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

[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.