[Review] Supreme Power Volume 1: Contact
So, several weeks back, when I was massively bored, I randomly picked up volume one of a comic series titled, Supreme Power.
I ended up not reading it, because, to be frank, the blatant re-use of a piece of art from Rising Stars for the volume one cover bugged me. (Oh yes, I see what you did there, Marvel.) I loved Rising Stars, and I think Straczynski can whip up a good mini-series when the company gives him the reigns to do so.
SUPREME POWER VOL. 1: CONTACT
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Gary Frank, Jon Sibal
Publisher: Marvel/Max Comics
I started reading Supreme Power last night.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's going on my list of realistic executions of the superhero concept. Right next to Rising Stars and Kick-Ass.
Series evidently finishes out at 3 trade paperbacks plus three TPBs focusing on Nighthawk, Hyperion and a pre-war one. I plan to pick up the other two main-continuity volumes, but not the offshoots. I remember Rising Stars, the offshoots lost the edge and focus the main story had. They were clearly add-ons just digging for more money, and they detracted rather than adding to the story. I expect this will be the same. Straczynski writes a good beginning-middle-end story, his add-ons tend to be very clearly slapped on after the fact.
Gary Frank's art isn't anything to write home about. Not eye-bleedingly bad, but not an artist I'd go looking for later. (Francis Manapul is an artist I actually searched out his DA page after he started drawing Legion of SuperHeroes. I like his style.) Kinda boring to me. The way he draws eyes are kind of off-putting. Everybody looks a little crazy showing that much white all the time.
Be forewarned that this is a Marvel Max title, meaning it's intended for adults, not kids.
About the basic story:
*** Spoiler-ific Content Below ***
In issue one, the primary focus is on a baby who crash-landed in a spaceship -- in a corn field -- in Kansas. Familiar much? Yeah. Honestly, this title probably out to belong to DC, not Marvel. The ripping-off of DC's heavy-hitters is painfully obvious.
It wasn't exactly John and Martha Kent that picked little ClarkMark up out of his interstellar baby carriage. Oh, they were Kansas farmers driving along in a pick-up truck at the right place and time all right, but a couple of phrases show that they were in a bad marriage, and Mama not!Kent sees the baby as a god-sign to save their marriage. Pa not!Kent just quietly goes along with what wifey says, but looks disturbed. They don't have baby ClarkMark for more than a couple of hours before the government sends a pick-up team. A spaceship crashed in a field, and they had a run-in with a fencepost when they saw it come down. There's no way the government couldn't have found that baby. The not!Kents are threatened into silence and honestly, who would believe them, and the baby is taken into government custody. They find him to be super-strong and with nearly invulnerable skin. (No mention of magic or green space rocks though.) President Carter determines that the child, like any abandoned child with no known living relatives, is a ward of the state, and orders him to be raised in a "non-stressful, idealized and as all-American, Norman Rockwell, Father-knows-best" environment. So they sign up two field agents for the long haul who have been ordered to not get emotionally "involved" with each other to play momma and papa. ClarkMark is raised in a guarded compound. They tried to give him a puppy one birthday. Spot became a crispy spot on the kitchen counter when puppy instincts had him bark at the littlest alien. (Hello, involuntary first-use of heat vision.) Agents Ma and Pa are clearly terrified of ClarkMark.
Amusing asides about how everything given to ClarkMark is put through a gazillion scientific and focus group tests, even his name, Mark Milton. I guess "Clark Kent" didn't fly with the focus group?
We see Bush I and Clinton in the presidential seat as ClarkMark grows to semi-adulthood. I don't know if it's just the art or if he's supposed to seem like he's about to snap at any moment and go all Bizarro!Clark/Doomsday on us because he suspects the falseness of his parents' "love".
ClarkMark is moved up into doing covert-ops/not-UN-sanctioned work for the military, and is eventually revealed to the United States as the son of two agents that died in a plane crash that just mysteriously has these powers. He was raised under "Project Hyperion" and SupermanHyperion is a great American hero raised with American love, tolerance, and values. (His press conference intro is played panel by panel with scenes of his raising with cold-war anti-communist type propaganda.) Agents Ma&Pa put in the request for their extraction and the government fakes their deaths and gives them secret identities to go off and live the rest of their lives in Amsterdam. ClarkMark is devastated by the loss of his "foster parents", so I guess he wasn't as suspicious as the art made him look?
Yeah, I'm revising my opinion on that, hate the art, love the story. Stupid crazy-eyes.
There's also this entire sideline of ClarkMark wants to live a normal life and is very lonely being the only super being running around. He goes so far as to suggest he gets a regular job and wears glasses to hide his identity. Awww, so precious... Superman/Hyperion wants to play Clark Kent.
And we get reveals of other super-folk running around.
The Atlanta BlurThe Flash is a human-born guy who got extremely sick (almost died) as a baby (about the same time ClarkMark landed) and recovered to be perfectly healthy --and able to run faster than the speed of sound. He's discovered by SupermanHyperion investigating the Atlanta BlurThe Flash rumors (the "wild goose chase" was the distraction to keep ClarkMark busy while they faked his parent's death). Subsequently, the FlashBlur having foundation in reality never got reported to the government because they interrupted him before he had a chance to catch and talk to Wally WestStanley Stewart and distracted him with the "deaths" of Agents Ma&Pa. So instead of being picked up by the government, FlashBlur gets discovered by talent agents and starts with the press conference followed by product endorsement deals. (Which is why I'm paralleling him to Wally West rather than any of the other Flashes. Wally was all about getting paid to do the superhero thing when he first donned the Scarlet Speedster get up.)
A government agent, Joseph Ledger, renowned for his mental calm and control is pulled in to investigate a crystal --the power source of SupermanHyperion's interstellar baby buggy. He is good with it --evidently it had unspecified bad results with all the other people who've played with it--, until it decides it likes him and merges with his hand. After an extended coma he wakes up with a severe case of bad cop/good cop split personality disorder and the ability to form the energies of the crystal pretty much any way he wishes. Everybody say hello to our resident Green LanternDr. Spectrum.
There's also a mysterious amphibious something-or-other running about. He hasn't gotten any solid face time yet. Also born from humans, who tried to drown him upon birth because he was obviously not-human upon popping out of mama. Not as parallel a start as the Superman, but I'm gonna bet "Hello Aquaman!" is appropriate.
And we certainly can't forget BatmanNighthawk, the alter ego of Bruce WayneKyle Richmond, a wealthy African-American who decides to fight crime in Chicago after witnessing his parents' being gunned down by racists as a child. Years later, Richmond uses his father's investments to build a successful corporation, and, with its resources, begins acting as a vigilante who hunts criminals who prey on African-Americans. He has no actual powers, and he doesn't want to go play with FlashBlur and SupermanHyperion. *sadface* D:
Final Judgment:
Like I said, I frown on the blatant copy-cating of some of DC's big names, but the story is well-written --and since DC hasn't tried to sue them over it, I guess DC is okay with it being out there.
The story is a lot of fun. A little more "real" of a take on what would happen should an alien spaceship crash onto Earth bearing a child.
Well, had it happened a couple of decades ago.
Now, who knows?
The not!Kents might have Twittered or YouTubed little ClarkMark into intarwebz fame before the government even got to their doorstep. The information age and web 2.0 is an intimidating thing that way.
The art --as always, remember that art is largely a matter of opinion-- is of a consistent quality. Its not really quite my cup of tea, but the story makes up for it. The anatomy, proportions and etc are all very well-drawn. However, the faces, particularly the eyes --almost always showing white above and/or below the iris-- tends to give all the characters a slightly crazed or maniacal look. It feels like everyone's just a couple of arguments away from a complete mental meltdown.
If you enjoyed "Rising Stars" you'll almost certainly like this.
I ended up not reading it, because, to be frank, the blatant re-use of a piece of art from Rising Stars for the volume one cover bugged me. (Oh yes, I see what you did there, Marvel.) I loved Rising Stars, and I think Straczynski can whip up a good mini-series when the company gives him the reigns to do so.
SUPREME POWER VOL. 1: CONTACT
Writer: J. Michael Straczynski
Artists: Gary Frank, Jon Sibal
Publisher: Marvel/Max Comics
I started reading Supreme Power last night.
Thoroughly enjoyed it. It's going on my list of realistic executions of the superhero concept. Right next to Rising Stars and Kick-Ass.
Series evidently finishes out at 3 trade paperbacks plus three TPBs focusing on Nighthawk, Hyperion and a pre-war one. I plan to pick up the other two main-continuity volumes, but not the offshoots. I remember Rising Stars, the offshoots lost the edge and focus the main story had. They were clearly add-ons just digging for more money, and they detracted rather than adding to the story. I expect this will be the same. Straczynski writes a good beginning-middle-end story, his add-ons tend to be very clearly slapped on after the fact.
Gary Frank's art isn't anything to write home about. Not eye-bleedingly bad, but not an artist I'd go looking for later. (Francis Manapul is an artist I actually searched out his DA page after he started drawing Legion of SuperHeroes. I like his style.) Kinda boring to me. The way he draws eyes are kind of off-putting. Everybody looks a little crazy showing that much white all the time.
Be forewarned that this is a Marvel Max title, meaning it's intended for adults, not kids.
About the basic story:
*** Spoiler-ific Content Below ***
In issue one, the primary focus is on a baby who crash-landed in a spaceship -- in a corn field -- in Kansas. Familiar much? Yeah. Honestly, this title probably out to belong to DC, not Marvel. The ripping-off of DC's heavy-hitters is painfully obvious.
It wasn't exactly John and Martha Kent that picked little ClarkMark up out of his interstellar baby carriage. Oh, they were Kansas farmers driving along in a pick-up truck at the right place and time all right, but a couple of phrases show that they were in a bad marriage, and Mama not!Kent sees the baby as a god-sign to save their marriage. Pa not!Kent just quietly goes along with what wifey says, but looks disturbed. They don't have baby ClarkMark for more than a couple of hours before the government sends a pick-up team. A spaceship crashed in a field, and they had a run-in with a fencepost when they saw it come down. There's no way the government couldn't have found that baby. The not!Kents are threatened into silence and honestly, who would believe them, and the baby is taken into government custody. They find him to be super-strong and with nearly invulnerable skin. (No mention of magic or green space rocks though.) President Carter determines that the child, like any abandoned child with no known living relatives, is a ward of the state, and orders him to be raised in a "non-stressful, idealized and as all-American, Norman Rockwell, Father-knows-best" environment. So they sign up two field agents for the long haul who have been ordered to not get emotionally "involved" with each other to play momma and papa. ClarkMark is raised in a guarded compound. They tried to give him a puppy one birthday. Spot became a crispy spot on the kitchen counter when puppy instincts had him bark at the littlest alien. (Hello, involuntary first-use of heat vision.) Agents Ma and Pa are clearly terrified of ClarkMark.
Amusing asides about how everything given to ClarkMark is put through a gazillion scientific and focus group tests, even his name, Mark Milton. I guess "Clark Kent" didn't fly with the focus group?
We see Bush I and Clinton in the presidential seat as ClarkMark grows to semi-adulthood. I don't know if it's just the art or if he's supposed to seem like he's about to snap at any moment and go all Bizarro!Clark/Doomsday on us because he suspects the falseness of his parents' "love".
ClarkMark is moved up into doing covert-ops/not-UN-sanctioned work for the military, and is eventually revealed to the United States as the son of two agents that died in a plane crash that just mysteriously has these powers. He was raised under "Project Hyperion" and SupermanHyperion is a great American hero raised with American love, tolerance, and values. (His press conference intro is played panel by panel with scenes of his raising with cold-war anti-communist type propaganda.) Agents Ma&Pa put in the request for their extraction and the government fakes their deaths and gives them secret identities to go off and live the rest of their lives in Amsterdam. ClarkMark is devastated by the loss of his "foster parents", so I guess he wasn't as suspicious as the art made him look?
Yeah, I'm revising my opinion on that, hate the art, love the story. Stupid crazy-eyes.
There's also this entire sideline of ClarkMark wants to live a normal life and is very lonely being the only super being running around. He goes so far as to suggest he gets a regular job and wears glasses to hide his identity. Awww, so precious... Superman/Hyperion wants to play Clark Kent.
And we get reveals of other super-folk running around.
The Atlanta BlurThe Flash is a human-born guy who got extremely sick (almost died) as a baby (about the same time ClarkMark landed) and recovered to be perfectly healthy --and able to run faster than the speed of sound. He's discovered by SupermanHyperion investigating the Atlanta BlurThe Flash rumors (the "wild goose chase" was the distraction to keep ClarkMark busy while they faked his parent's death). Subsequently, the FlashBlur having foundation in reality never got reported to the government because they interrupted him before he had a chance to catch and talk to Wally WestStanley Stewart and distracted him with the "deaths" of Agents Ma&Pa. So instead of being picked up by the government, FlashBlur gets discovered by talent agents and starts with the press conference followed by product endorsement deals. (Which is why I'm paralleling him to Wally West rather than any of the other Flashes. Wally was all about getting paid to do the superhero thing when he first donned the Scarlet Speedster get up.)
A government agent, Joseph Ledger, renowned for his mental calm and control is pulled in to investigate a crystal --the power source of SupermanHyperion's interstellar baby buggy. He is good with it --evidently it had unspecified bad results with all the other people who've played with it--, until it decides it likes him and merges with his hand. After an extended coma he wakes up with a severe case of bad cop/good cop split personality disorder and the ability to form the energies of the crystal pretty much any way he wishes. Everybody say hello to our resident Green LanternDr. Spectrum.
There's also a mysterious amphibious something-or-other running about. He hasn't gotten any solid face time yet. Also born from humans, who tried to drown him upon birth because he was obviously not-human upon popping out of mama. Not as parallel a start as the Superman, but I'm gonna bet "Hello Aquaman!" is appropriate.
And we certainly can't forget BatmanNighthawk, the alter ego of Bruce WayneKyle Richmond, a wealthy African-American who decides to fight crime in Chicago after witnessing his parents' being gunned down by racists as a child. Years later, Richmond uses his father's investments to build a successful corporation, and, with its resources, begins acting as a vigilante who hunts criminals who prey on African-Americans. He has no actual powers, and he doesn't want to go play with FlashBlur and SupermanHyperion. *sadface* D:
Final Judgment:
Like I said, I frown on the blatant copy-cating of some of DC's big names, but the story is well-written --and since DC hasn't tried to sue them over it, I guess DC is okay with it being out there.
The story is a lot of fun. A little more "real" of a take on what would happen should an alien spaceship crash onto Earth bearing a child.
Well, had it happened a couple of decades ago.
Now, who knows?
The not!Kents might have Twittered or YouTubed little ClarkMark into intarwebz fame before the government even got to their doorstep. The information age and web 2.0 is an intimidating thing that way.
The art --as always, remember that art is largely a matter of opinion-- is of a consistent quality. Its not really quite my cup of tea, but the story makes up for it. The anatomy, proportions and etc are all very well-drawn. However, the faces, particularly the eyes --almost always showing white above and/or below the iris-- tends to give all the characters a slightly crazed or maniacal look. It feels like everyone's just a couple of arguments away from a complete mental meltdown.
If you enjoyed "Rising Stars" you'll almost certainly like this.