Comic Book Herald

A Comic Book Reading Order Guide For Beginners & Fans

Superman

ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison | A New Future For The Man of Tomorrow

by Leave a Comment

For over 80 years and a thousand issues, Superman has held a titanic legacy in fiction, using his incredible powers to fight a never-ending battle for truth and justice. He’s been a champion of the oppressed, a reporter, an alien, an immigrant; countless forms that have coalesced over the years into an image that’s practically synonymous with the American myth itself. But what happens when someone takes this icon and its countless forms, and breaks it down to its base elements? And how do those base elements change when they collide with other conflicting plans?

In 2011, DC Comics announced The New 52, a publisher-wide initiative that reset its ongoing continuity and relaunched every title set in the fictional DC Universe. Spearheaded by then-Chief-Creative-Officer Geoff Johns and Co-Publishers Jim Lee and Dan DiDio, the initiative was meant to both streamline the company’s superhero line for new readers and give a roster of all-star creatives the opportunity to reshape and modernize the characters as they saw fit. It was here that superstar writer Grant Morrison–fresh off a 7-year run on Batman–and artist Rags Morales would collaborate to bring this new version of Superman to life, crafting a story that celebrates the character’s place in fiction while introducing a more modern, conflicted take on the hero. While the run was widely regarded as a misfire, characterized by the many production and creative struggles that would define the rest of The New 52, it’s also a coda to all of Morrison’s thoughts on Superman, pulling from every iteration of the character to forge an all-new future for the Man of Tomorrow.

[Read more…] about ACTION COMICS by Grant Morrison | A New Future For The Man of Tomorrow

For The Man Who Has Everything – How Alan Moore Breaks Superman

by 3 Comments

What do you get for the man who has everything?

A simple question that speaks to preconceived notions of Superman. That he’s perfect. That he has no human needs. That he’s elevated to a degree both morally and physically as to be completely unrelatable to the common reader.

That’s all, of course, not true. But it’s a question that lies at the center of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ 1985 story, “For the Man Who Has Everything,” originally published in Superman Annual #11. And while it’s a standalone story that doesn’t work to set up a bigger narrative or forever alter the character of Superman, it’s impact and legacy are enormous. [Read more…] about For The Man Who Has Everything – How Alan Moore Breaks Superman

Infinite Frontier: Superman – The One Who Fell Review!

by Leave a Comment

There’s a golden age in every run where every comics reader has hope for a new direction of storytelling. Then there’s a period of time where they see that direction struggle and realize that maybe this run won’t be everything they hoped it would be. Superman: The One Who Fell by Phillip Kennedy Johnson is a mediocre set of two different stories: “The Golden Age” and “The One Who Fell,” which is convoluted and confusing. Together, Phillip Kennedy Johnson has called them “a personal letter to his son.” But in focusing on that personal letter, Johnson often struggles to make the main story similarly compelling and enjoyable.

Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Pencils by Phil Hester (“Golden Age”) and Scott Godlewski (“The One Who Fell”)

Inks by Eric Gapstur (“Golden Age”)

Colors by Hi-Fi (“Golden Age”) and Gabe Eltaeb (“The One Who Fell”)

Collects: “Golden Age”: Superman #29 and Action Comics #1029 and “The One Who Fell”: Superman #30-32 [Read more…] about Infinite Frontier: Superman – The One Who Fell Review!

All That They Are, All That They Will Be: Grant Morrison’s Supermen in Retrospect

by Leave a Comment

For their first DC publication – Superman Official 1986 Annual – Grant Morrison wrote Osgood Peabody’s Big Green Dream Machine, a prose story with illustrations by Barry Kitson and Jeff Anderson, where a gang of criminals attempt to discern Superman’s vulnerabilities by peering into his dreams. Seeing fields of bones and assuming they represent a fear of death on the part of the invincible man, the crooks attempt to intimidate him, only to learn they had been tricked and were instead picking up the super-brainwaves of Krypto the Superdog. “And as Superman led Osgood and the others away, the air rang with the sound of his laughter.” The notion of Superman exposed to decay, to time, to failure? A punchline.

35 years later, the extended admission to the contrary that is Superman and The Authority was announced as Morrison’s final DC work. [Read more…] about All That They Are, All That They Will Be: Grant Morrison’s Supermen in Retrospect

All-Star Superman: The Man Of Action

by 1 Comment

[Content/Trigger Warning: Suicide]

At the tender age of 16, I was deeply depressed.

My childhood, from about age 8, had been a stressful mess full of fear, anxiety, sobbing, and obsessive worrying. And by my teens, I’d found that I had managed to somehow keep on, if not necessarily ‘cope’ with the circumstances that never seemed to go away. There was a ‘numbness’ as I call it, which helped me take, accept and endure all the rubbish life seemed intent on throwing in my face.

It was tiresome, but it was also, as I came to understand it, life. I’d never known any other beyond it. I could scarcely imagine beyond it. Any alternative I had heard was in stories- hearing others speak, or in fiction. I’d hear it all and feel a deep sense of envy.

Ah. Normal.

I wish I had that. [Read more…] about All-Star Superman: The Man Of Action