31 Days of Scans --Book/Storyline you could read over and over: All-Star Superman

[alschroeder3]

Confession time: my favorite hero of all---when he's done RIGHT, which is rarely---is the most primal one of all: Superman.

And no one's captured what made Superman worth all the attention than Grant Morrison (aided by spectacular art) in this paen to seventy-five years of a hero who's essence is...

Hope.

To his eulogy to his beloved foster father...

To his belief in all of us, how every person's loss diminishes all of us. How his words to a distraught young woman pulled her back from the despair she was trying to escape with her therapist, who was being held up in traffic.

Luthor enmeshed him in a deathtrap that seemingly, even he couldn't escape...overloading his solar cells in a dive into the sun....

But when Luthor gained super-powers for a while, while robbing Superman of his, even he began to see the world the way Superman sees it. LITERALLY. To understand...just a little...

There were SO many enjoyable bits in this series. Lois' refusal to believe Superman could be Clark, no matter how many times Superman tried to tell her. A GOOD Jimmy Olsen story. A Clark Kent who was NOT Superman in glasses, but was a bumbling, clumsy, very imperfect person--which is the whole point. (Clark Kent interviewing Luthor in prison was pitch-perfect.) Superman only has to wake up in the morning to be Superman, as Jules Fieffer once pointed out--it's Clark Kent who's the pose. (Granted, Superman was raised as Clark Kent. But the Clark Kent persona assumed in Metropolis is as much a role as say, Matches Malone is for Batman. Modern writers tend to make them the same personality, which misses the point.) Oh, and a "lesser" Earth created to see what the world would be like without Superman---which just happens to be our own.

If you haven't read it, it's worth your time. If you hate Superman---find him boring or predictable or too powerful to make for a good story--give this a go. Take your sense of wonder for a spin.

If you want your heroes only with a dark side, if you're only into antiheroes, this isn't for you. But then... Superman isn't for you, either.

Comments

[jlbarnett]

I disagree about Clark just having to wake up to be Superman. Superman isn't just Smallville Clark in a costume. There's differences in personality IMO. Superman basically has to be bigger than life.

[randyripoff]

Unfortunately, I've always found this comic to be terribly pedestrian. I know people love it, and it's not bad, but I don't think it's the bomb-diggity either. Maybe it's because Morrison's always been more miss than hit with me...I don't know, but I just don't think this is great.

[alicemacher]

I like it.

Also, I suspect the book was Morrison's answer to Moore's Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Both are out-of-continuity stories of Superman's last days. Both feature a smorgasborg of Silver-Age characters and situations, but in a more serious way. And both feature Superman making a seemingly final sacrifice to save the world.

The main difference? There's a whole lot less killing in Morrison's story. Knowing of the long-running feud between the two creators, I'm sure that was deliberate.

[icon_uk]

Also have to disagree that Superman is Clark's default personality, but then I also tend to disagree with any writer who says Batman is the real personality and Bruce Wayne is the sham.

[kurenai_tenka]

I tend to go with Superman is Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne is Batman... but then I've got drawn into some really long arguments irl because of the former, hah.

Kal-El is pretty complicated.

[7dialsmystery]

I don't think either "Clark Kent, Metropolis Reporter" or "Superman" are Kal-El's real personalities. I think they are both artificial and a disguise to cover up the real person, which is Kal-El. Kal-El was born on Krypton and was raised by Ma and Pa Kent. The other two personas are what people expect from a nerdy farmboy or a comic book superhero. They seem fake.

Re: Kal-El is pretty complicated.

[donnblake]

But he was raised as Clark Kent.

Re: Kal-El is pretty complicated.

[sanctaphrax]

Well, he was raised under the name Clark Kent. But to me the persona he presents to the world seems pretty different from the one he presents to his parents.

I'd say the real Kal-El is basically like Clark, but self-confident and comfortable in his power.

Re: Kal-El is pretty complicated.

[thatnickguy]

If you took a baby who was born in one country and raised in another, they wouldn't see themselves as being from that original country. Say someone who was from China, but raised their entire life in the U.S. They might be constantly reminded of their heritage, but they would feel more like an outsider in their original country because they didn't live there. They didn't grow up there. They're not knee-deep in that culture's way of thinking or traditions.

The same applies here. Yes, he was born Kal-El, but he remembers nothing of Krypton. Seeing messages from Krypton feels as alien to him as it would for anyone else.

He was, however, raised Clark Kent, in a small, farm community. That's the culture he knows inside and out: small town, farm, American culture. I can't imagine he'd ever see himself as Kal-El.

Re: Kal-El is pretty complicated.

[7dialsmystery]

Actually, sometimes he does remember Krypton...and drops hints that he thinks of himself as a Kryptonian rather than a human and refers to himself as Kal-El. A Kryptonian-American but still not really human. Depends on whether who's writing him and whether he was a toddler or an infant when he landed on Earth.

[glprime]

There all much more complicated than their civilian IDs, but those roles are a key part of understanding them.

Clark/Kal-El has simple roots as a farmer, but also enjoys being the beat reporter, the Man of the Metropolitan City, knowing the people and sights. He also likes to have his thumb on the pulse (something that kind of makes him a kindred spirit to Lois, though it took her a long time to see), and he operates that way on a superhuman level as Superman, just like J'onn J'onzz.

Bruce Wayne/Batman had his childhood tragedy make him much more remote and guarded. He keeps to his own council. Bruce Wayne can be charming, sociable, but there's always a boundary. It's not just because Bruce has a hard time socializing on a real level, he has a hard time letting people in, even as Batman. Even when in "Detective mode" without his costume, he's got a very loner type persona, with difficulty working too closely in a team setting, relying on others he hasn't personally vetted/trained.

They're layered people who have to operate in various environments, but you see a lot of psychological themes repeat.

[thatnickguy]

I actually partly agree with the idea of Bruce Wayne being a sham. Because it is, even to Bruce himself. I think the "real" Bruce (or any chance of a "real" Bruce) was buried the moment his parents were shot, and the Batman persona started to form (just without a key identifier yet).

But he clearly is more comfortable as Batman than Bruce. The other is just a means to Batman's end (using the resources, knowing people in the know, etc). Bruce Wayne is just another weapon in Batman's arsenal.

Which is part of his tragedy, really. The Bruce Wayne he shows everyone is a facade in order to shift eyes away from him being Batman. He puts all of his personal resources into his avenging war that he pushes away even the potential for what any of us would call a normal life. But because the only other time we see him as Bruce Wayne is in the Batcave doing Batman's work, there really is no "real" Bruce Wayne. Not anymore. So it really is a mask.

[icon_uk]

I personally agree with Paul Dini that the Playboy Bruce and Grim Darknight are both shams, and the "truest" form of the man as "The Detective", sitting in the Batcave, costume on but cowl pulled back, using the Batcomputer and his own enormous deductive intellect to solve/predict crimes.

I would also argue that the NEXT truest form is the Bruce Wayne, in the costume, who could empathise with newly orphaned Dick Grayson and take him under his wing.

[bruinsfan]

I'm at your table on the Superman/Clark issue. To me, Byrne's Man of Steel re-imagining felt like the right take on the character - I'd grown up on the George Reeves TV series, and a self-confident Clark who was at ease with his own intelligence and competence felt right in a way that play acting as an incompetent nebbish never did.

[icon_uk]

And indeed, Byrne's revamp made it quite clear that Clark Kent had a reputation as anything other than a miquetoast even before arriving in Metropolis.

He had written several (award winning) books, based on his travels in other countries, often exposing brutal regimes. He also kept exercise equipment around his apartment because he needed an explanation as to why he was built like a brick outhouse.

[bruinsfan]

I recall that scene where Lois was busting him on the not-terribly-impressive dumbells he had lying around when she first saw his apartment. He couldn't tell they were beginner weights since he could lift things orders of magnitude heavier!

[hybrid2]

I realy like this one,

I cant post scans so i'll say mine here.

Superman:Secret Identity,by Kurt Busiek
Blue Beetle:End Game

They are pretty much perfect stories,to me.

[thatnickguy]

I've read a lot of comics and Secret Identity remains my all-time favourite :)

[crimsonmoonmist]

There are some really, really good stories throughout All Star Superman (My favorite being the prison episode),
but for some reason, it never really grabbed me as much as Superman For All Seasons does. I can't really explain why.

[alschroeder3]

SUPERMAN FOR ALL SEASONS was excellent also. I preferred ALL-STAR, but ALL SEASONS is definitely up there.

[thatnickguy]

I love both of them for different reasons. I think SFAS really captures the idea of Clark being an honest, modest, loyal country bumpkin better than any other comic ever has.

[kurenai_tenka]

I think I got sent the first issue of this as part of a free comicbook day type thing. It was good, I should get round to reading the whole thing.

[bradygirl_12]

This pretty much looks like a very perceptive vision of Superman to me.

He was raised as Clark, is Clark, but is Superman, too, especially when he finds out about his Kryptonian origins. The persona of Clark in Metropolis is a shade of another identity, the man who can be himself but also has to make sure he blends in while being a star reporter. Now THAT'S a superpower! ;)

[chrys]

"Spectacular art"... This makes me have flashbacks to New X-Men and people praising the art while I could never see what people liked about it.

[tugrul]

So sad that Regan gets killed in Batman/Super #17 although one sees the result of the good impact Superman had on her life.

[thatnickguy]

Whenever I think about the different personalities, I think back to the Animated Series. When he was trying to rescue a plane shot down by terrorists, he accidentally rips off a wing. Just before he rushes down to save it proper, he stops and says, "Nice one, Clark."

That was a moment just to himself. He sees himself as Clark because that's how he was raised. The Superman persona didn't come in until he was in his late 20s or early 30s (the age is very arguable, of course, especially if you take him being Superboy into account). He grew up with these amazing powers, but it took him a long time to figure out the proper way to use them. Superman is his release of those powers in the best way possible. He can do all these amazing things, but because he was raised in the most down-to-earth way possible, he's humble about it.

In the end, he's still a country boy pining for that girl sitting across from him at the office.