Initially, I wasn’t sure if I would buy this book or not. I like Jeff Lemire, but I didn’t really love his Atom issue, which is the only previous superhero work of his that I’ve read (maybe his only other superhero work ever? I’m not entirely sure). But Superboy as a character really won me over during the Geoff Johns run on Adventure Comics, so I figured I’d give the issue a chance (and, the cover to it by Albuquerque just looks great). And I’m glad I did, as it was a fun introduction to the series.

 The opening pages to the book were especially enjoyable, where Lemire got a chance to do a little of what he does best. Writing Superboy reflecting on his emotions what he’s had to go through. However, this was far too short and got interupted with what I consider to be the only slow part of the book. The rest of the issue was enjoyable as well, with there being a good mix of both parts of Superboy’s life.

When it come to the art, I didn’t like it near as much as I did the story. I think the art kind of fluxuated throughout the issue. Some pages (primarily when he was Superboy) looked alright. Others (usually when he wasn’t) just looked kind of bad in my opinion. Now I’m not familiar at all with Gallo as an artist, so I don’t know if he’s just getting the hang of things, but I’m hoping that this improves as the series goes along. Art will never be something that I drop a book over, but I sure would appreciate it more if the art were a bit better in this.

So in all, I’d reccomend picking this issue up. The art wasn’t great, but I was willing to look over that because of the great story that Lemire put in. I’m looking forward to the second issue and seeing where this goes.