Hello again GEN readers! It’s Jill a.k.a. The Nerdy Bird back with this week’s installment of DoubleDCoverage. The Question is brought back from the dead, but is he really? Superman has spent a year on New Krypton, what has he learned? The answers await you. Reviews for The Question #37 and Superman: World of New Krypton #12 are ahead. Also, check out my star ratings for my other pulls from last week!

THE QUESTION #37

I was hoping for something a little different from this last of DC Comics’ resurrected titles. I became a big fan of the Question over the last few years and Vic Sage/Charlie became one of my favorite characters. Just in time for them to kill him off of course. Knowing he’d be returning, even as Black Lantern, had me really excited. Unfortunately I didn’t see Charlie this issue. Did you?

Co-writers Greg Rucka and Dennis O’Neil give the reader a brief, three-page recap of Charlie’s life to start us off. We’re then transported to present day where the new Question, Renee Montoya, is trying to talk Professor Rodor (Tot) out of asking his old pal a question about death. He’s actually taunting death himself by attempting to call Black Lantern Charlie to him. Instead, a knock at their door reveals Lady Shiva. She tells them both in the most matter-of-fact way possible that she’ll be fighting Renee and they’ll feed her when she’s done. Renee reluctantly ablidges and is deemed “adequate” by the assassin.

When BL Charlie finally materializes he barely says two lines of dialogue before he turns into a generic, taunting Black Lantern. If this character were to have been drawn with another face I could not have told you it was Charlie. It had absolutely none of his personality and didn’t even do a passable job at pulling the heartstrings of his old friends. Renee and Shiva may not have the upper hand while fighting him but they certainly have his number. While he’s distracted bursting Tot’s bubble about the mysteries of the afterlife they calm themselves to the point of no emotion and thus become invisible to BL Charlie. We’ve seen this technique utilized just a few times before but it makes perfect sense for these two to use it here. What doesn’t make sense? Tot disappearing while being held at the throat by BL Charlie. Go invisible? Sure. Go immaterial? I don’t think so.

This is sort of a “dark and stormy night” kind of issue so longtime Question artist Denys Cowan’s work fits very well here. I certainly applaud him for figuring out how to draw Charlie’s face considering it’s his usual blank with just a skull underneath. The story was decent but sincerely troubled in my opinion. The whole aim of the Black Lanterns is to act just like their old selves or at least bring back enough hurtful memories to make their loved ones burst with emotion. I was really looking forward to seeing Charlie again but he could have been any Black Lantern. I almost wish the fight scenario between Renee and Shiva had taken place in the Question’s second feature in Detective Comics instead. This didn’t work for me as a Blackest Night tie-in.

SUPERMAN: WORLD OF NEW KRYPTON #12 (OF 12)

What did we learn from this mini-series? That DC made a six-issue story into twelve. World of New Krypton started off very strong, we started learning about this new planet, it’s culture and it’s people. If it had continued along that path while still allowing Superman to solve the mystery at hand this would have been an excellent mini. We started getting guest appearances from numerous non-Kryptonians and unfortunately somewhere around the middle everything boiled down to it’s simplest parts and dragged on until the end.

This book did a few things right. As previously mentioned, watching the Kryptonians rebuild their planet from the ground up was like watching a History Channel special discussing the ingenuity of the Romans. These people had been locked inside a bottle for years and immediately started taking measures to insure their race’s survival once they were out. Also interesting to see what Superman’s humbling at the hands of Zod. This wasn’t hero against villain, it was soldier against General. But once the assassination mystery took over, all of that innovation and intrigue disappeared and we settled into a boring who-dunnit case which turns out wasn’t really all that remarkable.

This final issue dispatched Adam Strange towards the beginning and you quickly realize he served no purpose in this mini-series at all. General Zod, now fully recovered, and Superman set to working out who the assassin could be. The one to blame is revealed in a rather cliché scene and had me wondering if there was more to this mystery than meets the eye. The culprit was almost unidentifiable to me seeing as how he played almost no role in the entire series. What fun is that? In the last few pages Zod and Superman have an almost mentor/protégé discussion about his role on New Krypton but before it can get too sappy, the lead-in to the next mini-series Superman: Last Stand of New Krypton is revealed.

I’m kind of annoyed. I really liked where I thought James Robinson and Greg Rucka were taking this series from the start. But the promise fell into a rather flat mystery that wasn’t really all that interesting. And Superman all but forgot about his devoted wife Lois back on Earth. There was hardly a mention of her after their initial goodbyes. I know this was about New Krypton but one little “I miss her” wouldn’t have hurt. The one important thing that came out of this mini was the Labor Guild getting a seat on the council. Though I did like how Robinson and Rucka managed to make a real person out of Zod rather than just the straight-up villain we’re used to. I’m interested to see how that plays down the road. Honestly, I’m torn as to whether or not I think World of New Krypton was worth a whole year. It absolutely could have been half that and the plot could have been accomplished in the regular Superman titles but there was enough good in the beginning not to dismiss the series altogether.

BLACKEST NIGHT: WONDER WOMAN #3 (OF 3) – WW kicking ass and taking names turned into a love-fest. I’m disappointed.

JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA ANNUAL #2 – Wow, Magog sucks.

RED ROBIN #9 – Tim, I missed you in Gotham too. You rock.

My pull list for this week:

ACTION COMICS #886
ADVENTURE COMICS STARRING BLACK LANTERN SUPERBOY #7
BATGIRL #7
BATMAN AND ROBIN #8
BOOSTER GOLD #29
JSA ALL-STARS #3
SECRET SIX #18

Which two should I review for DoubleDCoverage #46?

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