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I would like to share a review of my latest fascination… I’ll write my own if I find time.
SUPERMAN #204
Written by: Brian Azzarello
Pencils by: Jim Lee
Inks by: Scott Williams
Colors by: Alex Sinclair
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW:
You should know that Superman is the greatest hero of all time … PERIOD! Don’t like it? Tough snickers … it’s a fact!
He’s such the icon that for years DC Comics was afraid to put any serious talent on the books because they were afraid of how much they’d want to shake things up to “fix” the low-selling titles. As time went on, the books sold less and less, until Superman became a parody of himself. Nobody took him seriously, and nobody respected him. DC learned a little something about power creators and low-selling titles with their Batman experiment, and now they’ve finally managed to grow a pair and test those results on Superman! But can even these powerhouse creators save Superman from years of lost readers?
THIS ISSUE …
This issue apparently picks up one-year after the events of the last issue (#203), and tells of two men with a crisis of faith. The first is a priest (Father Leone), and the other is Superman; both unsure if their contributions are enough to save humanity.
Father Leone listens to Superman’s confessions, as he retells the tragic events of the past year, which the reader totally missed out on. Apparently, there was something called The Vanishing, in which one-million people completely vanished from the planet while Superman was on other business across the universe … most likely lured away by whomever was behind The Vanishing, but I’m sure we’ll get to that later on. Superman returned home after the events were said and done, unable to save anyone! Unable to save even his wife!
Now it’s a year later, and Superman is a little darker, unable to escape his greatest loss, and questioning his role in life.
As you probably already know, DC gave Jim Lee this project after he successfully saved Batman from the Bat-grave! There are no words to describe Lee’s work on Superman, other than “OUTSTANDING”! The art is simply spectacular! This is what Superman deserves, and kudos to DC for finally figuring it out! I know for years they were scared to put anyone with any real talent on these books because Superman was such a valuable property and they didn’t want to shake it up too much. So they just left him with good (read: not great) creators who would keep Superman in the lap of mediocrity and never breaking out of status-quo.
“Status-quo,” in case you didn’t know, is comic book talk for “Quarter Bin”!
So the art is wonderful … yes. Now what about the story?
Azzarello is a GREAT writer, and this is a GREAT story, but it’s much slower than what Loeb did on Batman … or even what he’s doing in Superman/Batman.
It might be unfair to measure one writer against another who has nothing to do with the project, but let’s face facts, this entire arc is going to be measured against HUSH from beginning to end, simply because it’s considered to be DC’s follow-up to that arc. This story will either cement DC (and Jim Lee) as the returning champion, or relegate them to one hit wonders.
Now that I’ve said my peace, let’s talk about Azzarello’s work on Superman!
While I do think this is a slower story than Loeb’s (just had to get that last jab in there), I will concede that this is only the first issue, and I can see that Azzarello is setting the stage for bigger things to come. I seriously recommend you run out and grab this book, if you can still find it, because this arc will be the one to watch in 2004! Azzarello’s a great writer, and I can’t wait to see how this story turns out! I’ll just have to have faith that he’ll pick up speed as we get further into things!
But having faith is, after all, what this story is all about.
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