Graphic Novel Review: Superman Earth One (vol.1&2) by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis

Superman: Earth One by J. Michael Straczynski and Shane Davis

Publisher: DC Comics (November 2010/2012)

Wendy’s Rating ~ 2 of 5 stars

I am still searching for a story about Superman that will make me like him, that will make his acceptance into society make sense. Based on the fact that several origin stories, along with two questionable movies, have popped up over the past decade or so that find alternate ways to give me this, I suspect that DC and its writers are still trying to figure that out as well.

You see, the reason why I don’t like him is because my thinking falls in line with Lex Luthor and Batman: he is an alien among us, superior to us in every way. No matter how much nurturing Ma and Pa Kent have given him, nothing removes the fact that he is not one of us, and as Clark Kent, he is attempting to suppress what makes him different. While I do agree that he is the danger that Lex and Batman believe he can be if turned against us, I have a far easier time in believing a Superman that, in his benevolence, chooses to rule over our lesser species in order to protect us. Which is a far more deadly version of Superman than one who simply wants to destroy us, and has been depicted well in alternate universe stories like Superman: Red Son and the Injustice: Gods Among Us game and comics.

But Superman: Earth One, like so many other Superman stories, adheres to the canonical depiction of an outsider who just wants to belong and use his powers to help everyone, attempting to fit in. Straczynski succeeds in humanizing the character, but because he is still bound to the standard elements of the Superman canonical story, a lot of it just doesn’t work.

The story begins with a rather original take on a young Clark as he heads out on the town to find his purpose in life. He attempt to find a suitable career, but this is actually more of a test of how his advanced skills will be accepted in society. As an athlete, he’s highly desired. As a scientist, he solves a troublesome equation in seconds and is offered a huge salary to continue to do so. The latter is intriguing because it is the first time I’ve seen Clark’s superior intelligence addressed at all. But Clark doesn’t find any of these things fulfilling.

He ends up at the Daily Planet, submitting his resume to chief editor Perry White, who, for the first time ever, becomes a real person for me. In my experience, White has always been depicted as an overbearing boss with no empathy. Though not as boisterous and callous as Spiderman’s J. Jonah Jameson, White has always been a caricature. But in his introduction here, he shows compassion, honesty, and full knowledge of the job, even providing Lois Lane with some writing advice that I’ve taken to heart:

“You fell in love with the words and put yourself too far into the story. Write about what you’re writing about, not about you writing about what you’re writing about.”

Lane is a disappointment in this telling. Straczynski seems to work on the assumption that we know her to be the feisty news reporter who’ll go out of her way for the story, so he doesn’t really bother to show her doing any of that. Instead, he has her go after Clark in the second volume, because she is suspicious of him. It pangs of envy, rather than going after the news, and ultimately serves only as a device to give us a bit more of Clark’s personality and history, rather than defining Lane as an interesting character herself.

Photographer Jimmy Olsen on the other hand, is written very well, and seems to be, through his integrity, determination, and courage, the reason why Superman decides to don the cape and save the world.

So the save the world part—this is where volume one really begins to fail for me. Unmemorable bad guy (we’ll call him notZod)  who helped orchestrate the utter destruction of Krypton, Clark’s home planet, has traversed the galaxy to kill the lone survivor of that genocide. Why? Because he really, really hates Kryptonians.

I suspect that a lot of the Man of Steel story line came from this book, though I prefer the movie’s more logical reason for Zod hunting down Kal’El and seeking the destruction of earth. But like this book, we’ve still got this ridiculous notion that Superman is still doing the right thing, despite the destruction and death of millions being his fault for existing. Sure I can’t lump the genocide decision on Clark’s shoulders just because the bad guy came after him, but for me to believe in Superman, I want to see a whole lot more survivor’s guilt, instead of “Oh well, lemme make up for this mess by saving kittens, and BONUS, giving the government the proverbial finger.” Straczynski tries to give me this, most notably in an “exclusive” interview that Clark scores with Superman himself, earning him employment at the Daily Planet despite White’s initial rejection. (We will ignore the fact that Olsen and Lane were at ground zero, face to face with Superman, even catching his face on camera, but failed to connect him with Clark. And we’ll ignore the fact that Clark’s interview was actually very poorly written, journalistically speaking).

Conveeeeeniently, the businessman who’d offered Clark a six figure salary before, finds him in the aftermath of the battle to repeat the offer, but Clark refuses because the businessman obviously has no concern for humanity, returning to the Daily Planet instead because of the integrity and courage the staff there have shown him. From there, Superman can keep a finger on the pulse of the world and dash off to save people as needed.  (Unfortunate, since Clark’s proven intelligence could be used to truly help people, in the same way Bruce Wayne could do more for Gotham as rich businessman Bruce Wayne, than as the revenge-seeking Batman. )

In volume two, the focus is on the world view of Superman, with the government and military concerned that he is a significant threat that needs to be controlled, if not destroyed. Enter Lex2, the sexy Luthor husband and wife team, who spend their panels being sexy, and making blasé comments about how smart they are. Prior to their arrival, Superman must deal with another big bad, Parasite, who feeds on energy, of which Superman has lots. This leads to the sub-plot of Clark’s sex life, along with an attempt to pull at our heart strings with the residents of Clark’s bad-part-of-town apartment. Let’s just say that I’d much rather read about the quirky neighbours and their issues in the Hawkeye graphic novels, where you actually come to care about these people as far more than just plot lines, though the story about Clark’s pet cat was sweet.

Clark also has to deal with the consequences of his actions when he tries to do the right thing against a dictator in another country, revealing that it is impossible to keep your hands clean, even if you don’t actually kill the bad guy yourself.

I really wanted to like these stories, but I find that they suffer the same problem I’ve had with all of the stories that try to explain Superman. They all have to make it to this same end goal that I don’t find believable in the first place, so everything thrown in along the way just comes off as superficial elements funneled through a filter to create the same end product. He has to work at the Planet. He has to try to fit in. Lois Lane. He has to save kittens. He has to face off with bad guys. Things need to be destroyed (with no clean up effort from him in the aftermath). Each story attempts to be creative with these required pieces of the Superman puzzle, but it’s only in alternate universes that I truly get depth and connection with those pieces, resulting in a truly believable character.

That’s not to say that I don’t think anyone can write a good Superman story, even bound to these Superman standards, but I definitely don’t believe Straczynski achieved this. Instead, he vacillates between branching off with interesting new elements of the character that he doesn’t delve into deeply enough, and tossing out the standard Superman elements with the assumption that we already know them, so he doesn’t have to give them anything more than a cursory word or two.

I’ll end on a positive note by praising the art, (though not Clark’s Bieber hair.) I liked the idea of Clark being physically our superior, without having to look it in an overly beefed up, neckless depiction. Davis gets very creative with the panel arrangements and I liked the way each page has its own colour-scheme that reflects the environment and mood. The Daily Planet is covered in soft browns, Clark’s brooding introspection and time spent with his mother is usually blue, explosions are a bright, harsh orange…