Superman #706 – Review

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By G. Willow Wilson (writer), Amilcar Pinna (artist), Rod Reis (colors) and John J. Hill (letters)

The Story: In a story that would have been almost passable, say, a decade or so ago, Daily Planet Editor-In-Chief Perry White discovers that *gasp* there’s a website making claims that the Planet bribes Superman for all the exclusives they get! And what’s worse, the site is about to break the even BIGGER news that Superman and Lois Lane are in a secret, illicit relationship! It’s up to perpetual whipping boy Jimmy Olsen and his amazing powers of detecting a bad Photoshop job to save the day!

What’s Good: Well…the cover is nice I suppose? It’s really more of a Batmanesque image, really, but it’s still neat.

Hmm…what else….what else…I’m still liking the colors on this book. Although we still have something of an odd purplish skin tone for the characters on a few pages, overall I still think it’s very good work, and fits the bright, shiny nature of Superman’s character in the same way that Batman’s dark, brooding shadow-filled Gotham fits him.

What’s Not So Good: Good grief, what can I say about this issue? I’ve been doing my very best to defend at least the concept of the Grounded storyline, if not its execution, but there’s not much redeeming about even the premise of this interlude. Rather than ranting in paragraphs (which could well go on for pages), let’s boil it down to a simple, numbered list of complaints:

1. The concept. Not that The Daily Planet coming under public scrutiny/fire is a bad idea for a story. It’s really not. But you’ve GOT to do more than phone in a 32-page after school special about the dangers of ‘trusting unverified internet sources.’

2. The characters. Y’know, I’m all about Joseph Campbell and the whole idea of archetypes. I love it. And I have this vague inkling that maybe that’s what they were somehow trying to go for here, but really that’s just grasping at straws, and trying to excuse some of the most clichéd character work I’ve seen in some time. No one does, feels or says anything that’s not preordained by the obvious plot threads pulling them through the motions of the story.

Also, does it seem odd to anyone else that Supes would simply up and abandon his walkabout at the drop of a hat like that? I mean, the whole point of this storyline is that he’s NOT. FLYING. ANYWHERE. Granted, this could be construed as something of an ‘emergency,’ but based on the way White essentially dismisses him, you’d think he’d have at least made a phone call first to find out if he was really needed. I kind of get that Supes needs to appear in his own book, even if it’s just a token appearance, but this felt shoehorned in the extreme, and actually detrimental to the main storyline. I mean, if he’s going to fly off and abandon his quest every time something goes wrong, then it’s not much of a quest, is it?

3. The plot holes. Ye gads, the plot holes. First of all, you want me to believe—in 2010—that the Editor in Chief of Metropolis’ answer to the New York Times is not at least passingly familiar with blogs, websites and information leaks? Really? No wonder the newspaper industry is going to pot, if it’s being led by people like him, who can barely conceptualize their own main competition! And, while it’s a stretch to imagine that a dishonest newspaper would be stupid enough to keep a blatant ‘slush fund’ to pay people off with, I really and truly can’t believe that anyone—ANYONE—would, for even a fraction of a second, consider the idea that Superman would accept such a corrupt deal. Principle aloe would dictate it’s ridiculousness, but even more so is the idea that Superman, of all beings on Earth, would be swayed by money. He’s a super powered alien with super strength, X-ray vision, and the ability to fly through space! How in God’s name would a $20,000 bribe interest him in the slightest?

I find it highly amusing that the supposedly very tech-savvy owner of the infoleak site can’t identify a simple photoshop job, and will risk whatever reputation his site has by posting unfounded accusations about the biggest newspaper in town. If he was THAT dead set on bringing them down, he never should have agreed to the interview with Perry White. And if he really WAS that concerned about journalistic integrity, and allowing the Planet to respond to his accusations, why didn’t he approach them BEFORE running his story?

/rant

Conclusion: Not a great effort. Now, I do have to hand it to Wilson—he had the thankless job of coming up with something to cover for JMS’ rather abrupt departure. I feel for him, and respect the extreme difficulty of what he was tasked with here. But a comic has to be judged on its own merits and, while this has the potential to be mildly entertaining in its harmless simplicity, it ultimately has far too much working against it to garner any sort of recommendation from me. For completists only.

Grade: D

-SoldierHawk

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.

Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.