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Mild Mannered Reviews - Specials

Wednesday Comics #8

Wednesday Comics #8

Scheduled to arrive in stores: August 26, 2009

Cover date: August 26, 2009

"Superman"

Writer: John Arcudi
Artist: Lee Bermejo

"Supergirl"

Writer: Jimmy Palmiotti
Artist: Amanda Conner

Reviewed by: Barry Freiman

Click to enlarge



Did I miss something?

The biggest flaw in the previous DC weeklies was that writers would spend so much of the early issues on exposition, build up, and plot construction that the story arcs would always end up dramatically shifting gears about two-thirds to three-quarters through. It's as if the writer realized "Oh crap, I gotta finish this thing up soon." This was noticeable in all three of the most recent 52-issue DC weeklies (52, Countdown to Final Crisis, and Trinity). And sure enough, even in this weekly comic strip format, both Superman and Supergirl this week have that same feeling of "hurry up and finish" at just about the equivalent distance from the last issue/strip.

This week, in Superman, by John Arcudi and Lee Bermejo, there's a huge shift in Superman's emotional state without any build-up or character growth to effect that change. Even if the answer is as simple as Clark figuring out that the aliens were messing with his head after he figured out they were listening to his thoughts in last week's strip, there really should've been some action or dialogue on Superman's part to show this emotional metamorphosis. Clark went from insecure alien outsider to once again self-confident in his own humanity - that's the core of the story and the most important emotional beat and it all takes place off-screen? Weak.

In Supergirl, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Amanda Conner, Kara is bored waiting for Dr. Mid-Nite to finish examining Krypto and Streaky. Like every week, the story of Supergirl and the Super-Pets is as cute as a basket of puppies. The destination is less important than the stops along the way and this is a good stop. I like Kara's reversion to pre-teenager when she's waiting for the meta-doctor. It's not that concern for the super-pets has waned; it's that normal teenage attention-deficit takes over even for a Girl of Steel.

Nine hundred channels and nothing on? Nice. That seems about right.

Then there's the "Yes we at DC get that this thing is four issues away from the end" moment when Dr. Mid-Nite tells Kara he thinks he knows why Krypto and Streaky are acting out. Hopefully, Mid-Nite's announcement will lead readers closer to the finish line but with more fun stops like this along the way. It's too bad more of the Wednesday Comics strips aren't designed to stand on their own week-by-week.

See ya next week in the funny pages!


Mild Mannered Reviews

2009

Note: Month dates are from the issue covers, not the actual date when the comic went on sale.

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