Its Finally Here...
No major spoilers.
When this comic was announced, I was very much excited. One of my favourite comic writers of all time writing not only Superman (one of my favourite characters) and Batman – a character I’ve been wanting to read for a while but haven’t been able to warrant it due to a combination of a low budget and the desire to read all the regular appearances of my five favourite characters. Anyway, after about four months of waiting, I finally got to read this issue.
Greg Pak’s writing, as I expected, was great. The overall story was both exciting and interesting, and it kept me hooked throughout the issue. One of the things touched upon touched upon in the issue was a comparison of the childhoods of the two titular characters. To me this felt somewhat predictable but it definitely worked well. Pak didn’t focus on it too much – which avoided the boredom that could’ve easily accompanied it – while making it fit into the issue nicely.
The thoughts of the titular characters and the speech of everyone seemed genuine and was pulled off well for the most part. There were a couple of instances in which one of the two seemed a little strange. For instance, on the first page someone says “Bud. Kind bud” – I’m no expert on slang nor am I completely knowledgeable on the differences between English in England (where I am) and America but that made no sense to me. Though Clark seemed to understand it as an offer of some sort. On hindsight, it occurred to me that perhaps that was the intention but if that is the case, it remains a strange thing to do. I’d also like to add that this was not the only instance of this kind of thing happening (not that there was that many) its just that this was the first that came to mind.
I’m never quite sure what to think of Jae Lee’s art. To me it can range from amazing to absolutely awful (I can’t stand his drawings of Hulk). Here I liked it, it was as different and refreshing as it should be and worked quite well most of the time with colours that suited the pencils. However, at times the faces and hair looked very odd and some of the bodies were in weird positions. This combined with the weird backgrounds loses an extra element of realism within the story. I also preferred Ben Oliver’s art in the latter seven pages of the issue – though the transition between artists was an odd one. The pencils, inks and colours were great but my only complaint is that the close-ups on Superman’s face didn’t work.
This comic was definitely worth the wait and I cannot wait for the next instalment. I’m confident that anyone with just a basic knowledge of the two characters would be able to understand the comic without a problem and I think (but I’m not certain) that the same can be said for those with little to no knowledge. Out of 10 I give it a 9, I could have easily overlooked my small complaints about the writing and the art if they were separate but the combination of them all stacks up to the loss of a point – and that’s being harsh.