RATING: 2.7 out of 5 points:
Title: The Big Noise: Written by Joe Casey
This story started out with quite a bit of promise. It had mystery. It had an off world appeal, especially with an ancient alien spacecraft. There were several great fight scenes in that first issue. So..... WHAT went wrong? I'll tell you. The writer’s indifference to the story reflected in the pages of the comic. HE lost interest in telling the story and his heart wasn't in it.
FULL REVIEW: ******SPOILERS of the Story included:
Before I came to that conclusion, I couldn't put my finger on... what was making this story blah... What kept me from saying, "Wow", when I read this story?
I tried dissecting it, from dialog to art, from characterization to plot, but all seemed to be smooth, or... the problems I could find were just too nit picky, that they shouldn't matter to the story. The art ... at least to me... was great. Reviewers with more knowledge of art were able to tell that the skill in the ink and coloring wasn't up to par... but I couldn't tell, so I don't think that was what was wrong.
It wasn't until I read the interview Joe Casey had with Comic Book Resources, that I finally hit my Ah..Ha.. moment. http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=24684
Joe Casey said in the interview:
"Well, to be perfectly honest, I had other 'Superman/Batman' stories that I wanted to do, stories that I felt would really fulfill the promise of the book having to be ‘outside’ current continuity but would still get readers pumped, so the most exciting thing about this story was getting to the end of it, so I could possibly move on to writing the next ones."Casey became disinterested and impatient with his own story. I would say that feeling... of wanting to get on to another project..., carried into the book. Just like smiling when talking on the telephone, the person receiving the call can hear the smile in your voice. The same when your writing a story, your feelings get translated into the pages.
Look at some of the art. The art itself should have carried the story, I enjoyed the art portion for the most part.
The ending of the second issue had a great fire fight between Superman and the antagonist, NRG-X, an alien hired assassin that was hired to kill Clark Kent. I mean come... on...why wasn't I excited about this. Well ... I was... till I got the next issue.
The most exciting thing to me was how Batman's spacesuit was drawn.
I got almost giddy, Te he he he. Oh... Ah...can you tell I'm a Batman Beyond fan?
I sure hope I"m not a lone.
If Casey had just mentioned more about the suit, maybe...maybe I would have WOKE up.
The ending was a 'dump' ending, as in "lets end this real quick and dump the story". Superman ripped the NRG-X apart, then froze the guy behind hiring him into an icicle. Wham Baam we're done. I am being a little harsh, because it did really take a whole issue to finish the story, but it was... a lack luster meh.. ending, to what could have been a great story.
The credits of the books also show how they lost interest and dumped the book unto others.
Superman/Batman : The Big Noise:
Issue #64: Prelude to Big Noise Writer: Joe Casey > Pencils: Ardian Syaf > Inks: Scott Kolins > color: Michael Atiyeh
Issue #68 :Rumble Face > Writer: Joe Casey > Pencils: Ardian Syaf > Inks: Vicente Cifuentes and David Enebral > color: Ulises Arreola
Issue #69:Benediction Redox > Writer: Joe Casey > Pencils: Ardian Syaf > Inks: Vicente Cifuentes > Color: Ulises Arreola
Issue #70: Righteous Destroyer > Writer: Joe Casey > Pencils: Ardian Syaf & Jay Fabok > Inks: Vicente Cifuentes, NOrm Rapmund and Marlo Alquiza >Color: Ulises Arreola
Issue #71: The Final Solution > Writer: Joe Casey & Joshua Williamson > Pencils: Jason Fabok > Inks: Pretis rollins, Rebecca Buchman, Derek Fridolfs, and Walden Wong > Colors : Pete Pantazis
