Frank Miller Signs DC Exclusive Contact (+Preview of Superman Year One)

[Yoda]

Is no one else bothered by Superman's legs on these covers? Something about them just weirds me out.

The one leg on the first one looks weird, like he erased part of it and forgot to redraw it. The second cover’s just ugly and kinda terrible IMO, but I really like the 3rd.

[Vakanai]

Well the way Black Label was advertised initially, they made comparisons to The Killing Joke. That wasn’t meant to be canon but it was so popular that they folded it in. With Year One they could be considering something similar. People love it? DC makes it the new official origin. People hate it? It stays noncanon. I’m not really keen on Clark canonically being a soldier but I do like that Frank is apparently going to touch on the non-Lois romantic relationships. So we’ll see.

But for the love of Rao LET THIS BE THE LAST ORIGIN. I’m so bored of people constantly retelling it, even when it’s good like Man and Superman. Put a block on Superman origin stories for a decade, I’ll even take Death stories in their place (provided it’s not Doomsday that kills him).

As someone who's recently read and loved all the origin stories released in the past 20 years or so now, I don't mind all these retellings. You could just not read them if you are bored of them, there are other Superman stories coming out, including more stuff outside the regular Superman issues. Can't think of another Black Label, but Zoom and Ink have a few. I know Superman Smashes the Klan sounds great.

[Vordan]

As someone who's recently read and loved all the origin stories released in the past 20 years or so now, I don't mind all these retellings. You could just not read them if you are bored of them, there are other Superman stories coming out, including more stuff outside the regular Superman issues. Can't think of another Black Label, but Zoom and Ink have a few. I know Superman Smashes the Klan sounds great.

If you enjoy them more power to ya, but I needed to get off my chest how fed up I am with them. That is after all what a forum is for. And I am interested in what Miller is going to do, since his origin seems to radically shake up the typical Superman tropes.

I’m just sad no one seems interested in telling Year 2 stories. Maybe Miller will want to do that after this? I can only hope.

[Vakanai]

If you enjoy them more power to ya, but I needed to get off my chest how fed up I am with them. That is after all what a forum is for. And I am interested in what Miller is going to do, since his origin seems to radically shake up the typical Superman tropes.

I’m just sad no one seems interested in telling Year 2 stories. Maybe Miller will want to do that after this? I can only hope.

Oh I know, I just get irritated when people talk about limiting things I like just because they're tired of the repetition. But I agree, more year two or three type stories would be great. There's a lot of early Superman stuff you can play around with. Something on the scale of Batman's Long Halloween would be great. That's a hell of a Two Face origin story. Not sure which Superman villain would make a great origin story like that, since many of Clark's villains like Lex and Brainiac sort of came about independently before Superman. Still, something could be done.

[Agent Z]

Agree, and that's why I find the push back so odd when it's Miller specifically. In every Dark Knight story he has written Superman has been romantic with Wonder Woman. And it's not as if it's an issue of "well, this isn't called The Dark Knight" because All Star Batman and Robin is a thing, and Superman and Wonder Woman had a very overt romantic interaction there. If this were out of continuity and likely part of Miller's universe (and by all rights you'd imagine it would be) why would there be any push back on using Wonder Woman as a romantic partner to Superman at some point in his life?

The only explanation I can think of is that this is in continuity, because in current continuity there is a very real pivot away from that romance. It's even to the point where I don't think it's all together clear if they ever dated.

I'll wait and see what comes of it obviously, but between that, Black Label books being allowed to be in continuity if that's the aim (Three Jokers), calling it Year One, and the solicit boldly calling it "the definitive origin" I'm not even remotely ruling out the idea that this is the new origin.

The push back little if any to do with shipping and more to do with the fact that Miller hasn't written a female character that isn't marred in embarrassingly tone deaf writing in decades. His Wonder Woman included.

[RickWJ324]

Is no one else bothered by Superman's legs on these covers? Something about them just weirds me out.

I find Romita Jr's art to be horrible more often than not. Very amateurish looking and many times it's just UGLY. This combined with Frank Miller doing the writing looks to be a terrible book (in my opinion anyway). I'll read it and hope for the best, but I really don't hold much hope for it being good.

[Tony]

That's what I was expecting and hoping. At this point, 2 years since announcement, it would be a little ridiculous to start as a series.

I saw that this would be collected in Nov and popped in to see anything new, and the best thing I saw was your profile pic! Congratulations! That's a good looking baby. Thanks for all the hard work on the boards, I think your a great mod and wish nothing but the best for you and your family

[Kuwagaton]

I saw that this would be collected in Nov and popped in to see anything new, and the best thing I saw was your profile pic! Congratulations! That's a good looking baby. Thanks for all the hard work on the boards, I think your a great mod and wish nothing but the best for you and your family

Tony, thanks! Much appreciated.

I also happened to pop in for an update and realized this thread was a whole year old on Saturday. But tbh I’d rather have an upfront delay than three months between issues

[Superlad93]

The push back little if any to do with shipping and more to do with the fact that Miller hasn't written a female character that isn't marred in embarrassingly tone deaf writing in decades. His Wonder Woman included.

But they've seemingly had no issue with him writing her in every other one of his books dealing with the DKR universe, so why the hold up now is my question/point of interest. That pushback is made more odd if this is supposed to be in that assume universe where it's well documented that they have a relationship.

That's why I think this story means more to DC as a "get a fan into Superman" book you'd find in a legitimate book store than it does a Frank Miller book continuing his very specific vision.

[friendly-fire-press]

Exactly. And not just Wonder Woman, but Flash will also be getting an in continuity "Year One" story this same year. Calling it Year One and keeping it out of continuity when Batman, Wonder Woman, and Flash will have all of their Year One stories in continuity seems odd.

To the best of my knowledge, Batman Year One works both ways (mainstream origin and DKU origin) I wouldn't be surprised if Superman Year One is much the same

It's also maybe worth noting that Miller said that he's getting some push back on the idea of him using Wonder Woman in this book. Why would there be any sort of push back if this is an out of continuity book that allows creators such freedom? Seems like the sort of push back a writer would get if they were working in an established continuity, ya know?

I don't think it was "push back" he was receiving. I recall him saying he was "pushing to get a certain amazon involved" ... To me that suggests he's been pushing to fit Diana into the story but has been struggling to do so since it's only a 3 issue mini series and there's already Lana, Lori, and Lois.

[Last Son of Krypton]

Art+Interview with Miller & Romita JR. about Year One: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/0...erman-year-one

[Miles To Go]

I think between this and Spider-Man: Life Story lately, this is going to win out.

[superduperman]

He joins the Navy! That's definitely a different take. The skull cap is a an interesting look. It should be interesting to see how he handles this.

[Superlad93]

Art+Interview with Miller & Romita JR. about Year One: https://www.dccomics.com/blog/2019/0...erman-year-one

Genuinely breathtaking work from Romita JR and the colorist Miki. I'm honestly grinning ear to ear right now. Sunkissed and somber. This looks like some real thought and care went into it. Looking forward to this.

Also seems friendly-fire-press was right on the money. This book functions like Batman: Year One where it's allowed to be both the origin for Miller's Superman AND just the origin for whatever DC needs if they want it.

[Superlad93]