Review: Superboy Vol. 2- Extraction

Quick Summary

Pros: Superboy’s new friendships are one of the best aspects of the series so far. Watching him learn about the “real” world is entertaining.

Cons: The opening chapters give an incredibly fragmented view of a disappointing crossover. The story elements focusing on Superboy’s new friendship are often boring.

Overall: Though this is an improvement from the previous volume, there are still far too many negatives to make this anything more than a below average book. Superboy’s journey to discover humanity and friendship is the book’s biggest positive. However, this positive is overshadowed by uninteresting storylines and several confusing chapters. This volume is only for those who are able to look past some pretty lackluster plotlines and enjoy Superboy’s development as a character.

Story

Superboy Vol. 2: Extraction, by Scott Lobdell and Tom DeFalco, is a slight improvement on its predecessor but still a lackluster volume overall. The main draw here is the focus on friendship, as Superboy forms deeper connections with the Teen Titans and starts to learn more about humanity in general. Watching him stumble through these social situation proves to be very rewarding and entertaining all at once. However, this volume also contains a disjointed and confusing crossover, a host of generic characters, and some pretty boring storylines. These negatives far outweigh the positives and make it a bit hard to enjoy this volume. There is potential for this series to improve though, so hopefully the next volume is better still.

(spoilers start here)

Extraction starts out with a few chapters from a larger crossover event. Unfortunately, these chapters exclude a number of vital pieces from the larger event, making a rather confusing reading experience. This event, The Culling (Review), is already a poor event when viewed in whole, so chopping it up in this manner is even worse. In addition, the crossover’s ending is left out entirely, causing a confusing jump between the end of The Culling (Review) and the beginning of the next story arc. All of this makes for a very disappointing start to the volume.

Luckily, things start to improve from this point forward. The following few chapters mostly focus on Superboy’s developing relationship with the Teen Titans. Readers get to see him connect with these characters and even begin to form friendships. Though the transition from enemy to ally is a bit jarring at first, it works as the volume progresses.

This focus on heartwarming friendship continues through the rest of the volume, as Superboy spends a lot of time hanging out with Bunker, another member of the Teen Titans. Bunker and Superboy’s relationship is unique, as Bunker is one of the first people who tries to show Superboy the “real” world. This proves to be a compelling story element and one that will hopefully continue as this series progresses.

Unfortunately, the actual conflicts that Superboy, and sometimes Bunker, face are less entertaining. They go head to head with a monster who Superboy does not want to kill, but ends up killing anyway. Then a plotline begins surrounding Superboy’s new landlord introduces a host of incredibly generic characters, none of whom bring much to the story. There is some potential in a mystery surrounding the landlord but this is not fully realized yet.

The volume ends with an origin story issue that is equally disappointing. It essentially reviews Supeboy’s origin from the previous volume while also discussing an ancient Kryptonian legend. Though there is potential here in the Kyrptonian story, reviewing events from the previous volume is not that entertaining.

(spoilers end here)

Art

Like the story, the artwork in this volume also receives a slight improvement. R.B. Silva’s lighthearted pencils and Richard Horie and Tanya Horie’s bright colors fit much better in the imaginative world of the Colony and the daylit New York City streets than they did in the dark N.O.W.H.E.R.E. labs. In addition, chapters by Sebastian Fiumara and Brett Booth perfectly capture the beauty of the tropical island that Superboy finds himself on. This still isn’t the best looking series out there, however, it is a solid improvement with decent visuals overall.

Continuity

Superboy Vol. 2: Extraction continues the story started in Superboy Vol. 1: Incubation (Review). In addition, this volume contains a piece of The Culling (Review), a crossover event through three comic series.

The story here continues in Superboy Vol. 3: Lost (Review).

This volume also makes references to other comic books, detailed below:

• The Teen Titan’s origin and backstory is referenced here. This is detailed in Teen Titans Vol. 1: It’s Our Right to Fight (Review).
  • This volume is also where Detritus makes his initial appearance.
• The Legion Lost’s origin and backstory is referenced here. This is detailed in Legion Lost Vol. 1: Run From Tomorrow (Review).