By Grant Morrison, Rags Morales, and Others
In 2011 DC decided to reboot its entire fictional universe, an initiative that became known as the New 52. The whole thing was a haphazard operation that the company rushed into with barely any plan or prep, as well as insane decisions like not allowing the various creators to talk to each other. George Pérez was writing the new volume of Superman, but had no idea what Morrison was doing with the character's new origins on the relaunch of Action Comics. After finally reading this run I wonder if even Morrison knew what they were doing. My best guess is they wanted to blend Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's more grounded Champion of the Oppressed (this Superman starts off as a working-class hero in jeans and a t-shirt, struggling to pay his rent) with the outlandish antics of the Silver Age in order to build a new foundation stone for the original superhero. The intent is admirable, but the execution leaves a lot to be desired. The storytelling is often rushed and choppy, the artwork inconsistent with some issues having up to four different artists working on them. In many ways Morrison’s Action Comics is the title that best sums up the entire New 52 endeavour. It has a lot of ambition and big ideas, but they really should taken more time and care to get everything right.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
By Tom King and Andy Kubert
After a child is abducted from Earth, Superman sets off alone on a galactic odyssey to bring her home. I find it's always a roll of the dice when it comes reading a new Tom King comic. I loved Vision, Mister Miracle and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow, was indifferent to The Omega Men, quickly lost interest in his Batman and Wonder Woman runs, and would burn every copy of Heroes in Crisis in existence if I could. Thankfully, Up in the Sky is one of his better efforts. It's a series of mini-adventure as Superman roams the universe looking for clues to the missing girl's whereabouts while encountering numerous roadblocks. Some of the episodes are just blatant padding, like that pointless Sgt Rock interlude, and it isn't really big on explaining the who or why any of this happened. But that is sort of the point. This isn't a story about Superman fighting a villain and foiling their scheme. This is a heart-warming story about just how far they'll go to save just one life.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
by Scott Snyder, Jim Lee, and Dustin Nguyen
This was published to coincide with the release of Man of Steel and feels like Snyder (no relation to Zack) and Lee doing their own pitch for the sequel. I suspect Snyder had more plotted out, but because of various delay in publication (Lee is notorious for missing deadlines) they decide to just wrap the whole thing up after nine issues. This resulted in a rather rushed ending, but the plot was such a mess to begin with I doubt a few more issues would've fixed it. As was typical of the New 52, this wants to be a serious and edgy Superman story that really challenges him, but those challenges are coming from obvious war criminals who think Superman is wasting his powers by not being an instrument of American imperialism. Clark deciding “They kinda have a point” might just be the worst thing about this entire series.
Rating: ⭐⭐
By Alan Moore and Curt Swan
Alan Moore didn't write many Superman stories during his time at DC, but the few he did write are amongst the greatest Superman stories ever written, and all a million times better than that one Batman story he wrote. Yes, even the Swamp Thing crossover. This story was originally published in Superman #423 and Action Comics #583 and meant to function as a final Superman story before John Byrne's upcoming reboot. Set ten years after Superman's last appearance, it follows Lois Lane as she recounts the his difficult final days to a Daily Planet reporter. Illustrated by the legendary Curt Swan in his finale major work on the series, this is simultaneously a celebration, bittersweet farewell, and deconstruction of the Silver Age Superman that Moore loved so much, but unlike a lot of his other work it isn't cynical or snide deconstruction. He obviously loves this character and adventures and wants the reader to better understand him before they say a final goodbye to him.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, and Others
To put it mildly, the New 52 had not been the runaway success that DC hoped it would be. Within a few years the company began to course correct, and did so with the same care and finesse they used to create the New 52 in the first place. One of the most unpopular decisions was the erasure of Lois and Clark's marriage so he could be free to hook up with Wonder Woman. The wild fix for that was killing off the New 52 Superman and bringing back the pre-reboot Lois and Clark and giving them a 10-year-old son named Jon. Tomasi and Gleason were coming off an acclaimed run on Batman & Robin and seemed like a natural fit to tackle another tale of a superhero father and son. The first half of this run is what I imagine Superman & Lois would've been like if it had been a Smallville revival instead. It's a lot of cheesy fun with some heart-warming moments, but often let Lois down by placing more emphasis on Jon's relationship with his father than his mother. The dreary patriotic road trip two-parter in the middle is best avoided, while the rest of the run just feels like Tomasi and Gleason had run out of ideas and were just killing time until someone else took over. The artwork throughout is inconsistent as Gleason constantly comes and goes, sometimes barely lasting a single issue, but when you have someone like Jorge Jimenez as a fill-in I can't really complain too much.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
By Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Dan Jurgens, Louise Simonson, and Others
In the early 90s, the various Superman titles became so heavily interconnected that DC started adding little numbered triangles to the covers so fans knew what order to read them in. This time, which lasted until the early 2000s, retroactively became known as the Triangle Era. This is for the truly committed readers, those willing to give up many of their evenings to consume over a decade's worth of comics. While this era often had a lot of great artists working at the top of their game (Jurgens' work pretty much established him as the definitive the Superman artist of the decade), the stories themselves can be a bit hit and miss, but what really impresses about this era is the cohesion and how smoothly the four titles flowed together. This also allowed for greater focus and development for many of the supporting characters from the staff at the Daily Planet to the minions at Lexcorp. Most of the major events that would come to define this era (such as the whole Death and Return saga) are still to come, this collection mainly deals with the ongoing fallout from Lex Luthor's “death”, the search for his heir, and Lois finally learning that her fiancé is Superman and how she copes with knowing that secret.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
By Joshua Williamson, Jamal Campbell, Dan Mora, and Others
Convinced it can help turn him into a better hero, the imprisoned Lex Luther turns over control of his company and all its resources to Superman. In 2018, DC poached Brian Michael Bendis away from Marvel to take over the Superman titles. It was a divisive run that made a lot of controversial changes and left a lot of people very unhappy. Williamson's run is an obvious attempt to fix things, undo some of those changes, and get things back to how they used to be. Despite terrific artwork by Campbell and Mora, I don't think this will ever go down as an all-time great run. It's probably the most standard, back to basics take on the series we've had in a good while, and I also think Superman having such a large family of supporting heroes lately is more of a hindrance than a benefit. That said, it is fun, though. If you're looking for a Superman book that is just trying to have a good time rather than reinvent the wheel, then this will do the job nicely.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐
Mark Greig has been writing for Doux Reviews since 2011 More Mark Greig
No comments:
Post a Comment
We love comments! We moderate because of spam and trolls, but don't let that stop you! It’s never too late to comment on an old show, but please don’t spoil future episodes for newbies.