posted
This is going to be the summer of Superman, might as well jump right in.
Just about every televised version of Superman there ever was will get released on DVD this summer, including re-releases of the original movies. I'm sure there will be graphic novels and comics and tie-in books and everything else they can think of, but I want to mention some unsung treasures.
Elliot S! Maggin's Superman novels, "Last Son of Krypton" and "Miracle Monday." They came out the same time as the first two movies, respectively, instead of movie novelizations. And they're wonderful.
They're definitely dated. These were in and of the 80's, and it shows. Not just because of the pop culture references, but because this was Superman before John Byrne rewrote him at a manageable level. This was a Superman who could fly through time, duck into the sun, and brilliantly solve an inpenetrable scientific problem while composing a sonnet in Kryptonese. All the unbelievable powers that hack writers gave Superman over the previous decades to get themselves out of plot corners -- super-ventriloquism, super-breath, microscopic vision, etc -- were still very much in play here. At this point in his history Superman's writers couldn't deal with this powerful a hero, with such a complicated mythology, and they decided to downsize him into something they could dramatize because frankly, after all those years they were running out of ways to menace a hero who could push the moon back into orbit. It was a good call and it resulted in a more believable Superman, one that could be threatened by something less than a god.
But these books prove that, in the hands of the right writer, even the megapowerful Superman could be a compelling character. He could do amazing, even ridiculous things, but he couldn't do everything, and he knew it, and it humbled him. Here Lois is a powerful woman in her own right -- where most of the TV and film versions of Lois are strident, whiny, or neurotic, this one was worthy of a Superman. Here was Lex at his wildest and funniest, purple and green flying suit and all. Here were nods to the backstories and Superboy and the rest of the DC universe. And here we get a real sense of how the Kents, by being good and kind people, gave the world a Superman.
An example of this, which also describes what Superman was like in the years up to Byrne's restart, is this quote from the first book:
quote:The Kents were well past child-rearing age when they found that rocket ship near the old farm. On a vacation they both contracted a rare virus over which even their son had no power. They died within a week of each other, Martha Kent first. Jonathan Kent, on the last day of his life and without his wife for the first time in twoscore years, asked his son to stand next to his bed.
Superboy long ago had learned the story of his origin. His power of total recall accounted for most of the story. He was able to fill in most of the blanks by flying at many times the speed of light through space and overtaking the light rays that left Krypton the day it exploded. In this way he actually saw the drama of his infancy reenacted. He knew that he was Kal-El of Krypton, the son of Jor-El, and possibly the finest specimen of humanity in the galaxy. He had broken the time barrier, he could speak every known language on Earth, living and dead. He had been born among the stars and could live among them now if he so chose. He had more knowledge in his mind and more diverse experience to his credit than any Earthman alive could ever aspire to.
Yet he stood at the deathbed of this elderly, generous man whose last Earthly concern was his adopted son's happiness. Superboy listened, because he believed Jonathan Kent to be wiser than he.
Most of all the books are about a being granted more power than nearly anyone else ever born, who believed to the very core of his being that there is a right and a wrong in the universe and that that distinction isn't very difficult to make.
The books are out of print for some stupid reason but you can read them for free here, and you really should.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I recently picked up Superman: Red Son in collected edition and it's quite good, even for someone like myself who isn't a huge fan of most Superman stories (too powerful = too boring).
The basic premise is that Kal-El's rocket doesn't land on a farm in Kansas, but rather in the Ukraine, back when the Soviet Union and the Cold War were in full stride. Superman grows up as a champion of the Communist Worker instead of the American Way. Very good read, art style reminiscent of the old propaganda posters. Awesome different versions of some other characters too: Batman as anarchist whose parents were killed by the KGB, Green Lantern as a former POW, and Lex as the great American Capitalist Hero.
posted
Maggin also has some other fiction on that site, such as a story about Krypto ("Starwinds Howl") that's actually worth reading. And "Luthor's Gift", which actually made me cry.
Maggin's Superman will always be the "real" Superman to me. You may be right, Chris, about the need to make him more managable, but I'll always see the Byrne Superman and his successors as no more than variations on a theme.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Thing is, most writers really didn't know how to write him. Witness the decades of multi-colored kryptonite and inane aliens and stories that never really changed Superman's world. Byrne's redesign -- which I liked, before it started getting as clogged up as the previous -- reminded writers to focus on the Man instead of the Super, something Maggin knew instinctively. That includes the years he was writen as an all-powerful jerk, for the most part.
That's why I thought Maggin was an excellent choice to write the novelization of Kingdom Come, since it's essentially the story of how his Superman would deal with the current world of comics heroes.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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There were a couple of problems with the Byrne revamp even at the beginning: For instance, making Krypton into a cold, cruel world. Instead of seeming like a poignant, bittersweet loss...ByrneKrypton's destruction was the -best- thing that ever happened to Kal-El.
Certain character's origins became extremely convoluted under Byrne. Take ByrneSupergirl: A protoplasmic clone of Lana Lang from a "Pocket Universe" created by the Time Trapper (arch enemy of the Legion of Super-Heroes) and created by a "good" Lex Luthor, she had a completely different power set from Superman, then became and amnesiac pink-skinned person named "Mae" who bulked up to Superman's form and began talking like Bizarro...and I'm lost already. We won't even go into ByrneBrainiac's origin.
He did some good things...but man if he didn't throw the baby out with the bathwater in certain cases.
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
Anyone read Tom De Haven’s “It’s Superman!” published last year? Clark Kent is a compelling character here and focuses on the man. He does not believe himself brilliant, just a farm boy. This is a fun read.
Posts: 61 | Registered: Aug 2003
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