Reilly2040's Blog

So, with our second full week of new #1s under our belt, its interesting to see how things are shaping up. To be honest, I probably felt last week’s books were stronger over all (thanks to the killer combo of Action Comics and Batgirl), but I still mostly enjoyed this week’s offerings that I picked up.

Batman and Robin relaunched this week with a team I’ve been curious to see for a while.  Part of the fun of the previous series, was the role reversal by having a lighter hearted Batman, and the grim Damian Robin.   So for the first time we have Bruce and Damian operating as Batman and Robin.  I’ve always felt this was a teaming DC had skipped past for the sake of their larger story, and given its interesting father and son dynamic, its something I’ve been curious to see approached for a while now.

First off, I’ve read some complaints online about the characterisation, and I must admit I can see what they were talking about. Peter Tomasi’s Damian definitely felt a bit off. More in line with the character’s early appearances, almost ignoring the maturing we saw during his partnership with Dick. That said, I did like how Tomasi is trying to move Bruce on as a character, and play up the fact that this is a father and son team (Bruce trying to lay down the law to Damian in a way that’s clearly going to encourage rebellion struck me very much as a parenting trap).  The idea that Bruce is trying to move beyond the death of his parents, tying in nicely with him now focusing on his own son, so I really liked what Peter Tomasi was doing there.

One book that was probably the first of my nice surprises this week was Paul Cornell’s Demon Knights.  Despite finding myself a bit lukewarm to last week’s Stormwatch, I really enjoyed this much more fantasy based series.  While featuring some familiar DC characters (notably for me Jason Blood and Etrigan), the setup is for a straight sword and sorcery tale rather than any superheroics.  The way all the Arthurian stuff worked into the story appealed to the side of me that’s long been a fan of that legend, so this was a real win for me as something a bit different in my comics pile.  Definitely onboard for the next issue.

The other surprise this week was the Mr Terrific book.  Having liked the character in the JSA I thought I’d give this a try, and it’s really intrigued me with a bit of mystery surrounding the appearance of his unborn son, and the fantastical nature to Holt’s accomplishments (his lab stored in a pocket dimension, that kind of thing). The thing most likely to generate discussion though, was the appearance of Karen Starr of Starrware. No sign that she’s actually Power Girl (although the dress she wears to a reception seems like a clear nod to the character), but I wonder if they’ll keep it quiet, and then reveal her as being from Earth-2 or something later on, once JSA is established.  All in all, for a book I hadn’t been sure about, I liked the take on the character, and the fact it wasn’t afraid to be a bit outlandish with some of his inventions, almost setting him up as a DCU equivalent to Reed Richards in some ways.

Superboy I found myself a little torn on. On one hand, I found it enjoyable and got into the story it was telling. That said, the character is a complete reboot, with little to tie him to the Conner/Kon-El I was a fan of before, which makes it a little trickier to get into for me.  The fact his origin is kept familiar (minus its Death of Superman trappings), along with the Kryptonian/Human hybrid angle was reassuring though, despite the changes to the voice of the character who comes across much more alien.  I was really happy to see his telekinesis used in the book (and I suspect he’s also telepathic, something new to his powerset).  Conner’s tactile telekinesis was often ignored by later writers, so its nice to see it a key part of Superboy’s powers once again.

I did like the cute knowing wink when they were talking about his human donor.  Assuming of course, Lex Luthor isn’t going to be a red herring with this version of the character (although the clone of Superman and Lex Luthor angle is probably too strong a concept to drop).

I’m definitely intrigued to stick with this for a bit and see where its going.

The one thing though, that’s beginning to irk me about this reboot more generally though, is that I wish DC hadn’t introduced this mysterious woman who’s appearing in all the issues either.  While its a fun thing to have her popping up in all the books, and makes for a game, trying to find her, I wish this was more of a clean slate.  It automatically ties events back to Flashpoint, and is clearly laying the seeds for the next big uber-crossover.  DC has done nothing but Crisis after Crisis for years now.  And after having finally pulled the trigger on the reboot, I’d really have hoped they’d have had the confidence to let all the books bed in without preparing another big crossover already.  As I say, I’d have rather things were left as a clean slate, without risking event fatigue in the middle of possible the biggest thing DC have done since the original Crisis.

Superboy Prime is a character that’s polarised DC fandom since his re-introduction in Infinite Crisis.  When Legion of 3 Worlds finished, it seemed like a line had been drawn under the character for the time being, but then to everyone’s surprise, he immediately turned up again in the solicits for Adventure Comics #4 and #5 as these Blackest Night tie-in issues shifted their focus from Conner Kent.

To quickly lay my cards on the table, I definitely enjoyed these issues.  However, given that the Superboy storyline is being ended with issue 6 (which most people are putting down to some rapid reshuffling which will see Paul Levitz take over the book as a Legion-only title), I think a lot of people have been put out by losing two more issues of what has been an (and I don’t use this word lightly) outstanding Superboy storyline.  To be honest, I’m quite sad that we’re not seeing a spin-off Superboy or Legion book from this title, allowing Geoff to continue the Superboy run as its just been fantastic.  From that point of view, the Superboy second-feature in issue 5 continuing the storyline was very welcome.

However, that aside, what about Superboy Prime’s storyline?

So, we’re back on Earth-Prime where Superboy Prime is living in his parents basement, reading his comics and posting on the internet.  However, when he sees the Blackest Night tie-ins coming out from DC and realises he’s in them, he’s not happy.  And then the Black Lanterns, led by Black Lantern Alex Luthor turn up to claim Prime.

Geoff Johns has made no bones about the fact he really enjoys writing Superboy Prime.  And here he’s clearly having a lot of fun playing with the “real world” setting, as Prime heads to comic shops trying to find the next issue to see if he survives, before finally crashing the DC offices, blaming them for making him the bad guy and never giving him a happy ending. Of course, if Prime’s right, and its ultimately the fault of the DC writers that have made him turn evil, then does this mean that the villain behind Infinite Crisis was actually Geoff Johns?   Or is Superboy Prime simply holding onto excuses, and in some ways he’s actually the only character in DC with true free will?

Over-thinking things aside, there’s a lot of fun to be had here as Johns has always enjoyed using Superboy Prime as a commentary on online fandom (, although I can’t help but think that if we’re now going to be moving the character of Superboy Prime to the side for a while, then Legion of 3 Worlds probably had a stronger “ending” for the character than this one.  And from the point of view of Adventure Comics as a title, I think I’d rather have had two more issues of Conner Kent’s storyline.  Blackest Night and Superboy Prime are probably big enough draws that having a 2-issue Blackest Night: Superboy Prime tie-in mini-series would’ve sold well enough, without having to interrupt the superb ongoing story in Adventure Comics.  I know I’d have happily picked it up.

I must admit.  This final part surprised me.

Not for its quality.  Out of the three tie-ins thus far, its been the strongest for most of its issues (which is saying something, as all of them have been excellent).   No, what really surprised me was the brilliant use of Kon-El, Superboy.

Geoff Johns has been doing great work with the character in his soon-to-be-finished run on Adventure Comics, and here James Robinson really picks up that ball and runs with it, allowing Conner to emerge as the hero of the piece.   Especially nice was the scene addressing why Conner has been avoiding using his tactile TK over the last few years, explaining that he avoids it as he’s trying to be more like Superman.  Clark, of course, berates him for this, telling him he should use all his powers (especially when faced by emotion-eating zombies).  This tied in nicely to the story Geoff’s been telling I thought, with Conner measuring his own life experiences up against Clark’s and Lex’s.

The New Krypton segment I was less bothered about.  Almost an afterthought in the first two issues, its appearance here seems largely to explain why New Krypton isn’t more involved in the event and to remove all the extra Kryptonians from the story.  I do see the point of its inclusion, but it also feels out of place next to all the Smallville goings on.

In terms of the larger Blackest Night storyline, there’s a nice twist with the Medusa Mask.  In last issue, it and Psycho Pirate seemed to be the ultimate weapon for the Black Lanterns, able to instil any emotion in large groups of people with no effort, but here we see there’s a flipside to it, when Conner grabs the mask and uses it against Black Lantern Kal-L.  The result is that the black ring shuts down, saving the day.

This is pretty interesting, and again has me wondering about the potential resurrection of people currently running around as Black Lanterns.  I’ve previously speculated that in the final issue, when the white light is revealed (either through a “White Lantern” or the current Lanterns working together) that any Black Lanterns caught in it will be restored to life.  To me, the effect of the Medusa Mask on Kal-L (or perhaps more accurately, his ring) reinforces this.  I wonder if the Mask hadn’t shattered, and Conner had been able to keep using it on Kal-L, if we’d have seen Kal-L fully restored.  Of course, we know that Kal-L and Lois will be back in the Blackest Night: JSA mini-series, so it’ll be interesting to see if the nature of Kal-L’s defeat will be referenced there.

The latest of the Blackest Night tie-ins launched this week, with issue 1 of Blackest Night: Superman.

I think this is so far probably my favourite of the tie-ins.    James Robinson evokes a horror film vibe brilliantly in the opening pages, as the newly Black Lanterned Kal-L rises and starts working his way through Smallville, wiping out whole groups of people and causing the Black Lantern power reading to slowly work its way up.

Eddy Barrows also turns in some great art.  Can’t remember seeing his stuff before, but I was pretty impressed by it here.

I was especially drawn to the scenes with Ma Kent, Conner and Clark all together.  Realistically this family dynamic to the Kents is a new development, but still I really like how the three characters interact.  It feels quite natural to have them together, especially with Jonathan’s recent death in the series.   I’ve always liked comics that build up a family feel.  Something I’ve always been a fan of in Wally’s Flash series for example.

There were a few surprises here as well, including Black Lantern Zor-El and the return of Earth-2 Lois as a Black Lantern.  Granted, I’ve not really been reading the New Krypton stuff, but it’ll be interesting to see the impact Blackest Night has on a planet of Kryptonians and how well they hold their own.

I’m still interested in seeing what happens to the Earth-2 characters at the end of this storyline.  I’d still like to see E-2 Superman properly restored at somepoint, however despite my misgivings about using him in this way I must admit that James Robinson and Eddy Barrows turned in a cracking book that overcame any worries I had.

So far, Blackest Night is off to an incredibly strong start with its own first two issues, GL, GLC and the Batman and Superman tie-ins.  I’m still unsure if I’ll pickup the Titans tie-in, and may well end up skipping it, but if the other tie-ins are anything to go by, it should be well worth a read for any Titans fans.

DCU Blog had a treat for us today, with the first look at the new Superboy-starring Adventure Comics.

It looks like a great start to the series, with Kon in much the same place as he was at the beginning of Geoff’s Titans run.  In Smallville, trying to live the life Clark had growing up.  Although I suspect that Geoff intends to spin things on their head, with Kon now relishing this life, rather than fighting against it.

One thing I really liked about this preview, was the appearance of Bart.  Its nice to see him and Kon back together again, and them trashing their statues at Titans Tower seems very appropriate   What I really loved though was Bart’s attitude.  He comes across much more Impulse-like in his dialogue, which is something I felt had been really missing from the character since Teen Titans.   Its nice to see him enjoying himself again.

I very much like the look of Francis Manapul’s art, and the colouring along with it.   There’s something almost painted looking about it that looks different to most of the other books I’m getting.

All in all, I’m really looking forward to this one

At long last, the much-delayed Legion of Three Worlds issue 4 is here. As with issue 3, despite the delays its still a good read, and there’s no denying that the detail George Perez is putting into his artwork is worth it. Despite the delays, there’s no hint that they’ve allowed the art to be compromised, and the issue is great to look at.

Picking up from where the last issue left off, everyone’s still in battle against Superboy Prime and the Legion of Supervillains.   However, with phase 1 of Brainiac 5′s plan complete, the newly resurrected Bart Allen is back in the game.

Hats off to Geoff Johns, in this series he’s been handed the fairly unpleasant task of trying to sort out the mess that was made of Bart during his Flash run.   Geoff has made the obvious choice of bringing back Bart as Kid Flash once again.  And in this issue he’s left with the thankless task of trying to provide a reason Bart came back as Kid Flash rather than his older self.  

(For the record, I will give the writers of Bart’s Flash run kudos for attempting to bring back elements of his Impulse run that had been ignored for a while – like Intertia – and you could see Bart’s impulsive nature was still there.  However the whole idea of replacing Wally with a super-aged Bart I think was just a bad plan from the start.  Wally was at his peak, and Bart had only recently become Kid Flash, so it was just pushing him into another role too soon.)

The explanation for Bart’s youthful return it has to be said, is pretty muddy, but as readers, we all know its essentially an excuse for something that creatively had to happen.  Essentially its to do with Bart’s tangle with Superboy Prime in the speedforce causing him to superage.  Brainiac 5 tells us that this superaging was like a cancer in Bart’s body that would’ve run unchecked until he’d have died anyway in a few months.  However, the lightning rod managed to capture Bart’s true essence, freed of the speedforce infection.    As I say, a bit muddy, but who cares, Bart’s back where he belongs.

The attention then flips back to phase 2 of Brainiac 5′s plan.  And here, while well written and drawn, I think the delays have probably hurt the book.   The upshot of the plan is the resurrection of Conner Kent, and this had been pretty much figured out months ago, helpfully aided by a spoilerific DC Nation showing art of Connor back in action (seriously, why does DC Nation keep spoiling big events?  Especially after the backlash over Dan Didio spilling the return of the multiverse).    If this book had been coming out monthly, then with events moving a lot faster, I think Connor’s return might’ve had a bit more impact for this reader.  Instead it felt more like reading a book in retrospect.  I already new Connor was coming back, so it was just the curiousity of how it actually happened.

I do like the manner of his resurrection though.  The use of the same pod that resurrected Superman was a nice touch, combined with the strand of Lex’s hair to aid the pod in regenerating Connor’s human side.   I will say though that I was sure that pod got smashed up in the Return of Superman (Superman burst out of it), however I guess its easy to file under “Super-robots fixed it” or “New Earth – Superman infact exited the pod gracefully”.

Regardless of complaints about delays and lost impact, I am incredibly glad to see these two characters back.  Both their deaths felt pretty needless at the time, especially with Teen Titans at its height, heavily involving both Bart and Connor.   Of course, the question for issue 5 will be, does Connor return with Bart?  We’ve not seen any sign of him in the current DCU yet, while we’ve seen Bart in Flash: Rebirth, and if Connor was back then you’d have expected to see him with the rest of the Teen Titans in that scene.  Now I’m assuming that Connor’s definitely coming back to the modern day, so I’m presuming the explanation will simply be that he stays behind for a while to help the Legion rebuild, and will return to the modern day in due course – presumably in the pages of whatever Superman book it is the Legion are due to appear in.   

The impact his resurrection will have on Cassie will be interesting to see.  And does this mean we could be looking at a Teen Titans relaunch?  I know I’d be keen to start collecting the book again with a line-up along the lines of Superboy, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Blue Beetle and a few others.  Robin’s a bit of a question mark, but if Tim’s around as Red Robin, then chuck him into the mix as well.

Of course, I’ve not really talked much about the Legion stuff in this book yet.  As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not really a Legion fan, so if I’m being honest, big events like the reveal of Time Trapper’s true identity at the end are completely lost on me.  With three versions of two big superteams kicking around as well, I’m finding it hard to keep track of any particular characters.   However I will say that I’m enjoying the interplay between the three Brainiacs.

There’s a very interesting moment as well, where one of the Legionnaires instinctively turns the ground to Kryptonite beneath Superboy Prime and it affects Prime, much to his horror.   We know that Kryptonite only works on Kryptonians from the correct universe, so it looks like that particular version of the Legion is from Earth Prime, which should have interesting implications, especially Superboy Prime’s own reaction when its revealed.

While I’m still not really into the Legion, I will say this is an enjoyable series.  Its not a good jumping on point for the Legion at all, and from that point of view I don’t agree with the comments I’ve read online that this book should’ve been the main Crisis.  However there’s enough non-Legion stuff with Bart and Connor’s resurrections and Sodam Yat’s appearance to keep this non-Legion fan entertained.  In fact, I’d say its a testiment to the writer and artist that despite not being a Legion fan, I’m still picking this up.