Another fantastic installment in Morrison's "All-Star Superman" series.
The artwork was breathtaking, though confused me at times. I mistook "Calvin" for a young Lex Luthor (with hair) in the first panel in which he appeared. I then spent the next couple pages trying to predict what evil scheme Luthor had in mind (or how he would lose his hair this issue). I also thought the imp was Mxyzptlk at first, but that's not Quitely's fault since the character WAS a Fifth Dimensional imp after all. To my credit, I at no point thought the bandage faced Superman was Hush.
Quitely draws animals EXTREMELY well. See any shot of Krypto here or previous Morrison/Quitely collaboration, We3 (which I highly recommend) for further proof. The young Superman (I don't believe he was ever referred to as SuperBOY... legal reasons?) looked sufficiently different from the elder Superman, though his face on the very first page was a tad... off.
The story itself evoked memories of early Legion of Super-Heroes with a team of Supermen from the future standing in for the Legion. I assume this was deliberate, especially with the recruiting of Superboy in Smallville to help out with a future menace. Why not use the ACTUAL Legion? Maybe they want to keep the guest appearances to a minimum in this series. Maybe they're saving the Legion for their own All-Star series. Then again, maybe Morrison just couldn't resist revisiting his "DC One Million" work. Hey, that was a great story, so I don't mind. Just seems odd to use it in a seemingly continuity-free series (to be fair, you don't need to have read DC One Million). Morrison had already brought in Solaris, the Tyrant Sun, so I guess he had opened the door for more One Million elements to be used.
The stuff with Pa Kent was touching, but showed remarkable restraint. Morrison seemed more interested in wowing us with sci fi coolness than tugging at our heart strings. For that, he should be commended. He struck just the right balance, and overwhelming us with attempts to sadden the reader would have been kind of cheap in my opinion (also sort of lazy, but again that's just my opinion).
The reveal of bandage man as modern day Superman legitimately surprised me. It also retroactively gave his talk with Pa in the fields more meaning. See what I mean about Morrison not going for the cheap sob story moments? That was IMO the most touching (and saddest) moment in the book, but you don't even realize it until later. Good reason to read the book again!
The appearance of future Superman was also nice. Apparently Superman WON'T die from his current ailment. Whew! I was really worried about that.
I also liked Superman asking him which one of his descendants he was. Heh.
So where's Krypto in modern day? Hopefully we'll see him at some point (though not TOO much.... imo Krypto works best in small doses). Oh yeah, how cool was that shot of Superman and Krypto sitting on the moon looking at the Earth?
-Chris
PS: My first post!
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