Since getting back into the comic-book reading and collecting hobbies, I have been playing catch-up on the +DC Comics New 52 titles. I began with a number of series I thought I would like, based on my years-past enjoyment of the starring characters. I began with Supergirl, who is my all-time favorite character, and Batgirl, based on the recommendation of a friend. After I'd caught up with them, I started working on some other titles. The next title with which I've gotten caught up is Superman, another long-time favorite of mine, and a series I collected off and on for probably 20 years prior to giving up comics in 1999.
Just a week ago, I reviewed the first year's worth of New 52 Superman issues. I said then that I had mixed feelings about the title, and that I was still not sure, after 13 issues, whether I was going to be with it for the long term. The first two story arcs had been problematic, and I felt that the re-told story of Superman had been too fragmentary, broken up between two different books (Superman and Action Comics), and told in a confusing and non-linear fashion within each title. Character personalities were inconsistent from writer to writer, and the tone of the stories was variable from arc to arc. Still, last week I was reserving judgment on Superman until I saw what the next creative team was able to do.
I have to say that the new creative team of Scott Lobdell (writer) and Ken Rocafort (artist) made my decision very easy. I bought digital versions of Superman 13-16, their first four issues, from ComiXology on Tuesday. Here it is Friday, and I've already made my decision.
I'm done with Superman.
Given that Superman is right up there as one of my favorite classic superhero characters, and that for much of my collecting life I have at least casually read comics involving Superman, you might think that ditching Superman from my pull list would be a difficult decision. And for sure, that nostalgia for the character kept me with the series for the first 12 issues, despite their decided mediocrity. However, I don't think I've ever had an easier time dropping a comic-book to which I had previously been attached than I have saying so-long to Superman after issue #17 concludes the H'el story arc. I have Scott Lobdell to thank for that.
Since returning to reading comic-books, I have read some 100 comic books (ouch, have I really spent that much money in under 3 months?). Without question, the absolute worst comic-books I have read of the bunch -- even worse than the mess that Grant Morrison created over in Action Comics -- have been the Lobdell/Rocafort Superman issues. I can't recall when I have seen worse writing in a comic-book than Lobdell's Superman, and Rocafort's art, although perhaps not "bad," is certainly weird. Indeed, Lobdell's writing is so bad it led one friend of mine to wonder if the guy secretly has some sort of anti-Superman agenda.
If you're wondering why I look with such contempt upon Lobdell's writing on Superman, I will list just a few problems I have with issue #13. First, the beginning shows Superman at the center of the earth (which incidentally should be solid iron, though it's drawn as if it's regular rock, and which by the way is over 4,000 degrees C). He's being tested by a scientist friend, Dr. Veritas. She tells him that for five days, he has been doing the equivalent of lifting the mass of the earth.
Where do I begin with all the things wrong with just this first couple of pages? How the hell is Veritas' lab in the center of the earth? How did Veritas and whoever built the lab get through 3,000+ miles of molten magma and liquid iron to build it? How does Veritas get in and out? Why the hell would she build a lab down there in the first place? And why isn't all her equipment in her lab being turned to melted slag from the temperature? And even assuming such a lab existed, how is she able to determine that Superman can lift the mass of the earth from inside the earth? I realize that comic-books often play fast and loose with science, but come on.
Worse, even if we allow for all the science mistakes in just that first scene, it wouldn't make the scene any less objectionable, for one reason: the power level Superman is stated to have. For many years before the 1985 Crisis series, Superman was a wildly overpowered character. He could move planets around, among other things. When he was reinvented after Crisis, +DC Comics wisely (yes, I know, using "DC" and "wise" in the same sentence seems an oxymoron, but they were in this rare case) de-powered him. Sure, he could still lift battleships or juggle 747s, but that's way less powerful than moving planets around. For decades this more reasonably powered Superman was one of DC's signature heroes -- still the most powerful on Earth, but at least not more powerful than the Earth. Apparently, DC has decided, of all the "Silver Age" concepts out there (many of which are wonderful), to go back to the "Superman is stronger than a planet" model. With that very first line of dialog on the very first page of the very first regular issue of Superman that he wrote, Lobdell basically broke Superman as a character.
But if you think that is the end of the problems Lobdell created in this one issue (#13), think again. Because the next thing that happens in the story is that Metropolis is attacked by a giant monster. And I mean giant. You think Godzilla is big at 30 stories (300 feet) tall? Well, Scott Lobdell is not to be outdone. This creature is a mile long. Suck on that, Godzilla "king of the monsters." Anything you can do Scott Lobdell can do 10 times better, Godzilla baby.
Honestly after reading this issue, I could not figure out what Scott Lobdell was thinking, or if he was even thinking at all. One of the supposed hallmarks of modern comic-books is their "gritty realism." We keep being told that "gone" are the days when superheroes perform silly, Silver-Age style, over-the-top feats like pushing planets around or punching someone into orbit. And yet, here we have Superman, able to "lift" the earth, fighting a monster that is one mile long, and being hit by the monster so hard that, from Metropolis (USA), Superman lands in Ireland. These events would be quite at home in Acton Comics from the 1950s... but do they really have a place in Superman of the 2010s?
And yet, the over-exaggerated power level of Superman and the monster in this book pale in comparison to how poorly the characters themselves are written. For example, no sooner does Clark Kent return to his newspaper than he has an argument with Perry White and Lois Lane, and then with the owner of the Daily Planet (Mr. Edge). In the space of a few panels, Clark erupts with completely unjustifiable rage, ranting about how the news is being confused with entertainment, and how he's not going to take it anymore. He turns to his colleagues to convince them to rise up, to show management who's really in charge, and take back their newspaper. Leaving aside how badly written the speech itself was, the entire situation was contrived. If Lobdell wanted to get Superman off the paper and into a different job, fine. But the way he executed it was simply absurd.
Clark Kent is not Scott Lobdell's only characterization bungle, either. His portrayal of Lois is ridiculous, making her seem like a petulant child. And he has completely ignored Jimmy (who is mentioned but never shown). And by the way, when is the last time Jimmy's partner, Miko, was seen in this comic? Lobdell's not the only one who ignored her (Jurgens and Giffen did in #7-12 also). I thought comics were serialized fiction. If so, characters shouldn't vanish without explanation (no matter how much the new writer might not "like" them), and they shouldn't change personalities from issue to issue. Whatever problems I may have had with George Perez's plot in the first Superman story arc, at least the characterization was impeccable. Lois might have been news director, but she was recognizably Lois, the same Lois you can read about in my early 1980s issues of The Daring New Adventures of Supergirl, or that you can watch in re-runs of the Lois and Clark TV show. Lobdell's Lois Lane is unrecognizable -- but then, so is his Clark Kent/Superman (and his Supergirl, and just about every other character).
I've read a lot of comic-books in my day (by my estimate, well over 2,000), and many of them were poorly written (some were down-right terrible). I remember many awful stories, like the Armageddon 2001 crossover, and I've seen many stupid things done to the Man of Steel (like watching him be killed by a mindless brute in a battle where the two of them basically punch each other to death). But Scott Lobdell, in record time (by the end of his first issue) has vaulted to the very top (or perhaps I should say "bottom") of the pile as the absolute worst writer of Superman I have ever seen. What the hell he is doing on DC's payroll, let alone writing for their flagship character, I honestly cannot fathom.
Oh, and in case you're tempted to leave a comment to complain that I have made this snap judgment in only one issue (#13), I have read the rest (#0, #14-16) -- 5 issues total by Lobdell -- and it's not gotten any better. His stories are disorganized. His dialogue is stilted. His characterizations are wildly inaccurate (no, it's not OK to take over a comic book that has gone 13 issues already and just make a character act completely different -- comic books have something called continuity that is supposed to be respected by writers and editors). And his insistence on using throw-back Silver Age over-the-top power levels for Superman and the villains is indefensible -- it would only work if the New 52 reboot had made the entire universe return to a Silver Age setting (which is not the case).
And so, less than a week and five issues after Perez, Jurgens, and Giffen left me saying "I don't know" about Superman, Scott Lobdell has caused me to wave good-bye, and good-riddance, to the Man of Steel. I may check back one day when Lobdell leaves the title, but until he does, there is no way in "H'el" that I will ever buy a Scott Lobdell-written Superman again.
The good news is, with Superman off my 'pull list,' I will have room for something else. DC has screwed their universe up so much, I think it's time to look at some indies...
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