SUPERMAN SECRET ORIGIN #6 (of 6)
What did the
iFanboy
community think?
Pulls
Art and cover by GARY FRANK and JON SIBAL
Variant cover by GARY FRANK
Size: 48 pages
Price: 3.99
This is gonna be a short review because, quite honestly, there is nothing to talk about this issue.
We’ve waited 4 1/2 months for this issue……4 1/2 months! The wait better have been worth it…..
Look, I’m sure all together this will be a fantastic trade. Gary Frank’s artwork is amazing as usual and Geoff Johns doing Superman feels right. But I’m sorry, nothing about this issue felt really special. Again I think everything is pretty good on a technical level. But you add on the wait and the by the numbers ending and you got yourself one bored reader. There is nothing in this issue, other then a longer page count, that can explain the extreme lateness.
Overall I would give this series a 4.5/5. For this issue though, when you add in the extreme (and seemingly pointless) lateness and the ho-hum story…..then this issue has to get:
Art: 2 - Average
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"Frank’s artwork is amazing" Art: 2 – Average
Sloppy reviewing.
@scorpionmasada: If you paid attention to the review then you would’ve understood the score.
But since you didnt I have nothing else to say.
I disagree here with you TNC, but that’s all good. I can see your perspective. I felt the story wasn’t super amazing (although it was still very good), but damn, I thought this book was mad gorgeous. All of the big, dynamic panels and those iconic Superman moments–it just worked for me and I don’t mind the extra time for something this beautiful. As you said, it will make a great collection.
@Neb: Well again, I think everything here works. Frank’s pencils are absolutely beautiful and each page is fantastic to look at.
But, as I always stated on this site, extreme lateness (whether it be an extremely talented artist or not) is not justifible to me. Nothing about this issue, as gorgeous as it is, shows why a 4 1/2 lateness was needed.
So I give the art a 2 because, while great, nothing stood out for me to make the lateness work. I know it seems unfair to some but to me it’s how I feel about lateness.
"Frank’s artwork is amazing"/"nothing about this issue felt really special"
Let me help you:
Frank’s artwork is average and there wasn’t anything about the art in this issue that was special. Although it was technically well-executed, the art was just servicable storytelling and lacked any special visual appeal. My desire to bitch about the lateness of the book has ruined a miniseries that I was really enjoying. I should stop reading monthly comics and start reading trades where an obsessive concern with timeliness will least affect the medium I claim to love.
I’m pretty sure I understood your review.
@Scorpion: Uh yeah…..what you said…
TNC-I am not trying to provoke or anything like that, but I feel that I must ask the question. Why does lateness bother you so much?? They TRY to get the issues out monthly, but they are not contractually obligated to do so. Also, it seems that every time that a series is late, it precludes you from making an objective review. As it seems that your mind is made up before you open the book, why do you even reward the companies for being late? You gotta vote with your wallet if it is that big a deal for you.
At least Scorpion didn’t call out your mother, TNC.
I would have to agree with you. At first the ish was pulling me in with the whole ‘origins’ feel to it, but then you have Supes talking like a little kid to Lois saying, "I didn’t mean to…!" And then having tanks fly around and punching Metallo around when there are people and bystanders around, not very smart writing; and then getting a direct hit from a kryptonite beam from Metallo, that had to have done more damage than it did; overall just wasn’t great writing in this issue compared to priors in this series in my opinion, felt deflated by the end of it.
As far as Gary Frank, his work is pretty good, but not spectacular in my opinion, and he’s really not one of my favorite artists; so yea, nothing in this should’ve taken this long, but honestly, I didn’t even notice the delay. Maybe something came up in his personal life, maybe Johns took this long to come up with the script, I don’t know. The scene with Supes coming through the ground under the tank was the best panel in this book though btw.
Alright, let’s play nice.
Any further responses to this thread related to personal attacks and abuse will be deleted. Discuss the book or the review and that’s it. Thank you.
Personal attacks?
So the last 8 comments (after Scorpion’s) were attacks?…..Thank you Paul!
@MisterJ: For me, lateness is bad. I don’t mean to sound simple about it, but it’s true! To celebrate an issue, which was boring to read in the first place, where it took 4 1/2 months to complete should not be a good thing. We should try and make a difference and tell creators that lateness should never happen….But instead (most) people will give any book a high grade, lateness be damned. It’s like we’re condoning is all I’m saying.
We’ll have to agree to disagree here. I liked this issue as well as the whole mini. The art stands out to me and I find that there are several panels and pages that look great. I have a problem with the way Frank drew some mouths and faces in this issue but everything else was beautiful. I get that the book being extremely late turned you off the issue and that is understandable, however, I still enjoyed the issue and the lateness wasn’t much of a factor for me.
A couple of thoughts…
First, I think you’re assuming way too much on the art issue. Yes, it took 4 months for this book to come out, and yes, it was rumored to be an issue on Gary Frank’s end. But I think you’re taking an extra mile by saying that Frank spent those entire 4 months just working on this issue, and thus you are condeming him for that. The fact of the matter is that you nor I know that this was the issue. The reason why this issue was late could be for MANY other reasons. Perhaps Frank was working on another project that had a stricter deadline than this? (An entirely plausable situation, especially since this is more or less a self contained mini). I get that you’re upset that this is late. I just don’t think that this is an excuse to criticize the art.
Also, by reading this review, I think you’re assuming that because it was late, that it should be even better than what it was normally going to be. Some sort of "Time = quality" belief.It’s almost as if you’re expecting restitutions from Johns and Frank for this issue being late. I think that this is a bit of a skewed way of looking at things. The series should end the way the creators intended it to end. Otherwise, we’ll get some sort of weird and out of place ending that the creators whipped up post haste that won’t ring true. It would be something along the lines of the second season of Big O.
Like I said, I don’t think that judging an issue by it’s lateness is valid. It undermines and trivializes the good story and art of the issue.
Nice anime reference, CBChris, missed that ending in Big O, didn’t even know there was a second season, what happened? Guess it was contrived. The voice actor on that is the same as Spike in Cowboy Bebop btw.
The splash page at the very end of this issue was iconic, I’ll give Frank that.
It wasn’t so much that the end of the second season of Big O was bad, it was the fact that it was bad that there WAS a second season of Big O. The first season of the anime ended right where the manga ended. However, it was so popular and had such a demand from the fans that it continue that the creators gave in and made a second season. And it was garbage.
It’s all along the lines of that old "Be careful what you wish for" axiom that lends itself so well to alot of things in entertainment. Since you brought up Cowboy Bebop, I’ll use that as an example. CB is an extremely well done series that has a rabid fan following. Some of that fan following would want that series to be added onto beyond the final episode. But even with the same creative team and talent behind a new series, you gotta ask yourself: is that REALLY a good idea?
This ties into my argument that Johns and Frank don’t really owe us more content in this issue just because it was late, because in the end, it’ll most likely mess up the flow of the story that they’ve originally plotted. Sure, Frank could have shoehorned in some more crazy double page spreads and extra extended fight scenes, but being as how this issue was nicely done the way it was, you gotta ask yourself: is that REALLY a good idea?
But yeah, when you watch more anime, you’ll notice that Steven Blum is everywhere. It’s certainly a nice treat to hear him alot.
Yea, he voices Mugen in Samurai Shamploo as well.
This can also apply directly to movies, when there is a clamoring for a sequel of a successful movie, what you often get is disappointment, i.e. the recent Boondock Saints sequel, that cult classic should’ve been left well enuf alone. The exception to this is a great treat for fans, and this may be open to opinion, but for instance the Godfather, Star Wars, and Spider-Man movies, these are movies with great follow-ups to their initial efforts.
So yea, artistic expression and great works shouldn’t be time dependent, I mean I really don’t mind waiting for one of my fave artists to finish his work, as long as he puts out his best work, because otherwise, if he’s rushed and what you get is less than you expect, you’ll be disappointed regardless of the timeliness of it. If he gets it out expeditiously and its great, awesome, but I don’t blame artists for taking their time; I would rather wait for a piece of work and be rewarded at the end than to be disappointed at the tardiness. I just don’t think this is a great ish overall in my opinion despite the art or the delay is all.
@TNC-Saying that lateness is bad is a totally valid and legitimate sentiment, and I was not taking anything away from your beliefs on it. But my point was that it seems that the ‘lateness factor’ completely pre-determines your review of the material. Doing so partially invalidates the objectivity of your review because you are viewing through an external element. Which led me to question why you removed it at all.
And if you want to let the creators know that you have issues with the books coming out with more than a month or whatever between, a bad review is insufficient. I would even argue that your actions actually are condoning the lateness, because you are buying the issue. By doing so, you are saying, in your loudest voice, that the delay is okay and you will continue to support the book even though it is late.
Again, your opinions about delays are completely valid, but your actions do not support your opinions to the publishers. And that matters a whole helluvalot more than a bad review.
@CBChris: Well said!
Hey guys don’t forget that Blum voiced Makoto Shishio in Rurouni Kenshin and Eikichi Onizuka in GTO as well. @TNC seem we are taking over your review,mwahahaha! Seriously, CBChris is right. We honestly don’t know why this was late. It could be due to Johns, Frank, editorial, whatever. If this were some big curent storyline or event I might agree with you and say that the lateness would take a little away from the book. However, this is one of the oldest comic origins ever retold/reimagined. Due to this, it didn’t really take anything away from the story.
@TNC you’re taking lateness too personal bro.
I don’t mid lateness one bit because, as Chris noted, Frank probably didn’t wake up after 12 hours of sleep, add a line to a page, then play video games for 8 hours and then go back to bed. He was probably doing other stuff, like the many covers he’s churned out this year.
On the other hand, I don’t begrudge TNC’s enjoyment and rating of this issue being affected by the lateness. If he, or anyone else, has been eagerly waiting for this and then wasn’t wowed, that’s a legitimate reaction.
For me, this was exactly what I was waiting for! 5 stars for Johns and 10 stars for Frank. It would have been my pick of the week if Scalped hadn’t, for the 30th month in a row, made me think "Jeez, I wish every single person I knew was reading this book!"