Mild Mannered Reviews - Superman Adventures

Superman Adventures #57

Superman Adventures #57

Scheduled to arrive in stores: May 16, 2001

Cover date: July 2001

Writer: Dan Slott
Penciller: Cameron Stewart
Inker: Cameron Stewart

"4 Point Perspective"

Reviewed by: George O'Connor (LukeSky500@mindspring.com)



Assigned to take a different angle on the most recent Superman story in Metropolis, Lois Lane, Clark Kent, Ron Troupe, and Jimmy Olsen set off to interview four of the witnesses.

Lois Lane snags a shaken, businessman with glasses, Ron Troupe spots a teenager with a busted car, Kent speaks with a construction worker, and Jimmy is left with a tubby, obnoxious, young fan of the Man of Steel.

What happened was that Kalibak entered Earth to pit a fight against the Man of Steel with his Beta Club, supposedly the deadliest weapon on Apokolips. The businessman was outside at this time and was knocked off his feet by the impact of the Beta Club weapon. Across the street, the teenager's car was rocked around, and across town, the fanboy listened to his police band and rushed over to the scene of the incident just in time to watch Superman arrive and do battle with Kalibak.

Just as the fanboy shows up, Kalibak picks up the businessman and throws him into the air. Superman rushes off and catches the man in midair and soars back to the scene while the businessman delights in defying gravity. Just as Superman sets the man down, Kalibak blasts the Man of Steel in the back, cracking the kid's windshield and hurling Superman backwards.

Recovering from the attack, Supes picks up a metro bell phone truck and hurls it at Kalibak, much to the construction worker's chagrin. Then, delivering another mighty punch to Kalibak, Superman is just about to finish him off when he suddenly weakens. The cause for this inexplicable behavior is the fanboy who approaches the Man of Steel, anticipating the ultimate climax to the battle but forgetting that he has a shard of Kryptonite in his pocket, which he collected after Steel defeated Metallo for the first time. The fanboy explains that he keeps it around so that he'll know Superman's true identity if his alter ego should ever happen to pass by.

Kalibak nails the Man of Steel as a result of the fanboy's intervention, and Superman slams into the side of the teenager's car. The teenager explains to Ron Troupe, however, that he's proud of the giant dent in his car and plans to leave it with a painted Superman symbol to immortalize the incident.

Superman then goes after Kalibak once again, repelling the Beta Club's blasts, and grabbing Kalibak as he flies into the sky and crushes the Club, causing an explosion that sends the both of them hurtling back towards Earth. Kalibak, having lost Apokolips' most powerful weapon, summons a boom tube to ask for forgiveness from his father. Superman returns to the crowd amongst cheers.

As Clark finishes his interview with the construction worker, he learns that the man is bitter about Superman's presence in Metropolis since it means he has to clean up all the mess. The worker can't seem to understand why Superman must cause so much destruction when he fights against super villains and yet the man does seem to take a hidden delight in retelling the exploits of the Last Son of Krypton. Curious as to whether or not the construction worker is a Superman fan or enemy, Clark is about to probe deeper with his investigation when he learns of a disaster that needs Superman's attention.

He rushes off into an alley and rips open his shirt just as the construction worker rounds the corner and sees the giant Superman symbol on Kent's chest. The worker misunderstands its presence on Kent's chest, however, believing that Clark is just a closet Superfan like him. He opens his shirt to reveal a Superman t-shirt beneath.

The next day, the three Superfans of Metropolis are highlighted in the Daily Planet, but they do not feature the fanboy who crumples the newspaper and changes his Superman shirt to a Batman one, resolving that, "there's always Gotham."

4Story - 4: I'm happy to say that I really enjoyed this story; which has been a rarity in SA for a while now. Point of view stories are always interesting in that they all tell the same story but use different perspectives in telling it, and in the hands of a capable writer, this can do a great deal for character development and story interpretation. Slott does a nice job of telling a fairly basic slugfest between Superman and Kalibak and adding some depth to the tale by showing each of the characters' feelings about the Man of Steel transform throughout the story. Several clever details like the fanboy having a shard of Kryptonite and the construction worker ashamed to admit he has an admiration for the Man of Steel are what make this a solid, fun read.

4Art - 4: The art is very nice in this tale, some pages looking very Timm-esque. While some pages look better than others, the style is consistent throughout and the action and dialogue flows easily and well through the issue. The action pages are dynamic and different views are used successfully to add more interest to the scenes.

2Cover Art - 2: By far the weakest element of the issue. Superman's whole body looks awful and much too simplistic. His feet are triangles and his arms are too thick in relation to the rest of his body. As well, what I assume is supposed to be blood on Kalibak's right arm looks more like some bad tattoo. Finally, there is no originality whatsoever to the cover. This kind of scene has been done over and over again.



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Mild Mannered Reviews

2001

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

January 2001

February 2001 March 2001 April 2001 May 2001 June 2001 July 2001 August 2001 September 2001 October 2001 November 2001 December 2001 Annuals

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