Superior #1 - Mobile Edition

Marvel Comics
Superior #1
By Colin Andersen
October 18, 2010 - 21:54

Marvel Comics
Writer(s): Mark Millar
Penciller(s): Leinil Francis Yu
Inker(s): Gerry Alanguilan
Colourist(s): Dave McCaig
Letterer(s): Clayton Cowles
$2.99 US

   I just want to say right off the bat: Superior is going to be a matter of taste. If you have read any of Mark Millar’s DC or Marvel Universe comics such as Kick-Ass and Nemesis, you will probably enjoy this series. This is Millar’s latest attempt at creating a new character and giving them a realistic twist and it works fairly well.
   Superior focuses on a teenage boy named Simon Pooni. Simon’s story is fairly typical fiction fare: he was a star basketball player with a bright future ahead of him until he developed multiple sclerosis. One day, he is abducted by a space monkey and given “The Magic Wish” and turned into his hero, Superior. That’s essentially all there is to the plot of this issue. It is largely devoted to giving us the history of Simon and some other basic information. This fact makes this first issue rather underwhelming as an introduction to these characters. Sure, Simon’s condition is horrible and he is in a sympathetic position, but this a character background that you have probably seen a million times in media before. Because of this, I couldn’t care about Simon as much as I should have been able to. Perhaps a different origin would have helped. Perhaps this will not be a problem for others like it is for me. Like I said, it is a matter of taste.

What also might have made the characters less likeable to me was their swearing. As anyone who has read either Kick-Ass or, from what I hear, Nemesis then you know Mark Millar loves him some four letter words. Whether or not this works for you, I don’t know, but it detracted from the experience for me. While people swear in real life all the time, it just feels forced into Superior as an attempt to seem more mature and edgy. Honestly, there’s nothing groundbreaking at all here; everything is derivative of something else, though it is important to keep in mind that this is only the first issue. I’m hoping that each character will get more fleshed out and that some other interesting people will be introduced. For what it is, the issue is not bad. It’s nothing special, but it sets up what the series will be about nicely enough and it has wish-granting space monkeys! It’s pretty hard to go wrong with that. Unfortunately, that monkey is the most interesting character yet introduced and he’s only in four pages,
I certainly can’t complain about the art team for Superior though. Leinil Francis Yu does some of the best work that I’ve ever seen from him for issue #1. Back during his run on New Avengers and even Secret Invasion, I was never quite sold on his work. It was technically good work, but never really appealed to me. It felt scratchy and unfinished and every person he drew had a very same-y face. Nearly all of that has been corrected for Superior, I’m happy to say. The first few pages were absolutely stunning and almost looked like the work of a completely different artist while still retaining Yu’s signature style. There isn’t much in the way of fighting for this issue, but what little is there is amazingly dynamic and quite fluid. For the first time, I can really see why he has such an intense following. His strong characters look big and powerful and his children actually look the age they’re supposed to. My biggest complaint is Superior’s costume which looks bland and uninspired but that’s lampooned in the comic, so I don’t mind so much.
Judging by this first issue, if you came to Superior looking for the next Kick-Ass, you’ll likely be disappointed. This style of Mark Millar’s writing is getting a little tired by this point and the plot itself holds very few surprises. There’s still plenty of room for Superior to develop into a more interesting series but, for now, the best part of this story is the artwork. For diehard Leinil Yu fans, this might be enough to draw you to the book, but I can’t really recommend this to anyone that is looking for a new series. It just doesn’t have enough substance or new ideas to justify a purchase. I’m going to hazard a guess that this will ultimately be a book best checked out once it’s collected into a trade paperback.

Rating: 6/10

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