Superboy #14 Review
Superboy #14 Review
Overview:
H’el shows up and fights Superboy and the Teen Titans help their teammate.
The Good:
The story is pretty interesting as it starts to get into Superboy’s origin a bit. There is a nice balance between plot and sub-plot as the Dallas Sorentino sub-plot gets some attention. There is also some nice character development as Superboy starts to get a bit more fleshed out and Bunker also becomes a bit more three dimensional.
Tom DeFalco’s writing is alright. It is what one would come to expect since he has taken over. The middle half of the issue is the strongest part from a dialogue standpoint and opens up some interesting plot lines. H’el is particularly well written.
The Bad:
R.B. Sliva’s art is not my favorite. Here it is because there are a bunch of little lines all over everything. I think that it was to try and give texture to the art but it made the pages seems a bit cluttered. Normally his art hasn’t been that bad but this issue just isn’t doing it for me.
Tom DeFalco’s writing has a bit of a retro feel here. This is because there is a lot of dialogue that explains exactly what they are doing and it reminded me of Marvel’s Secret Wars from the 70’s. (I think.) While it isn’t bad, it makes the Teen Titans seem a little out of character from their usual selves in their own series. It also seems remarkable formal and oddly worded for a bunch of teenagers.
There are two references to things that haven’t happened yet. They are in the boxes that say to check out other issues and don’t detract from the story but they cause a double take and were a little annoying.
Verdict:
The issue is a nice tie in but reading Superman 14 would probably help a lot. The writing is what you could expect from reading previous issues with DeFalco but the art is different even though it is still Silva and leads to a cluttered effect that brings the story down some. Seeing someone with such similar powers to Superboy and then out classing him with them is oddly nice to see as he has yet to find someone who he can really go all out on.
3 out of 5
