The Origin of Mr.El/Superdad

[TheCape]

Well after this preview:
http://media.dcentertainment.com/sit...4.18195026.jpg

It seems that the winner is Joh... i mean Secret Origins. I guest that make sense if the "Ultimate Superman" theory is true and this guy suposedly went throught New Krypton. Also Sacred Knight hit the nail with that.

The good thing is that at least Mr.EL isn't acting like Donner Superman.

[Kuwagaton]

...haha, of course it's Johns. The story placed last in that poll we had, which probably isn't far from the collective truth about preferred origins. Ah well, pretty interesting that they settled on one.

[Sacred Knight]

The only positive here is that the Smallville portion of Secret Origin was good. It was the only good part. I have no problem with using that stuff. Its Johns' Krypton and everything after the early years that was awful. But I'm sure that's all back in too. But until confirmed I'm fine pretending it's not.

Though its also worth keeping in mind that anything that will be revealed about his past or has already been revealed about his past up until March isn't really all that solid in the first place, considering things are going to be upended again by design with Superman Reborn. I'm expecting more in the realm of adult changes like the temporal stuff being erased, but his origin could be up for grabs too for all we know. Fans will say the last thing Superman needs is another origin story and I understand the mindset completely and somewhat agree, but never underestimate DC's desires to keep retelling Superman's origin. Maybe they surprise and forgo another one though. But either way some things are definitely going to be altered.

[Superlad93]

By the end of Super: Reborn I doubt that it'll be straight up Secret Origins. I think Secret Origins will act as a sort of skeleton to place a bunch of stuff that the writers want down the line.

If we're all being completely honest, something as vague as Secret Origins is sort of the "best" origin for Superman right now. It's nonthreatening, uncomplicated, and pretty much snugly accommodates nearly any reasonable amendments to his early days going forward. It's utter vanilla nature is actually an asset when the goal is basically to make an "ultimate" Superman.

You wouldn't be able to do this as smoothly with something like Morrison's origin or Waid's origin. Those are a bit too specific and warrant stories onto themselves. Secret Origin is a check list with beautiful pictures. Even Byrne's origin isn't as accommodating as Johns'. With Secret Origin, you can make a call back to nearly all the pre crisis Superboy stories. You can even squeeze in some slightly more tame Golden age/Max Fleischer Superman stories. In Secret Origin, slightly altered versions of stories that spun out of Byrne's origin are more than possible.

Honestly, it's sort of the smartest play here. You don't have any burning need to retell the origin because you've effectively opted for the most vague Superman origin of the 21st century. This totally frees up writers to just go back as they please and add stuff. Eventually we'll get a pretty fun tapestry.

[Netherman14]

Eh, It'll probably be cannibalised by the Grant Morrison origin trilogy anyway soon enough.

[TheCape]

The only positive here is that the Smallville portion of Secret Origin was good. It was the only good part. I have no problem with using that stuff. Its Johns' Krypton and everything after the early years that was awful. But I'm sure that's all back in too. But until confirmed I'm fine pretending it's not.

Agreed, i enjoyed those first 2 issues back when i read then a year ago. I think that some of the stuff on Metropolis was nice, but is mostly a boring prologue for New Krypton.

If we're all being completely honest, something as vague as Secret Origins is sort of the "best" origin for Superman right now. It's nonthreatening, uncomplicated, and pretty much snugly accommodates nearly any reasonable amendments to his early days going forward. It's utter vanilla nature is actually an asset when the goal is basically to make an "ultimate" Superman.

^THIS, it made a lot of sense when you think about it. But as you said, Reborn still cooking itself so i'm willing to hope for then to aplied your idea about Lois telling the story of Superman to Jon.

[Superlad93]

^THIS, it made a lot of sense when you think about it. But as you said, Reborn still cooking itself so i'm willing to hope for then to aplied your idea about Lois telling the story of Superman to Jon.

I think Lois telling Jon bedtime stories about Clark's adventures + Secret Origin's utter vagueness would work really well together. You sort of get your origin retelling (ish), you firmly displace the new family dynamic, and, because of SO, you get the wide open space to add in just about whatever you want. Thinking on it, you could even add in a good bit of later golden age stories.

I don't think we'll see too much actual change to Mr. El even after Reborn. He's popular right now, and hasn't made a misstep yet, so I don't see the point straight up changing him very much past giving him back his last name and place in the DCU.

[Last Son of Krypton]

It doesn't surprise me at all, we've already seen Secret Origins' Brando-Jor-El in Supedad's mountain fortress...

[Kuwagaton]

I don't think Secret Origin was vague at all. It pretty clearly defined its main characters and separated itself from the original post crisis. Geoff Johns' transparency is pretty much his signature. But I can agree that it tried the hardest to incorporate as many hallmarks as possible, so whether or not a remix is impending, it's probably for the best we basically get the composite origin.

[Superlad93]

I think it's vague and vanilla because it has no real personality to speak of. It's just a big check list of hallmarks that Johns wanted back in continuity, and he picked the least threatening way to present them. This is why I think it's by far the easiest origin to turn into a composite origin, and it's why I think it's a smart move.

[Kuwagaton]

The storytelling was mechanical with less than his usual heavy handed sass (barring the "now we look up" thing), but I thought some things were done well, namely Superman as equal parts of assertive Clark and bumbling charmer Clark and Luthor setting up as a god among men and getting accidentally usurped by that bumbling alien kid. Revamping the Luthor/Metallo struggle from the beginning of Byrne's run and filtering it through the 70s was neat, as was successfully cribbing the original showdown with the cops from Batman Year One. The whole Donner/greatest hits synthesis was very deliberate. Barry Gibb as Jor-el made me chuckle.

As far as threatening goes, I'm not sure how one would define that, but he did explicitly destroy huge chunks of continuity to make his story. It would only be less threatening, if I'm using that right, if Loeb hadn't already softballed the old continuity so much in his first two years.

[Superlad93]

It's less threatening because even though he overwrote a lot, what he overwrote it with were things iconic to Superman that many wouldn't have too much issue with (ie Superboy, DC 1 million, and the Legion).

Me calling it a checklist with beautiful picture, believe it or not, doesn't stop me from enjoying aspects of it. There's just not a lot to it, and that works to DC's favor if the goal is an "ultimate" Superman. You can sort of just plug in anything you want and it just fits. Like how apparently during this origin Clark had Mon-El stay with them silver age style, yet the actual Secret Origin book didn't even hint at this. You can't just "plug in" stuff like Mon-El or whatever with origins like Waid's or Morrison's (not in the almost verbatim silver age manner they did with SO). Those Origins are pretty clear about their boundaries.

Maybe a better way of looking at it would be to say that it's a very inclusive origin.

[Kuwagaton]

I largely agree except a lot of what was overwritten was defined by the absence of those things. Like we found out that the time trapper created the Legion's Superboy, and that just doesn't make any sense filtered through SO. There are a number of other things, but the biggest point of contention just from this one page of the preview would be that BR and SO throw out virtually every Luthor plot from 1986-1995. I can see either origin considered inclusive, SO moreso, but the differences make a pretty big deal if we're going with this being one guy published from 1986 - 2011.

If the Rebirth/Reborn idea is constantly bridging gaps using post crisis Superman as a template, sure it works. On top of various wonky things happening to the post crisis timeline, Convergence deleted CoIE for whatever that means. So I guess that's Silver Age Superman effectively back. A New 52 fusion at the end and it's all set. But if they're not going that way, I think it's pretty messy. If Post crisis Superman is our star, MoS would have been the most inclusive, since the post BR and SO stories were still largely possible and where they weren't, it involved throwing out less stories.

[Dispenser Of Truth]

I'm good with SO as this guy's origin, but please lord I hope it's not it going forward after the merger. The more time passes, the more I think of it as the embodiment of everything that went wrong over the years with the 'classic' take that the worst of the current dark excesses are reacting against.

[The World]

Hopefully that means they're recanonizing the Superboy stuff but without the memory wipes. Didn't really feel the childhood they gave Lex though, could do without that.