Preview: Man And Superman 100-Page Spectacular

[Vordan]

Put this off for a while because I wasn’t really interested in another origin story, but man this was pretty good. I definitely enjoyed it a lot, felt like a hybrid of Post-Crisis and New 52, even though this story predates New 52 by a while. I wouldn’t mind Wolfman writing a sequel to this if he was interested.

[Vakanai]

Well, this finally came in the mail yesterday, and wow! Gotta say, I quickly saw what all the fuss was about, the story was so good! I can safely say I think this is my second favorite Superman origin after Birthright, and if you know how much I love that story then you know this is high praise indeed. I really loved the mystery/investigative journalism to this story, it's not something I think I've seen in near enough Superman stories despite being a no brainer gold mine for the character. I think playing up that element more in outside media could really help Clark's image. And I also liked seeing Superman sort of fumble with and trying the whole masked man thing before he's comfortable debuting in the whole red and blue costume at the end. Too often in Superman origin stories he's, well, Superman right away, while here you kind of build and lead up to it. If this story had one weakness, it would be the ending wasn't very climatic. The villain didn't get put away, or exposed, or whatever, which makes sense since your setting up the early status qou and all, but it also didn't feel like he quite got foiled either. I don't know, it just felt like it needed a little more packed on at the end. Honestly, this story kind of reminded me almost of like a Superman take on Batman Year One if that makes any sense at all. A slightly more grounded, slightly more crime noir-ish piece while still retaining all the elements that make Clark Kent, well, Superman! And also saying that I now feel like I'd like to see more Superman stories delve a bit into crime noir, and I never before thought the character could fit into that kind of story.

Oh, and this story did a great job on another one of my favorite characters, Lois. In the foreword Wolfman said that a lot of other origins did a good job of showing why Lois would fall for Superman, but he wanted to show why Clark would fall for Lois, and I got to say he really succeeded on that front. Even early on before you really get a good look at her she's just this un-ignorable presence.

Even if I technically like Birthright just a bit better overall, if they ever decide to do a Superman origin story for one of these animated DTV movies (and they should), this is the one I'd most recommend they adapt. It just feels so translatable to the screen you know?

Anyways, that's enough of my gushing. I've never read another Marv Wolfman Superman story, so I can't say whether his claim of this being his best Superman story he's written to date is true or not, but I can safely say it is one of the best Superman stories I've read to date. So well done!