Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Superman 682: New Krypton

By Beth Davies-Stofka
November 26, 2008 - 20:28

This is the first boring issue in the New Krypton story.  Comic book serials are just like television serials, where we go from week to week, waiting to see what will happen next.  And just as in those TV serials, there seem to be those inevitable issues in which a bunch of stuff has to happen to move the plot along.  There isn't enough space for a key plot development, or for a popular character to confront a major issue.  No real advances occur in relationships.  In short, the issue has no center.  It's just a hodgepodge of events, and one must trust that the writers will have sufficient mastery over those events to explore their ramifications over time, drawing out all the significant threads and implicating the reader in the emotional outcomes.

However, this reminds me of why I don't watch television shows that tell stories over time.  If I'm really interested in the story, why would I want to wait a week to see what happens next?  Or worse, why would I want to wait several weeks?  Popular shows like Lost, Prison Break, and Battlestar Galactica go on lengthy hiatus, and they can do this without losing viewers.  But I'll bet the DVD revenues are significant in part because of people like me who would rather see the stories at the pace we set, not the pace set by broadcast and production schedules.

Of course, I haven't actually seen those shows on TV or DVD, or even online.  I just haven't seen those shows.  They have so much suspense that I simply can't take it.  If they were books, I'd read them.  Then I wouldn't have to squirm on pins and needles as the plots unfold.  I could read faster, skim descriptions, skip to the end.  That's why I love books.  With books, the pace of the story is almost completely up to me.

So I might find myself resisting New Krypton's weekly pace.  I really want to flip ahead, to see what the events in Superman 682 mean.  Without some kind of dramatic context, the thing just fell flat.  A bunch of Kryptonians flew around.  They did some things that are hard to understand.  We don't know who was working for whom.  Superman and Supergirl were upset about it.  And all is not as it seems. 

Okay!  But now I have to wait two weeks for the next New Krypton issue, Action Comics 872.  And I can't be certain that any of the questions raised by Action Comics 871, Supergirl 35, or Superman 682 will be answered.  What if they just switch scenes again, and start up yet another thread?  Will I keep reading, or drift away to something more satisfying?

Rating: 5 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12