SUPERMAN UNCHAINED #2 --POWER LEVELS AND PRAYERS

[alschroeder3]

I've been VERY impressed as an old Superman fan (anybody remember a letterhack from the seventies and early eighties named Al Schroeder III? That's me.) with Scott Snyder and Jim Lee's SUPERMAN UNCHAINED. Superman is shown as a thinking hero, trying desperately to make the best choices in his vast array of powers in a way that will solve the problem with minimum loss of life.

It's a characterization that jibes with Jerry Siegel, or Elliott Maggin, or whoever you fancy as the best Superman writer. Scott Snyder has started to spin a really special story, and Lee here is excellent.

For instance, in Dubai, Superman is trying to stop the world's highest building from collapsing--a building that has, as Snyder has Clark thinking, "roughly the population of Smallville" about to die in eleven seconds. He considers five or six plans, while being interrupted by a giant construction robot, and finally, after falling into a large pool, hits on a solution...

...While evoking a higher power, literaly praying he doesn't screw up.

I'm going to discuss religious belief, often a touchy subject, and I'm trying not to personalize it either way...just seeing what's right for the character. I hope I can do so without giving offense.

There are some heroes who should never pray. Wolverine, never. Batman? I have trouble seeing it.

But others it sits well with, like Nightcrawler. The Spectre, naturally. And Superman? Midwestern, farm-raised, intensely interested in moral questions? (Of course, many atheists and agnostics are also intensely interested in moral questions, and many atheists/agnostics have been farm-raised and Midwestern.) Still, I'd be more surprised if he wasn't quietly a little religious or at least spiritual. I like that touch, although I would never, repeat, NEVER, want to see him evangelize, which I would find offensive in the extreme, whether it was for the Methodist church that the Kents probably attended, or Rao. I like the brief, "Thank you up there. Thank y--"

Speaking of Batman, later he visits Bruce, who has designed a suit (which looks a lot like the Batman Beyond suit) which can cloak Batman against any part of the electromagnetic spectrum that is seeking him---making him invisible even to Clark. He says he made it when he didn't know Clark very well.

Clark says, "But now you're going to get rid of it, now that you do know me."

Bruce answers, deadpan, ironically, "Of course. Any day now." They later address why he will never do that.

Anyway, they discuss the traces Clark found of his new opponent, the Wraith, and in a way that shows how much power Superman has at his command...and how much more the Wraith has.

"You pull in about one hundred and forty megawatts of solar energy at any given moment--"

Actually---that sounds about right. Except for the fact that there's only a horsepower-and-a-half of power in a square yard of sunlight---maybe Superman has some sort of field that extends into space and captures a lot of the solar energy that spills into space, missing earth...but that's about right considering the immense power he seems to always have on hand. Every moment, another hundred and forty megawatts...

One assumes in moments of realtive inactivity, like when he's Clark, he can store it up to gigawatt or even tetrawatt levels. (Interestingly, the total amount of solar power striking Earth is at estimated at 174 petrawatts--a quadrillion watts.)

It shows Snyder has been thinking how Superman "works". He's done his homework.

But the Wraith can pull in a hundred and SIXTY. Every moment.

There are dozens of lovely touches. Clark tells Lois to be careful, and Lois gives a classic answer,

"Never, Smallville."

There's a confrontation between Superman and Sam Lane that actually was almost believable, not kneejerk beilligerant, the first actual meeting of Superman and the Wraith, Lois endangered thousands of miles away at a time when Superman can't help her, and I won't even go into what Luthor's up to...

Recommended. HIGHLY.

Comments

[alschroeder3]

Well, I give way to no one in my admiration for Waid or Morrison, and yes, this falls short of All-Star Superman, for instance.

Still, compared to other Superman comics being poduced these days, this is quite a cut above Superman and Action currently, IMO, with a thoughtful thinking superhero acting very much in character.

Nor am I alone: reviews at Comic Book Resources give it 4.5 out of 5 stars, and a somewhat more equivocal Newsarama review gave it seven out of ten, and ended with, " this book looks great and has some nice action, so it's definitely worth a look". I think I can be forgiven for recommending people at least give it a look.

As for the ludicrousness of him casting a dark circular shadow so far around himself--I agree. That's why I think it's more likely he draws it via some field from a section of outer space where the sunlight doesn't impact the Earth, as I mentioned.

As for it being unlikely to see him drawing the equivelent of a tenth of the Hiroshima nuclear bomb in energy in just half a day...

(Looking back to many Superman stories where he leaves his fingerprints in hardened concrete, crossing continents in seconds, lifts entire ships into the air...)

Um. Well, he seemed to be EXPENDING that much, at least. All comic book science explanations are ludicrious, of course, but the energy seems to be there for him to be used.


But of course, your mileage may vary.

[bruinsfan]

I'd assume a wider, more diffuse field that only absorbs a tiny fraction of the total solar energy hitting it. Hence why Kryptonians' powers don't suddenly decrease in the presence of other Kryptonians.

There'd also have to be a capacitor/storage battery aspect for him to be able to function at night, unless it is neutrinos rather than radiant photons that he's absorbing.

[alschroeder3]

Excellent idea! That make more sense than my mysterious field in space. Good thinking.

[drexer]

a) Comics like any other sort of medium are highly subjective. Most of all you're not going to convince me by throwing numbers at my faces just like you're not going to convince me of a videogame's worth by using Metacritic's scores. Specially because scores are those kind of arbitrary measurements which are meant so that a person can justify their comments without considering why something got a 4.4 instead of a 4.5 .

b) You mentioned why you think people should give it a look, I mentioned why I thought it was a sub-par book. My comment was in no way meant to be an attack on your opinions; if it was particuraly annoyed it was because I thought your comment represented a far too idealized view of the story and that propted me to a more negative response.

Instead I could have just posted my support of captainbellman's response above, but I felt a larger response was more justful towards you.

As to the energy argument, see above.