pspin's Superboy Annual #1 - Lost Horizons! review

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    Superboy Annual #1 Review

    Superboy Annual #1 Review

    Overview:

    Superboy and Superman try to escape from a prison dimension.

    The Good:

    Good news everyone, there is some character growth for Superboy! Downside: The story is a bit generic and the dialogue isn’t that great but still, there is hope for the series yet.

    The story is a bit generic and basically just a longer issue of Superboy. It involves Conner and Clark trying to escape from the prison dimension that they were sucked into last time and there are the stereotypical killed-a-galaxy bad guy and his equally twisted first mate and the tormented, sentient planet-thing; but if you like fun romps that involves some good old fashioned beat ‘em up, then you will enjoy the story.

    About the only thing that Tom DeFalco does right here is show that Superboy is learning how to fight more efficiently and becoming a bit more of a people person.

    The art is a mixed bag as there are four artists and the first sequence is a bit trippy. Iban Coello had some very enjoyable art bar some odd facial expressions and Julies Gopez was also good. The rest by Yvel Guichet and Tom Derenick I could personally take or leave but it wasn’t bad.

    The Bad:

    I think I figured out what has been bugging me about Tom DeFalco’s roller coaster of writing. In his attempts to differentiate Superman and Superboy he makes Conner too much like a smartass teenager and Clark too much like a pompous jackass. That is not to say that the dynamic is completely wrong, because it isn’t, but he tries too hard and it overwhelms everything else that is good about the issue. The dialogue spends far too much time talking about how much Superman lectures and how snarky Superboy is after the last issue we get it; they aren’t each-others biggest fans but that is the dialogue for half of the issue. The other half is spent coddling the reader by explaining absolutely everything, and it is a fairly straight forward issue.

    Maybe it is because I am such a Star Wars fan but the bad guys looked a lot like Yuuzahan Vong and the female was wielding Lightwhips. (That might just be my inner fanboy talking though…)

    Verdict:

    A decent issue that showcases some character growth and interesting art suffers from terrible writing, we get that Superboy is a clone and living weapon we don’t need to hear it again! Overall, it is a nice issue but even with the extra length, it is debatable if it is worth the $4.99 price tag. There was a good opportunity for some one-on-one between Connor and Clark and that is unfortunate as well.

    3 (2.75) out of 5

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