Reading this book is a chore. I love to READ. I love George Perez. But this book is a chore to read. It's long winded, boring and repetitive. Issue number three might have well been number one and/or two. It follows a very old school formula that is very out of sync with a modern Superman. This is not the man of tomorrow. It's the man of yesterday. He does not feel like a young man of today. The dialogue is clunky and retro. Again. We get monster/freak of the month. Again. We get long winded exposition from the news team and Clark. Again. We get Superman acting like a slow top when it comes to his powers.
In a nut shell, the news-team wastes pages to recap Superman's early days and while they all realize he is on the side of good, the amount of death and destruction and bad guys he attracts...is he a Messiah or Menace? We see Heather Kelly and of course, we wonder about her role. She is set up predictably as a blond Lois-lite. But by story's end, we are not sure if she is friend or foe.
Superman fights an ice entity this time and let's say I cringed all the way through the battle at his inner monologue and his dialogue. Just shut up and do what you have to do for crying out loud!
Three things noted in this issue.
1. Superman likes to say repeatedly... "No!" or "Oh no!" or "Lois!" Along with his clunky speech/thoughts, it's like nails on a chalk board.
2. Lois and Heather have retinal issues. Yeah, DC , those purple eyes make Lois look weird like she's possessed.Least Heather is alien from the look of things..
3. Superman remains dense. He fought alien entities who mentioned Krypton and he says it's a mystery for later. Oh that advanced genius brain. When one said it, didn't he consider it was strange. When the second one said it, still it wasn't mysterious. Third time's a charm.
This book I give frustrating 1.5 out of 5.
Nicola Scott's art was nothing special. This is not her best work. She does not make the costume look any better than Merino. I would say Merino's Superman looks better by far.
Best Panel : I could not even decide on one really cause this book really did not make me care. The homage to Action Comics with him trying to stop the locomotive to me was the best.
Not much to add. The issue was less than average. Every "Nuuuu!!!"-bubble made me more bored, but the art was actually nice.
ReplyDeleteThis isn't Perez's best shot, to say the least. Anyway he is off the title after #6 so maybe those-who-matters did work it out already.
George Perez is on record to say he got burnt out by issue number six because he felt this was not his Superman. Well, yeah, it isn't. It is supposed to be a younger, modern Superman and I think there are more subtle ways to portray isolation and loneliness of a character. I think DC went with the idea that this would keep the old schoolers/older readers happy because they were not sure how well Action/JL brash Superman might go down. They should have sat down and done their homework and stuck to their guns. Get a writer on board who can take Grant's Superman five years later and make him while a little more restrained and responsible, still tough, bright, charismatic and not mopey. The roughness around the edges to me is what gives him the charm too. But it is not shouting "Now!" "or you in for a Meltdown" "Or this is my War!" HUH??? Many people want to read Superman as seen by the sales but you can't give them this kind of story telling in 2011/ with nothing to draw them in. Not when you have other titles kicking such ass and characters set up to make readers go...yeah, he is cool and here is something that draws me in and I really want to walk in his shoes a while.
ReplyDeleteKeith Giffen and Dan Jurgens will take over but Jurgens mentioned he is there to rein Giffen in and I was thinking wth for??? Superman's been reined in for far too long in every department. Weighed down creatively. I am so glad he at least gets to cut loose in many ways in Action and show some passion. I also wish writers would remember he is not brain dead.
Oh that Superbrain=).. too often forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAction Comics feels fresh and alive, and it is so, so much better. Funny, cuz I won't say the plot there is really smart or unpredictable, but the drive is amazing [got the hidden "the steel-driving man" ref? Yeah that was hilarious]. And there are giant stealing robots looking just like in old 'S'-cartoons! Awesome.
But holy cr.. 4 more months just to see an attempt to change the obviously wrong course in "Superman"! Hope Perez at least has prepared a nice smart-ass blast for the end of his arch. As a compensation.
haven't picked this book up and don't plan to pick it up any time soon the way it seems to be going. How sad.
ReplyDeleteYeah, D, it's a shame. Merino seems to be back on # 4 and the art looks better. Like NSW says...maybe Perez will make a silk purse out of this sow's ear...we hope? :( but I think the whole style of writing is tedious anyway. I am waiting to see what and Giffen and Jurgens can do before I drop this title. I keep thinking comics can be so trying to follow...one, it takes so long to get your next fix...you waste money pre-ordering and in my case I have to else I won't get the issues I want...and then when the writing flunks you realize you wasted so much money on issues of a story you don't care about...like I did with the Trinity series or the DC Online Legends. I can see why people wait for trades. You can take it or leave it. Maybe this is what I might end up doing in the long run with Superman.
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