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Mild Mannered Reviews - Superboy Comics

Superboy #6

Superboy #6

Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 8, 2012

Cover date: April 2012

"Not So Super"

Writer: Scott Lobdell and Tom DeFalco
Penciller: R. B. Silva
Inker: Rob Lean
Cover: Shane Davis with Jonathan Glapion & Barbara Ciardo

Reviewed by: Adam Dechanel

Click to enlarge



Superboy has beaten the Teen Titans to a pulp over in their title Teen Titans #5, all except for one member, Solstice who reveals everything. The Dark Harvest, The Culling so the strongest survive, all of it. At first Superboy is as singleminded as ever but then somehow he realizes Solstice is telling the truth and abandons his mission to capture Wonder Girl in favor of getting the answers to his origin from N.O.W.H.E.R.E.

He notices a surveillance van and high-kicks it into a nearby river ordering them to warn Templar he is on his way and fed up with being their hunting dog. There is a bizarre character twist, Superboy previously was happy to maim, kill and destroy anything in his path, suddenly out of nowhere (no pun intended) the kid has acquired a heart. Feeling regret and guilt along with growing powers that can even fix his TRON suit.

Pondering his actions he is oblivious to the fact someone has tracked his location... SUPERGIRL! Their meeting is awkward as one only speaks Kryptonese and the other English. They realize there is a link between them because of their S symbols. When an inquisitive Kara makes skin contact by touching Superboy's face, they suddenly develop the ability to mind meld.

Superboy learns of Kara's origins and his link to it as their cloning experiments led to their replicants causing war and destruction. Instinctively Superboy uses his Tactile Telekinesis to sever the connection and suddenly realizes he was able to steal the ability to speak Kryptonian from her.

He reveals his origins from N.O.W.H.E.R.E. and that he is obviously half Kryptonian but half human clone too. This sends Kara into a rage screaming out "KON-EL" punching him out of the atmosphere and then back again.

Kon-El fights back till they are at a standstill. He asks Kara why she was so disgusted that he was a clone, why did the clones on her home world revolt. Kara is surprised that he doesn't know and reveals the clones of Krypton eventually evolved into mindless killing machines and that he too would become one.

She also gives him the answer to his name. Kon-El means abomination of the House of El. Before Superboy can find out more a police chopper arrives to confront them. By the time Superboy has nudged it out of their range with his TTK Kara has dashed away.

She questions why 'Kal-El' hadn't told her about the clone boy. Does he know about Kon-El? Maybe he is too arrogant and believes he can do without her? On to Superman #6. Superboy meanwhile realizes he is finally learning the truth. Everyone has lied to him, lies are all he has known. He arrives at the secret N.O.W.H.E.R.E. base and rips the door off shouting for Director Templar. As the dust clears Rose Wilson appears armed with a dagger and sword with killing on her mind.

To Be Continued...

4Story - 4: What a difference a new script can bring to a 'plot'. After 5 months of very rocky storytelling Tom DeFalco comes to Superboy's rescue. He gives Superboy his name, Kon-El (this is great as I hated always referring to him by title not name. Better still there is relevance to it in relation to his clone past). He gives him a conscience, a past, an origin, his Kryptonian roots and we're finally getting a glimpse of a real Superboy - one that is vaguely familiar. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but is it a coincidence that a new creative team member comes in and a lot of the negative elements have been dealt with in one swoop? Is this issue's title an inside dig at the team? It's early days but this sudden direction change is very welcome.

4Art - 4: Supergirl looked terrible but it isn't her book so ho hum. The rest of he book was pretty nicely laid out, though for some reason this issue felt like it had a flavor of Ed McGuinness to it.

3Cover Art - 3: Superboy's TRON suit looks pretty cool here, wish it had a bit of blue in it though. Kon looks slightly out of proportion to Kara but that's perhaps over analysis on my part.


Mild Mannered Reviews

2012

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

January 2012

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