Review: DC Comics Adventure Comics #6

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

  Rating ****
Wow! That’s all I have to say about Geoff Johns’ final issue of Adventure Comics. It’s too bad Geoff is leaving this book because in the short time he was been on this title, I’ve really come to like the character of Superboy. There is a genuineness to the character of Superboy aka Conner Kent aka Kon-El. Johns really writes this character as a teenage boy who like all teen boys can be insecure, have girl troubles, go to school, and have trouble with their families. Now none of us have the trouble he’s going through, but no matter how old you are, you can definitely relate and feel for this kid. However, I think this issue is really more about the character of Lex Luthor than it is about Conner.

I think if I met someone who were new to comic books and wanted to know something about the character of Lex Luthor, I wouldn’t send them to Wikipedia to read up on who Lex Luthor is - I would hand them this issue instead. In this issue alone, Johns shows you who Luthor really is and just how evil of man he is. The story picks up where we left off in the last issue where Superboy rescued a girl named Lori and brought her back home only to be find out that she is the niece of Lex Luthor, the man who cloned him from Superman and his greatest enemy. Luthor is here to recover his property (Superboy), but the revelation of who Lori and her mother are gets in the way of things.

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DC Comics Review: Superman: Secret Origin #2

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ****

Wow! Fantastic! For someone who didn’t grow up reading the Superboy and the Legion of Superheroes stories, I have nothing to compare this issue to. However, I must say that this is a great story that I think longtime fans of those stories will agree that it can stand alongside those classic tales. If you didn’t read issue one, first off, go now to your comic store and get it; second, this issue can stand alone as a great story with some amazing art work. The creative team once again is Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. They introduced us to a teenage Clark Kent living in Smallville adjusting to his super powers and discovering where they came from. We’re also introduced to a teenage Lex Luthor who has an abusive, alcoholic father whom Luthor tries kill in the beginning of our second issue.

The issue opens with Lionel Luthor driving down a highway. There is rubble on the road and he tries to swerve and hit the breaks - unfortunately the breaks are out thanks to Lex. Lionel’s car goes over the side of the highway and is about to plunge into the water when Superboy saves the day. A beautifully drawn scene by Frank, but my one complaint is that I think Superboy looks more like a 10 year-old than a teenager in that scene. Lionel survives, but not for long as Luthor is successful in murdering his father at the end of the issue.

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DC Comics Review: Superman: Secret Origin #1

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ****

There have been numerous Superman origins in the character’s 70 year history. From the original Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster origin, to the more recent John Byrne and Mark Waid origins or Superman’s early adventures that we’ve seen over the past 20 years. Now we get another new “origin” tale by Geoff Johns with this week’s Superman: Secret Origin. When I heard that they were doing this, I said to myself, “Is this really necessary?”  Well with the recent continuity changes that have been made over the past few years, I guess you can make an argument for it. If it were any other writer doing it, I would not be picking this mini-series up, but since it’s Geoff Johns and I loved what he and Richard Donner did with their recent run on Action Comics, I decided to pick it up.  Well, I’m glad to say that I’m not disappointed.

Our first issue opens in Smallville of course with Clark Kent as a teenager about to begin a pick up game of football with Pete Ross and some other Smallville teenagers. Clark catches the ball and runs into Pete, which breaks Pete’s arm. Distraught over the incident, Clark is confused by what’s happening to him. There to comfort him is his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. She kisses Clark which gets Clark all hot and bothered, resulting in his heat vision to shoot off—he almost burns the school down.

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DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #2

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: *** 1/2*

Another great issue by Geoff Johns with this month’s issue of Adventure Comics.  Our story opens with the U.S. military being attacked by Brainiac’s ship.  Inside the ship we see Brainiac and Lex Luthor.  Brainiac wants revenge on Superman for their recent altercation and he’s teamed up with Luthor to help him do just that.  In return, Luthor is promised control of the Earth. 

Luthor was in prison and he was under the watchful eye of General Sam Lane, the father of Lois Lane.  General Lane viewed the recent arrival of the Kandor Kryptonians as a threat to Earth and was using Lex to create weapons to defend Earth.  On Brainiac’s ship, we see one of those “weapons” in a human being floating in a tank.  This project is called Project: Alien Farm which Luthor says is a personal one - “it’s a about family,” he says.  Could Lex Luthor possibly be cloning another Superboy?  Is he using Conner’s DNA again or is he using DNA from another Kryptonian?  If it’s another Conner it should make things very interesting. 

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DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #1

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: *** 1/2*

By the end of the mini-series Final Crisis: Legion of Three Worlds, writer Geoff Johns resurrected two recently deceased super-heroes: Kid Flash and Superboy.  With this issue we see another resurrection as well with the return of the long running DC title Adventure Comics.  The original book ran from 1938 to 1983 and featured numerous adventures of secondary DC super-heroes.  Some of the characters that were featured in the title were stories about Superboy and the Legion of Super Heroes.  With the return of Adventure, we will be seeing new stories featuring both Superboy and the Legion once again. 

The difference here of course is where the original Adventure Comics showcased tales of a young Clark Kent as Superboy, this series will focus on Conner Kent who is a genetically created clone of Superman and Lex Luthor.  In this issue we see Conner return to Smallville to live with Superman’s mom Martha Kent.  Since he’s partially a clone of Superman, he’s also calling her Ma.

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DC Comics Review: Adventure Comics #0

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

I’ve mentioned in past blogs that I’ve been reading comics for about twenty-four years. I began as a big Marvel Zombie and my knowledge of the DC universe was only from old episodes of the “Super Friends”. It’s really only in the past few years that I’ve been reading more DC Comics.

This issue of “Adventure Comics” #0 (at the bargain price of $1) is a preliminary issue for the relaunch of this classic series. In this issue, we have two different stories: one is a reprint of the classic story that introduced the Legion of Super Heroes in the pages of the first Adventure series #247 and the second is an original story that is a part of the “Origins and Omens” series that DC has going through all of their books right now.  The story stars Lex Luthor and Brainiac.

The original “Adventure Comics” which ran from 1935-1983 was a series which focused on second tier DC characters. The book focused on a variety of different heroes over the years such as Superboy, Supergirl, The Spectre, Aquaman, and the Legion of Superheroes. According to DC publisher Dan Dido, the new series begins in June and will be the home of the Legion of Superheroes.

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Is Lex the Bad Guy?

Posted by Joel Rosenberg Categories: Television, DC Comics,

Someone has to stand up for Lex Luthor in Smallville and it might as well be me. I believe that the only honest person on the show is Lex and here is why.

We have to assume that the real fans of the show have watched every episode. It would be very easy to say that Lex is a power-mad psychopath who is only interested in accumulating power for himself. Crazy maybe, but crazy like a fox, I say. See, Lexie has a motive that is pure. He believes that there are aliens out here and they do not have the best intentions towards our planet. And guess what? He is right.
 
Lex has had exposure to aliens and they all seem to want to conquer Earth. From Brainiac to Maxima to Zod, all these guys have bad intentions towards Earth and its people. He wants to create a super-powered army to oppose them. All his efforts have been to accelerate this goal. Sure, he wants to be the top banana, but there doesn’t seem to be anyone else that recognizes the threat and taking measures to counteract it. It is his money and intellect that propels every project to create this earth defense force. Even paranoids have enemies.
 
Let’s face it, everyone on the show is lying in one way or another. Sure, they are mostly lying to help Clark. But Clark was Lex’s BFF and his secret is not that he has super powers like every one else in Smallville exposed to meteor rocks, but that he is an actual alien. Imagine how life would have changed if Clark told his BFF the truth early in the relationship. Now Lex knows for sure there are good aliens as well as bad ones and they could work together to defend Earth. And another thing. Jor-El, from Krypton, sent John Jones, from Mars to help protect his son from, TADA, bad aliens who would do harm to earth. So I guess Lex isn’t so bad, afterall. Even though he threw his father through a window all the way to the Hero’s Universe to track down people with super powers.

Ironic huh ?