As is probably evident, I’ve been on a real “origins of Superman” kick lately. I found a site that counts down the 30 best retellings of the Man of Steel’s origin, so I’m working my way through some of the things on that list. Here’s the link to that article.
My second step in this journey led me to the 6-issue limited series written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Gary Frank in 2009 and 2010. This series has some good, a lot of bad, and some things in between.
Let’s start with The Good:
First, I think Gary Frank’s art in this series, for the most part, is enjoyable to look at. There are a few panels that fall short, but overall his art is strong. I also enjoy the short snippet we get in issue 2 of Superman as a teenager still trying to figure out what his idea of helping people is actually going to look like. Finally, I think Geoff Johns did a fabulous job writing the character of Lex Luthor. He’s evil, scheming, and ultimately, extremely insecure. His dialogue really captures these facets of Luthor’s personality.
But there is still plenty in this series that were in between.
For example, I am still not really sure how I feel about the characterizations of the Kents. They are both super helpful and extremely supportive from the beginning when it comes to Clark’s idea to help people. There’s no tension. It seems to simple. His parents wouldn’t be that gung-ho about him consistently putting his life in danger, right? It just seems a little unrealistic. Also, I wasn’t very impressed with the villains in the series (outside of Luthor). Parasite and Metallo just kind of fell flat for me. There was no motivation, or there was minimal motivation at least. They were merely there to give Superman something to overcome physically, but I don’t think that was the best choice. Finally, this story borrowed a lot of ideas from Superman: Birthright. I’m not saying this is good or bad, but it seems that without Birthright the beginning of this story wouldn’t exist. I’m not sure how I feel about that, but thought it was worth noting.
And, sadly, we must discuss the Badin this series:
First, there was nearly zero character development for Luthor. We see him as an outcast who either kills or is at least glad his father is dead. Then we see him in the next issue operating as a multi-million dollar businessman and the proclaimed “savior” of Metropolis. How did he get there? What led him to that point? The most we really get is him talking about his inventions, but it’s not enough. If we are going to operate under the assumptions that Lex built Luthor Inc. and did not inherit it, then something has to show us what led to the construction of that company. To tell an appropriate origin of Superman, one must also tell an adequate origin of Luthor, but this one is very far below adequate. Finally, the ending of this series bothered me a lot because the dialogue became overly cheesy and sentimental. I was especially let down by this speech of Superman’s: “I want you to stop looking for a great Savior. Lex Luthor isn’t it. I’m not it. You are. All of you are. I do what I do because I was given a gift, but all of you were given gifts, too. Use them to make each other’s lives better. Show the world that Metropolis has a heart.” I think the idea behind the speech is good, but the dialogue itself is almost laughable. Nothing in the series has quite sounded this way, so it is really out of place and doesn’t quite belong here.
Overall, I would give this series a 2.5/5. It’s decent and it is worth a read, but overall it leaves a lot to be desired.
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