Superman: Earth One (Review)

Writer: J. Michael Straczynski

Artist:  Shane Davis

Publisher: DC Comics

Collects: Original graphic novel

For those of you who are not aware, Superman: Earth One is DC's recent attempt to "moderise" Superman for today's audience. It is a self-contained story that retells the classic origin we all know and love.

A young Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis, unsure of what to do with his life. Eventually facing an alien threat, he realises that he can only save humanity by standing apart from them as Superman, but still must hold on to the human values he was raised with.

There were two moments that stood out in this for me. One was in the writing and one was in the art, so I guess that works out pretty well.

The first was when Clark is struggling to decide what he wants to do with his life. We see a montage of him trying various different occupations, with lots of captions swirling around the images telling him how well suited he is for each choice, but nothing really grabs him. Clark is still undecided. He has still to find his calling.

Then he sees a copy of the Daily Planet and everything stops. No more images, no more captions. We don't need to be told it; we know this is what he wants to do with his life and he knows it too. It's that simple.

Being in the target audience for this modern relaunch (early 20s), this moment truly did get me in all the cliched ways. I related big time, and feel that Straczynski brilliantly captured this coming-of-age feeling.

My other favourite moment was when Clark, having decided to become Superman, dons his everyday disguise (glasses, etc.). My opinions of Clark's taste in fashion aside, Shane Davis gives him this goofy-looking grin that so utterly and completely makes him look like a totally different person. Never have I seen the often belittled Clark/Superman change in appearance work so well.

I actually had very small expectations going into this. In my opinion, the "classic" Superman works just fine. He already is modern and relatable to me. But I really, really liked this. I related to this Clark Kent in a way that is very different from how I relate to the mainstream Superman. If I have one complaint, it is that I found him so relatable as Clark that I though of him as somewhat unimpressive as Superman at first.

I think that if you take this as what it is -- a new version of an old tale for anyone who has ever wondered what to do with their life -- and nothing more, nothing less, then you will enjoy it as much as I did.

Rating: 4/5