Yawn
Summary:
As the giant weeds begin to take over Smallville and Poison Ivy and Superboy team up to figure out what’s going on, Simon feels a little left out of the adventure as Conner leaves him with Krypto to watch over the currently detained Parasite. Simon is convinced that Conner isn’t going to be able to handle the situation and Poison Ivy without his help, so he leaves Parasite to Krypto and commences with something called “Project Purple Haze”
Ivy leads Superboy to a barn where an old man is trapped and attached to some sort of time bomb-contraption.
Simon examines Parasite’s cells and notices their potential when he sees their tendency to graft themselves onto other tissue.
Back at the barn, the old man explains to Superboy that, “They just came and took” him and that, “They’re real!” Superboy asks him who he’s talking about and Ivy tells him to forget it and just unhook the man. Superboy explains to Ivy that he can’t do that because the contraption could be hooked to the man’s heart or lungs and unhooking him could kill him. The man chimes in and weakly tells Superboy to “Find the broken silo!” Ivy loses patience and rips the contraption out of the man’s chest. As it becomes clear to Superboy that Ivy’s intentions were something less than noble, Ivy begins to use her powers on him. Just as he is about to give in, Simon shows up with an army of PARASITE FROGS! The frogs attack Ivy, giving Superboy the chance to break free of her control just in time get the time bomb out of Smallville. As he flies off with the bomb, it detonates in his hands and does something unexplainable then melts out of his grasp.
Back in the wheat field, (or corn field, or whatever that field was) Parasite stirs.
Superboy returns to the barn where Simon is watching over both the unconscious old man and the unconscious Poison Ivy and explains to Simon that he doesn’t quite understand what happened with the bomb, but that the super-weeds were starting to die. Simon sees a chunk of the barn on the ground with some very mysterious ancient-looking markings. Simon then tells Conner that he heard about the “broken silo.” Conner tells Simon that it’d be best if he handled this whole thing by himself. Simon tells Connor that he can be trusted and that Conner should let him help. Conner tells Simon that before they do anything, he has to clean up the Parasite/Ivy mess and then they can work on cleaning up Smallville.
Sometime in the night in a field in Smallville two men discuss that their machine has successfully scanned Superboy and has mapped out his entire physiology and that he’ll never be able to find the Silo… or the Gateway as they have been cloaked.
Onto to the Good Stuff:
I like that you can see hints and traces of Superman in Conner’s personality and demeanor, but he’s still his own person, he’s still unique. I love it when the members of the Super family exhibit that kind of strong-willed, hopeful, optimistic behavior, but don’t lose their own unique personality behind the shield. There can only be one Superman, of course, but it’s never a bad thing to have more people like him out there and those people have their own lives and their own problems and their own stories that are worth sharing
Simon is fun, he’s like Superboy’s more ingenious, more resourceful version of Jimmy Olsen and its nice to know that Conner has someone his own age that he can relate to and confide in.
Now to the Not-So-Good Stuff:
After Superboy #1, I was so excited to pick this issue up, I wasn’t gonna miss it for the world. That first issue was just that fantastic. I mean, we get this awesome insight into Conner, we get him reflecting over his past a little bit, we get some hinting at the future, we get to see his dynamics with all of the people around him; his warm and touching relationship with Ma Kent, the awkwardness and tension between Lori Luthor and him, the setting up of his new status with Simon now that he’s in on the secret. And we get to see what everyday life is like for Smallville. That issue had such an engaging and wonderful opening to this series that I got my butt down to the comic book store as soon as it opened and snatched Superboy #2 off the shelf as fast as I could.
Sadly, I was not left with that same feeling at the end of this issue. What happened to all the characters? What happened to all the insight and self-reflection? What happened to the warm, home-townie feeling that a series based in Smallville is supposed to give you?
Here, there are almost none of the supporting characters from the first issue, there is nothing that happens inside the town, there are no internal monologues and it almost seems like we get more insight into Simon than we do into Conner.
And it turns out the big attraction for this issue, Poison Ivy, was nothing more than a gimmick and a weak plot-device to fill up the pages until the end when we find out what that bomb did.
Sigh.
Some Minor Observations:
Like I said earlier, I think it’s nice that Conner has someone his own age that he can relate to and confide in, now that his best friend knows his secret, but Simon kinda seems like the type of character that could unintentionally screw that up, so we’ll see how that goes.
It’s interesting that Conner is so protective over “his town”, it reminds me of when Batman says stuff like, “This is my city.”
A Few Questions:
Why did the Parasite frogs only attack Ivy? Why didn’t they go after Conner as well?
I’m wondering if and where the Supers are all gonna meet up sooner or later. We know that Superman is on his back to Metropolis for whatever reason and that Supergirl is supposed to meet Lana in Smallville for the holidays and we now know that Superboy has to take Parasite back to Metropolis. So, while I’m not sure whether we’ll get to experience Supergirl in Smallville or Superboy in Metropolis or if those things will just be given brief lip service, I do think the Supers are due for a meet-up sooner or later. It’s been a while.
The Verdict:
The writing wasn’t spectacular. There wasn’t a whole lot that made me laugh, or shocked me, or really got me emotionally invested at all.
The storytelling was almost nonexistent. There was almost no plot development, pretty much zero character development, just a teensy weensy bit of relationship development between Conner and Simon and the cliffhanger at the end didn’t make me care about picking up the next issue or continuing on with the series.
The art is pretty fun, it’s nothing fantastic, but its colorful and whimsical and it isn’t boring. It does its job to support the story and add some of the fun to it, which really worked in the first issue because the story was so fantastic. Unfortunately, the art alone isn’t enough to carry you through this issue.
The cover is probably my favorite thing about this issue. It’s just classic fun. An innocent teenage boy gets himself trapped in a sexy, green, mischievous nature-goddess’s clutches. How will he get out? It’s almost Shakespearean. It really makes you excited to open up the issue. Too bad that’s not what the story was really about at all
I’ll give this one a 3/5. I would’ve given it a 2, but the cover is just so much fun that it deserves a whole point.
Really?!? Moment: First Conner leaves Simon alone with Parasite, then he leaves him alone with Poison Ivy!!! Seriously, Superboy! What were you thinking?!
