SUPERBOY #13

(W) Tom DeFalco
(P) R.B. Silva
(I) Rob Lean

What garbage. I'm sorry - I usually refrain from using such frank and harsh words in the name of decency and (semi)professionalism. But this time, I just can't help myself. Superboy #13 is such a a terrible example of the comic book format that it embarrasses me. DC's 'New 52' initiative was largely meant to introduce new readers to comic books in a way that wasn't embroiled in continuity and studious knowledge of past chronology. Now, I'm all for a strong, cohesive continuity within a comic book universe, but Tom DeFalco just kills the concept by bringing up obscure references from past issues like it's going out of style. I've read every issue of Superboy so far, so if I'm annoyed by the amount of Editor's Notes littered throughout the issue, I can't even begin to imagine what a curious reader might think.

Superboy #13 is the epitome of unnecessary and stupid. Not only does the ongoing narrative plot of the series fail to progress, but it feels like a step backwards because at the end, Superboy reunites with Caitlin Fairchild and her not-Ravagers-but-Ravagers group of misfits. I thought we were done with all that N.O.W.H.E.R.E. bullshit, but here it comes again just to make me mad, I'm assuming.

No, I would not recommend reading Superboy #13. There's literally no value to that purchase. Wait for "H'el on Earth" to start - hopefully that event can shoot some life into the dull, formless mess DeFalco is calling an ongoing series. Jocelyn Lure? The most underdeveloped, least interesting character I've seen in years. Superboy's landlord, Dallas? So completely useless and stupid, I cannot even tell you. And because this series' chronic problem of hideous inner monologue persists, there doesn't seem to be any redeeming factors about this issue. Don't buy it, don't read it. I promise you're not missing anything.

Oh, and the cover features the special handcuffs designed to suppress Superboy's powers because that's definitely worth making prominent on the cover image of your comic booj.

GRADE

1.5/10

SUPERBOY #12

STORY: Tom DeFalco
ART: Robson Rocha, Eduardo Pansica, Greg Adams, Mariah Benes, and Andy Owens.

Well, so much for that short-lived run of passable Superboy issues. Scott Lobdell's reintroduction of the Boy of Steel has been riddled with problems since the beginning. The task of reassigning years of convoluted backstory is already a daunting one, yet Lobdell decided it would be fun to make things even more complicated by starting off with one of the most complex, interwoven, boring story arcs I've read in a long time. That being said, issues 10 and 11 went on the upswing, taking Kon-El (and the Teen Titans because they can't possible exist without each other, right? RIGHT?) to Mystery Island then to New York City, giving him new placed to explore and discover more about himself without the distractions of villains constantly swinging at him.

Superboy #12 loses it's grip and falls down to "N.O.W.H.E.R.E." levels of sap and disingenuousness. Last month, we learned that Kon's understanding of good and bad are somewhat skewed when he purposefully robbed a bank in order to live a comfortable enough life in New York City. While this situation was approached by fellow Teen Titan Bunker, I gave Lobdell and Tom DeFalco a pass because it was such a small part of the overall issue. Unfortunately, the same problem that's been plaguing Superboy since it's first issue are back, and it's worse than ever after a couple of decent issues that showed these writers can actually do good work with this character. This issue, however, is not good work. There really isn't a story in these pages as much as a string of random occurrences that somehow culminate in a confrontation with some unexplained mystical enemy. Every bit of this issue is groan-worthy and eye-rollingly silly.

It turns out Superboy's landlord, Dallas, is a Paris Hilton-esque party girl with little ambition and a cadre of semi-famous friends that aren't all that interesting. DeFalco transports us readers to a stereotypical nightclub with cliched night owls raging to indistinguishable dance music. It's here that the audience is treated to pages and pages of inane dialogue between Dallas, her friends, and the ever-annoyingly-naive Superboy. Last issue, I explained that the main problem with Superboy's limited understanding of the real world is that it's inconsistent. If N.O.W.H.E.R.E. was trying to create a competent being that could operate in the human world, basic morality and ethics would have been a part of the downloaded curriculum. Here, it's more evident than ever. How does a person who knows advanced mathematical formulas and can manipulate telekinetic energy not know how to dance? He never even saw a clip of people dancing? The idea that simple pieces of knowledge like these apparently slipped through the cracks is just preposterous. And I haven't even got to the issue's villain yet.

Up at bat this month is Kiva, a woman with glowing eyes who can make you see things that aren't there. It's really no more complicated than that, but DeFalco spends most of these panels with Superboy's continued confusion at the situation. It's extremely frustrating to see the main character fumble around so much in his own series. Yes, it's jarring to have your surroundings suddenly change in an instant, but Kon-El has been through much worse than some wonky demon-looking things.

Really, this issue feels phoned in. Tom DeFalco's awful story is just boring and gratingly inane, while the artwork from Robson Rocha and Eduardo Pansica is plain ugly. There was only one panel I truly enjoyed and that's because it had hints of Darwyn Cooke's style nestled in there. Otherwise, the panels looked rushed and dated. I really did have high hopes for Superboy after it's last two issues. I even conceded that my issues with the series were due to the cumbersome N.O.W.H.E.R.E. arc. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Superboy is just bad.

GRADE:

D-

(COMIC) TEEN TITANS #10

STORY: Scott Lobdell
ART: Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund

And just like that, Scott Lobdell is getting it right! This month's Superboy acted as part one of "The Mysterious Mystery of Mystery Island", and Teen Titans #10 brings us the other half of the post-"Culling" aftermath with Red Robin, Kid Flash, Solstice, and Bunker.

Since Lobdell used the first nine months of the 'New 52' to tell his sprawling, epically nonsensical arc about N.O.W.H.E.R.E., it makes sense to break this "cool down" into two parts, allowing for each character to get a bit more panel time as a result. While the writing isn't as personal as the scenes between Superboy and Wonder Girl, Lobdell still manages to give each character a lot more depth. For one, Kid Flash and Solstice have a thing. I'm sure Lobdell would argue that he planted the seeds for this relationship throughout the N.O.W.H.E.R.E. N.O.N.S.E.N.S.E., but he really didn't. Either way, the scene doesn't come off as forced or pandering - these kids actually seem like they enjoy each other's company.

About seven pages in, we meet up with Superboy and Wonder Girl at the point where Superboy #10 ended, bringing them to the 'other side' of the island, which meant it literally flipped over. With the team reassembled, Kon-El and Cassie discuss telling the others about the crazy flipped island thingy they discovered, but ultimately decide to not say anything based on the fact that no one knows what it means, so why cause more anxiety. After that, the island's nature isn't touched on again. This would be one of my only criticisms of this issue - Lobdell totally drops the island story in favor of one-on-one character dialogues. Honestly, the character development is much better anyway (and very much needed), so it's not even that big of a deal. It's mostly annoying on principle.


Tim Drake has a major crisis of conscience this month as he fails to see his succes beyond the failures that that came with it. Artemis was murdered (still confused as to why such a minor character made such a big impact), Danny the Street was destroyed, and Skitter is still missing. Tim feels like he didn't do enough, and decides to disband the Titans while chatting with Bunker. It's a childish decision - one based on fear - and Bunker stops Tim to knock some sense into him. Like many other heroes before him, Tim gets the 'responsibility' from Bunker about being a leader, taking initiative, making the tough decisions, and pressing on even when the going gets tough.


This, of course, leads us into the most awkward one-on-one of the issue between Superboy and Red Robin where Kon-El asks Tim exactly why he came to rescue him in the first place. Like a pretentious middle-aged accountant talking to a child, Tim tells Superboy to wait six months and learn before asking that question again. I'm sure Lobdell didn't intend for Tim to come worse than Bono, but it feels that way. Poor Kon-El - clones are sooooooo dumb, right?


I began reading this issue groaning each time N.O.W.H.E.R.E. or the Culling was mentioned. I wasn't a fan of that storyline, and at first, it felt like Lobdell basically doesn't have any other ideas, so he's forced to keep reminding us about this big thing that happened in order to fill speech bubble space. After a while, though, I realized that this is Lobdell's transition period - soon, new enemies will show up (like Amanda Waller - all around bad-ass) and the convoluted tale of N.O.W.H.E.R.E. can be relegated to the "early mistakes" pile.

GRADE

B

(COMIC) TEEN TITANS #8

STORY: Scott Lobdell
ART: Ig Guara and JP Mayer

As the creative force behind Teen Titans, Superboy, and Red Hood and The Outlaws, Scott Lobdell has a lot of room to create fantastic stories that involve a great lineup of characters that could possibly evolve into a sort-of mini-universe within DC's larger mainframe. Unfortunately, Lobdell has completely squandered both Teen Titans and Superboy with trite dialogue, a ridiculously convoluted tale about the organization called N.O.W.H.E.R.E. (a pet peeve of mine is unexplained acronyms) that captures/recruits teenaged metahumans for some mysterious use. Also, some weirdo mutant thing called Harvest is the ringleader of the whole thing.

Apparently, Lobdell is building toward some 'official' crossover between Teen Titans and Superboy called "The Culling". By dictionary definition, a culling means a trimming down, a reduction. I can only assume this is the central idea behind Lobdell's crossover because there's been absolutely no indication of what this culling actually is. This month's Superboy carried the same "The Culling: Prelude" tag as this issue of Teen Titans, yet there's nothing to in either issue that points to this event - the exception being the cameos of Beast Boy and Terra at the end of Superboy #8.

This month in Teen Titans, the team is somehow already balls-deep in a fight with Omen, a metahuman teenager who can manipulate reality and...minds? Maybe? It's not really explained, like most things in Teen Titans, so I suppose I should stop complaining, huh? Mostly, Omen brings out the insecurities and fears of each team member, using these feelings to pit them against each other. But at the end, it turns out that the entire issue was a dream being collectively shared by the team. They've been strapped to steel lab beds the entire time, all of their struggles simply a made-up reality courtesy of Omen.

Honestly, it feels like a lot of wasted time. If all of it was a just a hallucination of-sorts, what was the point? What purpose did this entire issue serve? And with painful dialogue like, "Wha--? Last thing I remember was writhing in Omens grip...and now I'm dressed like Superboy's prom date. And bound to this table, to boot. Super strength would normally be enough to break free but..." This monologue by Wonder Girl made me literally cringe while reading it. Nobody talks like that ever. It's an affront to basic intelligence to make a character literally say what they are thinking. It's abhorrent and Lobdell better start taking a look at how he treats this title or he will lose all of his readers.

Also, Superboy is on the cover, yet not in the issue. This is sooooooo aggravating I cannot tell you.

GRADE:

D

(COMIC) TEEN TITANS #7

Written by Scott Lobdell
Artwork by Brett Booth and Norm Rapmund

I don't know what's going on with Scott Lobdell. With Teen Titans and Superboy both currently his responsibility, Lobdell has managed to totally undo twelve of decent storytelling in a single month. In my review of this month's Superboy, I waxed poetic about how Lobdell was telling us his story instead of showing us, which is a cardinal sin when dealing in graphic arts. This month unfortunately shows that Lobdell is migrating his Superboy style over to Teen Titans, with horribly long info dumps to prove it. Along with an extremely chopped up narrative, Teen Titans #7 might be the worst of the series so far.

The issue starts with a jump into the near future. Superboy is once again being held against his will by N.O.W.H.E.R.E., and Director Centerhall decides to bore everyone to death with a five-bubble monologue that takes up the ENTIRE FIRST PAGE. That's right, the first page of the entire issue is dedicated to a lengthy diatribe from a villain in a situation that hasn't been explained yet. It's maddening. After Kid Flash pops up for a second, Lobdell immediately throws the reader back in time.

Then we meet Danny the Street. In Scott Lobdell's new Teen Titan universe, there is a metahuman teenager who is an actual street and has the ability to create doors that lead to random destinations. What. A. Joke. Backed into a narrative corner, Lobdell pens a character, with literally no personality, whose only exists to serve a trite narrative function - get the kids out of a jam. It's such a stupid concept that I kept getting distracted and trying to think of an explanation for why Lobdell would think such a convoluted idea was a good one.

The rest of the issue fairs no better. At one point, the narrative shifts to Wonder Girl as she stands over a defeated Ravager with an editor's note explaining that the fight can be seen in Superboy #8. WHAT A CROCK OF SHIT! This issue is all about Superboy's rescue operation and Lobdell conveniently decides to leave out an arguably vital part of the story (considering the upcoming The Ravagers series) with no obvious reason other than to sell more issues of Superboy.

It's unfortunate that a team as great as the Teen Titans is being dragged through this narrative mud. When a writer treats his audience with little regard to their intelligence, it's apparent and it's insulting. Scott Lobdell has managed to make me seriously rethink Teen Titans and Superboy as A-list titles from the 'New 52.'

GRADE:

C-