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Adventure Comics #7 Adventure Comics #7

Adventure Comics #7

[Original Numbering: #510]

Scheduled to arrive in stores: February 10, 2010

Cover date: April 2010

"What Did Black Lantern Superboy Do?"

Writer: Tony Bedard
Penciller: Travis Moore
Inker: Dan Green, Keith Champagne and Bob Wiacek

Michael Bailey Reviewed by: Michael Bailey

Click to enlarge


Conner has been transformed into a Black Lantern by Nekron and is powerless to stop his body from savagely attacking Wonder Girl. He thinks of his origins and how he now has all of the powers of Superman except for freeze breath, something the Black Lantern Superboy is capable of doing. As the Black Lantern Superboy taunts Wonder Girl Conner tries to assert control and manges to break through twice; the first time whistling for Krypto's help and the second to burn a message to Cassie into the ground sending her to the Fortress of Solitude. Upon reaching the Fortress Krypto digs up the regeneration pod that contains the corpse of Conner Kent. When the pod is opened the Black Lantern ring tries to reanimate the corpse. Conner uses this as his chance to grab the ring and freeze it with his newly discovered freeze breath. Cassie throws that ring into space and after putting dead Conner's body back into the pod they fly off to rejoin the battle against Nekron.

3Story - 3: I know that this is going to sound terrible but this issue was average in every sense of the word.

It wasn't terrible. The writing was serviceable, both Cassie and Conner were in character throughout the issue and there were even some neat moments here and there but the story felt like the event crossover issue it was.

There were some good points. I liked the fact that Bedard gave a shout out (for lack of a better term) to Superboy's history. I liked the addition of freeze breath even though it was telegraphed early on which took some of the umph out of the ultimate reveal. I also dug the fact that there were references to the fact that Conner had taken steps to strengthen his psychic defenses, but none of these were enough to make me think, "Wow, that was a really good issue!"

My biggest disappointment with this particular story is that the series has been so strong up until this point. The previous two Blackest Night crossover issues were very good and even made me feel bad for Superboy Prime, which I thought was darn near impossible. It might be unfair but this issue felt like Bedard was trying to write in the same style as Geoff Johns but came up short.

The one aspect of this issue that really jumped out at me was the fact that Conner had to put his own dead body back into the regeneration pod. That is...creepy. It was a neat way to overcome the Black Lantern ring but that is just really weird. Cool but...eww.

So yeah, this issue was by no means the worst I have read all month but it definitely wasn't the best either.

3Art - 3: This issue is another example where the artwork isn't bad but at the same time it's not all that good either. I have to wonder if it has to do with the fact that the book had three inkers, which has a tendency to throw off a consistent look for an issue or story. There isn't a specific panel that bugged me and the layouts were decent enough and that is probably part of the problem because I can't point to any of the art in the book that would produce praise or criticism. The art was like the story; serviceable, entertaining but not all that memorable.

4Cover Art - 4: The standard cover is pretty standard. Superboy vs. Wonder Girl or I guess I should write Black Lantern Superboy vs. Wonder Girl. Not bad but not really all that exciting as well though the bloody heart was a nice touch.

The variant cover (which was in my box because the shop I purchase my comics at randomly puts the variant cover into a customer's hold box and I guess it was my lucky week) was interesting. I think they should try another cover template for future issues because while this layout is retro and kind of neat I also think it loses its uniqueness when it happens every single issue. Still, I prefer this one to the standard cover.

Mild Mannered Reviews

2010

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

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