We
are offered chapter 3 of the adventures of young Jon Kent, aka Superboy, in his
odyssey that began with a summer away with Grandpa Jor-El (who is curiously
MIA), but has ended with a considerably older Jon Kent returning home to Lois
and Clark.
Did I mention
this is THIRD installment? Methinks this could have been a miniseries unto
itself, but DC Editorial chose to pass on such an idea. “Just fold it in to the
regular Superman series.” So we get this extremely abbreviated version. When I
was a kid, I remember watching hour-long program edited down to a half-hour,
and feeling cheated. Same here.
Granted, I’m
the kind of comic book reader that would probably complain that an ongoing
series had detoured into a miniseries, crying foul as a ploy to sell more books.
But in this case, there just seem to be a lot of superfluous breaks, jumping
back to Superman and Lois for no obvious reason. Here’s hoping it will all be
explained at the end.
The art team
continues to struggle, often with multiple pencilers and inkers. I don’t mind
it here, because the work is divvied up between present and flashback. It
works.
But as
Chapter 3 ends, I find myself ready for this particular story arc to conclude,
and for an older teenage Superboy to take his place alongside his father. Or,
better yet, find some friends in the far flung future to hang out with. LLtL!
Rating:
6/10