Earth Two #23 – Review

By: Tom Taylor (story), Nicola Scott (pencils), Trevor Scott (inks), Pete Pantazis (colors)

The Story: Even for a perpetrator of mass genocide, there’s no place like home.

The Review: From the moment Superman made his reappearance on Earth-2, many of us instantly assumed that either he was some evil doppelganger created by Steppenwolf to demoralize the world, or that, at worst, this was a Superman under some kind of psychic control. But only in our least serious imaginings did we consider that the Superman brutally tearing soldiers, ships full of innocents, and whole countries apart, could be doing so rationally.

That’s a scary thought, but one that seems very plausible after he takes a good look at Lois and says uncertainly, “You weren’t supposed to see me like this.” That very line suggests a sense of shame, which in turn implies a conscience, which means this Superman still has a sense of self. Twist! Even worse, the discovery that Lois is still alive doesn’t magically bring him back to his senses; even with her and his parents present, he unhesitatingly orders an attack on Gotham and the remaining wonders.

Secret Origins #1 – Review

By: Greg Pak, Kyle Higgins, and Tony Bedard (writers); Lee Weeks, Doug Mahnke, and Paulo Siqueira (pencils), Sandra Hope, Lee Weeks, Keith Champagne, Christian Alamy, and Hi-Fi (inks), Dave McCaig, John Kalisz, and Hi-Fi (colors)

The Review: When the New 52 launched two and a half years ago two of the biggest complaints I remember hearing were the disinterest in seeing the heroes’ origins replayed once again and the surprise and outrage when the comics did not provide origin stories. People were expecting new The Man of Steel’s and Batman: Year Ones. The fans wanted to see how their icons had changed, what justified this new continuity, while others worried that new readers would struggle without the origin stories.

Well, it certainly took them long enough, but the release of Secret Origins #1 this week finally answers those concerns.

For an impressive $5.00 price tag, readers get three twelve-page stories from the writers currently handling the characters. I’m not sure that such a hefty price will endear this series to new or lapsed comic readers, but I suppose what really matters is how well it justifies that price point.

The first story, quite appropriately, is Superman’s, penned by Action Comics and Batman/Superman scribe Greg Pak. While there isn’t that much changed from the traditional tale of Krypton’s demise, and certainly nothing secret, Pak’s tale sets itself apart through its perspective. Written from the point of view of Superman’s two moms – wouldn’t that have been an interesting twist? – Pak creates a believable, non-sappy story that pins down the essential value of our ‘Man of Tomorrow’ as love.

Given that Pak is handling the part of the story that Clark can’t tell himself, I think it was a very wise choice to focus on Martha Kent and Lara Van-El. Particularly with Man of Steel still fresh in our minds, and the original Superman (1978) before it, it’s not hard to make the argument that Jor-El has often eclipsed his fellow Kryptonians, and occasionally even his son. Likewise, I think that many stories spend a lot of time focused on Jonathan Kent in Clark’s boyhood. By focusing on the women in Clark’s life, Pak presents a new look at this classic tale.

Action Comics #27 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Aaron Kuder & Mike Hawthorne (art), R.B. Silva (pencils), Ray McCarthy (inks), Dan Brown & Eva de la Cruz (colors)

The Story: All those stories about mole people are finally proven true—except worse.

The Review: As I said in my review of Superman Unchained #5, I’m not of the camp that believes Clark Kent should have a completely happy-go-lucky childhood—emphasis on “completely.”  Done right, a little pathos makes the boy Clark seem even closer to us, like when his super-hearing kicks in and he catches his parents mentioning he’s “not human[.]”  How many of us had an experience of overhearing what we shouldn’t and the massive anxiety it produced?

So, yes, a little rain has fallen into Clark’s early life, but hey—rain is a good thing, and the sun that comes out afterward more than redeems it.  Jonathan and Martha, like the awesome parents they are, quickly notice the sad changes in their son and decide to fix things with the truth, rather than let the secret fester.  Clark’s initial reaction to his extraterrestrial legacy is naturally rendered, rejecting it even as he reaches out for it, but his parents’ gesture leaves a lasting impact on his values: “Love?  Yeah.  From the parents who wrapped me in the blanket…and the parents who saved it for me.”

Batman/Superman #2 – Review

By: Greg Pak (story), Jae Lee (art), June Chung (colors)

The Story: Sometimes it feels like your younger self is like a person from another planet.

The Review: Even though the first issue was a bit thin story-wise, Pak took some unusual directions in both the plot and characters that still worked.  With that tentative first step out of the way, Pak lengthens his stride on this second issue, settling upon a surprisingly comfortable and engaging pace.  He has a great instinct for moving from a burst of action to a touch of exposition, from letting characters mull on their own to weaving them together.

It’s that last point where Pak reveals his craft.  Instead of throwing everyone into the story all at once, he methodically cues each one’s entrance at just the right moment in the action, where their presence would best invigorate the scene.  In steady order we get introduced to our villain, our dual heroes, our heroes’ doubles, their doubles’ wives, and several other important figures along the way.  For all that, the issue never feels crowded; each character appears just long enough to keep the story clipping forward, like a highly trained relay team.

Action Comics #6 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Andy Kubert (penciller), John Dell (inker), Brad Anderson (colorist), Sholly Fisch (feature writer), Chriscross (feature artist), Jose Villarrubia (feature colorist)

The Story: Now you know where all those little voices in your head are coming from.

The Review: I don’t think I’m the only one, but I sometimes give Morrison a lot of flak for being purposely obscure in his writing.  The combination of his strange ideas, highly stylized choice of words, and loose playing with time and space often leave me bewildered, unsure if I’m reading genius or gobbledygook.

After reading this issue the first time around, I sat back, my mouth slightly agape, and murmured aloud, “Am I high, or is he?”  Maybe I read it too quickly or too carelessly, but I could not make head or tail of it.  On the second reading, I sat back again, this time my mouth pursed in thought.  All the pieces I had found so disjointed, wordy, and confusing the first time around had come together and made a deep impression on me.  Or, to be accurate, I should say it impressed me.

For one thing, Morrison amazes, as he regularly does, with the boundless enthusiasm and scope of his ideas.  Who else would come up with a plot involving tesseracts that allow objects to be bigger inside themselves than out, allowing Superman’s enemies to hide and plot within his very brain?  Who else can give a rocket ship character, actually making you feel invested in its fate?  When it comes to sheer creativity, this issue beats all preceding ones by a mile, and that alone makes it truly memorable for the first time since this series relaunched.

That’s not to say there aren’t flaws.  It’s still baffling why Morrison chooses to tell this particular tale smack-dab in the middle of a story arc where T-shirt Superman already has his hands full against the Collector of Worlds.  The fact that his rocket ship plays a significant part in the issue also throws you off track, since up until #3, the military still had it in their possession.  Also weird is the presence of Drekken, or Erik, or whoever that shapeshifting foe is; he doesn’t do much other than get in Superman’s way, and you never find out where he came from.

Action Comics #5 – Review

By: Too many to list—check out the review.

The Story: Invasion of the Space Babies!  They’ll overwhelm you with their cuteness!

The Review: The coming of Superman to Earth as a babe rocketed from the doomed planet of Krypton is probably the origin story of origin stories, one which still retains a lot of its purity and sense of wonder to this day.  There’s just something inescapably poignant about the idea of a mother and father doing all they can to save their child, putting their trust in an unknown world to foster him, and him becoming its savior in return.

It’s a great story, but one that’s been told and retold so often, and with so little variation in the telling, that it’s become a bit tiresome to hear.  Weariness is the predominant feeling you get when reading through the first half of this issue.  For anyone who knows anything about the Superman mythos, nothing Grant Morrison writes will surprise you.  The classic details are all here, untwisted, and while that’s a relief on a lot of levels, it’s also rather dull to read.

The changes Morrison introduces to the story are few and subtle in nature.  Lara has a more critical role in Kal-El’s sojourn to Earth; she helped Jor-El build the saving rocket, and she’s the one who arrives at their last, desperate option to save their son when Jor-El freezes.  You discover that before they put Kal into the rocket, they attempted to save themselves by escaping into the Phantom Zone, only to find it already occupied by the worst of Krypton’s sadists.

While a lot of the issue is at least readable, if not refreshing, Morrison dives into some very exotic turns of phrase when writing the voice of the rocket’s Brainiac A.I.  I’ve never liked it much when Morrison puts on his beat poet hat; it just seems distracting and sometimes confusing: “Then blinding gulfs of superspace.  Of un-time.  Exquisite calculations.  The last son of Krypton dreams.  And searching.  And now!”

And that’s before you get to the completely baffling sequence involving a time-traveling chase of the Anti-Superman Army by Lightning Lad, Cosmic Boy, Saturn Girl, and grown-up, body-suited Superman (as opposed to folksy Superman).  This scene not only breaks into the middle of the “Collector of Worlds” arc (which doesn’t continue this issue), it delivers puzzling language of its own: “This, all the K in the universe—the colored isotopes synthi-K and Kryptonium…”