Superboy #11 – Review

By: Jeff Lemire (writer), Pier Gallo (artist), Jamie Grant & Dom Regan (colorists)

The Story: Superboy gets by—with a little help from his friends.

The Review: Amidst the din and hype over the newest launch of Superboy, with critical darling Lemire at the helm, I remain largely puzzled by the lavish praise on this title.  Not that I don’t see its possibilities—far from it.  But now, one issue shy of a year’s worth of material, the series still feels like it’s winding up its first story arc.

And now, just when Lemire should be pulling out all the stops to make good on his and his star character’s potential, he just stops.  To prep the title for yet another relaunch come fall, Lemire was obligated to expedite the finish of his major storyline, and in combination with the reduced page count, that means he only had one option to get everything done in time: a big, wordy pile of exposition as told by either the raving Tannarak of the implacable Phantom Stranger.

Most of the action comes from Simon and Lori’s attempts to use their mere mortal means to escape the clutches of a life-draining blob-man and a town full of clay rednecks.  Since they have the least means to defend themselves (with Psion out of commission), these parts clearly have the most bite to them.  That said, Simon ends up doing little more than inadvertently serving as a decoy, leaving Lori to save them both with a couple moments of idiot-savant improvisation.

Speaking of Psion, he serves as a painfully obvious reminder that this title has definitely not gone anywhere it intended to.  Considering all the buildup Lemire put in towards the earnest lad’s possible betrayal—only because his superiors in the future commands him to so as to save their world from doom—it’s just disconcerting that you’ll never now find out what the future holds for him and his puppy-dog friendship with the Boy of Steel.

For the last appearance he might ever make in this guise, Superboy really should have had a big, heroic scene, the culmination of all the growth he’s experienced.  But he mostly serves as a pawn for Stranger, who, even in the snare of his mortal enemy’s trap, had the means to devise and have executed a practically foolproof contingency plan for his escape.  That smug, know-it-all attitude he’s always borne drains the story of its suspense, making his victory all but inevitable.  And so Tannarak, the big baddie behind most of the craziness visited upon Smallville this year, proves to be a shockingly disposable villain, though rather difficult to eradicate, like a roach.

As touching as Superboy and Co.’s sunset-watching on the Smallville water tower is intended to be, it feels mostly undeserved.  Though Simon and Lori have good reason for forging some new bonds, that can’t be said for the relationship between them and Connor, who spent most of the time, quite frankly, taking care of his own deal rather than his pals.  Had Lemire given them more time to interact as a gang, maybe you’d feel more moved by their togetherness at the end.

After all this time, what’s left to say about Gallo’s art?  He definitely has his strengths; that panel of Stranger rising up in lightning from his entrapment is a movie-moment for the white-eyed wanderer.  As for Gallo’s weaknesses, which I’ve mentioned so often it hardly bears notice at this final hour, it’s hard to tell if the flaws come from something inherent in his art or from Grant and Regan’s waxy coloring, which gives inhumanly molded features to the younger cast.

Conclusion: A hasty conclusion to a storyline that never reached the epic proportions Lemire aspired to, a sad top-off to a title that seemed destined for greatness.

Grade: C+

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – In an equivalent of a film continuity blip, Superboy calls Psionic Lad “Psion,” even though he had no time or way to know that his mentally-endowed pal from the future had his name changed in private by Simon.  Busted!

– “When in doubt, hit buttons!”  Lori and I are like one mind in two bodies, because that is verbatim my instinctive philosophy towards any problem involving technology.