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The Noob 52: 'Action Comics'
What Is The Noob 52?
As many far-more-informed comic book fans know, DC recently completely relaunched pretty much all of their properties; cancelling all current story lines and starting from scratch in an experiment known as The New 52. The design of this experiment was to entice new readers by giving them a chance to come in on the ground floor on any of 52 brand new titles. As someone pathetically out of touch with almost everything related to comic books and comic book characters, I decided to test this experiment by diving headfirst into each and every issue. I will judge these issues based on the art, the story, and how well the writers made this alien world accessible to noobs like me. I will end each piece by explaining what I now understand about the worlds of these characters, based exclusively on what The New 52 has taught me with no other (or very little) previous frame of reference. Join me, won’t you?
Title: ‘Action Comics’
Writer(s): Grant Morrison
Artist(s): Rags Morales & Rick Bryant
Going In, What Do I Know?
Ok, I may be a noob, but this is Superman for crying out loud. You’d have to have lived under a rock your whole life to not know this character. No, that’s not quite far enough. You’d have to have lived in a 12’x12’, hermetically-sealed steel box under that rock; both of which were then buried at the bottom of the ocean. With all the movie incarnations alone it’s hard not to be familiar with the Man of Steel. And I may or may not have, but definitely did, watch some *cough* Smallville *cough* in college.
I know that Superman is Kal-El, that he was born on Krypton, that his one weakness is kryptonite, and that he has more powers than Roger Corman’s got schlock. I am aware that his planet exploded and that his enemies are guys like Gen. Zod, Braniac, and Doomsday. I know that he’s Metropolis’ golden boy, the boy scout as Batman has called him on occasion, and that he hides in plain sight as mild-mannered Clark Kent of the Daily Planet. Of the characters I never read (in other words anyone not named Batman) Superman is easily the character with whom I have the most familiarity.
Artwork:
I love the artwork in 'Action Comics.' The use of light and shading is not only varied throughout, but adds a great deal of depth to almost every panel. I want to frame that scene of Superman striking the tank with the severed wrecking ball and hang it on my wall. I also appreciated the wildly expressive faces each offering a great deal of personality. But I think the most impressive element of the art in this issue was the fact that Morales and Bryant are able to craft really elaborate action sequences without sacrificing fine character detail or the overall complexity of the panel composition. Even as Superman is trying to stop a speeding train as it careens off the track and thunders through the streets, every fine line and detail of that exploding train paddock is breathtakingly pronounced.
Story:
In addition to being familiar with Superman, the name Grant Morrison is one I’ve heard on the lips of my more comic book literate compatriots time and time again. As I recall, it was usually in a favorable context. I have to say, the thing that won me over the most about 'Action Comics' was the story. I’ve always had a problem with Superman conceptually because there never seemed to be any end to his power. It makes it hard to identify with a hero who is invulnerable and it kills the suspense of his various battles. I’ve always likened him to that kid on the playground who would adopt whatever convenient power he needed during imagination games as a refusal to ever lose. You’d tell him you dropped a giant boulder on him and he’d claim all of a sudden to have super strength. You’d try and shoot him and he’d suddenly be blessed with super speed. It made the game frustrating and, worse, boring.
What Morrison has done here is make Superman a pissed-off vigilante with a giant chip on his shoulder. He’s not Metropolis’ favored son yet, he’s an outlaw who almost every level of law enforcement wants brought to justice. He’s still all-powerful, but he actually has to face the adversity of being a feared pariah. Essentially, Morrison has made Superman more like Batman, except that he’s able to brazenly confront the police force that wastes their time chasing him instead of taking on real criminals. I also love the fact that Superman is not opposed to breaking bones and reducing villains to quivering little piles of goo. There are mentions made of his breaking the ribs of wife-beaters and we see him smash thugs through walls. Again, more like Batman. I love this darker approach to the character.
The driving force behind the plot is that Lex Luthor, whose position within the Metropolis infrastructure is never explained oddly, is called into consult on how to capture Superman. He arrogantly guarantees that he can deliver him by the end of the day and seems sincerely disdainful toward him on the general principle. He compares him to non-native animal species introduced to foreign environments over our history and the damage they have done. It'll be interesting to see how these seeds of animosity grow.
What The New 52 Taught Me:
So apparently Superman has only been in Metropolis for 6 months and has already made quite an impression. Cops and the military are concerting all their efforts to catch him and he’s the hot topic headline for The Daily Planet. It is mentioned that Jimmy Olsen, Clark’s new best friend, and Lois Lane work for his “rival paper.” I read over the issue several times and couldn’t figure out who wrote for which paper. Oh, and I guess Superman wears jeans now…sure, why not.
Will I Remain A Noob?
Not a chance, I am so excited that someone was able to give me a Superman I give two fraks about that I have to see where this story thread goes. So far, this has been one of my favorites of the New 52.
Like The Noob 52? You'll love Noobs with Boobs by the lovely Allison at Lounge Geeks. Check it out!
Comment
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Comment by B.Bally on October 30, 2011 at 8:16am -
And from what I remember Earth One received from mixed to positive reviews, a huge number of the negative ones were before it even got released solely based on the promotional art of Clark in a "hoodie" and it was a huge success ranking number 1 on New York Time's hardcover list (staying in the top 10 for 37 weeks) , they're actually working on a sequel as well as a Batman: Earth One, written Geoff Johns. So they didn't "shit-canned" as you said.
Sorry for bringing this up again, I don't mean to appear rude or anything, I just thought of posting what's on my mind regarding all this as a long time Superman fan myself.
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on October 30, 2011 at 7:42am -
@Matthew A. Sawtell
Glad we see eye to eye on what makes Superman super!
I've always considered Superman and Captain America as important to American culture as King Arthur and Robin Hood are to British culture, so as a Brit myself seeing somone from the United Kingdom screw up Superman is a little embarassing (and it's the second time it's happened see Mark Millar's Communist Superman Red Son)!
That and I'm a really big fan of the character and I want him to do well no matter what! :)
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Comment by mjtfreeze on October 30, 2011 at 7:30am -
I enjoy Action Comics, but his character in Superman and Justice League....feels like 3 completely different people. I know they are happening at different times but are in the same continuity. But it just feels like I'm reading a rebooted mini series paying homage to the old action comics.
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Comment by Matthew A. Sawtell on October 29, 2011 at 9:09pm -
Hm... that first comment of mine did leave a bit out there to start a couple of flame wars - but it appears that are seeing "eye to eye" on the central tenant of Superman.
As for John Byrne... my major gripe his run was the handling of Zod situation. Honestly, of all the characters in comics, and writers/artists, that could have presented the nightmare scenario of police officers, "the Righteous Kill in the Line of Duty", and the aftermath that follows - it was Superman. Instead... we got to witness a watered down 70's Marvel/Epic 'spandex drama'...
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Comment by B.Bally on October 29, 2011 at 6:43am
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@Magi, It's B.Bally not B.Billy
While Superman Earth One isn't my one of favorite origins for the character, I didn't think it was that bad (actually I thought it was decent and really liked how JMS portrayed Jimmy Olsen and Perry White), and it would've made a much better Superman film than Superman Returns quite frankly. Also an young "emo" (which I use very lightly) Clark isn't new in fact, the Pre-Crisis (late Silver Age and Bronze Age) Superboy stories featured a young Clark Kent going through some depressing moments (like any normal youth), hell even Superman in the Bronze Age and even late Silver Age was a bit mopey at times.
Like I already mentioned I like what what Morrison is doing so far and hope it pays off in the end, while I think he's sort of a hit and miss writer, I think his All Star Superman gives me some optimism in his run. And when I see Superman in Action right now, I don't see Batman at all just a young rough and naive Superman who is still getting the hang of his ever growing powers (the police inspector in issue 1 mentioned he wasn't that strong before and maybe him "breaking" a wifebeater's rib may have due to him not being able to control is increasing strength at that point), and its good to see him smile more after JMS abysmal run on Superman with his Grounded arc (which got better when Chris Robertson took over) and don't get me started on New Krypton, which started with some promise and eventually turned into a disaster.
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on October 29, 2011 at 6:31am
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@Magi
OK...dude we are just going to have to agree to disagree, the truth is that up until 1986 Superman was like Mickey Mouse a beloved popculture mainstay and a symbol of American culture, but ultimately pretty boring, Superman was the sort of thing a kid would read before moving on to Treasure Island!
(Note: The movies starring Christopher Reeve are ethetically very different from the comics of their day, Krpton in the comics looked like Flash Gordon's adventures, Krypton in the movies looked like the inside of a crystal... and the Kryptonian military looked like people hanging around outside Studio 54.)When DC decided to rebot the timeline and decided to give the reigns of Superman to John Byrne he set about fixing every single problem with the character. Superman saw himself as Clark Kent, not Kal-El, because he'd been raised on Earth. Superman's powers didn't all show up at birth they developed over the course of his life. Superman's power creates a mini force field so any clothes less than an inch from his body never get torn or dirty, so Ma Kent made him a costume that was basically tights and they also gave him a cape which had a pouch on the inside so that he could hide his Clark Kent clothers. Superman's face had been seen by reporters so he needed to change his Clark Kent face hence a logical reason for the glasses. The people of the world assume that SUperman is in a secret base when he';s not working so why would he have a secret identity. The best change was Lex Luthor, before he had been Clark's childhood friend from Smallville and Clark had caused an accident that made him loose his hair and he grew up to become a mad scientist, Byrne made Luthor a scientist with a 200 IQ turned businessman.
Everything Byrne didmade perfect sense, in fact Superman TAS and Smallville seemed to borrow most of their ideas from Byrne's run. Byrne set up the world of Superman as we know it and left it to another writer Dan Jurgens who did the magnificent Death and Return of Superman storylines all the way through to Superman the Wedding Album.
I've seen some of Superman's stories from befre 1986 and frankly it feels like watching a Hanna Barbarra cartoon, cute and retro even quaint, but it's impossible to take this stuff seriously! I've read many of the Superman stories from around 1999 onwards when the writers decided to reveal that most of what we knew of Superman's origin was false and it all fell apart, those writers should never have been allowed to touch Superman.
The reason the status quo keeps coming back is because people don't like change, not because the status quo is any good! John Byrne did for Superman what Deniis O'Neal did for Batman, he made him a serious character worth reading, the only reason O'Neal's work hasn't been undone is because the change is so obvious and intelligent and sits the character perfectly. Most writers can't tell their head from their ass and keep trying to write Superman as a lonely visitor, he grew up here, the place he really considers home is not Krypton or the ortress of Solitude it's the Kent farm.
Byrne also very wisely depowered Superman, in a world where Superman can move at limitless speed, what use is the Flash? In a world where Superman has no limit on his powers, who can challenge him? Byrne said Superman is as fast as the NASA space shuttle and only strng enough to lift a building, it is for THAT reason that villains are able to pose a threat to him, until then it was only krptonite or magic or tying Lois up and threatening to hurt her because he can't be hurt! Superman needs to have limits on his powers in relation to the other superheroes and Superman needs to think like a normal guy from the midwest so Lex can outsmart him.
The Superman comics from the beginning of John Byrne's run through to Da
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on October 29, 2011 at 6:02am
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@B Bally
You made a good point that Superman was different in the past, may I add that inbetween 1938 to around 1960-ish the character went from not being able to fly (and needing to leap tall buildings) to being able to travel through time, use super-ventriloquism and so on.
As a character Superman has gon through many many changes since then and frankly many of them for the better, what Morrisson is doing seems to work against the character's best interests.
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on October 29, 2011 at 5:54am
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@Matthew A. Sawtell
From your comment earlier it wasn't clear whether you were unhappy about the fact that Superman was being written by someone who wasn't an American or that he was just plain not being written well.
I'm a British guy (Brit whatever you want to call it) but I'm the first to agree that what makes Superman Superman is not his power it's his morals ethics and attitude and he got that because he was raised with good old fashioned middle American values by two honest humble folks.
The new Superman seems to have veered away from that and that's what's grinding my gears!
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Comment by Dr. Detfink on October 29, 2011 at 2:22am -
It's not so much Superman is essentially Batman. What Morrison is doing is taking the original catch phrase from the 1930s "defender of the oppressed" and saying how did Superman get to "Truth, Justice, and the American way..." or will he?
Morrison has said in interviews, there are a lot of similarities to the late 30s and today in terms of global economic meltdown that has the public having a lack of faith in their leaders.
And think of Superman as an outsider, wouldn't you think the laws are so absurd to help the corrupt? So he goes the Robinhood route...only problem is, he doesn't create trust but fear.
While no title is infallible, I do think Action Comics is the right direction in terms of breaking down....ok, I understand why we need saving but...why do we deserve it?
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Comment by Gift of the Magi on October 29, 2011 at 1:12am -
Funny, I thought the disguise worked because he was great at making sure NO ONE really took any notice of him. People often forget how frickin' SMART Superman really is (he figured out an insanely alien race's technology ON HIS OWN, something even Batman struggles with).
@The Great & Powerful Turtle: I am aware and have even read (via digital media, thank the gods) some of the Golden Age fare. It did seem decent and Superman had a slightly different attitude then. However, that's not what Superman became. The Superman in those comics also worked at the Daily Star, and was eventually made into the Kingdom Come universe version of Superman, that appeared and died in JSA (One of my favorite titles of DC). The Superman the world knows is one that grew beyond that character and because something a LOT more.
This book isn't going back to that Superman though. It's trying to make the character "more human and believable" to those that think Batman is the ultimate hero and Big Blue has too much power. The most recent LEOG to this post refers to him as 'Hobo Superman"...and I have to agree. Even the premise that the city is hunting him? Are you kidding me? And him being pissed-off? Wow, just like us, huh. They managed in one issue to put a knife into the heart of the character and make him boring. Superman may have started as a 'blue-collar' hero, and he is still there for the common being, but it's his character and moral fiber that sets him apart now.
@B. Billy: While it sold a lot of issue, Superman Earth One was also considered to be one of the WORST Superman stories ever made...so bad in fact that it was SUPPOSE to continue but was shit-canned after the reviews came in. Sure people bought it because of Morrison...and they HATED IT. A small, mopey, emo Superman with an odd haircut, plodding around the city, a government conspiracy (because we just HAVE to have one) and one of the worst villains I have ever seen in a Superman comic (a monochromatic Joker/Brainiac hybrid? REALLY?!?) made Earth One possible one of the reason for the DC Reboot. It's funny that you mention Luthor...which I thought was a good read, because it showed just how much a horribly twisted fuck Luthor really was. Instead of giving him redeeming qualities, he showed just how terrible and self-centered Lex is and why he is likely the most dangerous villain in the DC Universe.
@Happy B-Day Bromy: John Byrne...wow...now there's a name...Byrne was notorious for power stripping of characters, setting up whole new storylines for them in directions no one saw coming...and then dumping them to move to another project. Granted, he's done good work over the years...but his runs on Superman and Namor were just fucking terrible. In Namor's case, he ripped off his wings and ability to fly, kicked him out of Atlantis, turned him IN ONE ISSUE into a corporate giant in America...and then left Marvel. They spent years fixing Namor after that, and the character's popularity has STILL not recovered.
And that's just Namor, a mutant Aquaman that can fly. And again here I see the same thing: People that think Superman is too powerful. Limit his power, set lines, define him abilities and make it some people can beat him...until ANY person can beat him. Again and again, you also mention the outside media version of Superman as examples and NOT what was in the comics. He was ALWAYS well-defined in what he could and could not do. Changing it around NEVER worked, and ALWAYS resulted in a return to the status quo.
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