledge that tells him that he can’t go on his adventure solo. There’s a lot of fun in this issue, but I can certainly imagine some readers not seeing the point of it.
Conclusion: Smart and funny with great art and dialogue, this is tremendous work.
Grade: A –
-Alex Evans
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Conclusion