In the lead up to Superman: Legacy’s release I feel like doing rereads of all the stuff Gunn is citing as source material. Been ages since I read FAS so I felt like starting off with that.
Did a review on my blog but some quick thoughts for here:
-Holy crap that art is amazing. Sale knocks you on your ass with every spread and the colors are divine.
-Writing meanwhile isn’t even close to being on the same level. It’s extremely basic - Clark manifests powers, realizes he doesn’t want to stay in Smallville when he could use them to help, confesses his secret to Lana, goes to Metropolis and becomes Superman, suffers a single setback and quits for a bit, reunites with Lana and she helps him rediscover his confidence, the end.
-Most damming thing is that the “real” Clark is the most boring of the three identities. Superman has a friendly neighborhood hero vibe going on plus he has some cheekiness to him like when he escorts Lex back to Lexcorp Tower after getting him arrested. Metropolis Clark shows some backbone and is willing to take Lois to task when she’s rifling through his stuff. Smallville Clark just mopes and walks around with puppy dog eyes.
-Was Loeb one of those “Lana is Clark’s real true love” fans? I remember him being a Peter/Gwen purist so it wouldn’t surprise me if he likewise favored the Clark/Lana romance. Lois is in the Post Crisis Byrne model here and I’ve never really liked when they have her date Lex. Feels like she’s a sellout for that since she knows Lex is a bad guy. Lana meanwhile is more “down to Earth” and has the role that usually goes to Lois of being the one to give Clark the kick in the ass he needs to pick himself up when he’s despondent. Also everyone keeps saying she and Clark are the perfect couple lol. I dunno it just kinda feels like Loeb prefers Lana, and if this was a big influence on Post Crisis Supes I can see why some writers might have preferred Lana to Lois when they started taking over the books in the 00s.
-Lex is Diet Kingpin and is very lame for it. Any Lex who needs someone else to make a virus for him is not muh Lex
If this is an influence on Legacy my hope is that it’s restricted to the location portrayals. Sale’s Smallville and Metropolis are absolutely amazing and I wish we had gotten to see him draw a proper Fortress of Solitude. Characterization wise, I guess you could base Ma and Pa, maybe Lana if she shows up, off of how they’re used here, but I can’t say I’m a huge fan of how Clark or Lex are portrayed.