Max Landis’ character assassination of Superman concludes in this issue and he even manages to bring down Joker as well!
So after Joker’s “insult comedy” at Superman in the last issue, he decides to just blow up Metropolis but of course fails because Superman’s already gathered up all the bombs. Now it’s Superman’s turn to criticise Joker.
If I didn’t like Joker’s/Landis’ critique of Superman before, I like Superman’s rebuttal even less as it essentially makes him a dick. Superman/Landis’ response to Joker is that he doesn’t care if Joker lives or dies, then he intimidates him by shooting his eye lasers at him, and implies that he’ll kill Joker because he doesn’t value life the same way Batman does. Dickhead Superman then says “Being Superman doesn’t mean I’m greater than anyone. But it does mean I’m better than you. (Eyes glow red) Now get the hell out of my city.”
Yeah, it’s a pretty horrible representation of Superman. More Charles Bronson than Superman.
Landis writes Joker poorly as well, portraying him as this slow-witted goon whose status as the greatest Batman villain is totally undeserved (it must be early in Joker’s career as he doesn’t know how fast Superman is or even know about his eye lasers). Superman’s line - “You’re a goofy idea that only a child would think is cool” - is the dumbest argument against Joker that completely fails to understand the character.
Landis’ two part story is a poorly written conversation between two classic characters that shows the writer doesn’t understand either and can’t write them convincingly at all. Both of these issues read like a high schooler wrote them for all the insight and art they show.
Once again, Jock’s a fine artist but because of the limits of this issue - it takes place mostly on top of the Daily Planet - his talents aren’t utilised to their fullest, and once again it’s unclear what Joker was doing in Metropolis in the first place. Worse, it’s implied Batman had a hand in it, making him seem like a psychopath for running the scenario of Superman vs Joker in real life.
The Sound of One Hand Clapping has been an awful two-fer all round. Superman laughing in the end at that unfunny “hot topic” joke says it all - it’s been amusing for one man and only one man: Max Landis.
No comments:
Post a Comment