Even though SplashPanel is (will be) a site dedicated to the Graphic Novel, every once in a while, and it’s pretty rare I assure you, I’ll buy a monthly pamphlet as a taster of things to come. Sometimes it’s because I’m pretty excited about the actual story, other times it’s simply because it’s truely an event to talk about.
I was in the comic book store last week and someone was talking about the new Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely Superman All Stars series. I think I entered the conversation by saying something along the lines of “Superman All Stars, UTTER RUBBISH”. Now I didn’t actually mean that. There were some pretty cool things going on in that book, unfortunately I’ve read much better from both gentlemen that I did feel like they didn’t hit that story out the park like they should have or even could have..we all know full well that they’re both more than capable of making it the best Superman story ever, unfortunately the first issue really didn’t take my breathe away.
A simple comparison would be what they did the last time they tackled an old concept that needed a bit of rebooting, namely New X-Men. I definitely did not get that buzzing feeling I got when I first read their first issue together. Reading that was like getting my eyes opened as to what the X-men could be about. It was more than a breathe of fresh air, it was great comics. Of course that momentum did falter towards the end of Morrison’s run, but the start was undeniably brilliant.
With this book, it’s like they forgot part of their craft, which in this case is creating an environment of sheer awe. I’ve not read a monthly Superman comic in absolute years so these guys did do something significant here by making me buy the book in the first place. The cover is beautiful and tells me a lot with such little effort. The rest of the book design is unobtrusive and breaks from the normal conventions of books so I like the book dress as well.
I opened the book to the entire origin condensed in 4 panels and 8 words. I really liked that. It made me smile, however the rest of the book was lacking in several areas. I do like the twist that the sun gives him his powers but it would seem is also the mechanism to his downfall. I also really enjoyed the one line of dialogue by Lex:
So, if I want to die happy, it’s time to get serious about killing superman. Don’t you think?
I wasn’t all that interested by the little plot on the surface of the sun. I don’t like the fact that he accepts this from the weird guy in the raincoat so quickly. I wasn’t all that impressed with how Lois was conveyed by Frank. The best Lois for me was by Lee Berjemo in the Gen13/Superman crossover written by the supremely talented Adam Hughes. She just looked a bit cheap. I wasn’t all that impressed with how they’ve set it up for Clark to tell Lois the truth.
I’ll probably pick up the first trade or something just to flick through since even on a bad day both these guys can entertain me better than most people. Maybe I’m used to reading 140 pages that this doesn’t answer or develop anything in a conclusive whay? Whatever it was I didn’t feel the magic and that’s why I’m slightly disappointed.