Superman | For Tomorrow | Volume 1

In light of the new Superman movie I thought it good to try and review a couple of recent books that actually make for a good read with the “boy in blue”. As you can expect DC has been slowly but surely building up it’s back catalogue of stories for consumption by the masses in advance of this movie being released. The great thing for us is that they’ve brought in top talent to write and draw their stories. For Tomorrow is the first time I’ve bought a Superman universe book since ‘The Death of Superman’ storyline back in the early 90s. I’ve tried to look in on what they were doing throughout the years, but most of the stuff left me cold to be honest. It’s like DC was just content to keep the name out there but never attract A-List talent onto the books, with the odd exception here or there.
So DC uses their biggest artistic gun on their biggest character. Makes sense, I just wish I knew why it took them that long to figure this stuff out to be honest with you. Jim Lee on Superman is like printing money. The question of course is who would write this thing? I remember when it was announced that Azzarello would be taking over the reigns of the Superman chariot thinking:

That’s the craziest thing I’ve ever heard. Azzarello HATES Superheroes! What kind of self-hate story is he going to bring for the archetypal Superhero?

Even though this isn’t Azz’s first foray into the realm of the superhero, the other work (like Broken City, his Batman run with Eduardo Risso) lended itself a great deal more to his crime noir, in-your-face, nitty-gritty stories he tells so well. For all those wondering what a typical Azzarello story is like, go and read 100 Bullets. That’s what the man does best.

So how do you combine the style of a man that’s built his reputation and his fan following on conversations at bars and in seedy back alleys of major cities around America, with the ULTIMATE action comics artist? Well you put them in the mixer, you add Williams on inks and you get Alex Sinclair to do the colours, push the button and cross your fingers magic comes out the other end.

So how does Azzarello’s story fare? Well I know full well why it wasn’t the most popular of stories by the Superman fans. The simple reason is because Azz decided to pit the character in a situation that he’s not really been in properly, the political arena. The story follows Supes as he decides that things are going in the wrong direction in the ‘middle east’. It’s Iraq, they can call it whatever they want in the DC Universe but we all know what he’s talking about. Instead of the US army Azz has put Superman to deal with the guns and get rid of the dictator. Of course this isn’t your dad’s Superman. Things don’t always work out as simple as that.

On a mission to save Green Lantern (great story I’ll review it sometime) he leaves earth for a while. When he gets back over a million people have disappeared, including Lois Lane. Azz introduces Daniel a priest who Superman is confiding his story to, as we’re not really entering this story on the ground floor, but after things have happened and are getting the information at the same speed as Daniel.

Supes is determined to get the weapon used in the Vanishing to bring back his wife but things don’t go his way, and he’s caught in a struggle between dictators, cyborg bodyguards (looking like something out of the Authority to be honest with you, very liberally taken from Frank Quietely), the entire Justice League and I’ll leave you to discover who else (it’s the last page of the book). The story is definitely one that needs to be read all in one sitting (once the second trade is out) because that’s what Azzarello does best. He makes sure that you don’t get all the little subtle things he adds to people’s dialogue, body language and expressions. He uses the story and the page in a very clever way.

Enough about the story, because most people didn’t get this book for the story, but to finally see Jim Lee draw Supes. His Superman like you would expect is larger than life. He demands respect and stands tall and chiselled amongst everyone else around him. Lee adds a great amount of detail to the city itself by giving it that bright feel (aiding in no small way by the exceptional colour palette of Alex Sinclair) Metropolis is a breathe of fresh air compared to the dark and gritty Gotham from his Hush storyline. One thing that I seriously noticed Lee do well this time round (I have been reading and following his work for over 10 years now so I know what he’s done in the past) is the fact that the expressions he put onto his characters ring true. They’re not wooden and you can really tell everything about the character from ow he’s standing to his subtle smile straight away.

I actually waited for the trade paperback on this book on purpose. The last time Jim Lee did his run on Batman, the hardcover production values were absolutely ABYSMAL. Seriously. Pages looked to be falling out the second I opened the bloody book. So I waited for the trade to come out before jumping into this series. It’s a good time to be a Superman fan to be honest because the talent working on the character has seriously gone up since the last time I ventured around these parts.