Morrison Has Done It!
On one level, DC has already succeeded with their New 52 initiative – at least for month one. I have about 4 Superman comics from the late 1990s (or early 2000s) and I think they were all gifts. Other than reading The Death Of Superman in elementary school I’ve never been a reader of Superman. Yet, here I am reading Action Comics #1. Sure, part of that is Grant Morrison’s name, but it’s also partly due to the fact that they’re retooling him into being less of a tool. As he was until now (at least in popular perception – which is what counts when you’re trying to get new readers) no one would find him an interesting character if they were more than 12 years old.
All that said, I want to start off with one thing I find disappointing or annoying. According to all the fluff we’ve heard on the nets the whole point of the renumbering and changing of some origins is to attract new readers. This includes people who were never into comics and people who have been away for years. I imagine these people wouldn’t be following the comics press because THEY AREN’T CURRENTLY READERS. (In the same way I didn’t in the decade or so that I wasn’t reading comics) So how would they know this takes place five years in the past? This might not be important if all they collect is Action Comics, but it may prove annoying if they also collect Superman. Plus, if it’s not a big deal, why did Justice League have the “five years ago” beginning? It’s like they gave up before they started and assumed only the comic geeks would be buying this issue. (By the way this takes place slightly before JL #1)
With THAT out of the way, let’s get into what I thought about the content of the issue and the changes to Supes. Right off the bat there’s one thing you need to know – Grant Morrison’s Superman is one cocky, BAMF. (Look that acronym up if you don’t know what it means) I’m curious how much of this carries over to the present-day Superman title. On the one hand, the more time he spends as a hero, the more he should evolve and grow as a person. On the other hand, if we know that after these five years he’s back to dorky, old Superman – they’ve got a bit of a problem on their hands. Anyway, wouldn’t you feel the same way if you had Supes’ powers in a corrupt world? If you took matters into your own hands, and you knew you were better than everyone else – why not?
Another neat thing about Morrison is that he’s taken Superman back to his roots. Originally, Superman was a socialist hero. It was the 1930s and people were getting taken advantage of by banks and corporations (sound familiar?) and Superman fought those types of crooks. As I hinted in my parenthesis, it’s no minor coincidence that these are the same values that will play for Superman in our time. (I wonder if the dumb cable news guys will be outraged at this – never mind that he’s a comic book character) And this extends into his Clark Kent identity as he uses his ability on the paper to write about social injustices.
This issue also reintroduces us to General Lane (a perennial Superman villain). I don’t know how he fit in with pre-Flashpoint Superman, but in this universe where people are afraid of Super Heroes, he is trying to get Superman under control for the American Military. It makes perfect sense – another example of how the DC revamp helps continue to bring comics into reality after Watchmen helped show us the ridiculousness of costumed heroes. All the powered heroes are treated like Dr. Manhattan – a threat to whichever governments don’t control them. And so Lane teams up with a villain (guess who?) to figure out how to capture Superman. The plot actually mirrors very closely the early plot of the ABC Lois and Clark show where this villain is testing Superman’s powers in order to know what he’s capable of and what he’s weak against. (Including putting civilians in harm’s way)
We’re also reintroduced to Jimmy Olsen (who’s still Clark’s Best Friend – as the campy silver age comic went) and Lois. That scene leads to an interesting revelation about their relationship to Clark and Superman and I’d definitely like to see where Grant takes that.
So Morrison has done the seemingly impossible – made me care about Superman. Time will tell if I enjoy and continue to read the Superman book (coming out later this month), but for now it looks like I’m a lifer on Action Comics. (Or until Morrison gives it up)
