Superboy (1949) #222

Cary Bates, Jim Shooter (script)

Mike Grell, Michael Netzer (pencils)

Bob Wiacek, Bob Layton (inks)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Mike Grell gets an inker for his pencils on the feature, but Bob Wiacek doesn’t bring anything to improve on them. In fact, the figures might be worse. Some of the close-ups, from certain angles, are better than usual for Grell. Not so the rest.

Cary Bates contributes the script, which has Tyroc rampaging around Metropolis, angry the Legion doesn’t want to move its headquarters to his island. Even without the later clarifying details, it’s an incredibly thin setup. We get the science police complaining to the Legion, the Legion revealing Tyroc’s having a tantrum, and then the Legion going after him. They catch up to him at a park, where they capture him.

Not the end of the story by a long shot because then the Legionnaires show up at the jail with another suspect and a whole story about how Tyroc has been framed. If only it weren’t a way for Bates to kill two pages before wiping the stakes and loosing Tyroc back onto the unsuspecting populace. What could be causing the Legion’s latest member to break so badly? Just hang on for two more narrative feints, and Bates will explain everything!

The remainder of the story is then Bates backfilling on the reasoning for a bunch of other details throughout. The whole thing’s set up to have the reader, the public, and some of the Legionnaires convinced Tyroc isn’t Legion material (seriously, he was the first Black guy on the team, and they gave him this story). It’s unremarkably bad, except in the historical sense. And to see how an inker can somehow make Grell’s figures worse. Superboy goes from having a bulky torso and skinny legs to a skinny torso with skinny legs.

Jim Shooter, Mike Nasser, and Bob Layton contribute the backup. Superboy, Timber Wolf, and Lightning Lass are going to a faraway planet for some celebration. The president of Earth couldn’t be bothered to attend. On the way, they watch their favorite superhero movies starring Questar, who will also be at the ceremony.

I assume Shooter didn’t know he’d be following up a feature with a multiple narrative switchbacks, so when he does two of his own… well, it rounds out the issue overall, I guess.

The art’s not as good as the feature, which isn’t a particularly high bar, but either Nasser or Layton doesn’t understand how fingers look. There are other things they don’t understand, but not knowing how fingers look….

It’s a particularly bad finish for Superboy, too. He comes off like a callous prick.

The feature’s tedious and unrewarding. The backup’s more of the same.

Superboy (1949) #219

Jim Shooter (script)

Mike Grell (artist)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Ken Klaczak (suggestion)

Without getting effusive, this issue might be one of artist Mike Grell and writer Jim Shooter’s best Superboy collaborations. There’s only so much wrong with it; they both keep the comic packed and moving, and none of the Legionnaires are exceptionally crappy.

I mean, they’re still crappy. Lightning Lad’s ableist and Colossal Boy is only nice to the girl he likes when he thinks her boyfriend is going to die so he can get some action. And then Brainiac 5 is a bloodthirsty, callous creep most of the time.

But other than those characters, it’s all reasonably solid. Lightning Lad barely has anything, and Brainy becomes background. Colossal Boy’s thing recurs (and gets the last word), but it’s amidst a lot of action.

The Legion’s nemesis team, the Fatal Five (there are like twenty Legionnaires and five bad guys, and the bad guys keep them busy), is pulling a series of heists throughout the galaxy. They’re stealing android parts, experimental goo, toxic gases, and a planet fragment. One of the Fatal Five—Validus—is a super-powered giant who can tear up planets. Comes in handy for this exact story.

Shooter splits it into three parts. The first part has the villains striking and almost killing non-Legionnaire but still superhero future teen Duplicate Boy, leading to his girlfriend asking Brainiac 5 for help and kicking off the whole thing with Colossal Boy, too. Brainiac 5 has given up hope on saving Duplicate Boy, so he’s ready to kill the Fatal Five whenever the opportunity arises.

Now, one of the “charming” aspects of the comic is Superboy wondering what the heck is going on with his teammates. He’ll practically stare through the fourth wall, trying to get the reader to pay attention to the weirdness going on around him. It happens a few times this issue, including for that goofy last story beat.

The rest of it—the Legion splitting into pairs so they can fight the Fatal Five—is all right. There’s some silly stuff; Emerald Empress has the major hots for Superboy, but without, you know, good writing. And they always talk about her deadly gadget, which is called the Emerald Eye. It’s a silly name, made even more ridiculous how they keep referring to it by the full name. Often with a possessive (the Emerald Empress’s Emerald Eye). Even when they do a whole bit about Validus being a literal infant (with props), the Emerald Eye business is still sillier.

Now, despite Shooter and Grell keeping things moving, it’s not like it’s a good issue for Grell. His facial characteristics continuity is nil, and you’d think he’d be better at scaling between characters (Colossal Boy and Validus versus the normal-sized folk). However, some of Grell’s more design-oriented moves work better, and they don’t demand much attention.

The issue feels rote, but it’s a (relatively) okay routine.

Superboy (1949) #218

Cary Bates (script)

Mike Grell (artist)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

This issue features Tyroc’s formal admission to the Legion, which will be handled entirely in long shot. Given it’s the ostensible point of the whole issue—the story’s about Tyroc’s last test before membership—the abrupt finish is a little disconcerting. Except it shouldn’t be unexpected considering the rest of the issue; writer Cary Bates aims the reader’s attention at some very specific scenes and details, all meant to distract from the subterfuges going on (or to emphasize them).

Of course, more on Tyroc might not be better. Bates has the Legion discussing their new member—a being from a “Black race” they discovered somewhere on Earth—who thinks the Legion’s a tad white. Bates makes sure the white Legionnaires explain to one another (certainly not Tyroc) how they can’t possibly be racist because they have blue-skinned aliens on the team or whatever. It’s trash, and the less of it, the better.

The issue opens with some Legion rejects leaving headquarters dejected once again. Is it important? You know it. Bates seemingly is using it as a way to introduce Tyroc to the story; he’s flying away. A scene later, he will teleport himself back to headquarters and say he’s doing it from the shuttle parking lot. All of the action in the issue relates to the Legionnaire’s individual powers, and Bates is showcasing them, but these showcases aren’t… good. Or compelling. They’re not even the most visual. Like everything else in the issue, they’re perfunctory.

Tyroc has brought all his gear to move into Legion headquarters, but his admission ceremony gets interrupted by secret supervillain Zoraz. Zoraz has all the Legionnaires’ DNA, so he can counter their powers. He can hide out in the HVAC system in headquarters, and they can’t find him.

Because Legion defenses are only as good as the story requires.

After taking out all the Legionnaires around Tyroc, Superboy and Sun Boy show up to fill him in on the villain’s backstory, then explain since he’s the newest member and his DNA isn’t on file, Tyroc will have to take down Zoraz.

The reason the Legion has DNA is so they can clone Legionnaires after the Legionnaire has been killed. It’s a throwaway line, but… maybe deserves some attention. Not in this comic, of course.

We’ll get some filler—mainly with the Legionnaires watching their teammates canoodle on the closed-circuit video cameras, which can’t pick up the villain in the ducts anywhere. Then it’s Tyroc’s turn for some action.

Then, it’s time for some more action after a reveal or two.

The action’s not good, the characterization’s not good, Mike Grell’s art isn’t good (at times it seems downright unfinished). The comic could be worse but there’s certainly nothing to recommend it.

Superboy (1949) #214

Jim Shooter 1, Cary Bates 2 (script)

Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2)

Bill Draut (inks 2)

Ben Oda 1, Joe Letterese 2 (letters

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Ah, yes, the valiant superheroes of the future… who are willing to sacrifice a little kid’s life because they don’t like him. Well, not all of them, but definitely Wildfire and maybe Karate Kid. Thank goodness Superboy (with his forty-five-year-old Grell features) is there to remind them they’re not supposed to let innocent people die just because they’re unpleasant.

The Legion’s on an automated factory planet. The planet’s been attacking ships trying to land, including one after the Legion arrives. Superboy saves the ship’s pilot before the planet’s lasers zap it. Turns out the pilot is an obnoxious little kid (who barely seems aware of the Legion, which ought to be interesting but isn’t), son of the planet’s owner.

Too bad the villain turns out to be a fired overseer who hates the planet’s owner and would kill the kid at the first opportunity. So Superboy does his best to try to keep the kid safe, even as the kid thinks the heroes are just trying to cramp his style. Wildfire takes a different approach—let the kid die so the Legion can escape.

Maybe if writer Jim Shooter had a better moral compass, the story would read better; as is, the reader’s supposed to identify with Wildfire but eventually agree with Superboy, who’s actually not showing all his cards. So… the needs of the few only outweigh the needs of the many when you’re playing with marked cards.

At the very least, there are a couple okay big action splashes from Mike Grell. They’re usually cushioned with some strangely distorted human faces or whatever’s going on with Wildfire’s helmet, but there are at least a couple okay visual moments.

The backup—Grell on pencils, Cary Bates writing, Bill Draut on inks—is about Brainiac-5 trying to help Shrinking Violet with a mental health issue. She’s just had a nasty near accident with another Legionnaire in the gym—she almost got stomped on—and now she can’t shrink any more. Brainy ignores Saturn Girl’s “professional” psychiatric advice on how to deal with it and pushes forward with an extreme treatment.

It’s a terribly plotted story—the first few pages are all talking heads about Violet’s problems (talking about her, she’s not conscious for it because she’s so near her mental breaking point), then there’s some setup of Brainy’s treatment idea. But then the actual action of the story is barely a page and a half, and it’s… about getting stuck in a big ball of wire.

Once again, Brainiac-5 doesn’t seem very smart at all.

Overall, however, the issue’s nowhere near as bad as its creators can get. Unless, of course, you want your superheroes helping people instead of pushing them under busses.

Superboy (1949) #213

Jim Shooter (script)

Mike Grell (artist 1, pencils 2)

Bill Draut (inks 2)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Despite a poor opening, the feature’s not terrible. I mean, Mike Grell’s mid-forties-looking Superboy is always a thing, but otherwise—besides the incessant bickering between the Legionnaires—it’s an okay story. Once you get past Superboy’s introduction to the story, which is thankfully the worst Jim Shooter exposition we get in the whole story.

The introduction promises Ultra Boy cracking under the pressures of being a superhero, but it’s actually something tied to a very specific trauma for Ultra Boy. The resolution to it entirely invalidates the introduction teaser, but whatever. It could be much worse.

The Legion’s hanging out at headquarters when someone breaks in, getting past all their advanced defenses. It’s the best thief in the galaxy; come to tell the Legion he’s going to steal their miracle machine. Brainiac-5 accuses the thief of being a liar because Brainy’s never heard of him.

The thief points out he’s never been arrested or caught because he’s the best, so how would Brainiac-5 have heard of him? Brainiac-5, being written by a Jim Shooter-level intelligence, has no rejoinder.

The thief transports out or whatever, promising to return, and the Legion has a fit about what to do next. They take a vote on destroying the machine, only to discover they can’t destroy it anyway; it’s too well-built. So they up the defenses and stand guard.

We still haven’t had Ultra Boy cracking under pressure, by the way. We’ve got to wait for them to try to track the thief down, running into a space dinosaur instead, and Ultra Boy hates space dinosaurs. Good thing the comic’s called Superboy and Superboy can see across the universe.

There’s nothing particularly good about the story, but there’s also nothing particularly bad—Shooter made it through a whole story without any sexism—and while Grell’s going to Grell, maybe it’s worn me down by now.

The backup’s similarly indistinctly “not terrible.” Also not at all good. Shooter scripts, Grell’s on art with Bill Draut. Is Grell better with someone else inking? Not really. Draut makes the lines bolder, which isn’t really Grell’s problem. None of the body work is improved.

On a solo mission, Timber Wolf answers a distress call, but something else may be going on. To survive, Timber Wolf will have to use his smarts and knowledge of the Legion policy and procedure handbook.

So many thought balloons from Timber Wolf. None of them thoughtful, but also none of them filled with the character’s usually sexism.

The comic’s not so much not bad as inoffensive. It’s still not anything good, but inoffensive is a good start.

Superboy (1949) #212

Jim Shooter (script)

Mike Grell (artist)

Ben Oda (letters)

Jack C. Harris (assistant editor)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

Jim Shooter and Mike Grell contribute both stories this issue and offer little quarter. Grell’s art is slightly better than usual (or at least not as obviously deficient), and I guess Shooter could be worse.

The first story is about a bunch of Legion rejects busting into the Legion headquarters and kicking the Legion’s butt. Each of the rejects is from the same planet as their opponent and uses those same powers to overwhelm the Legionnaire. It’s not until Superboy shows up the fight ends.

Except then his teammates are mad at him for stopping them from getting their brains beat in. So they challenge the rejects to a rematch the next day. Little do the rejects realize the Legionnaires have a plan, and that plan is teamwork. You can beat the crap out of lots of people if you plan on how you’re going to do it.

Not really sure Superboy is a morally virtuous comic book.

Anyway, the rejects once again pair off against their opposites, with a different result this time.

There’s also a nonsense subplot about some cop coming to take away one of the Legionaries. He’s got a surprise (at least what Shooter considers a surprise) reason.

It’s a bad story about a bunch of teenagers trying to beat up a bunch of other teenagers.

The backup is about Legion of Substitute Heroes member Night Girl trying to take down a common criminal gang; only the common criminals know her weakness-she doesn’t have any powers in light. Thank goodness Shadow Lass comes along at the right time to save her, but they’re still not powerful enough together to take out the regular human criminals with guns.

I don’t think the crooks make any remarks about the heroes being girls and, therefore, lesser (though the first story does so), but Night Girl’s boyfriend, Cosmic Boy, will make fun of her for being a girl superhero. He dumps her for it only to discover his replacement date is wanting.

Too bad the crooks decided to start killing Legionnaires—him first so he doesn’t get mad at them for taking out Night Girl. Action, misogyny, and resolution ensue.

It’s another unpleasant issue. Even when Grell may have an interesting idea for the panel composition, his detail work is bad. Not as bad as some of his figure work, however; in Grell’s future, no one has rib cages when they fly. Or their rib cages are as high as their pectorals.

Doesn’t matter; bad comic.

Superboy (1949) #209

Jim Shooter 1, Cary Bates 2 (script)

Mike Grell (artist)

Ben Oda 1, Joe Letterese 2 (letters)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

The first story, from Jim Shooter and Mike Grell, opens with Princess Projectra’s shuttle crashing as she attempts to land at Legion headquarters. Timber Wolf is there to save the day, complaining about “women drivers” the whole time. Karate Kid shows up in time for the Princess to stumble out of the shuttle and fall unconscious. They’re sweethearts, so he’s very concerned.

Turns out Projectra has a rare “pain plague,” which causes terrible pain for a number of hours then passes. It’s technically not fatal, except the pain kills you, so who cares if the disease doesn’t. The Legion comes up with a solution—each Legionnaire will take an hour of the pain so it doesn’t kill anyone, and Projectra will be spared.

They immediately find out the pain intensifies as the illness develops (so hour two’s pain is worse than hour one’s). They also discover the Legionnaire who takes the pain will lose control of their powers (and mind), attacking everyone around them. So it’s all very dangerous. Good thing Superboy is flying across the galaxy at warp speed to get there for the final hour.

Even if it weren’t poorly written and poorly illustrated, the story’s also poorly plotted. A deus ex machina resolves everything, with every page bringing some immediately resolved problem to keep the story going. Shooter’s sexism might be the move of a dick writer, but the rest of the story is just the moves of a bad one.

Cary Bates handles writing chores for the backup (with Grell returning and arguably much worse). Some tween has won a contest to spend the day with the Legion, complete with his own flight ring. Pay attention to the flight ring thing; it’ll be “important.”

First up on the tour is getting the mail, except this time someone has sent the Legion a “witch wolf,” the most dangerous animal in the solar system (our solar system?) because it emits poison radiation and mind controls people’s powers to backfire on them.

One by one, the Legion goes into the room with the witch wolf, and, one by one, it reverses their powers and knocks them out. Will the guest star tween somehow figure out what’s going on, something the professional superheroes just can’t intuit on their own? Most definitely.

And will he be rewarded at the end with the promise of sexual contact from the female Legionaries, their male colleagues cheering the lad on? Also, most definitely.

The comic starts and ends icky from the sexism. In between is bad writing from two different writers and tepid (and worse) art.

Superboy (1949) #204

Cary Bates (script)

Mike Grell (artist)

Ben Oda (letters)

Murray Boltinoff (editor)

What a strange comic book. Cary Bates and Mike Grell contribute both parts, feature and backup, though “feature” is a bit of a stretch.

The lead story is a retcon. In the farther-flung future than the Legion of Superheroes, future Earthlings are obsessed with watching the past through time travel television or something. Except then the kid’s time TV is broken and is changing history instead of just observing it. The device has somehow changed Superboy’s trials for Legion membership, and now he’s not a member anymore, and the fate of reality is at stake.

Oddly, however, the story doesn’t show how Superboy failed the trials. Neither is the future kid’s resolution—Anti-Lad is his only moniker, the one he takes when he travels back in time to join the Legion to get history back on track. Bates also doesn’t do anything with the future repercussions of Superboy not joining the Legion. It’s easier to identify all the things Bates doesn’t do with the story than the things he does.

So the comic promises the secret story of Anti-Lad, the Legionnaire no one remembers (because he wiped their memories). It delivers some time travel banter, lots of talking about Superboy but no real Superboy in his own book, Anti-Lad besting the Legionnaires during his membership trial, and Brainiac-5 deducing something’s off about the new prospect.

Not much of a story. Grell’s art also leaves a lot to be desired.

The backup, however, is incredible. Incredibly creepy and bad but still incredible.

It’s all about Brainiac-5 being really tired, and, wouldn’t you know it, he’s really tired because he’s made himself a fully functioning Supergirl android. He misses his 20th-century gal, you see, so he makes a new version of her.

Except he doesn’t know he’s made the android version, so there’s a bunch of bait and switch to get to the big reveal. It’s utter nonsense in terms of plotting—it’s hard to tell if Bates is trying to be inventive and not clearing the bar or if the comic thinks so little of its readership—and then Grell’s art… doesn’t help. There are even panels where Grell’s art goes from hot to cold as they’re read, drawing attention to the deficiencies.

The first story’s pointless and bad, and the second story’s pointless, bad, and icky.

Though I did just realize Bates doesn’t address whether Brainiac-5 admits to his teammates he’s using Legion resources for his sex toys.

Announcing The Comix Section, a Stop Button zine

Today, a full month later than I’d hoped but a couple weeks before I feared, I’m dropping The Comix Section #1, an e-zine of comic book criticism. If you have a good color printer, lots of ink, legal-sized paper, and a powerful stapler, it can also be a paper zine. It was meant to be a paper zine and flipped when read, with one side containing a readthrough of the DC Comics Will Eisner’s The Spirit Archives and the other a wide variety of floppies starting in the mid-1970s.

There’s a story to the variety, but I’m approximately twenty-four hours behind when I actually thought I’d be making this post, and even last night, I didn’t have it in me.

I don’t even have a full listing of the contents in me at this point, but you can see the table of contents below.

There are a bevy of download versions, which took up much of the additional prep time and is hopefully something I can automate next time.

The issue is available as a PDF or a CBZ, both full quality–oh, forgot: The Comix Section is fully “illustrated” (photos of the issues and, more significantly, the Spirit)–and compressed. The compressed should be fine. Again, lots of versions if it’s not. Or you want to try printing it out.

Download PDF 142.6 MB

Download CBZ 142.6 MB

Download CBZ (full quality) 438.3 MB

Thirty-one Spirit stories reviewed, a full-page from each of them. Eighteen DC seventies books (maybe eighteen; I actually won’t get this posted if I stop and count): Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes and All-Star Comics Starring the Justice Society of America Featuring the Super Squad. Spoiler: the first year, Spirit is better, but even with the frequent, complicated, but unequivocal yikes of Ebony in Spirit, it’s often less creepy than the DC stuff.

I’ve got a fancy dedication planned for some point (at this rate, the project will take eleven years). Lanark took thirty, but it was fiction, so I feel like I’m solid. But for now, I want to shout out Vernon (who’s reading this) and Katie (who isn’t but will read the collected CS someday, all 500k words of it–again, extrapolating from this single issue). Invaluable assistance through the process, with Vernon actually making it possible. My thanks.

I hope you’ll check it out, though if you’re here for the movies or TV, I don’t think it’ll be for you unless you’re intellectually curious about comic books. Even if you’re into comics—well, the Venn diagram of Will Eisner and Jim Shooter—honestly, comics is the only reality where they can overlap so much.

Superboy 3 (January 2012)

Lobdell, always original, opens with an “homage” to Pulp Fiction. Along with Silva and Lean’s sparse, awkward artwork, it does not suggest this issue of Superboy will be an improvement on the last.

Silva, who I apparently found okay before, is really lousy here. There are a couple panels I can’t believe DC let be published with the Swoosh on the cover. The artwork is stunningly amateurish.

As for the writing, Lobdell is now firmly situated in Superboy’s point of view. He’s using it mostly for exposition–Superboy thinking about how his powers work, for example–and he can’t make it feel contemporary with the action.

Lots happens but almost nothing happens. Superboy goes to the center of the Earth, aids and abets a murderer and fights a Greek or Roman goddess. Lobdell and Silva fail to make any of those events interesting.

Superboy is almost too lousy to mock.

CREDITS

Free at Last, Free at Last; writer, Scott Lobdell; penciller, R.B. Silva; inker, Rob Lean; colorists, Richard Horie and Tanya Horie; letterer, Carlos M. Mangual; editor, Chris Conroy; publisher, DC Comics.