Sideways #10 – Dan Didio, Writer; Kenneth Rocafort, Artist; Daniel Brown, Colorist
Ray – 6/10
Ray: It’s back to Earth for Derek as he finally deals with the fallout of his mother’s death, and while the down-to-earth storylines were the selling point of the series, I’m not sure they work anymore. This is mainly because Didio seems to be trying to do a true-to-life depiction of how being a superhero would make a teenager’s life fall apart. Unfortunately, what it actually comes off as is endlessly depressing. Derek returns home to find his father surrounded by news crews, as he’s been missing for over a week. The crews clean out, Derek finds out that the police are looking at him as a suspect in his mother’s death, and Derek’s adoptive father essentially makes clear that he has no interest in continuing to try to be Derek’s father without his wife around. So Derek’s life is collapsing, and he immediately seeks out his best friend Ernie – who it turns out has had her own life-changing personal troubles since he’s been gone.
Although Ernie’s pissed at Derek for disappearing as well, they still decide to disappear and head to Paris for an adventure thanks to Derek’s teleporting. Unfortunately, that vacation is quickly interrupted by the evil Dominus and her minions. She sends an army of terrorists to draw Sideways out of hiding, which leads to some exciting action segments on the streets of Paris. She’s also hired her own supervillain, a C-lister named Bolt, who kidnaps Ernie and threatens her as the issue ends. The Spider-man comparisons are once again really strong this issue, and the final image of a blonde girl being dangled off a landmark by a supervillain trying to get at the hero is unmistakable. I don’t think this comic will go the same way, but it’s still another way this comic doesn’t feel like it’s walking its own path. I still think Derek’s story as a child of interracial adoption had a lot of potential, but that’s not what this series turned out to be.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
