Reviewer: Tim Stevens
Story Title: The Insiders Part 1
Written by: Geoff Johns
Penciled by: Matthew Clark
Inked by: Art Thibert
Colored by: Jeromy Cox
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Publisher: DC Comics
This is it. All the hints, all the looks between Robin and Superboy, all the taunting IMs, all of it relating to Superboy’s real genetic makeup has built up to this moment. And what a brutal moment it is.
After last issue’s love-in and confession-a-thon, Superboy has finally made up his mind to tell the Titans the truth about who’s DNA is swimming in his veins. As he steels (haha) himself for the encounter, a Latin trigger word emanates from his laptop and the situation drastically changed. Before the Titans know what’s what, a fiery eyed bald (it’s beautiful people…don’t fight it, just accept it) Superboy is assaulting the entire team. That’s the whole of the issue. But, like most things, the details are the key.
If there is any question about who is the most powerful amongst the teen hero set, this should put it to rest. With startling ruthlessness, Connor takes apart his teammates without pause and almost without a scratch on him. The highlights include his (literal) taking apart of Cyborg, the whole of his fight with Wonder Girl, especially the tree moment, and Robin’s last desperate stand (which I’ll get to in just a sec). The only flaw is that while Clark does figure and facial work very well, his action sequencing can be a bit confusing. He has no issue conveying the savagery of the attack, but the sense of geography is muddled. In some ways, it aids the feeling of utter bewilderment of the team, but at others it does effect the storytelling adversely.
Getting back to the Robin/Superboy fight for a sec. I’ve seen it mentioned in a few other reviews that Tim’s actions seem a bit, well, dumb and that he should have called for help long before he ended up face-to-face with Connor and even after that using martial arts probably wasn’t the way to go. If Robin had fifteen minutes to react, I’d agree with that. However, you’ve got to figure that the whole attack took maybe two, three minutes tops. There was not much time to think about anything, never mind abandoning one’s teammates to get to a control screen. Also, I choose to interpret Robin’s hesitance as hope that he can somehow shake his best friend out of his trance.
In the end, yes, Insiders Part 1 is little more than a fight issue. However, the sudden violence of the attack and the way the Titans react (almost entirely in silence) to the seeming betrayal of it lends an emotional depth to the dust up.
