Saturday, April 10, 2010

Superman: Secret Origin #5 (of 6)

This series continues to trundle along as a well-crafted, thoroughly professional series that recaps some of Superman's earliest adventures, placing them into a logical format and setting the stage for a new and slightly different status quo.

(In other words, it's following the format of the recent Green Lantern and Flash "Secret Origin" series.)

In fact, I'd say it's almost too effective, too antiseptic. It's trying so hard to build the Superman mythos into an amalgam of the Christopher Reeve movie and a more serious take on the Man of Steel's mythos that it seems to lack some of heart that is more typical of a Superman story.

Instead of being embraced by the public, this Superman's image suffers from Luthor's efforts to make him out to be a dangerous alien - in fact, here Luthor convinces the U.S. military to attack Superman, which seems like an extraordinarily stupid thing to do with someone that powerful - wouldn't they try to recruit him first?

Writer Geoff Johns (does he write everything at DC?) and artist Gray Frank are doing excellent work here - but I can't help but feel that they're trying a little too hard to give us the "Marvel" version of DC's classic hero.

It may all be for the best - but we'll have to see how it goes in the final issue and on into the future from there.

Grade: B+

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