Superboy #1

Confession: I technically already wrote and published Superboy #1. However, what I realized the day after I posted the blog entry was that it was Superboy #1 published in January 2011 and written by Jeff Lemeire, not September 2011 by Scott Lobdell. So I deleted it, frustrated because there went a lot of now-wasted time right out the window.

That's why this review is coming a few weeks late. And sadly, this review isn't as positive as the one about Jeff Lemeire's #1. Not to say this issue by Scott Lobdell and drawn by R.B. Silva is subpar, because it's not, but it does win the unique award of being the second-best Superboy #1 this year.

Superboy #1 is an origin story. Which honestly, is rather annoying. Superboy is one of those characters whose origins is rather convoluted and has been retconned over and over. To add yet another origin just makes it more confusing. The problem with characters who have lackluster, nonsensical, or overall poor origins, is that every new writer tries to improve upon it, and make it the definitive origin for that character, and most just make it worse.

And honestly, I'm not sure how much this origin changes Superboy's already existent origin stories. My basic understanding is that Superboy was create in a lab (still true) and a mixture of human and Kryptonian DNA (still true, but it's not shared whether the human used is still Lex Luthor and the Kryptonian is Clark Kent, theoretically it could be Kara Zor-El and another human, we don't know yet).

One of the elements of the DC Universe that does seem to be changed drastically is the Teen Titans history. It appears that while the Dick Grayson-era Teen Titans history is intact, the Tim Drake-era Teen Titans is no more. Connor Kent is just being created, Cassie has never met Tim Drake, and Kid Flash is a solo-hero, with the Justice League claiming no idea who he is (really? Barry Allen has no relationship with Bart Allen? really?). I've honestly stopped caring about continuity, because it's clear that DC doesn't care about it. This is a brand-new universe, and timelines aren't going to line up. The DCnU is how Barry Allen attempted to repair the DCU, and he's not going to get everything right (Wally West would have though, maybe that's why he disappeared).

But if we look at this comic alone, it's pretty darn good. We get a good sense of Conner Kent's voice, a good idea of who N.O.W.H.E.R.E. is, and plus a fun cameo from Rose Wilson (aka Ravager, at least in the old DCU). We have lots of playful misdirection by Lobdell, and we see just how smart and aware Superboy really is.

I give you the reverse-Joel Schumacher, a man without nipples

The big drawback of this issue is the art. It kind of stinks. The characters are blocky and static, it simply looks too cartoony. The colors are too dull and what should be a creepy comic is rather dull-looking. This is one of those issues that had a lot of great images to draw, and Silva is simply incapable of the task.

What I enjoyed: Scott Lobdell actually writes a pretty darn good story here. If it weren't so redundant and hadn't been done before, I'd probably be much more interested in it though. Also, we have a lot of M.I.A. characters in the DC Universe right now, so the appearance of Rose Wilson is a  nice cameo.

What I didn't: Other than the art there's nothing especially wrong or bad about this issue. Other than this statement by Superboy: "My thoughts are not confined to anything as limited as my cerebral organ. Rather my consciousness is spread equally throughout my body, to every atom." Wait, WHAT?!?

Conclusion: Not great, but still pretty good, this title is also enhanced by the fact that Teen Titans ties directly into it (that review coming later). 7.7/10 (C+).