A
comic review of art, storytelling, and theology.
COVER
GRADE: C
Art:
Nick Cardy
At a
quick glance, this cover creates some intrigue. I like the angered expression
on Superman’s face and the big flow of his cape. But I think the best is the
subtle shadowed man at the project. Not enough details to give anything away,
but just enough to make him detailed enough to be interesting.
I
like the idea of this cover to express a shadowy figure that knows everything
about Superman including his future, but after the initial surprise wears off,
about the time I was reading the bland text of the “Life-File” I realized how
clunky the presentation is. Should I really get that excited about a weird
looking old guy giving a slideshow presentation? Although the art is good, it
feels like it could have been planned out to express this all-knowing mystery
person in a much more exciting way. Maybe like a museum type hallway of
artifacts or creepy, stalker type shrine in a hidden cabinet. 1970’s PowerPoint
just isn’t that exciting.
On a
side note, it looks like Superman’s belt might be on too tight. Maybe he ate
too much at the Chinese buffet last night?
STORYTELLER'S
GRADE for "The Man Who Wrote Superman’s Obituary!": C
Story:
Elliot Maggin
Clark
Kent visits Ryan Lowell, the sole operator of the Daily Planet’s Morgue (see
morgue file https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgue_file) to
investigate a story. Out of curiously Clark Kent uses X-Ray vision to see if Lowell
is also keeping a file on Clark Kent. He is scared to see his file contains
notes written in Kryptonese detailing his life as Superman. Superman discovers
that the ticker-tape machine in the Daily Planet’s Morgue shares the same
electronic frequency used by Superman to print his diary in the Fortress of
Solitude. So when Superman writes in his diary, it also appears on Lowell’s
ticker. Superman confronts Ryan Lowell, and learns that Lowell understands
Kryptonese and everything written in the files. However, Superman decides to
trust Lowell as a kindred reporter capable of protecting the confidentiality of
his sources.
It’s
an okay story that keeps you interested as you read it, but it has a lot of
letdowns that you only realize after you finish.
The
centerpiece of this story (including a little over half of the pages) is a
battle between Superman and Ozymaxias, a humanoid plant creature with
comparable powers to Superman. Although it’s somewhat interesting and provides
a neat problem for Superman to solve, it turns out that the whole thing is made
up. Superman writes this imaginary story in his diary to verify that the
information in Lowell’s morgue file is coming directly from his diary at the
Fortress of Solitude. Do I really want to recall one of Superman’s exploits
with “Remember that time Superman made up a story?” No. Not really interested.
My
primary other complaint is that the cover talks about the mysterious figure
knowing the exact moment Superman will die. That’s not part of the story at
all. It’s a pretty big element given to the writer that he completely leaves
out.
There’s
also a neat plot point where Superman checks in with all of his super friends
to see if any of them knows how his secret identity was leaked into the Daily
Planet files. Unfortunately it ends with an odd encounter with Green Lantern
that just leaves a bad taste in your mouth.
But
what about that accidental frequency Lowell picked up on…all the way from
Antarctica! You know someone else has accidentally found that frequency too.
Superman better get that fixed.
ARTIST
GRADE for Superman: B-
Art:
Curt Swan, Bob Oskner
From
the first page I noticed that the art seemed more dynamic that the last few
issues starting with the Superman fly in, busting through a Superman logo. I
went back to compare it to last month (below on the right), and I was surprised to see that they
tried it there too, but I didn’t even realize it because of there was less
detail. This
month (below on the left) the break through is obvious, and even the lettering in the top left
appears to be getting whooshed by the fly-in.
I
did enjoy the design of the bad guy. Sure, it’s a somewhat stereotypical plant
monster, but we don’t see those too often.
Plus
it was fun to watch him hammer Superman into the ground with a rock.
My
one big complaint is that the pacing just feels slow. Here’s a good example:
It
takes 5 panels to show the bad guy knock Superman into the air and then throw
him back down to the ground. I can imagine how an artist could use a full page
to draw this out, but this 5 panel layout makes the action feel slow. This
slowness persists throughout the issue which really brings down the art flow.
STORYTELLER
GRADE for "The Rodeo Riddle Contract" starring the Human Target: B+
Story:
Len Wein
Christopher
Chance is filling as a human target for Rick Ryan, the Rodeo Champion. The
suspects are: (1) Chet Hawkins who’s been second place behind Ryan for the past
two years, (2) Vince Jackson who was the heir-apparent to this rodeo until his
father lost it in a game of poker to Ryan, (3) Harve Kimble who is the
ex-boyfriend to Ryan’s now-fiancée Carla. Chance competes in the Saddle Bronc
Riding Event as Ryan where the saddle strap breaks and Chance must escape the
bucking bronco. Chance discovers that his saddle strap was cut as Hawkins,
Jackson, and Kimble are gathered around. Chance points at the men exclaiming
that he knows that “he” did it as a ruse hoping that one of the men would
react. As hoped a pitchfork is thrown at Chance by Kimble, but Chance
apprehends the would-be killer. As Chance explains the situation, Carla
accidentally confesses that she hired Kimble to scare Ryan, but Kimble took it
too far and tried to kill him. Ryan had been putting off their wedding so often
that Carla was afraid that Ryan would never marry her. She had hoped that by
scaring him, Ryan would realize how precious his time was and stop putting off
the wedding. Ryan ensures Carla that he would marry her tomorrow if she wanted.
Carla asks if they can get married today to which Ryan agrees and requests
Chance to attend as a witness.
This
is a somewhat clichéd plot, but it’s impressive how much gets squeezed in to
just 7 pages. The story gets a big boost from the great narration. Like this
example:
We
get a great human element of Christopher Chance pretending to be someone else.
He’s got this girl snuggling up to him, but he’s more concerned with not
messing up his “special makeup” he uses to impersonate his client. Instead of
saying he feels imminent danger, he talks about the hairs bristling on his
neck. Throughout, the narration is more poetic and advanced than you’d expect
in a 1970’s comic book.
ARTIST
GRADE for Human Target: B-
Art:
Dick Giordano
As
usual, we get high quality, action-packed, dynamic art for our Human Target
story.
But
this time there was just something a little off in a couple places. Here’s a
full page flashback I’ve grown to know and love.
But
here it’s just missing a little something. The story is easy to follow
visually, but it feels like it’s not as crisp of an execution as it has been in
the past. There isn’t an overall flow as much as it’s just a bunch of pictures
put together without borders. Without that flow making the full page feel like
one continuous stream of consciousness, you might as well just put the separate
panels back in.
Here’s
another example of former art techniques falling flat.
In
the past, we’ve seen panels with little to no background work great. They’ve
put all the focus on the action without distracting with the background. The
last panel is a good example of this. But here there are too many panels in a
row with no background. Like the panel in the top middle. That one really needs
a background. When 7 out of 9 panels on the page have no background, it feels
like the artist just ran out of time to complete the drawing.
THEOLOGY
GRADE: F
Both
stories hinge on the manipulation of others. Superman makes up a story to catch
Ryan Lowell and his files on Clark Kent. The Human Target is hired to
impersonate a man who’s would be killer is hired by the target’s fiancée to
convince him to stop putting off the marriage. Superman’s manipulation isn’t
too big of a stretch, although it took up a lot of the issue for a lie that
perhaps could have been solved a different way. But Carla! How does she get
away with it? I mean, maybe she doesn’t go to jail, but there are no repercussions
at all? The issue even ends with her kissing Christopher Chance while her fiancée
watches and smiles!
And
she’s using the kiss to convince Chance to be a witness to the wedding!
I’m
more a fan of the truthful approach. Sometimes you have to be tactful in the
way you say it or wait for the right time, but hiring someone to scare you fiancée
is just all sorts of wrong to me.
One
of the most famous passages in the Bible talks about true love: Love is patient
and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand
its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It
does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love
never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every
circumstance. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)
That’s
how I want to be treated. That how I want to treat others. That’s not to say I
don’t make mistakes, but mistakes shouldn’t be rewarded like they are for Carla
in this story.
CLARK
KENT’S MONTHLY GOOF:
None
this month!
EXCESSIVE
USE OF FORCE:
I
was originally thinking about focusing on how Superman’s supersized diary
writing is ridiculously excessive…
…but
then I found something that might be the most excessive thing Superman has done
yet which is hard to believe considering some of the other things I’ve
mentioned.
You
might be asking yourself “What’s the big deal?” I mean he just whooshes into
the room and messes up that ladies hair, right? Well in the picture, yes, but
in the picture described, no. Here’s the text: “At the speed of a beam of
light, the Action Ace cuts across an ocean… a continent… and a corridor of the
Galaxy Building...” The speed of light sounds like a super awesome way to be
really fast, but it has major repercussions. Check out this ridiculously
scientific article (while still being enjoyable and humorous) on what would
happen if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90% the speed of light. https://what-if.xkcd.com/1/
Spoiler
Alert: She dead. Along with many others.
DEAR
EDITOR (seen in #433):
Reader, Joe Peluso of Brooklyn NY, commented on the Green Lantern’s short comment to Superman. Joe explains that it “reflects the troubles the Emerald Crusader has been having with his life. I’ll bet he just wishes he could take off that ring and live a normal existence.” In 1973 the Green Lantern had just finished his famous tour of America with Green Arrow, but comic sales weren’t enough to revive the character to his own comic. So Green Lantern was a backup story in Flash comics. Apparently these stories focused on emotional themes, one of which was the Green Lantern struggling to deal with the guilt of having killed a man. So I guess I should cut him some slack for not being very nice to Superman.
But there was a much bigger theme in the letters. Apparently a lot of readers had a problem with something I didn’t really think about too much. In the Superman story, Superman truly catches Ryan Lowell by shouting “fire” in Kryptonese. Because Lowell understands what he says and runs for the door, Superman knows that not only is Lowell the one getting these Kyptonese notes to file under Clark Kent’s name, he’s also able to read them. The problem is that just because you can read a language, that doesn’t mean you can speak it. That’s shown time and time again. So Superman should not have been able to catch Lowell in this way.
BUT, there's an update in the letters of Issue #437.
Jeff Fruen of St. Paul MN, argues that people can understand the sounds of written words in the same way most children are taught phonics. You would just need a reference point. That's not so tough since "Superman would certainly transcribe the sounds of English words in the Kryptonese alphabet...just as American newspapers print Russian names in the English alphabet." Jeff does argue that it is improbable that Lowell would immediately recognize a spoken Kryptonese word the first time he hears it and the whole language study would be nearly impossible for one man to do. However the editor argues that some people on earth are already fluent in Kryptonese, such as Lois Lane. "And she once wrote a book on Superman in which she gave something on the Kryptonese language and alphabet." With that as a starting point it might not be too much of a stretch.
But there was a much bigger theme in the letters. Apparently a lot of readers had a problem with something I didn’t really think about too much. In the Superman story, Superman truly catches Ryan Lowell by shouting “fire” in Kryptonese. Because Lowell understands what he says and runs for the door, Superman knows that not only is Lowell the one getting these Kyptonese notes to file under Clark Kent’s name, he’s also able to read them. The problem is that just because you can read a language, that doesn’t mean you can speak it. That’s shown time and time again. So Superman should not have been able to catch Lowell in this way.
BUT, there's an update in the letters of Issue #437.
