Nobody is talking about Superman: American Alien?

[Sacred Knight]

Disagree completely. If anything I think Morrison's Action run, his origin and set status quo, is underrated. It needs to be honored more, not less.

That's not to say I don't like this. I do. But its not an either or situation for me. I can like this just fine without it being canon, with the canon origin also being excellent.

[blackbolt396]

I have no idea why this book isn't getting more notice, it's been great so far and issue #2 was amazing this is in my top five favorite comics being published at this time.

[ironman2978]

Disagree completely. If anything I think Morrison's Action run, his origin and set status quo, is underrated. It needs to be honored more, not less.

That's not to say I don't like this. I do. But its not an either or situation for me. I can like this just fine without it being canon, with the canon origin also being excellent.

I agree with this. Action Comics was an amazing story honoring and at the same restarting the Superman universe. The only problem was the lack of connection between Editor, Action Comics, Justice League and the rest of the Superman line, if was more stronger and connected, I felt like it would be better recieved.

I am loving what Max Landis is doing with Superman , but that doesn't mean I want to pick one Superman origin over the other. Why can't we enjoy Superman and how versatile he is/can be, and when writer tries to do something new yet honor his story in a way that doesn't limit him.

[Tony]

Action read like, hey I read a bunch of old Superman comics and I'll mush it all into a short run. He should have spent time on forging new ideas instead of This is low powered supes and this is Braniac and this is the Legion and they thought he was so lame at first ant I cool and here's Krypton ect.............

This reads more like a building on the mythos that covers new ideas while showing his development.

Your right though it's easy to use whichever you liked more or both if you prefer.

[Sacred Knight]

To me it read like a guy who completely understood the mythos and what made it tick, and took all that knowledge, and presented the most important stuff into a cohesive foundation. I can appreciate how the Vyndktvx stuff was off-putting for some who don't like timey-wimey stuff, but I'm just talking the base level origin. To me that was flawless. The way the power levels grew in particular to me is the best of all worlds.

[Ascended]

Yeah, Morrison's Action run was superb. Im not getting the "Oh he introduced old ideas and never did anything new" stuff. I mean, Vyndx was a completely new character and the dynamic between him, Myx, and Nylx was an incredible new fold on the 5th dimension and the themes/ideas that its built on. Half of the Superman Revenge Squad we saw were either new creations or old concepts long forgotten that were completely re-imagined. The idea of using the original Golden Age power levels and building from there was a new wrinkle. Superdoom was a new concept with a strong meta message.

And, what, exactly, is an origin supposed to do other than tell the story and set the foundation? Morrison was building a Super-mythos for the entire DCU, Landis is telling one self-contained story that doesnt impact any other titles at all. These are two completely different purposes and both writers did/have done a fantastic job (though, admittedly, Morrison went all Morrisonian towards the end).

[Tony]

Yeah, Morrison's Action run was superb. Im not getting the "Oh he introduced old ideas and never did anything new" stuff. I mean, Vyndx was a completely new character and the dynamic between him, Myx, and Nylx was an incredible new fold on the 5th dimension and the themes/ideas that its built on. Half of the Superman Revenge Squad we saw were either new creations or old concepts long forgotten that were completely re-imagined. The idea of using the original Golden Age power levels and building from there was a new wrinkle. Superdoom was a new concept with a strong meta message.

And, what, exactly, is an origin supposed to do other than tell the story and set the foundation? Morrison was building a Super-mythos for the entire DCU, Landis is telling one self-contained story that doesnt impact any other titles at all. These are two completely different purposes and both writers did/have done a fantastic job (though, admittedly, Morrison went all Morrisonian towards the end).

The Golden age power level and his powers adding on slowly is more a Smallville thing. Was it a foundation or a check list of heroes and villains and story lines that took place so we can say Superman did stuff too to all the world building they left intact for Batman and Green Lantern in the disjointed reboot? I just think where in All Star Superman he took an old issue of something like Lois getting Superman powers and let it breath and be seen through modern eyes, his action run seemed manic and forced like he got the assignment last minute when they sprung the relaunch on everyone and it shows. His interpretations of the mythos are more a checking the boxes than a good modern blueprint to me at all.

In the latest issue of American Alien we see a Clark that's growing and doesn't always magically know what the right thing to do is. He doesn't have a fully formed superman personality yet. It feels like real character building, and a real modern take on an origin.

Again though, if you liked Action and it's your definitive new 52 Superman origin great. I'll read this and jump ahead past the Morrison run. I'm just glad that DC is giving us options on Superman's start. For me this is the book I was missing from the relaunch.

[Sacred Knight]

Whoops, never-mind, I forogot that Smallville Clark did have at least strength as a boy. Post obsolete!

[Ascended]

The Golden age power level and his powers adding on slowly is more a Smallville thing. Was it a foundation or a check list of heroes and villains and story lines that took place so we can say Superman did stuff too to all the world building they left intact for Batman and Green Lantern in the disjointed reboot? I just think where in All Star Superman he took an old issue of something like Lois getting Superman powers and let it breath and be seen through modern eyes, his action run seemed manic and forced like he got the assignment last minute when they sprung the relaunch on everyone and it shows. His interpretations of the mythos are more a checking the boxes than a good modern blueprint to me at all.

In the latest issue of American Alien we see a Clark that's growing and doesn't always magically know what the right thing to do is. He doesn't have a fully formed superman personality yet. It feels like real character building, and a real modern take on an origin.

Again though, if you liked Action and it's your definitive new 52 Superman origin great. I'll read this and jump ahead past the Morrison run. I'm just glad that DC is giving us options on Superman's start. For me this is the book I was missing from the relaunch.

Eh, to each their own. I do agree that there were some boxes checked off the mythos-list just because they needed to be checked off, but again, Morrison was building the Superman that DC would, theoretically, use for the next twenty-some years. Checking those boxes came with the job and needed to be done, and as quickly as possible. Landis is telling a story that doesnt have to run any deeper or further than his last issue or establish aspects of the mythos he doesnt personally want to use. Totally different goals.

I think if we want to compare what the two authors are doing, then we need to compare All-Star and American Alien. Those are much more similar in their goals (telling a good, self-contained story) than AA and Morrison's Action.

[Superlad93]

I frankly don't see why we have to compare anything.

Lets just enjoy having great stories to read, no?

[Ascended]

Yeah I dunno how we ended up on this either.

[Deniz Camp]

Took a look, out of curiosity, at the sales charts and was shocked to see the first issue did in the 40K range -- that's shockingly low for an evergreenn book with Max Landis and Nick Dragotta at the helm. That sucks.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

Took a look, out of curiosity, at the sales charts and was shocked to see the first issue did in the 40K range -- that's shockingly low for an evergreenn book with Max Landis and Nick Dragotta at the helm. That sucks.

I dunno, it's a "nonessential" Superman title written by a guy who's never done any comics before (a minor 2008 title notwithstanding) and a guy who I don't think has done anything for DC before, whose biggest work at Marvel was on a spinoff of what's wrongly considered by many to be a B/C-tier franchise. None of that's fair, but I don't think it's particularly surprising it hasn't seized the attention of the general audience.

[Robotman]

I dunno, it's a "nonessential" Superman title written by a guy who's never done any comics before (a minor 2008 title notwithstanding) and a guy who I don't think has done anything for DC before, whose biggest work at Marvel was on a spinoff of what's wrongly considered by many to be a B/C-tier franchise. None of that's fair, but I don't think it's particularly surprising it hasn't seized the attention of the general audience.

plus Superman's popularity hasn't been great with comic book readers for a while and there's the Secret Wars, Star Wars, and the ANAD Marvel hype train to contend with. not really surprising that this is getting overshadowed.

[HsssH]

I dunno, it's a "nonessential" Superman title written by a guy who's never done any comics before (a minor 2008 title notwithstanding) and a guy who I don't think has done anything for DC before, whose biggest work at Marvel was on a spinoff of what's wrongly considered by many to be a B/C-tier franchise. None of that's fair, but I don't think it's particularly surprising it hasn't seized the attention of the general audience.

I think think there were some negative "vibes" surrounding this project when it was called "anti All-Star Superman" or something like that. Many people took that directly as "its going to be grim and gritty and bad".