Title: Sideways.
Story-Arc: Steppin’ Out.
Volume: 1.
Writer(s): Dan DiDio & Justin Jordan.
Illustrator(s): Kenneth Rocafort, Robert Gill & Carmine di Giandomenico.
Publisher: DC Comics.
Format: Paperback.
Release Date: October 23rd 2018.
Pages: 144.
Genre(s): Comics, Science-Fiction.
ISBN13: 9781401283377.
My Overall Rating: ★★☆☆☆.
Following the events in Dark Nights: Metal, new and old heroes are given the opportunity to make a memorable impression within the DC Universe and on fans. This New Age of Heroes attempts to fill in a gap in DC’s repertoire by offering readers new story arcs to dive in and enjoy. This colossal task was oddly approached with the launch of so many different series almost simultaneously, but also with so many different creative teams working on each project, looking to hit the jackpot among fans. To top it off, the artists were given much more credit in these new line-ups, even though all the series so far features multiple artists working on the same project; nothing like a rocky experience, right? However, so far, the new heroes introduced have failed to leave a good impression with them all showing significant resemblances to Marvel’s superheroes. With Damage being the Hulk, the Silencer being the Punisher and the Terrifics being the Fantastic Four, things weren’t looking too good for these comic book series. Is it any different with Sideways?
Unfortunately for us, Sideways is the latest rip-off by DC Comics and this time—if the costume alone doesn’t give it away—it takes our friendly neighbourhood superhero, Spider-Man, and merges his character with Doctor Strange’s ability to open portals to create our new dimension-jumping Puerto Rican teenage hero. This is the story of high school junior Derek James as he wakes up one morning after falling into a rift to another dimension during the Metal DC Comics cosmic event and returning with the power to open rifts to wherever he thinks of. Known around school as the kid who needs his adopted mom for absolutely anything, he secretly wishes to gain fame and popularity through Youtube videos where he does live-commentaries as his superhero-self known as Sideways. What he doesn’t know is that there are larger powers at work who doesn’t appreciate the manipulation of dimension that he carelessly indulges himself in.
I’m not going to lie, the ideas put together here, while disgraceful after having read the past three series in this New Age of Heroes line-up, still convey some potential. A teenage kid with the ability to open rifts that can ultimately have great repercussions if not used properly really brings into play a nice setup for stories that can build the character’s personality and help develop him from innocent and careless to mature and wise. However, there’s far too little reward in this first story arc as it fails to sell Derek James as a worthwhile character. His attitude is despicable and his mentality is beyond childish. There’s also no hooks thrown our way to connect with him as he continuously makes horrible decisions that lead him to realize too late all of his mistakes. And to make matters worse, the writing blatantly ignores these faults and skims over them, to lead the stories in directions that should never have even been possible. In fact, the role of the time and dimension guardian known as Tempus Fuginaut is a fine example of the many inconsistencies in this story. His motives dramatically change from his first to second appearance, and the explanation is quickly skipped over. All that came to mind was… Thank you, next.
The other issue that arises from this volume is the rough and ragged pencilling. The artwork is actually quite fine throughout the volume, but there’s something about the style, in addition to the colouring, that makes everything feel faded and old. The worse thing about this artwork has to be the facial expressions as every person seem like they have the flu or are high on some kind of psychoactive substance. However, the suit design remains intriguing, but its resemblances to Spider-Man takes away any originality from it. And then there’s the villains in this story arc. None of them truly stand out, and some of them are actually quite bad and unmemorable with dialogues so basic that you’d think it was a joke at first. In fact, the only times this story actually started being interesting is when it revolved around the Tempus Fuginaut character and his dimension. Besides that, the world in which Derek James lives is as plain as it can ever be.
With Sideways being the latest rip-off of Marvel’s property, it makes you wonder why DC Comics would believe that these new characters would honestly help complete their arsenal when anyone could and would be better off checking out the original classic heroes over at Marvel or simply stick to the canonical series within DC’s collections. If anything, I doubt any of these new line-ups will survive the long run for now.
P.S. In a recent episode of Arrow on the CW Network (season 7), the Silencer makes her debut as a villain. Quite interesting to see the character actually find itself as a Z-list character before even finding its own footing in the comic book world. Oh, and yes, you read that right: Z-list. I mean… They actually even changed her character, where her powers were just the result of a gadget.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for sending me a copy for review!
Roars and Echoes 
Man, can it get any worse? Hope not, for our and DC’s sake… 😉 I appreciate your honesty about these, though – won’t be coming anywhere near those, thank you vey much! 🙂
LikeLiked by 2 people
Really hope not… And I’m glad to help. 😛 At least this line-up of comics aren’t their main stuff. Everyone should just pick wisely hahah 😀
LikeLike
Lol….a Z-list character, I have never heard of that term before: I like it! 😂😂 Man, we talked about it recently, but this new series of DC really seems to be dropping the ball doesn’t it. I do have to admit that I like the sound of this character’s powers though. All in all, especially as I am more of a Marvel fan anyway, all these new characters don’t really interest me to go check these books out 😂😂 As always though, your review was very enjoyable to read ! 😊😊
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yeh man. It was already a tricky character with barely any story with it so far, yet they still decided to tweak the character so much! Oh well, it was nice to see the character there already being adapted on the small screen hahaha
And yes! The powers are pretty cool, and surely can give us so much to enjoy with the right stories (or maybe the right writers too).
Thanks for reading nonetheless! 🙂 There are definitely better stories out there to check out. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ouch.
Have to say, where has the creativity gone?
LikeLiked by 2 people
Oddest decision for creativity, that’s for sure. Hope the next and final 4 series have a better debut…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Poor old DC.
I hope they can get it together with some originality and stop all this copycat business before they fail completely.
LikeLiked by 1 person
It is quite sad, especially when it’s so obvious… They do have some bad stories throughout their legacy, but man… Just why… Going to stay hopeful for the next series in this new line-up… Hopefully they’re a lot better. 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Your descriptions of the facial expressions! Hahahaha!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha I’m not even kidding! Check out the picture in the slideshow right after the one where you see him holding his phone up high for a live commentary! They really look sick or high! 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Lashaan, your reviews always make me so happy. Thank you for your honest interpretation of all the New Age of Heroes stories. You’ve convinced me by now that these comics just aren’t going to be for me. I WANT to love that DC is stepping out into new territory. I WANT to see a new generation of heroes and storylines and villains and universes and gadgets and problems to solve. But it’s obviously DC is falling short. It’s like the MCU has just made the entire DC comic empire fall in upon itself. I’m so sad.
Will you keep reading the New Age of Heroes? Do you ever stop reading comics? 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha thank YOU for taking the time to read them, Jackie! 😉 And yep, honesty is the best policy. I am after all a huge DC fan, and an even bigger Batman fan, so if it’s come down to me bashing on some of these comic book series/series/stories, then there has to be something wrong somewhere! These series are totally unnecessary so far and the writers/illustrators on it should be working on something else completely.
And yes, I’ll be giving each series a shot, just the first volume. So far, none of them have made me want to continue, but hopefully one of the later stories will be much more promising…
Nop. Never going to stop reading comics. 😀 Why quit on something you love? That applies pretty much on anything/anyone in life. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
How many more first volumes exist in this series? I feel like every time I come over to Bookidote, you are reading another one! Don’t get me wrong, I love hearing your thoughts– I just hope that they don’t all end up a disappointment. Hopefully the promise you are looking for will appear in an upcoming volume.
Exactly. Why stop reading something you love? 😉 I mostly meant stop reading this run, but I understand. If you love something so much, you’re often willing to take more of the bad to find the good. Your quest is honorable! And it’s helping cull my own TBR XD
I wish you all the best!
LikeLiked by 1 person
As part of the of New Age of Heroes? There are a total of 8 new comic book series that have launched. So far I’ve read 4 out of 8, and I plan on checking out the first volume of the 4 others too once they come out as trade paperbacks (the individual comic book issues are already out and coming out bi-weekly or something). I honestly have zero expectations for them, and wouldn’t be surprised anymore if they also followed the trend. And I’m happy to help others realize before it’s too late if they’re bad or good! 😛 Thanks for reading as always, Jackie! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, another hard pass for me – following your (always superb) reviews on these titles and other opinions I’ve seen confirm that this ‘New Age of Heroes’ is anything but. Kudos to DC for trying to establish new sets of characters, but when they all seem to be riffs on classic characters it seems like wasted effort.
Interesting that Silencer has debuted on Arrow (I’ve had to drop all the CW shows unfortunately as they were taking up far too much time), obviously a way of DC promoting the character?
Awesome review as always sir, I especially enjoyed your comments on the art which is something that tends to ‘seal the deal’ with me – comics are of course a collaborative thing but I still believe that a good story needs the art to match it but likewise good art can’t hide poor writing (well, it may distract a little).
P.S. Way behind on a lot of your reviews and I hope to catch up!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep man… I wish it wasn’t so blatantly obvious what they were doing, but it is and it’s a bit shameful. Just putting up my reviews for these is a bit saddening considering that not many even read comics and knowing what DC is doing with this New Age of Heroes line-up might just taint everything up.
Oh man, I feel you there. I have recently greatly slowed down as well with the latest seasons as I barely find time to do it without feeling like I don’t have enough time to do everything else I need to do. I am curious about their Elseworlds crossover event, but I don’t know if I want to catch up to everything now, later or never… To be determined.
I agree about the art. Usually a great story comes with great art, or even art that simply fits with the story, even if it’s not subjectively beautiful to us.
No worries about being behind, Chris hahah I assure you that it’s not an issue at all if you don’t read them all.
LikeLike
I might check out Elseworlds myself, especially since Superman is part of it. The only DC CW series I’m still watching is Black Lightening – have you seen that? It’s standalone and not connected to the Arrowverse and the writing is a bit more mature (but not on the same level as Daredevil).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep, I’ve watched the first season but I’m currently waiting for the whole second season to come out on Netflix. Otherwise, the only show I’m up to date in is Titans hahaha Can’t wait for you to get the chance to see it. It’s surprisingly pretty fun! I also look forward to Gotham’s final season… 😞
LikeLike
I’m a bit behind on Gotham, all of season 4 is available on Netflix in the UK but I probably won’t get to it until New Year. Intrigued by Titans and I’m interested to see how Swamp Thing turns out as well.
LikeLiked by 1 person
well, I hadn’t even heard DC was up to this type of thing… leave it to me to be so completely out of the loop 😀 but, your descriptions of what characters look like, is spot on. There’s a serious case of head colds going on with a lot of sniffly noses 😀 hahaha
LikeLiked by 1 person
It does make them seem like really bad people, doesn’t it? Hahah But I assure you that, besides this line-up of comics in particular, they have great people writing great stories for their main stories, especially those concerning the classic DC heroes everyone knows and love. It’s just this new batch of heroes that seem extremely sketchy. Hopefully the next 4 series in this “New Age of Heroes” are far more compelling and original. 😛
LikeLiked by 1 person
Just by seeing the images of the comics, I just can’t find the enthusiasm to read this over the originals, as you pointed out.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yep. Truly saddened by the path they decided to travel with these series. People should just stick to the main series.
LikeLiked by 1 person