A lot has been said about ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, however, the most interesting thing is that nobody is terribly excited, at least the way people were about Busiek's JLA recently. The consensus on this particular newsgroup seems to be one of the following: Morrison is okay, uninspired, and alright, but at least he knows Superman better than the guys writing his comic right now.
Incidentally, I'm more nervous about my buddy Grant's writing than Frank Quitely's art. Frankie's art is a little like sushi; an acquired taste that the first time it's in your mouth you want to retch it out, but if you chew it down you start to like it a little. Ditto for Frankie; his Superman looks like a big-chinned bendy-toy at first, but sticking with his work a while, one realizes how detailed and "busy" his work really is, how involved his backgrounds and designs are. Grant Morrison on the other hand...if he ever had an original idea in his entire life, I must have missed that issue. It took Busiek to breathe to life his concepts in his CSA story arc. Grant can't do characterization and he can't do mindblowing concepts. He is a walking advertisement for why comics creators should read books or magazines or anything instead of just going to see hit action movies.
But what if someone really great instead of just sufficient was on Superman? How wonderful would it be to tap dance like Fred Astaire all the way to the comics or candy store?
In short, who would be your writer/artist Dream Team, the one to make you excited about Superman again?
My Superman Dream Team:
WRITER: Kurt BusiekI think I've written a post about this before, but the more I muse on it the better an idea it becomes and the more qualified "Mr. Silver Age" gets.
Superman is science fiction in nature and emphasis, but more importantly, a type of
period space opera; LENSMAN, SLAN, or STARSHIP TROOPERS with Heat-Vision instead of "Primary Beams" and "Mind Bolts." Kurt Busiek is good at worldbuilding; he is good at building a setting so that it feels like a real place. Kurt works well with science fiction; if he was not a comics writer, he'd make a great science fiction scribe. Just look at Kurt's recent JLA arc. Not since Steve Englehart's eight issue JLA run or John Broome's GREEN LANTERN has there been such a detailed, thoughtful treatment of the Weaponeers of Qward, and his worldbuilding with the Crime Syndicate Earth, which rivals their original story for detail and degree of thought placed into their evil flip-world.
What will Busiek's Krypton look like? I don't know, but it will have two things going for it:
1) It will be very Silver Age, in spirit if not in precise details;
2) It will be very well thought through.
Anyone that's read Busiek's ARROWSMITH knows Busiek has a feel for pre-1950 science fiction and adventure stories; he frequently lists Milton Caniff as one of his greatest influences.
But the best qualification I can think of for Busiek?
No matter how big of a Superman geek you are, I assure you, Busiek is a million times bigger.
ARTIST: Jerry OrdwayMark Evanier once told a story about Jack Kirby when he worked at DC: Curt Swan once sighed and said that he was working on a really terrible Superman story. Kirby said, without irony or espionage whatsoever, "You mean it's possible to tell a bad Superman story?"
The past years under Mike "Dunderhead" Carlin have provided an answer to that question, proving the cynics right and the Kirby idealists wrong.
Through it all, though, was Jerry Ordway, going like a trooper he is, giving his all to what can charitably be described as chump scripts that missed the point of Superman. He, like Jack Kirby, felt that it wasn't possible to tell a bad Superman story. One wonders the heights he can achieve with a classic Superman, one that doesn't have to sport a Super-Mullet or eyes that glow red like the Terminator.
Nobody does grandiose superheroic action scenes with cars and cranes chucked better than Kirby, but Ordway comes close - watch the Black Adam/Captain Marvel fight in his POWER OF SHAZAM! miniseries and see if that doesn't get your fist pumping.