The origin story is cut short, so that we can keep up with Teen Titans; thankfully not everything is lost in the transition.
What They Say:
Project N.O.W.H.E.R.E. has put a lot of effort into crafting their Superboy, and they intend to make sure he performs to their standards. And what better opportunity for him to demonstrate his raw power than to throw him into an alien prison riot?
The Review:
The first issue of Superboy was decent enough to continue reading. It presented an origin for the character and had plenty of interesting elements to peak readers’ interest. It showed us a character who we didn’t know anything about and who HE didn’t know anything about. This left open a lot of room for plenty of character development as we grew with the character. The second issue continues where the first left off…for a few pages.
In this issue, once the situation from the previous book is resolved, we are taken to the present day and given a direct tie in to the first issue of Teen Titans. The problem here is in the resolution of the first issue. It happens very quickly and Superboy seems to have a very quick shift in personality as his Luthor genes show through. He turns pretty vicious pretty quickly and all we get is a mysterious figure knocking him unconscious. That’s it. It is very unsatisfying because the book should’ve dealt more with this. It should’ve stayed in the past so we could see how Superboy deals with the situation that happened and maybe we could find out who knocked him out. Instead, the book is more concerned with tying into Teen Titans (which had a nice Superboy teaser at the end of issue #1).
This part of the book is good though. It is entertaining in that we get to see Superboy involved with his first ‘mission’ and get to see him grow a bit as a fighter. The plot involves Superboy heading to Pen 51, a max prison for aliens with criminal behavior, and finding a few survivors that weren’t expected. These pages have some very nice interactions between Superboy and Rose, a mercenary working for he company, that starts to paint Superboy’s personality. He isn’t the nicest guy but he is still struggling with his identity so we are uncertain of how his life path will turn out. The action scenes aren’t that intense but we see Superboy getting his ass handed to him and starting to learn more about his powers. While the transition isn’t as smooth as it could’ve been, we still get a Superboy that doesn’t know who he is or what he can do. This is slightly awkward because one would figure he would’ve figured something out by now. But we as readers aren’t left alienated and still get the chance to follow this character’s whole story.
In Summary:
This issue flounders in its approach and transition from the past to the present. It makes the book feel awkward at first and, I at least, felt slightly cheated because the author became more concerned with tie ins than telling his own story. It would’ve been nice to stay in the past for a while longer to flesh out the character a bit more, but the story in the present isn’t bad though. It is quite enjoyable and we, as readers, are not missing out on any crucial information. This allows the story to continue in the present, with the tie in, but still feel like its own story. That is a good thing and will definitely make for a good read in the months to follow. If only the transition was better handled.
Grade: B
