Adventure Comics #526

Mosaic

Paul Levitz Writer
Jeffrey May Penciller
Philip May Inker
John J. Hill Letterer
Hi-Fi Colorist
Darren Shan Assistant Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor

Our cover by Phil Jimenez features a handful of characters I'm not familiar with. I do recognize Duplicate Girl on the bottom, but the three on top are new for me. But that doesn't matter, though, because they're all involved in the main story we're going to be skipping. All in all, I think this is a rather odd cover. It's very ... red. And not very exciting.

Our backup story features Jenni Ognats, Bart's cousin, slowly and painstakingly putting together a beautiful mosaic of thousands of tiny, colorful rocks. She's only about halfway done, so it's tough to tell what exactly the mosaic is depicting. What we can see now is a center of a couple of trees surrounded by geometric shapes and lots of lightning bolts. Although Jenni has super-speed, she is choosing to create this work of art in real time, sitting in a hut by the edge of Lake Tana, Ethiopia.

Night Girl pays Jenni a visit, commenting on how odd it is to see her moving so slowly. Jenni merely says she's pacing herself these days. Night Girl asks XS if she'd like to come to the Legion Academy, which initially insults Jenni, who is literally hopping mad, reminding Night Girl that she already was a Legionnaire. Night Girl clarifies, saying she wants Jenni to help train the new recruits. Jenni says that's a better offer, but it's still not appealing, as she abruptly rushes out the door.

As Jenni races across the lake, she kicks herself for being so hasty, and admits it might actually have been fun at the academy. But she tells herself the "family business" she's conducting is more important. Jenni runs to the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania, considering it the birthplace of both sides of her family. She plans to make this gorge the center of her mosaic, and then build outward to the spots the Allen and Ognats ancestors came from. She finds a small turquoise rock, but when she picks it up, she's suddenly assaulted with confusing images of her past and future.

After the images subside, Jenni notes that energy felt like the Speed Force, the Time Barrier, and the ugliest soul she could ever imagine. But, instead of investigating further, Jenni tells herself she got what she came for, and heads back to finish her mosaic slowly, leaving the Legion to deal with whatever threats are out there.




Well, that was ... something? I'm really not sure what to make of this, and based on the handful of reviews I read that came out on the time, nobody else could figure this one out, either. The best guesses some people had back in 2011, was that Jenni's visions had something to do with Flashpoint. But beyond that, I don't understand Jenni's motivations behind building this mosaic. When we last saw Jenni, Bart was trying to convince her to come back to the 21st century with him. But she refused, saying she wanted to stay in the future and look for any relatives she might have here. Apparently that search has turned into a half-hearted archeology dig? I don't get it. We never got a clear answer as to what happened to Jenni's dad or Bart's mom, and this issue only muddies things more. Yeah, we got a bunch of caption boxes revealing Jenni's thoughts, but all her words were oblique clichés that failed to explain her actions or goals. I think this story may have been a victim of Levitz trying too hard to set up some grand mystery, but not giving the reader enough information to make it interesting, let alone actually having enough time to get around to solving said mystery. Like I keep saying, Flashpoint is breathing down our necks, which means that long-form stories like this are going to be harshly cut off halfway through.

Next time, we'll head back to Teen Titans #95.

Adventure Comics #7

What Did Black Lantern Superboy Do?

Tony Bedard Writer
Travis Moore Penciller
Dan Green, Keith Champagne & Bob Wiacek Inkers
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor
Special thanks to Geoff Johns, Eddie Berganza & Adam Schlagman

Our main cover by Aaron Lopresti shows Black Lantern Superboy battling his one-time girlfriend, Wonder Girl, in the Fortress of Solitude. There's a faint light emanating from Conner's ring, but I'm not sure what it's actually doing. Anyway, this is a solid, straight-forward cover. Nothing too special, but it gets the job done.

Our variant cover by Francis Manapul (from dc.fandom.com) again goes to the multi-panel gimmick, which I probably never will like. But I do like most of the original panels, giving us Manapul's take on some key moments in this issue. Although I will admit the largest panel in the middle looks a bit off. Something about zombie Superboy's face just doesn't work for me.

Our story begins with Black Lantern Superboy attacking Wonder Girl in Coast City. The real Superboy is trapped inside his body, unable to prevent himself from choking Cassie. Naturally, this reminds him of the last time he became someone else's puppet and was forced to attack his friends.

Superboy remembers that last time, he was able to shake off Lex Luthor's programming, and he attempts to do the same now. But his "real self" is manifested as a withering, weak body floating in endless darkness. He does gain some hope when Cassie begins calling out to him, but he's horrified by the mean-spirited words his "zombie self" begins hurling at Cassie. Luckily, Cassie is smart enough to know that's the ring talking, even though the words do hurt more than the punches. She wraps Conner in her lasso and electrocutes him, which enables the real Superboy to take control for a millisecond and whistle for Krypto.

Krypto arrives four seconds later, and Conner is thrilled to see the will, love and rage manifested in his faithful dog. But then he's surprised to see his zombie self use freeze breath on Krypto — a power Conner thought he didn't have. Zombie Superboy again turns on Wonder Girl, feeding her the usual Black Lantern lines about how everything will make more sense once she surrenders to Nekron. Conner suddenly gets a brilliant idea, and while his zombie self monologues, he takes control of his heat vision to carve out a message to Cassie: "Fortress."

Cassie understands the message well enough and immediately takes off for the Fortress of Solitude. Black Lantern Superboy naturally follows her, as does Krypto. Cassie quickly gets inside the fortress, but doesn't understand what, exactly, Conner was referring to. However, Krypto knows, and he digs up the healing chamber that currently holds Conner's corpse, undergoing its thousand-year recovery regiment. Krypto pulls the corpse out of the pod and the Black Lantern ring becomes confused.

Luckily, everything goes according to plan and the ring eventually flies off Conner's finger and heads toward the corpse, which Krypto keenly keeps away from the ring. Conner realizes he can't let the ring actually attach itself to the corpse, because then he wouldn't be able to destroy it without killing himself. So once he regains control of his body, he hits the ring with a blast of freeze breath while it's still in midair. Cassie scoops up the frozen ring and tosses it into space, hoping it'll stay frozen forever up there. (Remarkably, the ice did not melt on its path out of Earth's atmosphere.)

Conner and Cassie put his corpse back in the chamber so history can resume like normal and he can be revived in the future. Conner explains that he actually has Luthor to thank for giving him experience fighting off mind control, as well as Raven's subsequent trainings, otherwise he never would have been able to resist the Black Lantern. He then leads Wonder Girl and Krypto back to Coast City, where the Black Lantern Kid Flash is still running amok and none of our heroes have become Lantern deputies yet.




Bart only appeared in the background of a couple of panels in this issue, but it still was nice to see what his best friends were up to during this time. And it was especially nice to see the condition of an imprisoned soul in a Black Lantern body. I wish we could have received a similarly emotional story about Bart, but the only person writing Bart's story is Geoff Johns, and I don't think he's ever spent more than two seconds trying to get into Bart's head. Anyway, I thought this was a solid and fairly logical story. Granted, the pervading "logic" of these Black Lantern rings has always been a bit tenuous, but this story made enough sense for me. Now let's check out the new ads:

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EverQuest II: Sentinel's Fate.

Human Target. A brand-new six-issue limited series inspired by the Fox TV show.

Dante's Inferno. Go to Hell.

A four-page black-and-white preview of First Wave, a six-issue limited series about Batman, Doc Savage and the Spirit.

The DC Nation page shows the black-and-white versions of the covers to the Return of Bruce Wayne.

Supreme Commander 2.

Halo Legends on Blu-Ray and DVD.

Next time, we'll see how Bart gets that Black Lantern ring off his finger in Blackest Night: The Flash #3.

Adventure Comics #6

Superboy: The Boy of Steel Part Five

Geoff Johns Writer
Francis Manapul Artist
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato Covers
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Brian Cunningham Editor
Special thanks to Richard Zajac

Our main cover shows a rather goofy, Saturday-morning-cartoon-esque image of Superboy and Krypto being chased by a Tyrannosaurus rex. It's bright, it's colorful, it's fun, it's delightful. And it actually is a scene from this comic. Amid the never-ending Blackest Night saga, it's quite refreshing to see a boy and his dog having adventures with dinosaurs.

I took this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com. I'll never enjoy these multi-panel covers, but this does give us a more complete picture of the story inside. It's not just a fun adventure about a boy and his dog. It's also a rather dark story about Lex Luthor.

Our story picks up with Superboy having a very unusual encounter with Luthor. Long story short, Lex has decided to cure his invalid sister just to prove he can. So he sends Superboy back in time, to Bizarro world and Atlantis to acquire the exotic ingredients needed for Lena's cure. But immediately after curing Lena, Lex administers a second shot that returns her to a drooling woman confined to a wheelchair.

Superboy is naturally furious with this, and become even more enraged with Lex's explanation for his actions: "Lex giveth — and Lex taketh away. I proved what I could do. And the secret stays with me until Superman is dead." Superboy throws Lex through the window for his evil and cruelty, but then Brainiac suddenly shows up and attacks Superboy. Krypto jumps in to help, and Brainiac and Luthor promptly teleport away.

Later, Superboy meets at a campfire with his best friends — Bart, Tim and Cassie, all in costume — to tell them about this traumatizing event. Bart's first question is about Lena's daughter, Lori, who brought Superboy into this whole mess. Kon thinks Lori is going to be OK, and he thanks Tim for calling in the Wayne Foundation to care for Lena. Kon then pulls out the secret journal he's been keeping to record his thoughts on which "dad" he was most like — Superman or Lex Luthor. But now, Kon realizes that because of his heart, he'll never be like Luthor and he doesn't need a journal or lab test to tell him that anymore. He then tosses the journal into the fire, and these four long-time friends share a quiet, contemplative moment.

Geoff Johns insisted on opening up the new Adventure Comics with a five-part Superboy story. But Final Crisis: Legion of 3 Worlds took a very long time to wrap up, which meant by the time Adventure Comics came out, Johns' massive, company-wide event, Blackest Night, had already started. And to make matters even more awkward, continuity-wise, DC shoe-horned that Superboy-Prime Blackest Night story into the middle of this Superboy story. You kind of get whiplash reading these comics in publication order.

But putting all that aside, this was a good Superboy story. I am a huge fan of Manapul and Buccellato, and it's great seeing Superboy get back into the swing of things. And the ending with Luthor was a shocking, disgusting display of true evil. Nothing as grand as trying to take over the entire Earth, but just as awful and repulsive. My only regret with this story was that Manapul didn't get to draw Bart, Tim and Cassie more.

There weren't any new ads, but I will point out there were five full pages devoted to Mass Effect 2. The DC Nation page talks about five lucky students from the Harvey Milk High School, who won a tour of the DC offices.

Next time, we'll return to the doom and gloom of Blackest Night: The Flash #2.

Adventure Comics #5

He Primed Me Part Two: Flame War

Geoff Johns and Sterling Gates – Writers
Jerry Ordway – Penciller
Bob Wiacek and Jerry Ordway – Inkers
Ken Lopez – Letterer
Brian Buccellato – Colorist
Jerry Ordway, Francis Manapul, and Brian Buccellato – Covers
Sean Ayan – Editor

Our main cover is a twist on George Pérez's famous image from Crisis on Infinite Earths of Superman holding the dead Supergirl in his arms. But this time, it's Alexander Luthor holding Superboy-Prime. And Alexander is actually the dead one — not Prime. It's a pretty fun cover, and another indication of just how deep and far the Blackest Night event reaches. Even on Earth-Prime, the place without any superheroes, is affected by the resurrection of heroes and villains.

I got this variant cover from dc.fandom.com. I love Manapul's take on Superboy-Prime as a Red Lantern. And all the side images are nice, too, but I'm still not a fan of these disjointed "panel" covers.

Our story picks up with the Black Lantern Alexander Luthor leading a group of Black Lantern versions of many of the people Superboy-Prime killed. Alexander has somehow restored Prime's Anti-Monitor armor because he wants him as powerful and, more importantly, as emotional, as possible. The fight has carried over to Manhattan, as Prime has realized that even with his great strength, he can't actually kill these zombies. But he does know who can actually stop these creatures — the writers and editors at DC Comics.

So Superboy-Prime flies through the DC offices, terrorizing all the real people in charge of the company, such as Dan DiDio, Eddie Berganza and many more. But before Prime is able to actually kill any of them, Alexander teleports Prime and the rest of the Black Lanterns back to Prime's basement. Alexander points out Prime's large comic book collection, saying most people find hope and inspiration from these books, but for Prime, these books are his kryptonite, as they only fill him with rage. Alexander then brings up Prime's girlfriend, Laurie, insinuating that Prime had killed her when he lost control.

The Black Lanterns finally pin Prime down and begin removing his armor to get to his heart. Prime notices a Black Lantern ring buzzing around him, just waiting for him to die. He then concludes that since he can't beat the Black Lanterns, he might as well join them. But instead of allowing the zombies to rip out his heart, Prime shoves them all off him, grabs the ring and puts it on his finger.

The ring commands Clark Kent of Earth-Prime to die, and momentarily turns him into a Black Lantern. But Prime resists, and sensing his great willpower, the ring actually turns into a Green Lantern ring. But then it quickly turns indigo, picking up on Prime's compassion, as he genuinely regrets what he did to Laurie. But Prime also wants everyone to love him, so the ring becomes orange for avarice. It then immediately turns yellow for fear, seeing all the heroes Prime once admired but now fears. The ring even creates yellow images of Superman, some of the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Flash, and, of course, Bart Allen.

The ring then settles on the color red for Superboy-Prime's intense rage. And the ring realizes the thing Prime hates the most in the world is himself and what he's become. Prime lashes out at the Black Lanterns with his Red Lantern powers. But the ring makes one last change to purple for love, as Prime's thoughts return to his dead girlfriend. He creates an explosion of purple energy that finally destroys all the Black Lanterns once and for all (including half his stuff in the basement).

Prime collapses to the ground, as the ring tries to simultaneously return to all those different colors, but ultimately breaks apart. Prime begins to cry, wishing he could be given a happy ending. Suddenly, Laurie comes running down the basement stairs. She's not dead, although her arm is in a sling. She tells Clark that "they" heard him and are sorry, so they sent her back to make sure Clark isn't alone. As Clark embraces Laurie, we see a Black Lantern ring on Laurie's hand identifying the emotion of hope in Clark.




This was a fun, wild comic. I always feel like I enjoy Superboy-Prime stories much more than I should. And that's probably because I've dealt with far too many comic book "fans" who act too much like Prime. When you think about it, this story doesn't make much sense, but it doesn't seem to take itself too seriously, either. Besides, Prime has always kind of been the exception to the rule, so it's sort of understandable how the Black Lantern ring would react so differently to him. Prime's greatest weakness has always been that he's too emotional. Period. He's incredibly cowardly, angry and selfish. And below that, is the powerful belief that he was, is and should be a good guy. And so you get this strange mix of powerful emotions that Prime, and a power ring, can't control. So even though this story doesn't make much sense, there is a certain amount of logic behind it.

Superboy was relegated to the backup feature of this issue, and it's a little awkward since that story takes place before Blackest Night began. I know DC had a big problem with publishing stories out of order at this time, but to have this problem blatantly on display within the same issue is taking the cake. Well, let's check out the new ads:

Your last days begin now. Darksiders on Xbox 360 and PS3.

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Heroic Holiday Gift Guide 2009. dcholidaysweeps.com.

See it first on BBC America. Doctor Who.

The DC Nation page just shows some pictures of staffers at a Halloween party.

Make your first impression their last! Dragon Ball Raging Blast on PS3 and Xbox 360.

I just dropped by to say die. Bayonetta on Xbox 360 and PS3.

Next time, we'll take a quick look at Deathstroke and his messed up family in Teen Titans #78.

Adventure Comics #1

Superboy: The Boy of Steel Part One

Geoff Johns Writer
Francis Manapul Artist
Brian Buccellato Colorist
Steve Wands Letterer
Francis Manapul and Brian Buccellato Covers
Sean Ryan Associate Editor
Elisabeth V. Gehrlein Editor

Unlike our favorite speedster, Bart, Superboy was granted the honor of having his own solo series when he was resurrected. Well, sort of. Adventure Comics was historically the home of Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes, and that's essentially what we have here once again. So while this is ostensibly a solo Superboy title, he is sharing space with the Legion, usually as a backup story. That's why DC put a faint number 504 behind the large number 1 on the main cover. Although DC wanted the notoriety of a new first issue, they also wanted to indicate a sort of continuation of the original series that last 503 issues. Personally, I would have preferred keeping the legacy numbering and calling this Adventure Comics #504. But that's just me.

Our main cover features the beautiful art of Manapul and Buccellato. Superboy is stoically flying right between his two "fathers." Superman, looking up into the light, and Lex Luthor, gazing down into the darkness, holding a large piece of kryptonite. It's a fantastic cover, although I would have tweaked Superboy's face a little bit. But I'm a huge sucker for Manapul's style, so I still love this all the same.

I got this image of the variant cover from dc.fandom.com (formerly dc.wikia.com — same site, different name). This cover shows a bunch of different images from future storylines in this series, which is an interesting approach. I'm not sure I like it, but I do give them kudos for trying something different. Also note that this cover made the number 504 bold in front of a faint number 1. I kind of feel like DC is trying to have its cake and eat it, too, with this "double numbering," but the uniqueness of the whole situation is intriguing to me. I won't say fully it's good or bad, just ... different.

This issue recaps the first week of Superboy reclaiming his old life. He's living with Ma Kent now, still on the old Smallville farm, with faithful Krypto now a constant presence. Conner is so happy to be alive, he eagerly completes all the daily chores — plowing the fields, taking out the trash, doing the dishes, etc. On Monday, he re-enrolls at Smallville High. On Tuesday, he reunites with the Teen Titans, choosing to destroy the large golden statue of himself in front of the San Francisco tower.

Bart Allen also wants to destroy his own statue, asking Conner to melt it with heat vision, before changing his mind and requesting him to freeze and then shatter the monument. Conner sadly reports he doesn't have freeze breath, so Bart hypothesizes that he just needs to visualize something cold, like the bathroom floor in the tower in the morning (which is why Bart wears his boots to bed, he says). And that's all the Bart we get in this issue. The main takeaway from this story is that even though Conner is thrilled to be alive again, he is secretly worried about becoming like Lex Luthor again. But we're not too concerned about that or the backup of Starman recounting the history of the Legion of Super-Heroes.




Obviously this story takes place before Blackest Night and after Flash: Rebirth. But we're mostly following the publication order on this blog, so we get to re-experience this frustrating era of DC. No wonder they'd try to blow everything up in just two years. Anyway, Bart's back, but we still don't know anything beyond that. He's been seen hanging out with the Teen Titans, but he still hasn't officially shown up in the pages of Teen Titans. And we have no idea where Bart's living now. Max Mercury is back ... right? So has Bart returned to Max and Helen and everyone in Manchester, Alabama, or is he with Jay and Joan Garrick in Denver, or perhaps Keystone? How much of his old life does he remember? Is he now essentially an adult trapped in the body of a teenager? Bart really needed his own solo series to answer these questions, because we sadly know that Geoff Johns isn't going to take the time to answer them in his stories about Barry Allen.

As for this issue, in particular, it was a nice, calm, relaxing change of pace from the frantic pace of Flash: Rebirth and Blackest Night. The highlight of this issue was the artwork, utilizing large panels to let the work breathe and show off the beautiful coloring of sunsets, swamps and schools. I did think it a bit odd that Superboy visited the Teen Titans on a Tuesday, when Johns had previously emphasized the fact of that group being strictly a weekend venture. But I did like Bart and Conner's desire to destroy the monuments of their death to signal their return to the world. Now let's check out the new ads:

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Get 10% off the strategy guide when you buy it with Batman: Arkham Asylum from GameStop.

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Blackest Night action figures.

Batman and Robin by Frank Quitely and Grant Morrison.

The world's strangest super heroes are back ... and they brought those robot guys with 'em! Doom Patrol.

Heroes reimagined by comics superstar J. Michael Straczynski. The Red Circle.

The DC Nation page is Ian Sattler advertising Batman: The Widening Gyre.

Heck: Where the Bad Kids Go by Dale E. Basye.

No safe haven. Only asylum. Batman: Arkham Asylum for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. This game changed the video game world, inspiring tons of sequels, prequels and even a Spider-Man game almost 10 years later. I'm not a gamer by any means, but even I played this one.

Next time, we'll get an expanded look at those two panels of Bart from Blackest Night in Blackest Night: Titans #1.