WRITTEN BY: Mark Millar
ILLUSTRATED BY: Leinil Francis YuWho is–what is–SUPERIOR? And what the hell is he doing breaking into Jonah’s room in the middle of the night? Superior’s just a guy from comics and movies, anyway, so what did this tights-wearing maniac done to Ollie, Jonah’s wheelchair-bound best friend? But as Superior shows off his powers, Jonah learns that things aren’t all they seem. MARK MILLAR (KICK-ASS, NEMESIS, OLD MAN LOGAN) and his ULTIMATE AVENGERS 2 collaborator LEINIL FRANCIS YU (SECRET INVASION, NEW AVENGERS, ULTIMATE WOLVERINE VS. HULK) continue to bring us a new age of superhero comics!
Mark Millar’s love letter to Superman continues! Superior #2 hit the shelves this week and I couldn’t resist getting my thoughts on the to page for you. What did I think? Well, you’ll just have to click the cut to find out!
For some reason, I think Millar…missed the mark (so to speak). I understand that this is his love letter to Superman, and I get the significance of the powers coming to a disabled teenager, and even his dealing with the change.
But something about the book just doesn’t entirely click for me. Maybe it’s the idea I’ve seen this issue before, with the adjusting to a new set of powers and learning to fly and what-have-you. I’ve seen this all before, and it’s not really the most interesting part of the Superman/Superior mythos. I feel like this and the first issue could have been condensed into a single issue or at the most an issue and a half.
But I suppose other than the gratuitous foul language that might come out of a pair of teenagers’ mouths. I know it’s “real life,” but sometimes, I don’t need to hear it so much in one issue. At one point, I don’t see it as natural language in a teenager’s vocabulary and simply…foul language added for the same of adding foul language.
But I think when Millar stops being hip and starts to write a comic, he succeeds really well, despite my opinion that another origin might be a waste of time, he tells it very well, and in some ways, improves upon the dynamic set in the recent origin episodes on Matt’s favorite series “No Ordinary Family.”
Even the end, where he’s just learning to get the hang of flying, only to be blindsided by something he’s not sure how to handle, was brilliant.
Maybe Miller just needs to lay off the pop culture puns and the references to things we don’t’ care about and just write something we can all care about.
I’m also not really sure of how he does it, but he manages to get the best A-List artists from the Marvel Bullpen and put them into the creator-owned books he creates. First it was Romita, then it was McNiven, and now it’s Leinil Yu. And for what it’s worth, Yu’s art is on par with the best it’s ever been. There are minor problems I have with it, the sometimes sketchiness being part of it. It’s been a problem I’ve had with Yu’s art for a while now, and while it’s not nearly as prevalent as some of his earlier work like Secret Invasion or even Ultimate Hulk vs. Wolverine, it’s still there, and it muddies up the faces in my opinion.
But aside from my problems with the art and the….creative usage of language, it had a killer cliff hanger; one that made me want to read the next issue ASAP. Does this mean that with the appearance of Superior, that his whole world comes with it? Perhaps. We can only see next month…or whenever #3 finds its way to the shelves.
But as a love letter to Superman, I don’t think it really works. You’d do much better to read All-Star Superman.
Final Verdict: 7.5 – Buy
