The Grounded Guy is Back!!!!
At last! Following exam revision and a lack of comics I haven’t been able to do any reviews. But now I’m back and continuing with the Grounded storyline. Will it improve from the average Superman #705?
Synopsis
The Daily Planet is feeling the recession and an Internet Blog site has accused the Daily Planet of bribing Superman for interviews? Can Perry think of a way to clear the Planet’s name?
SPOILERS!!!!
The Good
· Wilson does a great job of spotlighting Perry White at his greatest. You can finally grasp from this issue why Perry is such an intriguing, stable part of Superman’s supporting cast and how his ‘old school’ journalistic views are still effective today as they were back ... whenever it was Perry learned them.
· G Willow Wilson chooses to deal with real life problems in this comic. Sometimes that can be a bad thing in a world where people can fly, bend steel and shoot lasers from their eyes but here it’s played put quite well. The financial crisis hitting the Planet as it has been other newspapers and the threat of blogging overtaking newspapers are nice choices. Pitting the 2 against each other in this issue makes for a good read.
· Perry’s ways of dealing with the accusations hurled at the Planet are pure genius. First, by sending an undercover mole into the enemy camp is a good start then disproving the money thing by stating it was from his own personal funds shows Perry’s selfless commitment to the Planet. Finally, by recruiting Jack Hoffman (the head of Urbanitis who accused the Planet of corruption) and securing someone who understands the new media and will be able to transfer that knowledge to the planet is another brilliant decision by Perry.
· Wilson also delivers humour and irony into the story. Perry’s many “Great Caesar’s...” jokes are pretty funny but the true irony comes from the accusations at the Planet and Lois’ response. This is because Superman and Lois are married so any form of affection they show each other would be perfectly fine where it not for the fact Superman’s identity remains a secret as his enemies would use his loved ones to get to him. As such, it puts Lois in a moral dilemma as she hasn’t seen the photos. There are 2 choices in the matter. The first, which Lois did was to tell a white lie, which involved telling the truth but leaving things out. Evidently she can’t do the second thing which is admit Superman is her husband!
· The art in this issue is fantastic! Amilcar Pinna’s inking is highly reminiscent of Renato Guedes’ art and I loved that so that’s a plus. The colouring in here is the high point of the comic both on people’s faces and on luscious backgrounds as well.
The Bad
· I don’t particularly see the point of this interlude. Why not just continue with the story as opposed to drawing out time with a good but pointless issue?
· Superman only appears in 2 pages of his own comic book. He’s not really appearing anywhere else and yet he’s supposed to be DC’s flagship character. That sucks.
· Sandeep and all the Urbanitis characters are pretty much ignorable. They’re not going to be appearing again anytime soon so what was the point in creating them
· The cover is very meh. Sometimes John Cassaday produces a really striking cover whereas at other times he doesn’t.
Well Grounded is back on track at least for now but what will the next issue bring? Find out in my next review. Till then, see ya!
Final Scores:
Story: 7/10
Art: 8/10
Cover: 5/10
Overall: 7/10