What went wrong with Birthright?

[Timothy Hunter]

Great topic. In my opinion? Mark Waid being a mercurial, whiny dude who tried to mash not only silver age elements with the post-crisis continuity and pretend like he was doing us some favor, but the Smallville tv show elements especially really soured me. If it was just his own thing like an Ultimate title I wouldn't have minded so much, but he jammed so much Smallville crap in there- to the point of them drawing the characters to look like the actors- that it came off as a tad bit hypocritical. I also did not like the art and Yu's weird long sideburns on Clark, it looked so wrong. It also came out at a weird time when DC wouldn't commit, but Waid was at his arguable weirdest with the whole debacle on Fantastic Four at the time where he had the hissy fit and quit rather than implement Jemas's changes, and acted less than gracious about it even when fandom was on his side. I never exactly thought Waid was Alan Moore or Grant Morrison in terms of writer stardom, so the fact that he got this whole long maxi-series sold on the fact that it was MARK WAID'S Superman rubbed me the wrong way. I think most people didn't really care or the see the hook/ reason for it to exist, and the sales were less than what DC intended. A more solid premise other than "Waid gets to tell his dream origin story that isn't really in continuity," with a better artist, would have helped. But that thing just seemed ENDLESS when it was coming out, the art just turning me off more than the writing by the end. I did like the final scene with Jor-el and Lara though.

In general I just could not understand the utter fetish Dc writers had for that Smallville show... some of them were positively fanatical about it and inserting as much of it into the comics as they could. I never really found it too faithful, the writing laughably bad and hokey, and those actors were for the most part about as far from the character they were playing as humanly possible. "Michael Rosenbaum is the best Lex" was practically a message board meme... he looked, sounded and acted nothing like Luthor, he was basically just playing Harry Osborn. I think most people began and ended at him being bald.

Mark Waid is usually a good writer, but definitely not a great one. I would liken him to Chuck Dixon, whose comics are of a consistently high quality, but has never written anything that blew my mind or resonated me on a deep emotional level like Moore or Morrison.

Back to the thread, there's nothing really wrong with Birthright, but it's not particularly memorable either. The most notable thing about Birthright to me is that it's the only big project Leinil Francis Yu has done for DC.

[phonogram12]

This is fascinating to me, mind saying why? I think Waid’s Lex is great personally.

I thought he had far better motivation than he's had before or since, personally. The fact that he was so smart that he couldn't find anyone on Earth to relate to so he went looking to the stars for that only to feel that the first alien he encounters looks down on him I think is so much better than "Everyone should think I'm the best because I'm smart and rich, not anybody else."

[daredevil1]

The one change I liked that Waid made to Luthor was that he was the richest man in Metropolis because of his genius, and his field of specialty being that he was the world's foremost astrobiologist. Kind of an evil Neil Degrasse Tyson who seduces the public with his persona but is secretly the devil. That was kind of smart, as well as the reasoning why he doesn't accept Clark could be Superman. I prefer Byrne's Luthor for many reasons, but the portrayal of him as a big, dumb Donald Trump or Kingpin never quite worked. I'm sure Waid is pleased to no end that his Luthor is the one adapted into all media and comics portrayals since, but then he went and screwed it up by jamming the "Clark and Lex were friends in Smallville" thing back in because he thinks he knows better. That was also my problem with the show: it pushed coincidence past the point of credulity, but when they started making crap up like Metropolis being in Kansas also, I didn't even pay attention anymore.

[manofsteel1979]

The one change I liked that Waid made to Luthor was that he was the richest man in Metropolis because of his genius, and his field of specialty being that he was the world's foremost astrobiologist. Kind of an evil Neil Degrasse Tyson who seduces the public with his persona but is secretly the devil. That was kind of smart, as well as the reasoning why he doesn't accept Clark could be Superman. I prefer Byrne's Luthor for many reasons, but the portrayal of him as a big, dumb Donald Trump or Kingpin never quite worked. I'm sure Waid is pleased to no end that his Luthor is the one adapted into all media and comics portrayals since, but then he went and screwed it up by jamming the "Clark and Lex were friends in Smallville" thing back in because he thinks he knows better. That was also my problem with the show: it pushed coincidence past the point of credulity, but when they started making crap up like Metropolis being in Kansas also, I didn't even pay attention anymore.

Byrne's Luthor built his fortune on his genius as an aerospace engineer ( he created the "Lexwing") , and one of the early Marv Wolfman Adventures of Superman issues had Lex refer to a past as a scientist, but that side of the character did largely disappear until BIRTHRIGHT, which is one of the things I give that book credit for. It moved the character back to being a super genius/mad scientist at his core without completely rolling back or erasing the good points of the Byrne/Wolfman retooling following COIE.

[kingaliencracker]

What went wrong with Birthright was that it was supposed to be one thing - a Ultimate-type modern retelling of Superman's origin - and halfway through got turned into canon, with heavy editorial influence throughout.

There's really no other explanation to it.

[Amadeus Arkham]

Nothing went wrong with it for me, it’s my favorite rendition of the Superman origin. Felt both fresh and modern. I really think it would be a great blueprint for a Superman movie to follow.

[Vordan]

Nothing went wrong with it for me, it’s my favorite rendition of the Superman origin. Felt both fresh and modern. I really think it would be a great blueprint for a Superman movie to follow.

Pity they didn’t just adapt it for animation, but who knows, maybe some of its ideas will get used for MAWS.