Superboy 14 Preview / Discussion (Spoilers)

[nightrider]

I would agree that the writing wasn't what I really wanted. Lobdell really put a unique spin on Superboy. Now the direction seems to be what we've read before.
Nevertheless, I think the art is so amazing, I'll take RB Silva over Immonen's art. I'm surprise that Silva's art would've improved so much over the span of a year and that DC would put such a talented artist on B-C list character.
I'm still pulling this book because I don't think its that bad and I'm interested in how Superboy contributes to H'el. Plus the art is a plus plus.

[Desaad]

I would agree that the writing wasn't what I really wanted. Lobdell really put a unique spin on Superboy. Now the direction seems to be what we've read before.

I wonder how much of that is coming from editorial. He mentioned that there was resistance to what I think was the most powerful scene of his entire run on the character, the burning house.

[Zoch]

From preview it looks good to me I thought dialogue was good dont know what others expecting, also thought the art looks great I'm looking forward to reading this and finding out what H'EL does to Superboy

[LoneNecromancer]

I wonder how much of that is coming from editorial. He mentioned that there was resistance to what I think was the most powerful scene of his entire run on the character, the burning house.

Oh, that scene was great. Looking back I wonder what could've happened if Lobdell had decided to leave off Superboy joining TT till a good few issues later and just continued with what he was doing as a Superboy solo.

On a side-note, something that bothers me with the preview is that he's raging and lashing out at people and complaining about who made him... it's like Season 1 YJ Superboy, which I don't think was necessarily the character's most flattering appearance.



Unless you're into that kind of stuff.

[B. Kuwanger]

Bleh, call me when it's more like he's back to

[stephens2177]

Ok so this is the complainers thread,im sure ill add something after i get the book torrow,but my thread that i started about all three books he is in will be where ill contribute more too.
Do you guys ever stop complaining,and about the same stuff.if you dont like the book,stop buying it,and move on,friendly advice for ya.

[Desaad]

Ok so this is the complainers thread,im sure ill add something after i get the book torrow,but my thread that i started about all three books he is in will be where ill contribute more too.
Do you guys ever stop complaining,and about the same stuff.if you dont like the book,stop buying it,and move on,friendly advice for ya.

Most people complaining on this thread aren't buying it, and have said as much.

They WANT to buy it, but can't because it's not good enough.

[stephens2177]

Most people complaining on this thread aren't buying it, and have said as much.

They WANT to buy it, but can't because it's not good enough.

so its not what you want,and DC isnt changing it for you,so you complain about it to death,all the while telling them you are not buying the book,and you wont,until they change it...ok,so you do understand yours and all the others like your opinions means absolutley nothing to DC right? DC considerse sales as votes,and they are not getting yours anyway,and wont,so why bother with you.on the other hand,i buy everything superboy is in,since he was created back in 93,so they know they will get my money,which makes means my vote counts to them,because im their base support for superboy.

Why would they change a character for a very small online group that wants SB to be a certain way,and if they dont get that certain way,they wont buy,when they can keep SB more broad a character,and get garrunteed profits?

This kon comes off like a mix of Data(from star trek),a young lex,and almost a bruce banner "just leave me alone" kinda character now,and we havent even got to him being really heroic yet,so he is still changing and growing.
Defalco might be pushing the "good or evil" thing more than lobdell,but its always been apart of his character,and "this" SB has alot of reasons to wonder if he will be evil ,so its a valid plot point.defalco uses kons TTK sense better,makes him sound smart,just as well as lobdell did,the only real difference is defalco has SB relating to actual ppl now,mlre than lobdell did,and defalco can keep a train of thought and narrative tigether.

Silvas art looks better than ever from the preview,and the covers showing H'El using some lind of energy power to brekdown kons body is interesting.

[Desaad]

so its not what you want,and DC isnt changing it for you,so you complain about it to death,all the while telling them you are not buying the book,and you wont,until they change it...ok,so you do understand yours and all the others like your opinions means absolutley nothing to DC right? DC considerse sales as votes,and they are not getting yours anyway,and wont,so why bother with you.on the other hand,i buy everything superboy is in,since he was created back in 93,so they know they will get my money,which makes means my vote counts to them,because im their base support for superboy.

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

I think what we're saying is -- they can get our money. They just have to put out a better product. That there is a market that is more than willing and eager to buy this book, under the right circumstances.

Why would they change a character for a very small online group that wants SB to be a certain way,and if they dont get that certain way,they wont buy,when they can keep SB more broad a character,and get garrunteed profits?

And, hey, if it's just us, then sure, that's fine. But I'm not sure there is any evidence that Defalco's rather mundane take on the character would be more successful than a more radical departure. Heck, the launched the book as a more radical departure, didn't they?

This kon comes off like a mix of Data(from star trek),a young lex,and almost a bruce banner "just leave me alone" kinda character now,and we havent even got to him being really heroic yet,so he is still changing and growing.

He comes off as an affable alien trying to adjust to earth customs and ways. He's the typical 'outsider', with no discernible personality. Under Lobdell he was this angry force of nature with a completely abstract consciousness and concept of good and evil, right and wrong, morality in general. Here he's a good natured fish out of water just trying to make his way in the big city.

It's not about what is valid or what isn't valid. It's about what is interesting.

Defalco is just plowing well trod ground, IMHO. I've seen this story countless times before, in all manner of fiction.

I think Superboy can be more, can mean more, can be a voice to some pretty radical ideas, especially in this iteration, with what Lobdell established.

[Zoch]

Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't.

I think what we're saying is -- they can get our money. They just have to put out a better product. That there is a market that is more than willing and eager to buy this book, under the right circumstances.



And, hey, if it's just us, then sure, that's fine. But I'm not sure there is any evidence that Defalco's rather mundane take on the character would be more successful than a more radical departure. Heck, the launched the book as a more radical departure, didn't they?



He comes off as an affable alien trying to adjust to earth customs and ways. He's the typical 'outsider', with no discernible personality. Under Lobdell he was this angry force of nature with a completely abstract consciousness and concept of good and evil, right and wrong, morality in general. Here he's a good natured fish out of water just trying to make his way in the big city.

It's not about what is valid or what isn't valid. It's about what is interesting.

Defalco is just plowing well trod ground, IMHO. I've seen this story countless times before, in all manner of fiction.

I think Superboy can be more, can mean more, can be a voice to some pretty radical ideas, especially in this iteration, with what Lobdell established.

I think get what saying but same time Lobdell had whole good vs evil in early issues, with Kon lacking morels with stuff burning christmas tree and thinking better humans and question if just a a weapon I think Defaclo just continuing that aspect that Lobdell went with if he didn't he be retconning what Lodbell already set early in issues, but I think difference between two that Defaclo I think so far been bit stronger writing Kon as teenager and having acting as one, as most teenager have outburst of emotions more then adults especially Kon who still new to world as for seeing countless times like good and evil and him being a weapon that part his origin and like all origins they all the same they never different.

[stephens2177]

Desaad,right circumstance means what you consider good,or what you want ,your first and last paragraph show that,and thats all opinion.ive seeen what you think the book should be,and sorry,but it wont happen.SB has never been what you want,the only thing i havent seen before the reboot was the third donor talk or his spread out consciousness,everything else has been pieced together from all the different versions of him,and i dont see that changing.it seem like you want kon to be something he isnt,and now that you know its not gonna happen you are getting pissed.

lobdells and defalcos SB are the same,i love how some of you guys say SB has been changed,when he hasnt.kon has always been goodand meant well,even if he just wanted to be free,and left alone.he decided for himself he wasnt going to kill,and that it was bad,he decided for himself fighting the teen titans wasnt right,he has learned through others that ppl are good and bad,and that he doesnt want to be bad.he went from a pod to now living in a big city with all kinds of different ppl in it,why would you not think his attitude wouldnt change,i think its pretty obvious that it would ,and has.

[Desaad]

Desaad,right circumstance means what you consider good,or what you want ,your first and last paragraph show that,and thats all opinion

Yeah, well, obviously. There are certain hallmarks of craft, and originality, that are generally accepted to be measures of quality, but it's a subjective position, and no one here ever claimed otherwise.

Which is what these boards are all about.

ive seeen what you think the book should be,and sorry,but it wont happen.SB has never been what you want,the only thing i havent seen before the reboot was the third donor talk or his spread out consciousness,everything else has been pieced together from all the different versions of him,and i dont see that changing.it seem like you want kon to be something he isnt,and now that you know its not gonna happen you are getting pissed.

What the character was when he started was very much in keeping with what I want. My ideas are a natural outgrowth of that.

But even failing that, I don't need anything like that to come up. At minimum I'd like to see a better quality of craft.

I should mention -- that you say 'it will never happen' means absolutely nothing to me. I've not seen any evidence that you know much about the comic industry, or the way these things work. You're welcome to your opinion, but that's all that it is.

lobdells and defalcos SB are the same,i love how some of you guys say SB has been changed,when he hasnt.kon has always been goodand meant well,even if he just wanted to be free,and left alone.he decided for himself he wasnt going to kill,and that it was bad,he decided for himself fighting the teen titans wasnt right,he has learned through others that ppl are good and bad,and that he doesnt want to be bad.he went from a pod to now living in a big city with all kinds of different ppl in it,why would you not think his attitude wouldnt change,i think its pretty obvious that it would ,and has.

It's getting clearer that nuance is lost on you, so I'm just going to end it here.

[Retro315]

Holmes hit it beautifully on the head in regards to how mundane the Superboy character has become. I believe I've read that character 100 times in comics already, and I'm not particularly interested in more.

Remember the good old days when Superboy was the only super-hero who could be called a "rural kid dealing with crazy sci-fi in the American Midwest"? When he wore blue jeans and cowboy boots and had real high school problems, soapy accidental kissing cousins dilemmas, a cute dog, lived with his sort of "aunt" who was the nicest lady ... and certain people at his school might have been undercover agents from the future?

Those were the days ...

I'll take some wholesome Midwestern cowboy kid stories over more generic blegh any day. I can relate endlessly to "small town high school vs. freaky occult activity in the woods, evil hill people, scary corn fields and UFO sightings. That sh** is my bread and butter. Hiking across farmlands, moonlit forests and windy hills looking for signs of symbolism, mystery and mysticism is what I actually do in the really real world.

[Mr. Holmes]

So much potential here, and oh so wasted.

Holmes hit it beautifully on the head in regards to how mundane the Superboy character has become. I believe I've read that character 100 times in comics already, and I'm not particularly interested in more.

Haha thanks, means a lot coming from you.

Remember the good old days when Superboy was the only super-hero who could be called a "rural kid dealing with crazy sci-fi in the American Midwest"? When he wore blue jeans and cowboy boots and had real high school problems, soapy accidental kissing cousins dilemmas, a cute dog, lived with his sort of "aunt" who was the nicest lady ... and certain people at his school might have been undercover agents from the future?

Those were the days ...

I'll take some wholesome Midwestern cowboy kid stories over more generic blegh any day. I can relate endlessly to "small town high school vs. freaky occult activity in the woods, evil hill people, scary corn fields and UFO sightings. That sh** is my bread and butter. Hiking across farmlands, moonlit forests and windy hills looking for signs of symbolism, mystery and mysticism is what I actually do in the really real world.

Honestly no, while I think Johns's Adventure Comics was well executed (Lemire's Superboy got really dull and boring for me to even finish it) I can do without that Superboy either. There was too much of this conscious attempt to make him equivalent to a young Clark, or actually maybe even the Smallville Clark on TV (with all the angst) at the time.

Hopefully someone here posts some spoilers as to how this connects to the main event.

[Retro315]

Haha thanks, means a lot coming from you.



Honestly no, while I think Johns's Adventure Comics was well executed (Lemire's Superboy got really dull and boring for me to even finish it) I can do without that Superboy either. There was too much of this conscious attempt to make him equivalent to a young Clark, or actually maybe even the Smallville Clark on TV (with all the angst) at the time.

Hopefully someone here posts some spoilers as to how this connects to the main event.

It was a conscious effort, yeah, but I think it stemmed more from the realization that there is a niche or a spot for a more rural, open range hero fighting more rustic threats and living in a more smalltown locale. Sure, with Superboy it veered too much toward the "just a redux of young Clark". But I preferred it to every other Superboy story I've read. Johns' portion definitely trumped Lemire's, I'll agree - but I did like Lemire's, in fact it had charm that his current stuff sorely lacks.

Spoilers ... I can do that.

Spoilers:
H'El shows up and starts talking to Superboy. Bunker can't see or hear it and thinks Superboy is having a nuts freakout when H'El whips him around hands-free and smashes him into stuff. The Teen Titans (sans Tim) show up to help out and suddenly apparently can see H'El, I guess it's implied that he can be seen or unseen if he wants to.

We then get a pretty fair understanding about H'El's powers, a nice sci-fi high concept power, as he starts deconstructing Superboy on an atomic level (Superboy loses some skin and has some flayed muscles). Apparently H'El can manipulate matter (and probably energy), which in context can explain the big paleoKrypto monster last Superman, as well as H'El flying around, surviving Krypton's destruction, getting to Earth, being able to be invisible like a ghost, and on and on and on. It's quite a power-set to have Superman face off against.

He basically leaves with Superboy as a hostage or tool to play with.
End Spoilers.