Tag Archives: Wonder Twins

Badly Recapped: Wonder Twins #6

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MARK RUSSELL – writer

STEPHEN BYRNE – artist & cover artist

DAVE SHARPE – letterer

 

Synopsis in a Sentence: The Scrambler’s plans are foiled by Zan so world leaders can keep being jerks, man.

 

We start out this issue 30 days out from the Great Scramble. The Scrambler has already proven he can pull his consciousness-switching scheme having scrambled a million people already, although we only see one affected person in Lex’s prison (of course). I’d say take a shot every time I write “scramble” in this review, but I did so while reading this issue and nearly died.

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At any rate, shit is looking bad for our over-simplified world leaders as well as the Justice League, who can’t find the whereabouts of the nefarious villain. “But wait, didn’t the Wonder Twins bust some of his buddies recently?” wonders Superman, before sending the two teens off to chase the only lead on this earth-shattering crisis. Riiiight.

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Zan fails at interrogating Praying Mantis, but Jayna, disguised as a fly, picks up that the Scrambler was last seen talking to Filo Math, so she heads to her friend’s pad. Sure enough, there are Polly and the Scrambler, and rather than, I don’t know, act HEROIC, Jayna not only hears out their side of the argument, but doesn’t even report them to the Justice League. Because they’re making the world better. Or something.

Luckily Zan decided to risk de-molecularizing (if that’s a word) and found the villains, right before 300 laws ending poverty, incarceration, global warming, puppy kicking, etc were signed, to the relief of every (naturally) evil world leader. Man, I am tired of Mark Russell’s oversimplification of world issues at this point. Can I get a fun Wonder Twins comic please? Polly and Scrambler are arrested, but we’ve got 6 more issues to “look forward to.”

Stephen Byrne’s art is stupendous as always, and Russell can have witty moments when his self-righteousness doesn’t get in the way. The message is a good one, but I’m tired of getting hit over the head with it repeatedly. I hope the next arc gets back to what we saw in issue one- namely more of the Twins’ fish-out-of-water experiences, and less over-reaching social commentary.

 

6.0/10

 

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Badly Recapped: Wonder Twins #4

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MARK RUSSELL – writer

STEPHEN BYRNE – artist

DAVE SHARPE – letterer

 

Synopsis in a Sentence: The Wonder Twins go on dates, with varying degrees of success.

 

The fishes out of water tale of the Wonder Twins continues (with a disturbing lack of Zan taking any form of water) as the Twins almost accidentally set up dates with two strangers at a school science fair. We also get more Polly Math, whose project theorizes the internet is a living consciousness that hasn’t woken up yet. At this point I’m having a little trouble staying awake myself. I hope this Math subplot either dies or plays a large part in the story down the road.

 

And speaking of story, what is the story of this book? I’m fine with just zany hijinks involving Zan and Jayna, but I don’t know if Mark Russell is. Halfway through this comedic and satirical comic we get the backstory of Polly Math finding her mother murdered à la Barry Allen, all because of her father’s past dealings with Lex Luthor. It just feels out of place with the rest of the story and series as a whole.Ap2N.gif

 

Zan and Jayna’s dates are the highlights of the book. Jayna’s date ends up being villain-in-training, “Red Flag”, a total bro whom she finally ditches at the end by transforming into a cheetah and running away. I’d have rather seen her take the form of kangaroo (which she mentioned to Superman she was getting better at earlier) and knock his block off, but at least we got SOME transforming from her, unlike Zan.

 

Speaking of which, Zan’s date went kind of better, simply ending with the girl getting back together with her ex. In a sweet, bordering on saccharine moment, Zan explains that he’s happy to have made a friend because in all likelihood they would’ve broken up in a few weeks anyhow, because teenagers. Zan’s naiveté continues to charm; I wish Russell did more with Jayna’s shyness he established in the first issue though.

 

Overall this issue had its fun moments, its good Russell (satire), its bad Russell (preachiness), and ongoing terrific art from Stephen Byrne. I’m not sure about the underlying arc of the Math family, and I’d like a little more Wonder Twins powers activating. Hopefully both are resolved in the final two issues.

 

6.5/10

 

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