Where Do I Start With... Superman

Who?

C'mon. Everybody knows that mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent is secretly Superman, the Man of Steel, rocketed to Earth from the doomed planet Krypton and raised by Kansas farm couple Jonathan and Martha Kent, and that he can leap tall buildings in a single bound, is more powerful than a locomotive and faster than a speeding bullet!

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster for Action Comics #1 in 1938, Superman was the first ever superhero, birthing an entire genre and character archetype in his mould, and setting the standard for decades to follow. Standing for the principles of Truth, Justice and the American Way, he remains the most well known superhero in the world, and has spawned countless media adaptations and talking points.

Okay, so where do I start?

Superman: The Black Ring, Volume One (Review)

Writer: Paul Cornell

Artist: Pete Woods, et al

Publisher: DC Comics
Collects: Action Comics #890-895

There was a time when it was a treat to see characters from different series together. When seeing Green Lantern fight the Joker, or Batman fight Sinestro would have thrilled and delighted in idea alone. But such things are taken for granted now. The bad guys team up every year, and nobody sticks to the confines of their own territory for long. We seek other thrills now.

It seemed like such simple wonders were behind us, and naught but shadows of a "less sophisticated" time.

And then a terribly entertaining Englishman called Paul Cornell swam the channel between Marvel and DC, and between past and present, to bring us The Black Ring.

A-Musing: Parallel Universes, Grant Morrison, and Why Superman is Real

Stay with me here. This one is gonna get weird.

In these days of comic book multiverses, where Heaven forbid we should just read a story without worrying about where it "fits", things can get a little complicated. But I'm not going to debate the minutiae of Earths 0 through 616, at least not here anyway. I'm going to examine something a lot more boring: Terminology.

Again, stay with me. You have no idea where this is going, trust me.

In a lot of crazy sci-fi stories, the terms "parallel universe" and "alternate reality" are thrown around quite a lot and used interchangeably to describe these concepts. Being the obsessive nerd that I am, I stubbornly preferred the latter term, believing that "parallel universe" was an incorrect label; that it was somehow inaccurate.

Then I had a life-changing epiphany...

Superman: Secret Origin (Review)

Writer: Geoff Johns

Artist: Gary Frank

Publisher: DC Comics

Collects: Superman: Secret Origin #1-6

Many writers over the years have attempted to tinker with the Last Son of Krypton's well worn origin. From Grant Morrison's one-page summary in All-Star Superman to John Byrne's groundbreaking Man of Steel mini-series. Mark Waid tried to shake things up in the epic Birthright, as did J. Michael Straczynski with the more recent Superman: Earth One.

But the three greatest words a superhero fan can hear are, "Back. To. Basics." And that is a principle Geoff Johns excels at.

Anybody looking for a trendy new take on Superman best check elsewhere. Anybody looking for a brilliant and heartfelt story about a true legend, this is it.

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.