Superman Unchained #1 – Review

By: Scott Snyder (story), Jim Lee (pencils), Scott Williams (inks), Alex Sinclair (colors)

The Story: Superman slips up on the fact-checking of his own story.

The Review: Superman is kind of an odd duck in the scheme of comic book icons.  Even though he’s practically the biggest and most important character DC has, his actual popularity—by which I mean the number of people who’d say he’s their favorite superheroes—always seems disproportionately low to his recognizability.*   He and Batman are ostensibly equals, yet the Batman franchise has consistently outpaced Superman’s in a big way.  Why?

My best guess is it has to do with how difficult it is to get a handle on his character.  I don’t think many people appreciate what a bundle of contradictions Superman is: at once human and alien, physically powerful but emotionally vulnerable, mild-mannered at times and bold at others, someone whose mission is to be a shining example when his deepest desire is to fit in.  Getting the right balance of all these qualities is, to say the least, a formidable task.