Written by Jeff Lemire
Illustrated by Pier GalloIt’s just another day at Smallville High — girl trouble psychic attacks, gym class, lunch with Kid Flash, study hall and alien terrorists from the future!
The third issue of Jeff Lemire and Pier Gallo’s new Superboy series is here, and it brings us to a new arc as well. Does it match up well with the very solid first arc?
Find out after the jump.
Jeff Lemire and Pier Gallo’s first arc, to me, was a mix of some good, some bad, but mostly the former. It’s worked well, and Lemire’s character work has been stellar enough that it’s outweighed everything else.
On this issue though, the balance leans over to the side of bad for me. I think the problem in this issue lies in the fact that the “Then” and “Now” device that Lemire uses makes the issue so busy that there is no real time for development. There is a nice scene between Conner and Bart Allen that prepares readers for the first Superboy/Kid Flash race as well as some nice narration from Conner (I like what he has to say about his walk to school), but scenes featuring Conner interacting with friends Lori and Simon fall flat mostly in my book. The Simon scene in particular was frustrating, as Conner’s logic behind not wanting to be friends was frankly a little thin (as Simon noticed).
Then there is the problem that I don’t particularly enjoy Pier Gallo’s art. It’s a pretty vanilla looking book, and some scenes (namely the bathroom scene with Simon leaned over the faucets) suffer from scaling issues. I don’t really know what it is about the art, but nothing about it really works for me.
Lemire is the highlight of the book for me, and realistically the reason why I’m buying the book. For me though, this issue was fairly mediocre because his script dipped from “stellar” to merely “decent.” Without the exceptional writing, my distaste for the art isn’t offset. Here’s hoping the book gets back on track with the next issue and we see a more dynamic artist on board in the future as well.
Final Verdict: 5.5 – Browse
