Here we go. New Secret Six, new Buffy…first World of New Krypton, first Battle for the Cowl…
One bump - guess folks didn’t see it last night…
Only one to really interest me this week was New Krypton. Liked how they’re melding all the various depictions of Krypton through the eras – Silver Age, Byrne’s Krypton, etc. However, looks like this’ll be a slow build to get to the actual action, and in the meantime we’re gonig to be presented by Kal interacting with Alura, Zod, etc. Which is nice… as long as that is not all we’ll be getting from this.
Funds are low since I got the budget axe so only bought Secret Six. Good stuff, but a little anti-climactic somehow. I wanted a real heavy-hitter to show up. Art was still very good and no real complaints.
Cable - It’s like McKelvie and Olivetti were given completely difference character reference sheets - the differences in Cable himself can be written off as stylistic, but Hope - in McKelvie’s pages, she looks like a 14 year old boy, on Olivetti’s she looks like a 5 year old girl…
Liked the story, though, jeeze, she’s picked up quite a mouth.
New Krypton - My main thought is ‘haha, I was right about who’s taking over Action while Superman’s off-world!’
Good story, so far, though Krypton really comes out worse, the more we see of it - a caste system, really? Even if Labour Guild can move up to one of the less…servile guilds, the way they’re treated is…unpleasant. On the other hand, the only Guild we’ve gotten a good look at how they operate is the Military, and it’s not entirely surprising they’d be much like Zod, with him as their head, and all… The Science Guild did produce the Brothers El, so maybe the Science and Art guilds are a little less monolithic in their attitudes about the whole thing.
I agree–I don’t mind a slow pace if the slow pace is there to build character and develop plots (and isn’t an extended “What If?”-Do you hear me Trinity?!). I like the blend of all the versions–I love Byrne’s Krypton’s look, but I love the Silver Age too–cool that we can have them all at once.
My big concern is that they seem to be making the same mistake Byrne did. I think it’s integral to Superman’s backstory that Krypton was a near-utopia. In the Byrne-version, Jor-El did Kal a favor by getting him off Krypton. In the “classic” version, there was a sense of loss of something magic. He coulda had a happy life on Krypton (and it’s one of the reasons–explored in a late '70s/early '80s issue of World’s Finest, I think, that Supes and Batman got along so well–they both lost their kind, wonderful, loving parents. Supes had the advantage that he got another set.).
On the other hand, an easy fix is simply to say "Yeah, the rest of Krypton was cool, Kandor is “Kryptonese for ‘City of Assholes’”. I really do hope Zod’s on the level. It would be SO much more interesting. We have enough “Bwahahaha! I want to conquer Earth” bad guys. So much better if Zod is a guy who’s goals are different than Superman’s but not illegal or immoral.
I got the first Battle for the Cowl thing–the Gotham Gazette one–eh. Decent, but nothing to write home about. Who’s the chick in the white ninja suit?
The Veil, I think. She’s relatively new I think - popped up a few months ago in Batman or Detective. A former actress with a scarred face, her turn-ons include exposition.