Bizarro

Bizarro, a comedic would-be Superman who resembles Frankenstein's monster, has been kicking around since the 1950s in various iterations. His gimmick is being an imperfect duplicate of the Man of Steel who speaks in antonyms to explain actions that are the opposite of Superman's. It's a concept that only works when Bizarro is presented as silly and goofy without being evil or intentionally dangerous. But what worked in the more kiddie-oriented comics of yore can't necessarily be translated for modern tastes, as this collection demonstrates. Superman's pal Jimmy Olsen takes Bizarro on a road trip to Canada in order to remove the monstrous nuisance from Metropolis, with Jimmy chronicling their misadventures and hoping to craft a book from the odyssey. The unlikely duo, accompanied by Bizarro's pet chupacabra, hit the road and all manner of chaos occurs, little of which is amusing, let alone actually funny. The uninvolving script relies on Duarte's gorgeous illustrations to do all of the heavy lifting. This is a visual home run, but as a humorous story it's a strike-out. (Feb.)