Writers: Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid
Artists: Keith Giffen (breakdowns), Shawn Moll (p), Tom Nguyen (i), Alex Sinclair (colors)
Publisher: DC Comics
For Synop-Sissies Only: Renee Montoya beats back on her beaters and sends a little Hallmark card to the Question. Supernova talks too much. Booster Gold’s a…wait, get this…JERK and everything blows up in his face.
The Yo!: Very simply put, I liked this issue. Not loved or even admired, just liked. In a platonic sort of way. Maybe “hold hands” but definitely not “heavy petting.”
Renee Montoya and her “partner,” the Question, are still in Kahndaq and fixin’ to get out of their predicament, namely escaping from a very dark and dank prison. I highlight “partner” because to me, this relationship has made yet another stride. Renee shows a concern for Question’s well-being like she hasn’t previously, and when she believes he’s dead, she fears she has lost another partner. The simple use of that term is touching, and its revelation set against the brutality of Renee’s dealing with her captors made for an interesting Montoya installment. It’s a good story check-in that makes you want more, and next issue’s apparent dovetailing with the Black Adam/Isis tale looks to be very promising.
Nitpick: Renee, sweetie, it's Lon Chaney you mean, not Boris Karloff. Despite what you may have heard (’cause I just can’t picture you taking the time to watch a classic Universal Monsters film) not all old horror stars are interchangeable.
So, Booster, Booster, Booster. I get a cheap laugh on the first page of Week Fifteen at the expense of those readers who seem to be overly concerned when days of the week are “skipped” or time doesn’t play out on the page as they’d like. Four days in three panels!
Okay, that was mean.
Anyhoo, Booster Gold proves once again he’s not exactly a textbook example of a hero and pays the ultimate price while trying to play catch-up. Why am I giving Booster’s story the “Yo!” when I’ve consistently talked the Golden Boy From the Future down throughout these reviews? Well, I like what’s going on around him this week, even if I don’t necessarily like him himself. To wit, I appreciated very much Clark Kent’s presence this issue because no matter what, you just can’t look at him without remembering that he’s a powerless Superman running around..., well..., powerless. Its fantastic: he’s still concerned about his city, he’s wistful about his past heroics, frustrated at others filling his boots, and desperate to be part of the action. Clark almost stole this part of Week Fifteen for me, especially his hilarious bit of “backseat super-heroing.” In a few panels he’s a thousand times the hero Booster could ever hope to be.
Supernova, more chatty then ever before, is still an enigma though, and Week Fifteen raises even more questions. Is he chewing Booster out in a fashion that betrays personal knowledge of Michael? Is Supernova a friend? Booster himself? “I tried to save him,” he says as he floats earthward with Booster’s lifeless body, but did he really? Who’s to say that Booster wasn’t alive after the blast and by the time Supernova touches dirt he’s a somehow a burned-out skeleton? Supernova appears to have something akin to time-powers (witness his dealing with the creature and its disappearance), and perhaps he did something with Booster between the sky and the pavement. The mind boggles. He was also pretty sneaky about “zapping” the monster away. What does that mean, exactly? As I’ve said in previous reviews, I’m intrigued. Serve me up another helping, DC.
Annnnd Booster’s dead, supposedly. Could it have been THAT easy to have gotten him out of our hair? Hey, this is 52! NOTHING is as it seems! God love it!
The Meh: Going into the issue, I thought I liked Shawn Moll and Tom Nguyen’s art. In retrospect, it ended up very “meh.” Can’t put my finger on it, but it is as hyper-inconsistent as the art chores on the entire run of 52 to date. Never fully cartoony nor entirely realistic, the art lurched back and forth, never fully embracing either end of that spectrum. I’m also starting to feel somewhat claustrophobic in 52. In the first few issues, I didn’t feel this way, but here in Week Fifteen I’m definitely feeling the scope of the panels and the vistas are being kept small and contained. Now, that’s fine for certain scenes, to create tension and atmosphere, but I can’t help but feel that we should have some “relief” along the way. Where is the grandeur of the DCU, those views that could make this series a National Geographic for future reference?
I know I’ve harped and carped about the 52 art all along, but comic art is near and dear to my heart, and I want 52 to SUCCEED and on ALL levels, most importantly, perhaps, with the art. I realize that the story may be considered “king” herein, and the art is simply a means to convey that, AND that a weekly series must be maintained at all costs, but I can’t help but feel the art is coming in second or third in the race. The artists have all been completely competent, I’ve said that before, but few of those chosen have been memorable. 52 should be looked back upon for every aspect of it: editing, story, and art.
Quick Booster “meh”: when did Michael become THAT dependent on Skeets? I can’t remember him relying on our favorite flying bucket-of-bolts in his original series. Is this on purpose, to show the degradation of Booster’s character, or does it show a writer’s indifference towards him and a much healthier affair with Skeets?
The Moment: Two moments to touch upon this week. One, Clark Kent’s “super-heroing on the sidelines” spoke as much to me as his run-in with Perry White a few weeks ago. As Bruce Wayne has returned to us over in Batman, Clark’s really starting to shine as his own persona in 52. Two, Renee comes too-close-for-comfort to being raped. I truly hate to say that impending sexual assault could be interesting, even if it is fiction, but like all the other moments in this series that have caused me to ponder, this moment was excrutiatingly thought-provoking. Would she have been able to resist? Would she then have been killed outright? Is rape by a male even “worse” (if such horrid acts can be quantified) to a lesbian as it would be to a straight female? How far could DC have pushed this scene if they had chosen too? It’s a tense moment. You know what’s coming, and when the guard grabs her shirt, even before she thinks about rape, you say “oh, hell…,” and you are concerned for a fictional character. Hard to do in a comic but it worked.
The Line: Forgive me, Booster Gold fans and Dan Jurgens in particular, but “Hey Booster! You suck!” boiled down much of what I’ve been thinking for fifteen weeks into a simple, cut-through-it line. Hey, BG, I did buy your entire original series and the JLBwha-Ha-Ha stuff. That’s gotta count for SOMETHING, right? Call me!
The Character: I give it up her for Renee again. Bad situation, but she toughs it out and breaks a few balls along the way. And she cares again. Maybe the Question isn’t worth it (something tells me he is), but her heart isn’t completely dead and her drive to do the right thing isn’t completely submerged. She’s a fascinating character on many levels.
Mr. Wanty: wants to see what happens when Renee Montoya meets Black Adam. Will it be peace in the Mid-East or War on all Scores? Mr. Wanty also wants to see the fershlugginer Lost in Space Heroes again and see what’s happening with their escape from Paradise. When, DC? WHEN???
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