Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #3 // Review
General Brutah is upset. One can understand his frustration. He didn’t get to be where he is in the Khund fleet by slacking off. He took out an entire Thanagarian battle fleet when he was just ten cycles old. Now, he’s in charge of a group of people who can’t hit one ship. Given the fact that the ship in question is being used by a certain Kryptonian, their difficulties are understandable in Superboy: The Man of Tomorrow #3. Writer Kenny Porter continues a fun space adventure that shoots across the page with considerable grace due to the talents of artist Jahnoy Lindsay.
Superboy is using a spaceship as a surfboard. He’s doing so while fighting a fleet of Khunds in deep space. He thinks it's pretty cool, and he’s not alone. Most of the Cosmoteers he’s working with think that it’s pretty cool, too. This is the easy part, though. This is the beginning of the issue. A seasoned Superman knows that things are going to get a hell of a lot more dangerous as things progress through the rest of the issue. Dominator X doesn’t like what Superboy is doing to all his labs. He’s sending something formidable in the path of the Kryptonian kid. He’s sending in Infinity.
Porter takes the traditional pulpy sci-fi super-heroic adventure and tweaks it a bit in the direction of something with a bit more heart. This issue has Superboy really enjoying the use of his powers in a way that other Kryptonians don’t always have the opportunity for. Even his more playful incarnations have often left Superboy seeming a little stiff and awkward. Porter’s vision for the character has him appealingly balancing between youthful enjoyment and genuinely selfless heroism. The dynamic with the Cosmoteers fuses the rest of the story with a kind of manga ensemble dynamic that fits the art style.
Lindsay’s art draws heavily on a manga/anime style. This is most apparent in space combat scenes, but there’s an energy about the big ensemble scenes with the Cosmoteers that feels like it’s coming from a place ever-so-slightly more mecha-and-kaiju than the traditional DC Universe. Superboy continues to look really cool in Lindsay’s hands as well. All too often, a Superboy artist is trying to simply make him look like a mini-Clark. Lindsay is clearly taking the traditional look of Kal-El and reverse-aging him to make him look like someone with a genuinely young appearance that feels selfless and full of life.
The specific novelty of Superboy working with a group of adventurers could wear off in a few issues if Porter continues to take a manga-inspired approach to the ensemble. The writer is clearly telegraphing plot points issues in advance...and those plot points don’t seem to be all that interesting. He’s going to have to find a fresh approach to old sci-fi ensemble tropes if he’s going to continue to navigate relatively fresh territory with this particular Superboy.
