New 52 Superman - Year 1

Because I just got back into collecting comics only recently (about two months ago, see here and here for details), it has taken me a while to select which series I am going to follow, and to catch up with them.  I began with +DC Comics The New 52, which is basically a rebirth of the entire DC Universe.  All their characters have been rebooted to one degree or other (for details, check out my review of The New 52), and all their previous series were canceled, and re-launched starting at #1. Being a long-time fan of the Man of Steel, it was a slam-dunk that I would at least begin reading the first few issues of both his series -- Superman and Action Comics.  Whether I would continue past the first few issues would depend on the quality of the individual titles.

I have now read the first year's worth of Superman, which includes #1-12, and also the #0 issue, which was published after #12 (during the special "#0 month" in which +DC Comics celebrated the first anniversary of The New 52).  Not counting #0, which is an "origin" issue, the first year of Superman is divided into two distinct story arcs, and produced by two different creative teams. The inaugural story arc was called "What Price Tomorrow?" and comprises issues #1-6.  The second story arc, which doesn't seem to have had a particular name assigned to it (at least that I can discover), lasted from issues #7-12.

Story Arc 1: What Price Tomorrow (#1-6)

In the first story arc, writer George Perez and several artists (Jesus Merino, Nicola Scott, Trevor Scott, and others) dealt with the re-introduction of Superman.  The story is set "five years" after Superman's first appearance in Metropolis, and this is where some of the confusion starts.  Many references are made, in the very first issue, to a variety of events no one has ever seen (at least not yet), some of which sound very similar to events that happened before the reboot represented by The New 52.  At the very start, the old Daily Planet building is demolished, and a new building, that enables the Planet to get involved in broadcast journalism (with Lois Lane as news director of the new station) is introduced.  Superman is characterized as being "known" already to the people of Metropolis, but also seems to have "been away for a while."

As the first issue progresses, Superman ends up in a fight with a powerful fire creature that speaks in an odd language but uses the word "Krypton."  The fire creature is defeated and disappears, leaving behind the unconscious night guard who was apparently a vessel for the creature.  Several of the city's residents express the opinion that Superman's presence is inducing these super-powered attacks, and maybe it would be best for Metropolis if he weren't around.

I will admit, these mistrustful reactions to DC's flagship superhero, a hero who has always been loved and trusted by the public in prior incarnations, gave me immediate misgivings.  The reason I no longer read Marvel is the pervasive "mutant hate" that has existed in their universe since the 1970s.  I prefer when superheroes are recognized for the good they do (at least generally), and they usually have been, in the DC Universe.  That the rebooted Superman would be mistrusted right out of the gate made me very nervous for what would happen in the rest of the DC Universe.  However, George Perez is an old hand at this, and I trusted that he would not take the character into places I would hate.

As the story continued to unfold, however, it seemed like George was, in fact, headed down that path.  With each issue, new villains appear in Metropolis, specifically targeting Superman, and causing no end of trouble for the city's residents.  More and more people start blaming Superman until it seems like Lois Lane is the only one left who believes he's one of the good guys. Finally, in issue #5-6, Superman seems to turn completely bad.  He starts going after villains he has caught and attacking them, even killing some of them.  He ignores the police and starts acting just as people have feared -as judge, jury, and executioner.  Even Supergirl is unable to stop him.

It turns out, however, that this is not Superman, but a simulacrum created by nano-creatures.  Superman has been trapped in orbit by the creatures while their simulacrum has been doing all these terrible things.  Finally, he breaks free from the trap, and returns to earth to capture the nano-creatures.  Superman defeats the creatures, and at Supergirl's suggestion, hurls them into the sun, thus destroying them (at least for now).

When people realize that Superman was not responsible, they finally understand just how restrained he has been. They have seen what the world would be like if Superman really did consider himself above the law, and since the world has not been like that, they finally realize that he's one of the good-guys.

I have mixed feelings about this story arc.  I like the way it ended, and true to my trust in him, George Perez did manage to "fix it" by the end so that the world does not mistrust Superman.  The arc itself was not bad when viewed in total. However, the problem with it is that it doesn't work at all as a reintroduction story.  As I said in my critique of The New 52 as a whole, the character needs to be established first, before he's "broken."  I know that Superman is not a new character to the readers, but he is a new(ish) character to the world.  Let's establish some ground rules first, before breaking them.  This arc, then, would have worked better after the character has been around for 15 or 20 issues.

Story Arc 2: Superman #7-12

For the second story arc, a new team came on board, including Keith Giffen, Dan Jurgens, and others.  The second story arc is not really an arc, in that it doesn't follow a single story-line the way the first one does. Instead, there are three separate two-part stories.  In the first story (#7-8), Superman faces a demon-creature called Helspont.  Helspont wants to conquer earth and use it to get revenge on a cabal called the Daemonite. He offers to give Superman control of earth for the Man of Steel's aid.  Superman, of course, refuses, and eventually defeats Helspont.  In the second story (#9-10), a female villain named Anguish tries to rob a bank and Superman battles her. She has the ability to control her density, making herself hard to hit, but also able to hit hard, at will.  As part of this story, a blogger mistakenly fingers someone as Superman in "secret identity" and Anguish goes after the man's family, thinking to use the family against Superman.  In the end, Superman manages to save the man and his family.  In the last story (#11-12), a Russian sub discovers an inter-dimensional being, who then breaks free and starts slaughtering people. Superman battles him, losing the first time (#11) but then winning the second time (#12).  After returning home from Russia, he goes on sort of a date with Lucy Lane (Lois Lane's sister).

This second story arc is at the same time both better and worse than the first one.  I liked it better in the sense that this is more traditional, classic Superman.  Nobody doubts his heroism (well, the Russians do, but they're being paranoid).  He has a commanding presence. He is confident and in control of the situation (for the most part), rather than suffering from what could only be described as a near nervous breakdown the way he was in #1-6.  On the other hand, these stories were all entirely bland and seemed like they were re-treading very well-worn pathways.  At least the first arc, for all the troublesome elements, was original.

Superman #0

After 12 months, Superman #0 was published during DC's "backstory month." Here, some of Superman's backstory was revealed.  This issue was penned by Scott Lobdell, who then took over the reins of the title going forward.  It's a story of Jor-El discovering, deep in the roots of Krypton, that the world is dying.  When he returns, however, he finds out the science center where the discoveries were being made has been bombed, and he and Lara, who is pregnant with Kal-El (Superman), are attacked by a group of militants. Jor-El traps the attackers in the Phantom Zone, and finally tells Lara that Krypton is doomed.

This story was interesting, but also had many confusing elements.  Lobdell doesn't bother to explain who the militants really are or why they are attacking (he hints but does not explain).  Large gaps are left in the story -- probably because the latter parts of it had already been told in Action Comics #5.  I understand that DC publishes Superman in two books simultaneously, but I question the wisdom of them fragmenting the backstory across the two titles and at very different times (with some parts coming months after the other parts).  There is not one single, coherent re-telling of the Superman story in the comic-books (although there are two hardcover graphic novels that do seem to do the trick).

Reflections

This is a very hard series to evaluate even after a year's worth of issues.  It's hard to believe, because I can usually decide in three or four issues (max) whether I like a series or not, but I'm still on the fence about this one.  The problem is that they have changed the creative team three times now, and you don't know what the new team will do. Perez did a better job of almost everything with the first arc -- it just shouldn't have been done first out of the gate, and as a result, was confusing and difficult to follow in spots.  Jurgens and Giffen produced more "standard" Superman fare, which is good for us traditionalists, but the stories were very flat and uninspired. There was really nothing original there.  And since he just started, I honestly have no idea what Scott Lobdell will do with the stories going forward.

I think Superman, as a character, is suffering from fragmentation.  He's appearing in two books, and in one of his books (Superman) he's had three different writers in a year.  That's four writers total, in the first year of the New 52 Superman version, and I think this is unhealthy for the character. Beyond this, I think the character is suffering more than most, because he is one of their flagship characters, from a complete lack of organization or planning on the part of the +DC Comics  front offices.  As George Perez explained in some detail to a live audience back in June, DC did not have any guiding principles for what was going on in its books (and I bet they still don't). According to George, he, as writer of the new Superman starting on issue #1, was not able to discover whether Ma and Pa Kent were still alive (they're not).  The status of the Kents is a foundational element to this character, and DC didn't know what that status was?  They also didn't seem to know Superman's relationship to other characters in the DC Universe.  George was being handed orders for what to write that didn't make sense to him, and when he questioned them, the editors did not know the answers.  In George's own words, he said, "Oh my gosh, you're deciding all these things and you mean even you don't know what's going on in your own books?"

Sadly, this one sentence from George sums up the impression one gets from reading the Superman family of books during this New 52 relaunch.  The stories are presented to the reader in about as confusing and disorganized a fashion as one could imagine. I'd almost think it was deliberate except nobody in his right mind (other than maybe the Joker, who on second thought isn't in his right mind either) would be able to come up with something this disjointed on purpose.  The stories hop-scotch around the timeline, taking place in different years or even different decades.  The characters act inconsistently from title to title and even from issue to issue within a single title.  Clearly what is happening with the Superman family books is that the writers can't be consistent because their bosses, the editors, don't know what the hell is going on.

As a result, Superman has been a mediocre book at best. It's not a terrible book, but given that this is the flagship title of the flagship character for +DC Comics, mediocrity is not the target at which they should be aiming.

I will keep reading Superman for now... but honestly, if it doesn't get better soon, I will probably drop it.  There are too many other interesting titles out there for me to keep reading a mediocre one, no matter how much I like the Man of Steel as a character.