Change has come to Metropolis as the old guard is replaced with the new.
What They Say:
The new adventures of Superman begin here! What is The Man of Steel’s startling new status quo? How does it affect Lois Lane and the Daily Planet? There’s no time for answers now, because Superman must stop a monstrous threat to Metropolis–one that he is somehow the cause of!
The Review:
With the relaunch, the method of giving us both the early days of Superman in Action Comics and in the present day in this book is definitely an interesting idea. Rather than having both books wrapped up in it all, we get to have a look at both sides of it and the fact that Superman is still a shadow of what we saw pre-Flashpoint for the character. With one of the usual complaints, particularly from those that either never read Superman books or only see him in event books, being that he’s too overpowered, getting him back down to something significantly less is one of the key parts to changing who he is. While we get to see the very early days in Action, back when he could barely leap a building in a single bound, here he’s still not flying quite so high and he can get tired more quickly than you’d expect even just lifting a truck. It puts him in a position of power and one that has him doing good, but he’s not the clear cut powerhouse of a character that we’ve long been familiar with.
With long time DC artist and writer George Perez at the helm here providing the script and breakdowns while Jesus Merino, Superman has a lot of ground to cover here to properly introduce us to him in the present time. Serving as the backdrop to the change is that the Daily Planet, which was erected in the 1820’s, is being demolished as the paper and its staff have been bought by Galaxy Communications and incorporated into a new building and part of the larger multimedia empire as run by Morgan Edge. Not to be confused with Glenmorgan from the Action Comics series as we can gather here that there’s a whole lot of drama involving him in the past that even involves Lois Lane as the broadcast arm of the company and others were heavily involved in some illegal activities, which drove a real wedge between Clark and Lois when she furthered her career with the new company that’s being built with all the different operations.
This multimedia empire figures into the storytelling here as we have Superman, recently returning to Metropolis, ending up going against some kind of fire creature that causes a lot of trouble. It’s mixed in with a robbery as well, which between the two lets us see how Superman operates, the uncertainty he feels about things happening in the city with the Daily Planet changing and the kind of verbal banter he enjoys that’s a bit rougher than one might expect. The events are told through a few different perspectives as there are a lot of supporting cast members dealt with here and that does get a little jarring, as some of the events are described in print form while others are through cameras and basic on the scene reporting. The recap version done with the print style as it happens is what’s most awkward though and trying to introduce a lot going on with the media personalities that aren’t interested in what Superman brings to the table.
Digital Notes:
This Comixology edition of Superman contains the main cover as seen with the print edition with no variants or other extras included.
In Summary:
While we’ve seen Superman make appearances in several other books during the relaunch month, this is the one that’s truly devoted to him without distraction. We get a good look at him both in his powered form as well as how he carries himself as Clark Kent. The Kent side is given less time here, which is unfortunate as I do find that part of the mythos and the Superman persona to be just as interesting. It’s harder to tell at this stage who he is as a person since we haven’t seen what his childhood origin story is yet and how he grew up, but his fitting in with people is a big part of who he has been. Here, he’s more confident and outgoing than we’re used to in that personality but still has his flaws and things he keeps to himself. It’s an welcome dynamic to see that as well as the strong and confident Superman side within one character. Overall though, the book offers up some potential with it, but it doesn’t spend its time clearly with one direction and voice to tell a tale. It’s covering so much here, and with the additional pages (27 digital compared to the usual 21-22), it’s almost a bit too dense and overloaded which feels weird to say. And that’s without any double page spreads too, which is a surprise. In the end though, I’m just not sure how I feel about this yet as a whole. Something just feels a bit off.
Grade: B-
