Superman Earth One Review

Here on planet Earth, we are quite familiar with the Man of Steel.  He has been around a long time and is easily the most recognizable superhero across the globe.  We know his origin, how he dresses, his secret identity; we even figured out how Superman shaves. 

Your move, Gillette.

  Without a doubt, Superman is the first and most recognizable superhero this world has ever seen.  Welcome to this month's graphic novel review by the skeptic formerly known as Kid Batman.  Today we will be looking at DC’s re-imagining of their most iconic character in Superman Earth One.  This book was well received and became and instant hit and best seller.  Written by J. Michael Straczynski and illustrated by Shane Davis, this story takes us to a world that has yet to meet the Man of Tomorrow.

The Pros

    

     One of the biggest stumbling blocks for a book like this is the difficulty of renewal of iconic characters.  Superman is a character we all know and love, but if you change too much about him your story won’t seem believable.  For instance, if this new Superman had the power to eject adamantium claws from his hands and his weakness was fire, you would scoff and put your book down.  But if he wasn't different in some significant way it would be just like every other superman story we've been telling for one hundred years. Previous authors have tried this, and some have succeeded but plenty have failed, even outside of Superman titles.   

The story unfolds with a 20-something Clark Kent moving from his home in Smallville to a small apartment in Metropolis, and is trying to make a decision about who he really wants to be.  He goes to various employers and tries out a myriad of professions, all of which he is phenomenal at.  But there’s something still lingering in the back of his mind.  Earlier his parents had suggested using his powers to help people whenever trouble arose.  This is where the story begins.  Straczynski does an excellent job timing flashbacks throughout the story, giving us a good idea of what life was like for Clark before he came to Metropolis.  The writing gives us a look into Superman’s past and shows the character in depth like we’ve never seen him before.

The art is also worth noting.  This is the first time I have been exposed to Shane Davis' work and I have to say I was quite impressed.  His work, along with Sandra Hope's and Barbara Ciardo's (which we saw some of in Batman: Noel) adds a fantastic atmosphere to this narrative.  This looks like Superman, but it also feels new, which is exactly what should be going on.  There's plenty of splash pages in here as well, and that's not complaining.  Some of them are truly eye-popping, especially all the fun spaceship battles over the Metropolis which I can't get enough of.

The Cons

     Renewal of this character is obviously the focus of this book, but it also tries to introduce some new players to the board, most notably the villain.  Personally, I am in comic books for the villains.  The heroes are fantastic too of course, but they get fleshed out all the time.  I mean Superman is the most important character, but the supporting characters should never be overlooked and the antagonist needs plenty of work here.  He and his robot warships invade very abruptly and it goes downhill from there.

*(Spoilers ahead)*

He introduces himself as Tyrell, an alien warlord who comes from the planet Dheron, the fourth planet from Krypton’s sun (Krypton is the third).  Krypton and Dheron were constantly at war, until one day the Dheronians had a visitor.  This mystery person came to them with a proposition.  This mystery guest offered to blow up Krypton for the Dheronians, in return for a favor that is not mentioned either.  Tyrell is here because he found out years later that Jor-El sent his son into space before the fallout because he knew what the Dheronians were planning.  Under the terms of the agreement previously mentioned, not one Kryptonian was allowed to survive, and so here Tyrell is to finish the job.  There are a couple problems with this.  Not only does it fail to explain the agreement thoroughly, but if Tyrell found out about this years after the agreement went through why is he even bothering?  I mean it’s possible that their visitor might have demanded that Superman be killed, but it’s unclear as to whether the Kryptonians destruction was a mutual end or if the agreement constituted something more.  This revelation left me with more questions than answers.

*(End spoilers)*

    

     Looking back, however, Tyrell seems like an unnecessary character.  I mean, of course we need a bad-guy, but this character seems to already exist in the form of General Zod.  Zod would have had more reason to come after Supes than Tyrell, and this new take on the DCU via the Earth One titles would have granted Straczynski a chance to change him up a little bit.  Zod would have met the same ends as Tyrell and would have been a better pick for Superman’s reintroduction.  They even used him in The Man of Steel movie to serve the same purpose!  Actually it seems to me like Man of Steel got plenty of inspiration from this book.

The Verdict

     Straczynski does an excellent job of pacing this book, as well as doing what this title set out to do.  Superman is modern and cool now, underwear and all.  Not everything here works though, and I was left confused as why this writer went out of his way to introduce us to a new character.  While Tyrell looks cool, he could have been substituted with a myriad of different characters and is porbably not going to be used again, in or out of this title.  Probably. . . .

     Regardless, this is a radiant piece of work and a great place for a new fan of Superman to start (though you might be more comfortable with a monthly series in the long run).  And yeah, I will be reading the second one with hopes for a cooler villain.

Score: 7/10