Superman for the 21st Century! Absolutely awesome…, October 27, 2010

This graphic novel is everything I had hoped for, and much more. I’ve been a fan of Superman for 10 years, but I’ve never been able to completely relate to Clark Kent / Superman; it always seemed like he was too perfect, too removed, too different. Well, Superman: Earth One has changed all that for me. This is a story about a young guy trying to find his way in his world, wrestling with temptations and fears, and striving to do the right thing by the people who have adopted him as one of their own. There are many moments in this novel that touched me, but two stand out: Clark “visiting” Pa Kent, and the truth behind Krypton’s apocalypse.

J. Michael Straczynski’s writing is full of conviction, hope and realism. Superman’s world is our world, and his trials and triumphs are ours, too. Shane Davis’ art is gorgeous throughout, depicting Metropolis and its citizens with a cinematic flair not too often associated with comic books. I won’t spoil the story, but trust me when I say you won’t be able to put it down until you reach the last page.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. And if you know a kid or a teenager lend them your copy or give them one. We all need better heroes nowadays, and Superman is the greatest of them all.

I can’t wait for the sequel!!!!!

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Fundamental Misunderstanding of Who Superman Is, November 6, 2010

By 

Bryan R. Shipp (North Carolina) –

  

I’m a longtime J Mike fan, having enjoyed his work on Real Ghostbusters, Babylon 5, Rising Stars, Squadron Supreme, Thor. . .and I’m a longtime Superman fan, too. I had high hopes for this book, thinking it’d be a case of two great tastes that taste great together. Imagine my surprise after reading it this morning and discovering that, no, J Mike fundamentally doesn’t understand the character of Superman.

I know he loves the character, I know he’s a longtime fan (longer than me, given the difference in our ages). But reading this comic, I got no sense that J Mike knew what that special magic is that makes Superman so very different from all the other comic book superheroes on the market today. Absolute All Star Superman did a much better job with Superman than J Mike is doing, and Grant Morrison is really much better as a Batman writer.

Overall I have to say this book is “good enough. . .I guess.” The scenes involving the Daily Planet and its cast are top-notch material. Much of the rest of the story is recycled from other, often better stories into a patchwork quilt of Superman-like ideas without Superman-like heart. The art is very good, though in some places the artist trips over himself.

So what specifically went wrong with this book? (SPOILERS AHEAD)

…

There are a lot of great touches in Superman: Earth One. There is a scene wherein Clark buys a newspaper even though the newspaper machine is broken and he could have simply taken a Daily Planet without paying for it. The scenes with Perry White, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen working at a dessicated husk of a Daily Planet are no short of brilliant.

But Clark/Superman himself. . .and the morality that makes him. . .are the problems here. We’re confronted with a Superman that doesn’t WANT to be Superman. His parents tried to push him into being a superhero–his mother sewed his suit, a holdover from John Byrne’s Superman: The Man of Steel, Vol. 1, but in this story the “S” stands alternately for “Son (of another world)” from Martha’s perspective or “Superman” from Jonathan’s perspective. After Jonathan Kent’s death, all Clark wants to do is find a great job with gobs of pay so he can help support his mother. . .he’s not interested in truth, or justice, or any of that nonsense. This entire story shows us a Clark/Superman coming to terms with who he is, who he wants to be, and who he SHOULD be.

And that would be a great story, except that almost all the dialogue outside of the Daily Planet reads like actors who know their lines but don’t understand them. They ring false and hollow, like a poorly-executed stage play or a high school production of Shakespeare. Clark walks around with a slouch and his hoodie up, like some kind of street punk. He has a fantastically emo speech while sitting on his father’s grave in the wee hours before dawn. Beyond that, he has very little to say–much of what it means to be Superman comes in pointed sermons from his father and mother in flashbacks throughout the book that serve as underscores to what is happening to Clark at that moment in the story–a “See, this is what they were talking about” sort of narrative structure. I suppose I would like it more if I weren’t so familiar with J Mike’s writing, but I am, and at this point the technique just feels tired.

J Mike also isn’t above cannibalizing his own ideas from other books he’s written. After the Kents take baby Clark away from the mountainside spaceship crash (I think J Mike or Shane Davis, the illustrator, needs to bone up on his geography if he thinks mountains are in Kansas), the government arrives in “black helicopters” and captures the spaceship. . .and proceeds to experiment on it in secret for the next 20 years. An idea last seen in Supreme Power Vol. 1: Contact by none other than J Mike Straczynski.

So, cutting to the chase, an alien dressed like a member of Insane Clown Posse. . .but with metal-and-energy wings. . .that he doesn’t need to fly, he just has them because they’re cosmetic, I guess?. . .arrives with a bunch of spacecraft and starts tearing the planet apart. Turns out he and his people. . .planetary neighbors of Krypton. . .blew up Krypton 20 years ago and they’ve been on the hunt for the last remaining Kryptonian ever since. Why did they hate Krypton and go to war with them? Because the plot compelled them to! So these aliens show up to find the last Kryptonian and, whether he shows or not, they’re going to kill a lot of people just cuz. And with that, Clark actually has (an albeit brief) debate with himself on whether he should reveal himself.

But of course he does, and they fight and fight and it’s all…

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