Open Mike Night - Superman #41 & Superman: Red Son

We’re doing a double dose of Superman books this week!  

SUPERMAN #41 by  Gene Luen Yang and John Romita Jr.

Maillaro: So way back on May 2, DC released DIVERGENCE  on Free Comic Book Day.  In that issue, we found out that Lois Lane had decided to publish a story revealing to the world that Clark Kent was really Superman.   When DC came back after CONVERGENCE, we also found out that Superman had basically lost his powers, was a wanted fugitive, and had decided to start rocking a T-Shirt and jeans look.  

When this story appeared in ACTION COMICS (and later SUPERMAN/BATMAN and SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN), they all promised that SUPERMAN #41 (which shipped AFTER those other three comics) would explain what caused all of that.   Well, unfortunately, Superman #41 has come out, and we’re still no closer to getting any answers.  

Look, I can appreciate stories being told out of order, but it is usually not my preference.  Too often when someone starts playing with the linear “start, middle, and end” it just comes off as gimmicky, and that is exactly what I’m feeling like reading TRUTH.  I can’t help but think DC is just dragging their feet on giving us an explanation at this point to try and sell more comics.

Weaver: It actively irritated me that we know it’s Lois who is threatening to reveal Superman’s secret, and she’s just acting like a massive jerk here, making Superman leap through hoops.  Or is she?  Because it’s set up in such a way that the person threatening to reveal is forcing Superman to do certain things, and there’s no clear reason why Lois would want those things done, yet at the same time, she’s always conveniently there at the right times.  I wish they’d just lay out what they’re doing since we already know the endgame.  Having a mystery is kind of lame if you already know who done it.

Maillaro: Yeah, I had the same question.  Maybe Lois didn’t reveal it after all...maybe she was being set up the same way Superman was.  And we still don’t know why Superman’s powers are acting up or why he’s decided to start dressing like Bruce Springsteen.  But here’s the thing...this was actually still a pretty decent comic.   And if DC wasn’t trying so hard to market “DCyou” and just let TRUTH play out in a linear, more logical fashion, I probably would have enjoyed this issue far more.  The writing was good, Superman felt like Superman.  The art was good.  But in the context of doing an epic Superman arc...one which the readers already know what’s coming, this issue had some serious missteps.  

Weaver: I understand wanting to build up the identity of who’s threatening Superman (which the more I think about it, the more the texts don’t seem at all Lois Lane-ish), but I felt like too little happened here.  The characters felt right, even to the degree that it made me doubt what I thought was established continuity, namely that Lois is going to do the reveal.  But even with that in mind...there’s no guarantee that Lois is threatening to reveal him, just that she’s the eventual beneficiary of the reveal.  It seems whoever is holding his secret has a pretty clear agenda.  At first that seemed to mirror Lois’ with the revealing of a politician being an arms dealer, but then it definitely broke away with the second mysterious command.  I’m intrigued, but at the same time, I felt the pacing was off.

Maillaro: It’s even odder if you read ACTION COMICS, SUPERMAN/BATMAN and SUPERMAN/WONDER WOMAN (which again, came out BEFORE this issue).  I hate to sound like I am stuck on this point, but I feel that I am pretty invested in this story, but in the attempt to keep things mysterious, it just feels like nothing is happening. Actually, this sort of feels like the second arc of a storyline.  The first arc should have set up the status quo, the second arc expanded on it.  Instead, DC jumped to the second arc, and is going to give us the first arc in dribs and drabs.

We complain about books that seem designed to be published as a trade...this one is shaping up to be published as a series of trades.    My heart is telling me “read this story.”  My wallet is telling me “we might not be able to afford to read this story.”

Weaver: Well, thank goodness I haven’t read those books, or I might be similarly displeased.  However, even on its own, it feels like there’s enough ideas for a good story here, but not enough of it actually happens.  And the even more odd part is, I don’t feel like this issue had that typical drawn out written for trade feel, but it still has the feel that it’s meant to be digested with a lot of other things.  Like you said, like it’s meant to be in a series of trades.

It’s painful because it has the makings of an interesting story and has managed to draw some news interest, but I can’t be throwing as much money at it as I would have to in order to get the full thing, either.  I also wonder how many issues are going to be actually essential to the plot and how many are going to be side points that indulge a little too much in set-up.  And then I wonder which of those two types of issues this is.

Maillaro:  I would think that ACTION COMICS and SUPERMAN would be the two core titles to follow, but it’s kind of hard to tell.  Actually, the funny thing there is that when New-52 ACTION COMICS came out, it was telling stories set in the past.  AND it typically comes out in the first week of the month with SUPERMAN coming out at the end of the month.  So if DC had been telling this story in ACTION COMICS instead of SUPERMAN, it might have worked a little better.  

Scores are tough on this one.  I liked the writing, but the execution of the story on a whole has bugged me some.  I think a 3 is fair, though I will admit that is probably a little low.  For the art, I do like that Romita draws a very stylized Superman-book, but I like my Superman a little more “heroic.”  I can’t help but think of classic Superman art and stories.  Grim and gritty is just not the Superman I want to see.   3.5 for the art.

Weaver: I’m going to notch the writing up a half point because I’m a little less bothered by the execution, probably because I’m not as aware of what else is happening in DC, but I think a 3.5 is good for the art.  I thought it was going to be pretty bad at the outset and was wondering what happened to Romita for the first page or two, but it settled down and became very serviceable.

SUPERMAN: RED SON by Mark Millar, Dave Johnson and Kilian Plunkett

Weaver: RED SON is a classic Elseworlds story, one that neither of us had read previously.  Probably the best thing to come out of Convergence, in my mind, was being exposed to the characters from this story in a positive way and wanting to go back and read it.

The main idea of the story is that instead of landing in Kansas, Superman lands on a collective farm in the Ukraine.  He grows up espousing the Communist ideals, and eventually leads the Soviet Union.  Meanwhile, back in America, Lex Luthor is getting government money to eliminate Superman since Superman’s presence tips the global balance of power strongly towards the USSR.  It seems like a simple enough idea, but I was impressed with all of the places it ended up going to, especially the reinterpretations of Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne.

Maillaro: One thing that immediately impressed me about the book is that Millar stepped back and just let the story tell itself.  There was no overblown satire, no graphic displays of violence or sexual deviance.  It was just “What If Superman landed in Russia?”  How would that impact Superman...how would that impact the world?

What I really enjoyed about this one...even if it might not make 100% sense...is that for the most part, the characters were still very true to their nature.  Superman still wanted to be a hero for the people, even if the people were not “the American way,” we’ve been reading about for close to 80 years.  Luthor was still a self-centered egotist, willing to let everything go to shit just so he could prove a point about how awesome he is.   I also really loved the portrayal of Batman...though I still can’t get over that hat...Part of me wonders if that was the one indulgence Millar gave himself.  “I will play this book completely straight...but Batman has to wear a furry hat!”

Weaver: In Soviet Russia, furry hat wears you.

I felt the same way.  There were a couple of moments that I thought Millar was going to dip into his usual well of pushing the envelope a little too far with over the top violence or deviance, but the first time (a mention of Superman being able to watch you on the toilet) panned out to be a throwaway line that mimicked a lot of irrational red fear statements, and the second time was so far into the book that I’d given him enough credit to let it slip in.  That was the description of how Hal Jordan managed to keep himself going while in a Soviet prison camp.  Essentially, he plans out exactly how he would imprison all of his captors and torture them once he got out, and visualizing all the plans that he would need to make and all the actions in real time helps him hold on to his...sanity, I guess?  I’m not sure I’m comfortable saying sanity there.  But by the time that came in, I was willing to allow Millar that indulgence, since everything else was played so clean.

Speaking of, I actually thought the Green Lanterns were the weakest part of the book.  It bothered me that we had to name check a few significant historical Lanterns during that combat scene because I don’t buy into the idea that genius Luthor and the Guardians of Oa are going to pick the same people.  Hal I was willing to go along with, but not as much Kyle and Guy, especially when their purpose seemed to be to be the weak link Lanterns.

Batman, however...man, Batman.  That was so beautifully executed.  I also like all the twists of the final issue, especially the final one that wraps it back around to the beginning.  That was not something I expected at all.

Maillaro:  Yeah, that was pretty genius.  At the end of the book, you find out that “Krypton” is actually Earth, just in the far future.  Jor-El is a descendant of Lex Luthor and Kal-El is sent back in time, not space.  To me, that is a terrific take on the Superman story.  Actually, ASTRO CITY did something similar with Samaritan, so I think that is why I liked that twist so much.  It gave RED SON a nice way to bring things around and put things in perspective.

While Convergence was a little hit or miss at times, I do appreciate that it opened the DC Universe up and exposed me to some stories and settings I had never had the chance to read.  I immediately felt a strong connection to the Red Son characters in Convergence, and I am impressed by how true the Convergence versions were to Mark Millar’s vision.  These characters were true heroes, built on a slightly different foundation than we are used to seeing, but it worked real well for them, I think.  

OH!  I did have one small complaint.  We didn’t get to see Nixon!!  We had commented a while back that Nixon seemed to show up often in comics we read.  In RED SON, Nixon and Kennedy basically swapped Presidencies.  Nixon won the 1960 election, no Kennedy.  And Kennedy would serve in the 70’s.  The story basically skips over the 60’s, so we never get to see Nixon.  How disappointing….

Weaver: At least we get a slight bit of Nixon Namecheck, as its mentioned that Nixon gets assassinated.  He not only took Kennedy’s real world presidency, but his real world bullets as well.  I think that’s a good plan, because in addition to seeing what Superman in a less...sympathetic capacity would be like, we also see Kennedy with a different place in history, one where he basically fails completely.

Convergence did a great job with the Red Son characters.  I’m pretty impressed by how well they picked up on them, since a lot of other realities were VERY hit or miss. But this isn’t really about Convergence, it’s about Red Son.  I’m going to have to rate the writing at a 5 on this because it really is about three times as clever and thoughtful as it has any right to be.  The art was good, but I wouldn’t say it’s anywhere near as exceptional as the story, so I’m going to give it a 4.

Maillaro: I’m not going to lie, I honestly barely remember the art in this book.  It was functional, but there was no panels I would point to and say “WOW, THAT IS AMAZING.”   I think I will go 4.5 for the writing and 3.5 for the art.  The only reason I am docking the writing some is that some of the stuff with Lois and Luthor bothered me a little.  It never quite made sense to me why she would be in that relationship.  Granted, that is fairly true to many real relationships, but it did bother me some in this one.

Maillaro: I think we’ll probably take off next week for the holiday, if that’s alright with you.  There actually is a book I want to cover, WE STAND ON GUARD, but it can wait until the week after.  

Weaver: God knows I’ve been slow enough lately without a holiday impacting it, so I welcome the week off.

Maillaro: Sounds good!  See you then!

Final Scores