What a cover! How could I resist? This is a magazine, but it’s all comic book inside. It’s been produced in support of the new James Gunn’s Superman movie this summer. The three issues inside were cited as inspirational material for the movie, though not the story of the movie. Superman for All Seasons has already inspired Smallville. Lex Luther: Man of Steel seems to trod familiar ground with Lex being jealous and suspicious of Superman for his motivation to go after him (rather than blaming him for being bald in an unfortunate incident as a kid with Superboy).
All-Star Superman is the only one of these series I’ve read all the way through. (Admittedly, I read it on an . . . ahem . . . archive site.) Maybe with the new movie referencing it, they’ll do a new reprint trade (and sell it for $50 thus causing me to pass it over).
The opening page is the famous page from the series: Superman’s origin in one page, four panels, and eight words. Awesome and iconic. I’ll be shocked if some form of this doesn’t show up at the beginning of the new Superman movie. (Somebody make a poster of this, please.)
The premise is suitably epic: Superman saves a solar probe that was sabotaged by Lex Luther. The intense exposure to the sun has terminally poisoned Superman. Having only limited time, he sets about to make the most of it, while Luther prepares to finish him off.
First up, he finally shares his secret with Lois Lane in the epilogue.
The intro unfortunately assures us that this story was not the basis for the new movie. Grant Morrison’s story is pretty wild and meant to provide something of an ending for the Superman myth. The sci-fi segments with Quintum (the chap in the colorful jacket) and his super-scientific base on the moon are a trip. I don’t know how well some variation of this story would have worked for a movie, but it’d be interesting. Frank Quitely’s artwork has a Moebius-like sci-fi quality to it, but much more friendly somehow. It’s like one iconic still image after another. This story was meant to be for the ages.
Superman for All Seasons I haven’t read all of, so I can’t comment on the whole series. However, I have seen Smallville, which took some inspiration from this series. Writer Jeph Loeb was a producer and a writer on the TV show. In this issue, Clark has an almost Spider-Man-like moment as a tornado hits Smallville and he feels guilty. Clark thinks he could have done more to stop it. The end of Season 1 of Smallville, the town gets hit by a tornado as well, but it’s not as life changing for Clark.
Really, this issue at least focuses more on Pa Kent and his concerns about his adopted son’s future. Clark is a good kid and doesn’t know what he should do with his powers. The tornado puts him on a mission and Clark is convinced that he needs to leave Smallville to put his powers to good use. This is pretty much the whole story.
I like Tim Sale’s background artwork for this, but I’m not sure his character work is the best fit. I’ve definitely seen better character art in his Spider-Man: Blue (which was also written by Loeb). His hyper-muscular, yet baby-faced/baby-fat version of Clark doesn’t quite ring with me. It doesn’t quite give him room to grow into an adult version from an adolescent. The characters are emotive, but not appealing.
Lex Luther: Man of Steel attempts to establish Luther’s motivations in hating Superman. He’s xenophobic, not believing that Superman is just here to help. And he’s jealous, Lex should be the most celebrated man of his time, but has been completely upstaged. In this excerpt, Luther is ruthless, but also seems quite charming and down-to-earth in certain circumstances. Whatever kindness and magnanimity Luther displays probably has a selfish ulterior motive. In Shakespearian terms, he is “but a plain-dealing villain.” If only he was what he pretended to be, Lex would be hailed as a hero.
There have been several alternate takes in other stories where someone like Lex is right and someone like Superman is a threat to humanity. Thankfully, none of them have ever come close to supplanting the original premise. There’s even an actual Superman story where the Guardians of the Universe (the little blue guys in Green Lantern, not the Galaxy Guardians with Chris Pratt) were concerned about Superman interfering with humanity’s development and implanted a hypnotic message in his mind to put limits on his involvement.
The harsh artwork in this story is a jarring change from the previous two stories, but fits a story about Lex. There’s not really a story in this, though it does set up a premise for the rest of the series. It’s another Luther plot to destroy Superman. I’m not saying it’s bad, though. It’s well done for what it is.
Stories like this try to explore Luther’s psychology, but let’s be honest: he’s a one-dimensional character. He just wants to destroy Superman. It doesn’t matter if Lex is a reclusive scientist, or wearing green and purple power armor, or he’s a wealthy industrialist, or he’s President, or he’s a tech billionaire. As long as Superman’s destruction is his main obsession, does it really matter why he wants to do it or even what form he takes? I suppose this makes him some sort of Greek mythology hero with a fatal flaw. I think this is why Smallville’s Lex was such a great character. It shows him, at least in the beginning, without this flaw.
Overall, this magazine is sort of sucker bait. It’s just a promo for the movie and a sampler to sell comic book trades. At least they picked the best stories. If you haven’t already read or own the material, it’s certainly intriguing enough to buy and consider additional purchases. I’m happy with it to put it as a display for the cover.
No comments:
Post a Comment