Another update! I know, it's super exciting. Mainly though, I've got quite a lot of work to do this weekend and was worried I might forget about this under a pile of essays and revision if I don't review it now.
Not that that is an indictment of the story, which I really enjoyed. My knowledge of Superman is almost as limited as my knowledge of Spider-Man: I have seen episodes of Smallville, but in no order and I never really followed it. I've seen some of the cartoons but never a movie. Again, basically all I know is what is proliferated through pop culture: Daily Planet, kryptonite and Lois Lane.
This story made me fall in love with Superman. I think he has a reputation of being boring, but this brought all the mystery and the greatness back to him. There was subtlety in his emotions, mostly brought about from his silences and moments with loved ones. The fact that the story is narrated by four people, but never Superman himself, allows him to remain an icon while giving him depth through real human relationships.
But the best thing about this book is the art: nostalgic, detailed and tender, it makes the whole story dreamy and effecting. It's soft focus without ever being cheesy - and that is from both the sparsity of the dialogue and prose and the muted colouring. It makes a change from the usual bright colouring you associate with his character, while allowing his costume to still appropriately stand out from the generic yesteryear of his backdrop.
Each season was narrated by a different character. The first, narrated by his father, was very touching. I've never seen his parents look so old in any representation and that somehow added to the emotion. He seemed like the father everyone would want to adopt them if they fell from the sky in a rocket, and you can see where Superman got his stoicism from.
Not that that is an indictment of the story, which I really enjoyed. My knowledge of Superman is almost as limited as my knowledge of Spider-Man: I have seen episodes of Smallville, but in no order and I never really followed it. I've seen some of the cartoons but never a movie. Again, basically all I know is what is proliferated through pop culture: Daily Planet, kryptonite and Lois Lane.
This story made me fall in love with Superman. I think he has a reputation of being boring, but this brought all the mystery and the greatness back to him. There was subtlety in his emotions, mostly brought about from his silences and moments with loved ones. The fact that the story is narrated by four people, but never Superman himself, allows him to remain an icon while giving him depth through real human relationships.
But the best thing about this book is the art: nostalgic, detailed and tender, it makes the whole story dreamy and effecting. It's soft focus without ever being cheesy - and that is from both the sparsity of the dialogue and prose and the muted colouring. It makes a change from the usual bright colouring you associate with his character, while allowing his costume to still appropriately stand out from the generic yesteryear of his backdrop.
Each season was narrated by a different character. The first, narrated by his father, was very touching. I've never seen his parents look so old in any representation and that somehow added to the emotion. He seemed like the father everyone would want to adopt them if they fell from the sky in a rocket, and you can see where Superman got his stoicism from.
If his dad gave depth to Clark Kent, then the next chapter, narrated by Lois Lane, gave depth to the myth. We have references to him being an American imperialist, being selfish and self-involved (usual criticisms of the character) but it is through Lois's view of him we see how truly heroic he is. His goodness does not make him boring but an outcast in his selflessness. And unlike other selfless heroes, the lack of internal narration means we never get to hear any whining about having the weight of the world on his shoulders.
It's Lana Lang, who narrates the last chapter, who seems the most insightful into his emotional state, noticing that he may not be ready or able to handle that weight. But the message of the story seems to be that no one is able to carry their own weight, you just do it anyway. I was very impressed that both the female narrators are able to love him without it defining their characters: they are very different in their world view, refracted through Superman, and so they both had interest and depth while remaining insightful and calm.
But it is the third narration, by Lex Luthor, that I found the most insightful. His own justification for himself, that it is all motivated by his own love for his city, felt authentic and far from any kind of super-villian cliché. His misunderstanding, that Superman is all about his powers and not his humanity, never waivers and makes him all the more cold and intriguing. We get the usual 'bad father' stuff but it never feels like a platitude; it was simply giving him the depth that was afforded the other characters, personal relationships, and that is very commendable.
If you couldn't tell, I loved it. 9 out of 10. I wish there were 75 sequels but in some ways what makes it more amazing is its sparsity and self-containment.
Nest time - Batman: Year One
- Grace
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