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Wednesday Comics Reviews: Superior #4 and Thor #619

Published Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:05:28 -0600

Last updated Wed, 19 Jan 2011 07:25:16 -0600

It takes bravado to use the cliffhanger from a previous comic of yours. It takes even more to use the same one as a previous issue of the same comic. But this is Superior, a comic book posing as a literal superhero fantasy comic, a comic book reading child turned superhero, but actually hiding a supernatural story of Faust, demonic temptation and a religious war on earth. Superman is by its very nature a religious text, a parallel for stories of Moses, of Jesus, of God's intervention on Earth. Well trust Mark Millar to take that and spin the opposite, while writing a fairly faithful Superman story.

We even get a local reporter putting herself in a perilous position just so that she can meet the superhero in question for an interview – although Maddie Knox has far more drive than even Lois Lane, in getting her Superman.

And it does have those literal superhero fantasy elements. The classic stereotype is of the bullied schoolboy turning to such comics to inspire him to acts of revenge, if only in their mind. "I'll show him", the boy thinks, "little does he know I am a mutant/alien/playboy billionaire, and one day, he'll know and then he'll be sorry". So Superior makes that moment reality. Even if it has consequences sure to bite him back hard.

And with Superior getting involved with Afghanistan, offering Obama that he'll fix the war and bring back Osama Bin Laden, this is a child's solution. That such an issue could be solved by brute force. Wasn't that what got America and its allies in trouble in the first place? There's no way that's going to end well either.

But what is a real standout about this comic is Leinil Yu's artwork that takes the fantastic and grounds it. The book feels like John Romita Jr or Paul Smith's X-Men work in the eighties, and that's so much down to Yu's tone. It's very much a comic for those who enjoyed 1985 more than Nemesis. I was rather slating of the first issue, but the elements I disliked have rather won me round, and I hope the comic lives up to the promise of the hints it has dropped.

Thor #619 by Matt Fraction and Pascual Ferry also gives us the return for a long-lost character, Odin taking his throne. And while Superior may have hints to bd things to come, Thor is infused with them. We all know we're heading towards Fear Itself and this comic is basically full of headless chickens. Even if one of them is Odin. There's a dodgily choreographed fight with Red Lanterns Hafex, and the realisation that if you go around shouting "Die For Asgard" then someone may take you at your word.

The big problem this comic book has is that it feels… blown up. The colours are often pastel which lots of glowy lights, combined with sketchy digital pencils in places, that doesn't serve the scale of events being portrayed. There's an emptiness to the art in places that feels like it's been drawn on a balloon before being blown up, slightly ephemeral lacking in importance. It doesn't help that this is a story blatantly leading up to a bigger story, which which the reader can't help compare it with their expectations and finding this comic lacking. But for all that there are big, interesting things. The origin of the world tree and the worlds it gave birth to according to Odin, for example. And a Thor making very clear than the plans of gods are not the plans of men. But the $3.99 prince? It rankles, it really does, especially when compared with Superior.

Comics from Orbital Comics of London, England.