DC Comics apparently thinks I can fairly review a storyline by starting
in media res.
Action Comics #845 is the second part of a presumably four-to-six part Superman story called
Last Son, which is cowritten by DC Continuity Guru Geoff Johns and
Superman: The Movie director Richard Donner.
As this issue starts, Superman's in the Fortress of Solitude with a young boy that's apparently from Krypton. He's just rescued the brat from the US military and naturally feeling the need to figure out what's going on, he's talking to the floating computerized space magic head of his old man. It's definitely Donner's version of the Kal-El/Jor-El relationship that informs the storytelling as dear old dad's giant holographic face (this time sporting a beard, contradicting the "canon" version of the character
presented in Birthright) chats away for a while, saying he doesn't know the kid, so they're probably going to be gone by the end of this story.
1 I like Donner's vision of Superman for the movies (the first hour of
Superman: The Movie is my favorite movie in its own right,) but on the page, it just seems sort of silly to incorporate some of the elements after all of the effort that was made to rejigger the character's origins under Waid and Yu. Of course, with Johns at the helm, maybe this is the new, real live post-
Infinite Crisis honest-and-for-true
definitive version of papa El that we're expected to accept
2.
Anyway, there's a fair amount of talking between Superman and the kid, Superman and his wife, Superman and his parents, and Superman and the military that sucks most of the fun out of entire affair. I vastly prefer stories where Superman spends much less time gabbing than he does going out and doing the stuff he's sort of expected to do, seeing as he's the most powerful man on earth. The time spent not featuring Superman flapping his gums focuses on Luthor a small bit, showing that he's keeping a beady eye on the proceedings with his usual genius-but-sure-to-fail sort of plan brewing, before throwing in a completely not-at-all fun take on Bizarro that sort of lumbers through to provide some combat, threatening to kill children with school buses and speaking in tones that I'm guess I'm supposed to presume are threatening because of his backwardness but instead come across as laughable attempts at "maturing" the character. I don't like it when people try to do serious takes on Bizarro, acting like he's some sort of menace worth of much respect. I think that creators should either go with the concept's Silver Age lunacy and inject just a tiny bit of pathos when required (as
Superman: The Animated Series managed to do) or just come up with a new character that can do the whole "able to toss Superman around a bit" thing. Besides, the character's name ends with "O," which immediately means that he shouldn't be taken too seriously, lest we find ourselves trembling at references to the Marx Brothers.
Then there's the art. Some sequences are pretty easy on the eyes, but then suddenly Adam Kubert'll pick an angle or element that yanks me right out of the story, wondering exactly
what he was thinking. The most distracting for me, and probably silliest of any of the artistic problems in the issue, was the fact that during the "just after Clark and Lois have dinner at the Kent farm" scene, we see the Ma and Pa Kent in a matronly sort of outfit and overalls respectively as well as a golly-that's-Brandon-Routh take on Clark wearing a sweater and jeans. What's Lois wearing? A halter top, tight pants, and a denim jacket, of course. Look, I get it,
Kubert wants to draw pretty women. I like
looking at pretty women, so I completely sympathize, but I've got to say wearing clothing more suited for a night out at the club when dining with your Midwestern in-laws is probably not the actions of the smart woman we're supposed to believe convinced a Superman to settle down.
Despite the promise of big action and a certain dynamic that probably appeals to the core group of people buying Superman comics, this is a seriously boring, media-synergy fueled comic that feels more like an ad for the movies than a piece in its own right. It's not worth taking off the shelf, even if the last pages promise we're going to get to see Zod, Ursa, and Non trash major portions of the planet,
just like Superman II. That'd be the same
Superman II that just got released in a new cut by Richard Donner, by the way.
Related ReviewsSuperman: Up, Up, And Away by Geoff Johns, Kurt Busiek, Pete Woods, and Renato Guedes |
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
1He doesn't really say this, but c'moooooon...
2None of this matters, really, but I thought it was worth noting that it appears that DC was letting an outside-the-medium creator exert more control than usual over one of the corporate icons. That's the sort of thing I associate with the other major superhero comics publisher in New York.
Four words: it's really fuckin' excellent.
