DC Comics has released a sneak peek of Superboy #6, that arrives in stores this week.
SUPERBOY #6
Written by JEFF LEMIRE
Art by MARCO RUDY
Cover by EDDY BARROWS & J.P. MAYER
The epic “Reign of Doomsday” crossover hits SUPERBOY! How will the Kid of Steel defeat the monster that managed to kill the Man of Steel? And what is Doomsday’s ultimate goal in attacking all these members of the Super-family? The mysteries deepen as Act I of this story rockets towards its conclusion!
2 Comments
I think the interaction between Tim and Conner in this scene was very well done and made me recall some of the interactions between Clark and Bruce in the past (before Bruce started being written as a jack-ass at all times), especially in some of the old JLA and World’s Finest stories. It’s interesting that now it’s Wayne’s prodigy that can be comfortable in his own skin and comment that the Wayne’s are pretty much a family (well done for him to leave Damian out…good character continuity) while Conner still doesn’t feel as if he fits in with Ma Kent on the farm. As much as I dislike the “emo” whinning I am not so old that I don’t remember being a teenager and not fitting in. Tim’s dig at Conner’s original look and living in Hawaii was a nice touch, especially leading into a fighty-fight with the big hunk of spikes that “killed” Clark and led to Cadmus “growing him” in the first place.
It made me remember that, as a clone, Conner never really had a chance to be a “teen”. He was “grown” into a teen body with a young-adult mentality. This character can’t help to be interesting to me because of the history. He was literally bred in a test-tube to be Superman’s replacement but was “let loose” too early. He struggled to be a hero, struggled to build an individual identity other than “the Clone”, found out that his other DNA donator was Lex Luthor, became a Titan, got killed by whiny Tom Welling Prime, stayed dead for a couple of centuries and then got undead. Hell, it would screw me up coming back to my “regular time” knowing that not only am I not a “real” person but my own corpse is sitting on ice at the north pole. No wonder he thinks Detroit is “mellow” (damn!).
I may be in the minority but if the Doomsday arc will get Superman back off this damn “grounded” deal and form the “Superman Family” again similar to the way that “Batman, Inc.” has started to gel I’m interested in following this series. At least it isn’t as depressing as “Fear Itself”.
The art is OK but the rendering of Red Robin’s cowl makes it look like he’s got big saucers attached over the ears, like the artist wanted to put bat-ears so bad they couldn’t stand it. Tim’s still drawn a bit more scrawny than I would imaging a guy of his age with all the training that he’s had would be. Same on Conner.
Hmm… I can’t say the artwork is particularly inspiring (perhaps just the way it was inked) though the detail on Doomsday is pretty well done. The angsty-chatty sit-n-talk pages come across as a teen edition of a Supes/Bats dialog from the World’s Finest books back in the day, but the grammatical error (“your” vs. “you’re” on the third page) is a little disappointing, especially when one has embraced the argument that comic books get kids who don’t read books to read something.
For some reason the insistence that Smallville is where Connor belongs, though obviously not meant that way, struck me as a sort of suggestion that the TV show should continue with the recently-introduced Connor once the Tom Welling series ends. They’ve set up so many spinoff possibilities on that show that if they don’t develop at least one of them they’re totally wasting the viewers’ time.
But back to the issue; I hope Connor kicks Doomsday’s arse in a way that Supes couldn’t. Something that makes it clear he’s definitely not just a clone. Or at least not just a Superman clone. Maybe some way that points out his also having the genetics of an evil genius. Given the way Connor’s powers work, I’ve thought he should be more like a Superman/Green Lantern hybrid, though clearly that’s not how he’s been developing. But Doomsday needs to not just have an easy victory over Connor. After all, it’s what he was made for, yeh? …Well, it’s what they were both made for. So they’re like cousins. Maybe they’ll call a truce and sit on a rooftop chatting mopily about their lots in life and how unfair it’s been.
I suppose it’s not too likely given the Epic Story Arc underway, though.