Superman Stuff
SUPERMAN: SECRET ORIGINS #4. Aided by Gary Franks’ fine artwork (its realism reminds me of the work of the great draftsman, Curt Swan), Geoff Johns continues a thoughtful reboot of the S-man’s origin. What drags it down in my opinion is Lex Luthor. I’m getting rather tired of him, or of the interpretation of him that’s held sway for the last 20+ years–a symbol of American corporate greed. To his credit, Johns has recovered a bit of the old renegade scientist, but I don’t understand why the guy has to be the Yin to Superman’s Yang, the shadow that hangs over the city (Lois: “He owns over half of Metropolis.” Luthor: ”Seventy-eight percent, actually”). I liked him better when he wore prison grays and stayed there until he decided to invent some gizmo to allow him to escape for a while:
Guard: Luthor’s invented a giant egg beater! He’s drilled underneath the wall! Our bullets just bounce off!
Warden: You must be yolking!
I agree with my best friend and fellow fan, John Pierce, who says DC should declare a one year moratorium on any use of the character. He’s been way overdone.
SUPERMAN-BATMAN: PUBLIC ENEMIES. The direct-to-DVD has been out a while. I’d taken my own sweet time getting to it because I expected it to be mostly a slug-fest. I hate it when I’m right! Allison Mack, a wonderful actress, is greatly underused as Power Girl. (I wonder if it was a trial for Mack, who’s been saying “Luther” on Smallville all these years, to have to change it to “Lu-thor”?) There’s some clever dialogue, but, what I found most interesting in both the comic book and the animated version, the interaction between Superman and Batman, gets short shrift in the latter: gotta hurry up and get to the next fight scene! Those scenes, by the way, make Batman seem as super as Superman. There was some pleasure in hearing the voices of the original triumvirate, Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, and Clancy Brown. Still, I was ready for this one to be over long before it was over.
My wife, the lovely and talented Barbara Robinson, who lost interest earlier than I did, would recommend most any issue of Woman’s Day over it.
SMALLVILLE, the return thereof. Oliver meets the Dark Archer and explores his dark side darkly in the darkness. In other words, business-as-usual. Oliver Queen is merely a stand-in for Bruce Wayne, the tortured, in-and-out kind of hero whose main function is to clash with the sunnier Super…, uh, whatever he is. None dare call him Superman. I found it amusing that Clark, who spent most of this episode in jeans and jacket, even bothered to appear in what passes for his costume these days–a cross between garbs out of the Matrix and a spaghetti western.
I’m looking forward to next week’s Big Event, featuring the JSA. But I’m also expecting to be somewhat disappointed. This show is far too leaky a vessel to hold much hope, no matter how much they hype it. Nevertheless, we watched the Legion re-run afterwards. Even though it was just last year that this one appeared, so much has changed. It was kind of jarring to see Lana again, to say nothing of Doomsday and Henry James Olsen (who, evidently, was never the “real” Jimmy Olsen). It just goes to show how the show’s a mishmash of DC concepts and characters, none of which are considered worth much time and effort to make matter. Some of the Legion dialogue was cute: “Hey, Kal, where’s your cape?” etc. I guess they went throwback because it was written by Geoff Johns, who wrote the JSA script.
