Adam Graham's Blog: Christians and Superheroes - Posts Tagged "review"

Here are my thoughts on Episode 3 of Supergirl, Fight or Flight:

Positives:

---Calista Flockheart continues to impress as Cat Grant. Other than the interview, I like the character even in the way she's unlikable. Her relationship with Kara/Supergirl is great. The whole idea of Cat as this very difficult person who has some life wisdom that ends up helping her. Her slam on Supergirl as representative of millennials and the challenge that poses is really nice. Love Cat except as an interviewer. (See below.)

---Maxwell Lord is a complex character in the DC Universe and this episode does a good job bringing him in. It'll be interesting to see how he develops.

---I'm not sure the humor was intended but the idea of a Government Agency taking a pass on helping SUpergirl catch a supervillain with a nuclear core in that could level National City because their department only deals with aliens was a hilarious commentary on government incompetence.

---I liked the idea of James having used his Superman watch to call for help had less to do with him not having confidence in Kara and more to do with him being afraid. It's a good character touch.

---There are so many ways to have Superman in the Supergirl universe without actually having his face seen or having to cast the part. We get to see his boots and then he and Kara text, I look forward to having him have a speaking role and his voice being the Charlie Brown *mwa mwa mwa*



The Bad:

---Cat Grant is not a good interviewer. You want an interview with a reclusive celebrity to go well, set them at ease, make them feel like your friend so they'll open up and spill. Maybe save some of the "cattiness" for later to borrow a pun. And you're doing a whole magazine on that, really?

---Also, really, the military was upset that she'd revealed she was Superman's cousin. People probably have assumed the relationship was closer.

---Why didn't Kara let Reactron escape after majorly damaging his power source at the first battle? One of the most puzzling moments in Superhero television was Supergirl staring up with a dumbfounded expression as the villain flew into the air and our heroine sat glued to the pavement.

---Like the government agency having no interest in the human nuclear powered creature, the element of Supergirl's headquarters was on that border between the stupid and the sublime. I'm going to call this one stupid. Setting up your secret headquarters in a vacant office that you don't actually own or lease because you assume that forever no one's going to want it because some guy had a heart attack in there a few months back is just dumb.

---Reactron: Very generic villain. It was hard to engage with him, either sympathizing with him or having a true sense of his threat.

---The reasons for not having Superman take a more active role is contrived, perhaps necessarily so, but still contrived. Just because, Superman had to go through everything all alone doesn't mean that every hero should. That's a pioneer situation where one person blazes a trail, but others get to benefit from their experience and wisdom. Logically, Kara's makes little sense except from an ego sense. It makes sense for the writers and it makes sense for rights issue and the desire for the show to focus on Supergirl, but the less said about her cousin in Metropolis the better because the in-universe explanations are kind of weak.

---Given that Kara used super-eaves dropping, her reaction to the end to James Olsen having an ex-girlfriend seemed a little over the top in terms of how much it discouraged her.

Overall, Fight or Flight features a lot about Supergirl in terms of interesting relationships, dynamics, and some solid action moments. However, the show has some kinks that need worked out. The problem with this episode is that it seemed to try and prove that Supergirl was as good a hero as Superman. She's not there, not yet. At the same time, I think there are some tonal issues. While the series has a lighter tone in the same way as the Flash, it's not quite light enough to get away with the goofy idea of this insurance office headquarters for Supergirl.

Rating: 6/10

The Amazing Spider-Man: The Ultimate Newspaper Comics Collection, Volume 3 by Stan Lee

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book covers both daily and Sunday newspaper strips of the Amazing Spider-man from January 12, 1981-December 31, 1982.

The book features the appearance of two known Supervillains: Doctor Octopus (who is out for revenge and for Aunt May's heart) and Doctor Doom: Who is out to take over the world after a flying saucer crashed in Latveria. Beyond this, the book offers a stream of other plots: There's a man with telekinetic powers who wants to defeat Spidey as the first step on the road to world domination, robots bent on world domination, an assassination plot that Spidey gets involved in because Peter Parker's apartment is going co-op, a group of Spider-man fan vigilantes, an attempt to cash in Spidey's image with Spidey jeans, a wealthy woman who wants to learn Spidey's identity because she's attracted to him, and a thrilling cross-country spy thriller among other plots.

Overall, this was good. No plot overstayed its welcome (a big danger for these sort of strips.) Some were actually quite exception (my favorite probably being the cross country chase.) The important thing to remember about the comic strip is that it's written for a different audience and probably should be viewed as being in a different universe than typical Marvel comic books (as evidenced by Spidey thinking the Sub-mariner was a mere comic book character in the last pages of this book.) It's more goofy and lighter with one plot having the absurd idea that someone would think J. Jonah Jameson was Spider-man. I do think Lee laid politics on a little thick with the overt identification of some groups as conservative and there were a few weaker plot turns, but overall the book is good if you're looking for some fun Spider-man stories with a lighter touch.



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Superwoman, Volume 1: Who Killed Superwoman? by Phil Jimenez

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book collects Issues 1-7 of Superwoman and begins with the New 52 Lois Lane and Lana Lang each being Superwoman but that doesn't long as Lois apparently explodes leaving Lana to carry on alone.

The book has some interesting features. Chief among them is Lex Luthor who has claimed the mantle of Superman and even though he's imprisoned for most of the book, this book gives some insight to his character and Lana points out a bunch of his stuff that's utter abusive nonsense. I can't help but feel a little sorry for him as he really is put through the ringer in this book.

I also thought some of the supporting cast worked well particularly John Henry Irons.

What doesn't work well is Lana Lang. Making her become Superwoman is a big surprise, but there's little in this book that makes me want to read more or her adventures. I think Phil Jimenez was trying for something different: She was emotionally vulnerable and prone to anxiety and her powers are killing her. These are well thought out problems and they don't necessarily make us want to read about her. This is a very wordy book and Lana is the most verbose character in the book seeming to never stop talking. Her overall character lacks sense of fun or even firm purpose.

I think the type of idea Jimenez had for Lana's character is a good one but it's not well-executed. Marvel had Carol Danvers who had to stop using her powers because it was destroying her mind, but they didn't do that in the first book, they got us to know her and cheer for so when she was grounded, we felt the impact of that. Here, starting with this problem when she doesn't understand her powers means that she doesn't really fully understand what she's lost and what she's risking, and neither do we. As for emotional problems and struggling with anxiety, a better character having those sort of issues is Jessica Cruz in Green Lanterns, who despite her open struggles is far more fun to read than Lana.

When writing a book like this with a character concept that's new, it's got to be really good. This book isn't bad, but it's lackluster. It's weaker than Batgirl's debut series. Batgirl could afford a weaker opening volume because it's an established character with a fan base that will keep it around. Superwoman on the other hand is a new heroine and her first book needed to be strong to generate reader interest. This book fails to do that and so while it's worth reading for the stuff about Luthor, this book didn't make me interested to keep reading this series.



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Marvel's The Avengers - Age of Ultron Prelude by Will Corona Pilgrim

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This book collects three comics that tie directly into the Avengers movie series.

Marvel's The Avengers 1-2 does a decent job of summarizing the plot of the original Avengers film but loses a lot of the personality and fun that made it such a great film and fun story.

Avengers: Cinematic Infinite Comic 1: Expands a bit on what Baron Strucker was doing before the start of the film. It's not bad and a fair edition.

After this, we get into comics that don't actually tie into the movies by give you comic background on characters that feature

Avengers (1963) 57-58 takes the reader to the very first Vision story by Roy Thomas back in the 1960s. It does a good job laying out his origin, but there's a ton of exposition.

Avengers (1998) 21 and 22: From Kurt Busiek and George Perez's legendary run. This comes in the middle of a story but its such a good story and you can mostly understand what's gone on before, although the Wonderman stuff will throw some readers. The end to issue 21 is particularly great. This does make me want to read more from this series.

Avengers (2010) 12.1.: The Avengers go searching for a missing Spider-woman and find horrible news: Ultron is coming. This is the prelude for the comic mini-series Age of Ultron and it's really tantalizing. It does a great job setting the stage and almost makes me want me to read the mini-series even though I fully expect it would disappoint me.

Overall, nothing indispensable, but some solid supplements and insights into how Ultron's been portrayed in the comics.



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