Superman: Cover to Cover

June 7, 2006

Quick Rating: Great

Over 270 of the most memorable Superman covers of all time!

Art: Alex Ross, Ed McGuinness, Matt Wagner, Neal Adams, Curt Swan, Joe Schuster, Walt Simonson, Leinil Francis Yu, Jim Lee, John Byrne and hundreds of the greatest Superman artists of all time
Commentary: Grant Morrison, Jeph Loeb, Mark Verheiden, Mark Waid, Elliot S! Maggin, Murphy Anderson, Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, Nick Cardy, Bryan Singer, Richard Donner, Jack Larson, Erica Durance and more
Collected Edition Editor: Robert Greenberger
Senior Art Director: Robbin Brosterman
Publisher: DC Comics

The follow-up to last year’s popular Batman: Cover to Cover, this handsome hardcover volume collects over 270 of the most memorable covers featuring Superman since the character’s first appearance back in Action Comics #1. Note that I say here “most memorable,” not “best” – while a great many of the covers included here are magnificent works of art (Alex Ross’s work on Superman: Peace on Earth and Kingdom Come #4, for example), many others aren’t quite as powerful from a purely aesthetic sense, but still deserve a place for honor for what they represent. Several covers from the Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane series are included to demonstrate how a bizarre cover, such as Superman standing by the graves of Lois, Lana Lang and Lori Lemaris, would entice a reader to grab the issue.

The book is divided up into several segments, each showcasing a different aspect of the man of steel – one section focuses on his relationship with Lois, another on the members of his extended family, one on Metropolis and one on Krypton, a section of patriotic covers and a section devoted entirely to his team-ups with other superheroes. The book is divided into over 20 such categories, and looking at the list it’s hard to think of any aspect of the character that isn’t covered somewhere.

In addition to the sections focusing on the different aspects of Superman, several times some of the writers, artists and other people most associated with Superman take a page to present their personal favorite Superman cover, and those covers are usually placed in the category they most belong. Classic artist Nick Cardy, for example, chooses his cover to Justice League of America #102, where Superman stands on a hilltop and announces that one of the assembled members of the Justice League and Justice Society must die to save the world. This powerful cover is, appropriately, placed in the “World’s Finest” chapter, which includes Superman’s great team-ups. Brandon Routh, who plays Clark and Superman in the upcoming Superman Returns film, chooses the simple but elegant Ron Frenz cover to Superman Vol. 2 #120 – a classic image of Superman bursting through chains with the entire cover colored green except for the S-shield. This is included in a section of covers selected for their clever and innovative graphic design qualities.

By the very nature of this project, not everyone will agree with the final covers selected. Everybody will have their own favorite covers that may not be included, and they’ll come across a few they may think less than deserving of inclusion – but the art by its very nature is selective. Most readers will be hard-pressed to argue this isn’t, overall, a very entertaining collection of iconic and eye-popping Superman images. This is a book that every Superman fan needs to have on his coffee table.

Rating: 9/10

Action Comics #819

September 5, 2004

Quick Rating: Awful
Title: Sodom and Gomorrah

Clark and Lana have a little heart-to-heart.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis & Joe Prado
Inks: Marc Campos & Jon Sibal
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Arthur Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

The two most frequent complaints you’ll hear about Chuck Austen’s writing is that 1) it is repetitive and 2) his characterization of women is, shall we say, one-sided? People make these complaints over and over again, and I’m a bit reluctant to say it some times. But after this issue, which is a textbook example of everything that could possibly be done wrong with these two characters, I feel that sometimes you’ve just got to call ‘em like you see ‘em, without any effort at sugarcoating.

This issue Superman, still recuperating from the beating he’s taken over the last few issues, is being “nursed back to health” by his old girlfriend, Lana Lang. However, this is not the Lana Lang we have read about in every comic book since the Superman revamp in 1986. This is a Lana Lang who wears short-shorts and belly shirts, takes childish, petty pot-shots at a woman who isn’t around to defend herself, and throws herself at a married man who has made it clear for years that he is not interested. This is the worst part of this issue, Chuck Austen is tearing two decades of characterization to shreds for the sake of a trite, clichéd plotline that would seem dull and redundant in an episode of Days of Our Lives, let alone in a Superman comic book.

Everything touched upon in this issue, every single character point, is something that has been discussed ad nauseum for years now, and has been resolved for a very long time. Lana has grown up, Lana has moved on. Anybody else still obsessing over a high school boyfriend this many years later would be told to go to therapy, not presented as a sympathetic heroine. This smacks of a writer artificially generating storylines by dredging up things that others have already done – and better – because nothing else is coming to mind. Lana in this issue is spiteful and petty, spitting out specious arguments about Lois Lane and putting forth reasoning that anybody who has actually read the storylines where these characters’ relationships were defined would know is completely untrue.

The book is intercut with a fight scene with the two cleverly-named adversaries Sodom and Gomorrah, a fight made more difficult by the fact that Superman’s powers are fluctuating uncontrollably, as predicted by the doctors at S.T.A.R. Labs (which is a pretty impressive feat, seeing as how two issues ago they were complaining that they didn’t know a bloody thing about Kryptonian physiology).

Even the artwork, usually the saving grace of this title suffers this issue under guest-penciller Prado, who seems to handle the Clark/Lana scenes while Reis does the fight scenes. Reis’s scenes are fine, but Prado’s are half cheesecake.

If I wasn’t reviewing this issue, I don’t know if I could have read it through to the end. By the time I got to the eight-page Bionicle ad section in the middle, I was begging for it to be over. These aren’t the characters I love. These aren’t even characters I like. These are boring, petty people, and I’m tired of seeing them in this book month after month.

Rating: 2/10

DC Comics Presents: Son of Superman #1

June 3, 2011

Title: Son of Superman

Writers: Howard Chaykin & David Tischman
Art: J.H. Williams III
Inks: Mick Gray
Colors: Lee Loughridge
Letters: Kurt Hathaway
Cover: J.H. Williams III & Mick Gray
Editor: Andrew Helfer     
Publisher: DC Comics

Another original graphic novel (this one from the Elseworlds imprint) is brought back in the nifty DC Comics Presents format. This 1999 volume by Howard Chaykin and David Tischman projects a future where Superman has long since vanished and the Justice League has become a government arm, locked in a perpetual battle against a terrorist group, the “Supermen of America,” led by Pete Ross and Lana Lang. Jon Kent, the son of Lois Lane, is shocked when he suddenly develops incredible power and learns the truth about himself – he is the son of the missing Superman. The question now is, will he side with the League, with the Supermen, or will he find his lost father and forge his own legend?

The story’s pretty good, if not spectacular. There have been hypothetical stories about Clark Kent’s son for decades, after all, and putting him in a sort of dystopian future isn’t that big a stretch. While this is, of course, an Elseworlds, I wasn’t really happy with the characterization of some of the Justice League (Wonder Woman and the Martian Manhunter in particular). If the idea was to present this as a “potential future,” I can’t imagine either of those heroes ever reaching the state they were in throughout this book. Jon isn’t really a likable character either, although that’s more forgivable, as part of the story is watching his growing and maturation into a hero worthy of calling himself Superman’s son.

J.H. Williams and Mick Gray are really the stars of the book. Their artwork was fabulous then and hasn’t lost a step in the years since. If you’re in comics more for the artwork and you’re a fan of these guys, the book is well worth picking up. If you like alternate versions of Superman, you could do worse than getting this story. But ultimately, it’s not really anything memorable.

Rating: 7/10

Solo (2004 Series) #1

November 8, 2004

Quick Rating: Excellent
Title: Date Knight and other stories

DC’s newest anthology series kicks off with the work of Tim Sale!

Writers: Tim Sale, Darwyn Cooke, Diana Schutz, Jeph Loeb & Brian Azzarello
Art: Tim Sale
Colors: Dave Stewart & Jose Villarrubia
Letters: Richard Starkings
Editor: Mark Chiarello
Cover Art: Tim Sale
Publisher: DC Comics

In a market where anthology titles traditionally don’t sell that well, DC Comics is taking a clever, unique approach to the form. In this new ongoing series, they’re going to offer up 48 pages a month to a different artist and allow him or her free reign to tell some of their own stories, using any DC characters they want or to branch out and tell other stories. Tim Sale, best known for his partnerships with Jeph Loeb on books like Batman: The Long Halloween and Superman For All Seasons, gets first crack.

The book opens with “Date Knight,” written by Darwyn Cooke. In it, Catwoman lays a very unique trap for the Batman, one that even the world’s greatest detective didn’t see coming. The story is a lighthearted chase sequence, a nice little twist on the normal rooftop battles you see in the bat-books.

“Christina” follows, the first of two quick, personal stories Sale writes himself in this book. It’s a creepy little tale of a man and woman on a beach, and the horrible mission the man must undertake.

“Young Love,” written by Diana Schutz, is perhaps the most unique story in this volume, focusing on the Pre-Crisis version of Supergirl and telling the lost tale of her romance with Dick Malverne. It’s done up like an old-fashioned romance comic, right down to a dot-deco color scheme, but the story has something of a modern tinge to it. It’s bittersweet and beautiful.

Sale teams up with Loeb for “Prom Night,” a story that could very easily be called Superman For All Seasons: The Lost Chapter. It’s just what it sounds like, the story of Clark Kent preparing for his senior prom with Lana Lang. Like the Supergirl story, this tale is warm and tender with a sort of heartache lacing the panels, because although the characters don’t know it, the readers know that Superman will soon come between the two young lovers forever.

Brian Azzarello contributes “Low Card in the Hole,” a quick film noir-ish story about a hardboiled gumshoe forced to face one of his own greatest sins. I was not a fan of Azzarello’s run on Batman. I’m not a fan of 100 Bullets. His Superman leaves much to be desired. But this story is great.

The issue ends with “I Concentrate on You,” the second offering written by Sale himself. It’s a soft, quiet piece, largely wordless, that ends with a lovely dedication that really puts things into context.

From month-to-month, the quality of this series is going to depend on the strength of the artist invited to take the helm for that issue and the reader’s own level of appreciation for him or her. This first issue, however, is absolutely wonderful, and anyone who enjoys the work of Tim Sale would do themselves a terrible disservice if they don’t pick it up.

Rating: 10/10

Action Comics #822

December 5, 2004

Quick Rating: Below Average
Title: Repo-Man Part One

Planning to spend Christmas Day on the farm, Superman finds himself face-to-face with Repo-Man.

Writer: Chuck Austen
Pencils: Ivan Reis
Inks: Marc Campos
Colors: Guy Major
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover Art: Ian Churchill
Publisher: DC Comics

When Lois and Clark head to his parents’ farm in Smallville for Christmas, they find an unexpected visitor – Lana Lang. Which is bad, see, because Lois now hates Lana because – oh, why spoil the surprise? Let’s just say it’s for a reason that would seem perfectly natural in an episode of Beverly Hills 90210, but is so utterly out of place in a Superman comic book that it makes me want to rip out large, bloody clumps of my hair and throw them in a fire in the hopes of summoning good spirits to make the badness go away.

Anyway, once on the farm things are weird and freaky and awkward right up until a supervillain attacks for no apparent reason. (Well, there’s a hint of a reason.) And kudos to Austen for coming up with Repo-Man, the worst supervillain concept since Typeface.

Austen’s Superman, for once, is actually fairly in-character (and even gets in an amusing, appropriate quip during the fight scene). He’s behaving exactly like Clark Kent would behave under the circumstances. The problem is that if any of the other characters were behaving like themselves, the circumstances in question would have never, ever happened.

I also don’t understand why they bothered to cast this as a Christmas issue. Once upon a time, there was at least one Christmas story in the Superman comics every year. This was an event. This was something to look forward to. This gave us gems like “Metropolis Mailbag” back in Superman #64 and “Face to Face With Yesterday” in Adventures of Superman #474 (technically this was a New Year’s story, but it was one of those books that really defined Clark’s character and showed what turned him into the hero he is today). There’s not even a hint of Christmas in this book. The story isn’t Christmas-themed and there aren’t even any decorations – not a hint of lights, no tinsel, no Christmas tree in the middle of the Kent farmhouse. If Martha Kent didn’t welcome the others to Christmas dinner, I could have believed this issue took place in September.

Ivan Reis, whose artwork is usually the saving grace of this title, should take some of the blame for that, I suppose. He’s the one who didn’t draw any Christmas decorations. Although I suppose it’s possible that there was no call for them in the script and the few Christmas references were added later when someone realized this issue was coming out in December. He also gives us a version of Jimmy Olsen that doesn’t look even remotely like any other incarnation of the character, ever. Even with the red hair, I didn’t realize it was him until somebody else called him by name.

Action Comics is the title that gave birth to Superman. I keep waiting for him to return to it.

Rating: 4/10

Superman Secret Files 2004

June 29, 2004

Quick Rating: Necessary
Title: Suicide Watch & BiPolar Disorder

How to piece together the Superman universe.

Writers: Geoff Johns, Jeremy Johns, Greg Rucka & Mike McAvennie
Pencils: Jim Fern & Jon Bogdanove (plus several others on profile pages)
Inks: Lary Stucker & Jon Bogdanove (plus several others on profile pages)
Colors: Sno-Cone, Dave McCaig (plus others on profile pages)
Letters: K.L. Fletcher & Jared Fletcher
Editors: Eddie Berganza & Ivan Cohen
Cover Art: Ed McGuinness, Dexter Vines & Dave Stewart
Publisher: DC Comics

The best installments of DC’s “Secret Files” series are those books that fill in the blanks of a title, giving you greater understanding and appreciation of the book as a whole. The worst are completely superfluous and give you absolutely nothing to sink your teeth into. This is a first, though, this is the first time I’ve read a “Secret Files” that feels absolutely essential to understand the goings-on of the four regular Superman titles (Superman, Adventures of Superman, Action Comics and Superman/Batman).

The bulk of the work is done by Geoff Johns and Jeremy Johns in a story that wraps up the loose ends of the Lex Luthor presidency and includes a nice little throwdown with the Suicide Squad, now targeting their former boss, Amanda Waller. We are finally given an explanation as to why Pete Ross agreed to be Luthor’s vice-president in the first place in a very nice sequence that ties into the new version of Superman’s origins as detailed in Superman: Birthright (which, in turn, feels more and more like it’s trying to be a bridge to Smallville every day, especially with stories like this). The artwork, by Fern and Stucker, isn’t quite as strong. The best sequence is the flashback scene, where they’re trying so hard to make the characters look like the actors from the TV show that it’s almost painful. They do a good Tom Welling in Clark, but the rendition of Lana Lang looks terribly forced. Credit where credit is due – their Superman does look like a grown-up version of Welling in tights, but he’s almost too youthful, too blocky.

Rucka and Bogdanove serve up the second story in this book, “BiPolar Disorder,” a wonderfully silly tale that tries to reconcile the various incarnations of Mr. Mxyzptlk. I really don’t understand the venom Mxyzptlk gets in some circles of fandom – I’ve always found him to be a delightfully silly character that brings some much-needed comic relief once in a while, and I always love seeing Bogdanove’s pencils – if ever there was an underrated Superman artist, it was him. This issue doesn’t illuminate the regular titles that much, but does serve as something of a “secret files” for Mxyzptlk himself.

Then there are the profile pages – Gog, The Shack, Replikon, Lt. Lupe Teresa Leocadio-Escudero, Father Daniel Leone, Eradicator, Preus, Mr. Majestic and Supergirl (drawn by Michael Turner, for you completists out there). In short, every character that’s been introduced or revamped since the “Godfall” storyline earlier this year. These, along with the Johns story, make the book a necessity – it fills you in on everything, gives a more logical angle to Clark Kent’s demotion at the Daily Planet and even puts to rest the burning question of whether or not Superman should actually remember having fought Gog before over in Action Comics (he should, damn it).

Typically, I wouldn’t recommend a “Secret Files” unless I found it particularly enjoyable or enlightening. This is the first time I would say you need a “Secret Files” issue just to keep up, and that says a lot more about the current state of the Superman titles than it does about this issue itself.

Rating: 8/10

Somebody’s First Comic Book: Superman (1939 Series) #204

Wondering what Somebody’s First Comic Book is all about? The explanation is on this page!

TITLE: The Case of the Lethal Letters & The Fortress of Fear

CREDITS:
Writer: Cary Bates
Penciller: Ross Andru & Al Plastino
Inker: Mike Esposito & Al Plastino
Editor: Mort Weisinger
Cover Artist: Neal Adams
Publisher: DC Comics

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: It’s Superman – strange visitor from another planet, and all that. And “LL” – well, I suppose they mean death because he pissed off Lex Luthor again, right?

IMPRESSIONS: In “The Case of the Lethal Letters,” we see Clark Kent on TV being interviewed by some ambush reporter who is claiming that the Daily Planet is only successful because it manages to get a lot of news about Superman. Geez, how do you think they pull that off? But suddenly, the reporter gives a brainwashed message from some villain promising to bring disaster to people important to Superman if he doesn’t retire. They go after another TV reporter, Lana Lang, first. (I vaguely remember her – she’s from Smallville, right? Clark’s girlfriend from high school?) Then, after he doesn’t quite have what it takes to save her, he starts to worry about his old girlfriend Lori Lemaris, the mermaid, and his current squeeze Lois Lane.

Okay, so evidently Superman is a pimp. But only with girls whose initials are “LL.”

The reveal of the villain is kind of cheesy, and the plan to take him out is incredibly poorly thought-out. It’s almost like someone drew the cover first then had to come up with a story to justify it.

There seems to be a second story here, “The Duplicate Superman,” but this old copy of the comic only has the first page of that one – two Supermen shaking hands – before there are a bunch of missing pages. Darn cheap bins.

The third story is “The Fortress of Fear.” Superman heads to his mysterious fortress, hidden away from the world, and decides to relax with a game of chess against a supercomputer. (Exactly why Superman chooses to house that computer in a giant robot that can hurl life-size chess pieces around is completely unclear.) After the robot goes berserk and starts hurling around life-sized chess pieces (who knew?), we see some scientists from a place called Kandor trying to warn him about some undefined danger. He starts to fight pretty much everything in his fortress of rest and relaxation, which seems to be populated entirely by things that can kill everybody else on the planet, before he finally figures out what the problem is. The Kandor guys never show up again.

This one is weak. There’s a basic understanding here just because it’s Superman, and everybody knows who Superman is, but both of the complete stories in this incomplete copy of the comic book seem to be predicated on a lot of knowledge of backstory, stuff that Joe Average has never heard of. Why all these “LL” girls are in love with Superman, what Kandor is and why the caption refers to it as being “bottled,” and why Superman decides to build a vacation resort full of deathtraps. Hard to really recommend this one.

GRADE: C+