Eisner Award winning for "Best New Series" & 2-time "Best Continuing Series".
Harvey Award winning for "Best Artist" & "Best Single Issue" Eagle Award winning for "Favourite New Comic book", "Favourite Comics Cover", & "Favourite Colour Comicbook - American" Eagle.
"All Star Superman" netted all those industry awards, and I'm sure plenty more, during a run that lasted twelve issues, intended as a bi-monthly release, but in typical Morrison/Quietly fashion, took just a little shy of 3 years to release (Jan. 2006 - Oct. 2008). Thankfully I didn't pick up the book until it had already been traded...
The setting of "AS Supes" is one in which Grant Morrison plays in a world totally seperate from DC continuity, and seperate from the similarly established "All Star Batman & Robin" that ran around the same time frame.
And Grant doesn't waste anytime with origins & establishments. One brilliant, beautiful page lays out the origin story in 4 panels with two words each ("Doomed planet, desperate scientists, last hope, kindly couple.") followed by the image I chose up above for this blog. Those words, and accompanying images, work so wonderfully because Grant embraces the idea that EVERYONE knows who Superman is, and EVERYONE knows how he got here. I think it's safe to say that that isn't far from the truth...
The reader is dumped straight into the middle of a rescue mission, the thing Supes does best, and in a location only he could possibly survive unaided: the middle of the sun. The art is stunning, the dialogue fantastical, but the content marks the doom of the big blue boyscout. As is slowly revealed, Lex Luthor has essentially used Superman's own nature against him in order to bring about the Last Son of Krypton's ultimate demise. A trip to the sun caused his body to absorb more solar energy than it could possibly contain and as a result his cells are literally bursting with an energy his body can barely contain. Everything about Superman is amplied three-fold, but eventually it will burn him out and he will die. That's your story for the 12 issue run of "All Star Superman", and Luthor's sad motivation for the elaborate game: to rid the world of Supes so he can finally use his genius to save it.
The Lex Luthor presented by Morrison/Quitely fascinated me like no depiction before him. This Luthor is a classroom bully but he could also teach the class, he is the captain of the football team who ends up with a full scholarship based solely on his academics, he is a man not content with just being a mental paragon, but he apparently also must be the physical embodiemnt of perfection as well. I belive the quote, as Luthor insists the bumbling Clark Kent squeeze his bicep, was "It's easy to be strong when you just happen to to have come from the planet Krypton! This takes hard work!"
Lex has frequently been depicted as a man jealous of Superman, of a man stifled by Supes very existence, but I think "AS Supes" is the absolute perfect depiction of the faults of this potentially great man. He blames Superman for his lack of effort in improving the world. He states that every man feels inferior to the alien, even tries to suck Clark into this train of thought by using Lois Lane; that if not for Supes: "...perhaps cool, cruel Lois Lane might actually have noticed good old Clark sighing faithfully there in the corner." The statement Clark makes that Superman and Lex could have been friends couldn't seem more impossible because this is a Lex obvlivious to the inherent faults in his arguments
Then there is Lois Lane. In this world, much like the "real" one, Lois is the target of both Clark & Superman's affections and there is that moment where Clark reveals himself to Lois. Big difference here is that Lois refuses to believe this is anything more than Superman tricking her. She even confesses to earlier attempts at proving Clark was Superman but she met with no success. This Lois doesn't want to believe no matter what Superman says, and it lends a touch of humor to a book that has great sorrow at its core. Still the romance between the two characters, whirlwind as it is, features some truly touching moment including an awesome lunar spin on the classic Supes/Lois flight over the city as well as Ms. Lane playing Superwoman for a day. The relationship between the two of them is as iconic in 12 issues as it has been over the last 70+ years.
That's just a look at the three core characters of this story. There are wonderful Jimmy Olsen moments, including an entire issue devoted to his "day in the life" takeover of a CADMUS-type science project called, well, P.R.O.J.E.C.T. There's Doomsday, Bizarro, the Bottle City of Kandor, and Parasite just to name a few of the staples of the Super-Verse that show up in Grant's world; as well as a certain pet villian of Grant's. There are the labors of Superman (a la Hercules) that play out across the whole of the series in ways that are subtle and in ways that are loud. But the most touching issue was certainly the flashback one detailing the Smallville relationships of Clark Kent, his interaction with future Supermen, and the best game of fetch every played!
That same issue also features one of the saddest, most emotionally intense pages of the series...maybe even comics in general. But it all matters....
See the way the story unfolds is masterful, with each moment feeling important in light of the impending doom Superman, and the reader, know is waiting with each turn of the page. And when it all ends, it really couldn't end on a better more appropriate note. This is how a run comes full circle with the beginning having a direct correlation to the end, and a Lex Luthor who may finally get it. Funny thing though, I don't think there's a single moment where Lois calls Superman "Clark".
Still the power of the arc, hell the strength of Superman as a character, is best summed up by another man who I just wrote about, Mark Waid, in his foreword to the Vol. 2 Hardcover..."Gods achieve their power by encouraging us to belive in them. Superman achieves his power by believing in us."
Now on to the 2nd part of this review, a look at the "All Star Superman" animated movie...
There is no film version of the flashback issue nor the super-cool Jimmy Olsen issue. There is no room for the Bizarro story, which is a damn shame because that would have been an amazing thing to see animated. A lot of the details of P.R.O.J.E.C.T are sacrificed for time so the viewer doesn't get to see the awesome uniquely Morrison scenes that make up that scientific world. None of the omissions detract from the overall story, but they offer the finer points to the tale that only could have been included with another 10-20 minutes tacked on to the film. And I wish a certain moment from issue 10 would have found it's way on-screen because it truly shows Superman at his most...human.
The biggest complaint I have with the movie is its treatment of Lex Luthor in the closing of the film. Without playing spoiler too much, what animated Lex has to say after Superman tells him "You could have saved the world years ago if it mattered to you, Luthor." is not something comic book Lex would have EVER stated. And the very last Luthor moment, the moment of redemption, is so far out of character for what has been established that, if it wasn't for the actual close, it would certainly sour the end of movie.
"All Star Superman" has been one of my favorite stories in recent memory and it was very cool to see it brought to life in another form. All told, the movie is a worthwhile buy, especially given the sneak peek at "Green Lantern: Emerald Knights", the couple Superman animated episodes, and the awesome Grant Morrison "Making Of" documentary. There's also a commentary track with Grant that I have to go back and rewatch the movie with. If you're fan of the book, you will enjoy the movie and I hope anyone who watches the movie without reading the book goes on and picks it up.
"You're much stronger than you think you are." - All Star Superman #10
(another amazing moment missing from the movie)
If you're interested enough to check them out, here's the links to both comics & movie (I don't get anything for these links):
And if you're interested in reading Grant Morrison's proposal that eventually became "All Star Superman" check this out:
Great review and well stated on both the comic and the animated feature without giving to much away.
ReplyDeleteOverall great write-up, I look forward to your posts. Keep 'em coming.
-Jacot
j2comics.blogspot.com