About Earth One and feeling special

Got a call from a guy today who just wanted to share some good news with someone. I like that I'm on someones short list for 'whoah, I've gotta tell someone about this!' moments. It makes me feel special.

Yes yes, I have embarassingly low standards for things to make me feel good.

Read Superman: Earth One by J.M. Straczynski and Shane Davis today. I've usually found myself not liking Straczynski's work lately, and I'd heard bad things about this book- specifically that he made Superman an emo kid- but I actually really enjoyed it. It accomplished something that it seems, thinking back on it, is required of all good Superman stories- it makes me feel uplifted.

It's an origin story, so we get to see Clark Kent introduced to Metropolis- it's a Clark Kent that feels aimless because he could very well do anything he wanted in any field. At first it bothered me that he excelled in a football teams try outs, blew a tech firms mind with a formula, and basically just found success wherever he went. It bothered me because to even get an audience with the people he did to give those demonstrations is a display of huge priviledge, then add to that the advantage of having powers beyond those of mortal man.

Now that bothered me until I remembered this was Superman I was dealing with here. This is a guy who, if there's a problem, almost by magic, he solves it. What I was seeing here was a more mundane Superman, one who we can more readily accept as someone who could exist in our world.

It's like "this is the story about a man who can fly- but what that really is is an allegory for success" but instead they tell the story straight, about the man with success.

Yes, this story still has flying, and fights with an alien menace, and heat vision, but in conjunction with the earlier striving for purpose (and getting paid untold wealth for those different positions) that part becomes more closely affiliated with self sacrifice. Interestingly, the poorly paid reporter job was the only one that didn't immediately jump to hire Clark Kent- it wasn't until Clark became Superman, choosing a life of service, that he got the gig. Plus, of course, Clark Kent walked in the office with an exclusive interview with Superman, that helps.

DC actually printed the interview in the back of the book- so we've got two pages or so of Clark Kent talking to Superman, with Clark writing as though he's nervous, and makes a geeky joke that he laughs at WITH Superman... it would always have been a disingenuous interview, but that was a bit much.

Personally, I prefer it when Lois gets the first interview, and Clark Kent gets the job because he's "the fastest typest (they've) ever seen."

At least it's Jonathan Kent that names him Superman- it's better coming from a proud father than from the costumed strong man himself.

I'll stop after one more thing- it'd come as no surprise if I pointed out my penchant for analyzing Batman comics, but it kind of surprises me that I don't do the same for Superman. True, I don't really buy single issues of Superman, preferring to get him in trade (and even then, it's been some time since I've bought one), but just thinking about their stories I'm not sure they both lend themselves as well to that kind of analysis.

I find Batman to be (in general) a more literary book; exploring genre, medium awareness/manipulation, and how these things change with the times. It probably helps that Batman himself has to be more cerebral, what with the detective thing going on, and then there's the influence of Batman co-creator Bill Finger who was just a smithy of words.

Really, it's the medium awareness that always gets me- Q: Batman is a man, how is he living through all this stuff? A: Because he's also the star of the story.

Ask the same question of Superman Q: How is Superman winning all these battles? A: Are you kidding me? He's Superman! How is he NOT winning these battles is the better question- if he ever lost a battle that is.

Defeating the bad guy can never be the point of the story when it comes to a Superman story (good thing too, with lame bad guys like the Toyman, there better be something else going on). Have two missiles flying in opposite directions, will Superman save more lives, or take care of his personal interests? The Superman Returns video game, sure it had it's problems, but this part was brilliant: Superman himself couldn't be killed, it was METROPOLIS that had the health bar.

Superman #775 by Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke, published hmm 2001-2002? entitled "What's so funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?" (I remembered ALMOST all that by myself... I just needed a little correction on the title, but that's what google is for) is just one of those favourite stories of mine. I haven't read it in years, I loaned my copy to a buddy in high school and he never got around to reading it. It's now become such a fixture of our relationship, the fact that he hasn't read it, that he basically can never read it now.

The issue itself deals with a surly group of anti heroes who barge in, kill bad guys left right and centre, are seemingly capable of brushing off Superman, AND it looks like the public may prefer their take no prisoners style. Though it's played to look as though Superman is having trouble from a power level position, it's eventually revealed that the real issue was his deciding for himself whether or not the world had moved past him, that maybe these "heroes" were the new standard and he was a throwback.

Maybe I was being too harsh, saying Superman doesn't lend itself to analysis. Though this issue is a little obvious (old school Superman versus 90's anti-hero, a concept that has really been used a lot in connection with the Big Blue Boy Scout) it is still addressing societal change outside of the world view of the comic book, how the world at large sees the story, and that's the kind of thing I love.

Of course in the end Superman wipes the floor with the anti-heroes, doing it in such a way as to convince their leader that Supes had adopted their viscious styles- he hadn't, it was rather an object lesson in how easy that variety of justice can be.

When Manchester Black (that was the bad team's leader) screams at Superman "WE'LL BE BACK!", unconsciously referencing his earlier attitude about the futility of Superman's brand of justice, Superman flips it on him "And I'll be waiting." making it now the returning villains of every Superman story the ones trapped in futility. At least Superman can have a life, however small, outside of "Superman"- for the bad guys it's prison-escape-kryptonite-capture and repeat.

Obviously this issue really effected me, I remember so much about it. Well, maybe you shouldn't quote my dialogue verbatim, but the idea is there.

Go read it, go to a library or a Chapters, pick up a recent volume of "Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told" and it'll probably be in there.