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Post by rberman on Feb 14, 2019 22:37:30 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #1 “…Faster…” (January 2006) The Story: Lex Luthor sabotages Dr. Leo Quintum's scientific mission to the surface of the sun, and it’s up to Superman to save the day. A crew member turns out to be a suicide saboteur loaded with Kryptonite, and Superman’s exposure to the Kryptonite in the extreme environment of the sun’s chromosphere charges him with an unprecedented amount of solar energy. He is more powerful than ever before, but also dying.  Luthor is arrested, and Clark decides that with death on the horizon, it’s time to stop playing games, so he reveals his secret identity to Lois Lane.  My Two Cents: The notion of “All-Star” comic books goes all the way back to the first team-up when the Justice Society of America formed from the heroes of several different comic book companies. But Morrison takes this Golden Age homage quite literally: The Kryptonite mishap on the sun’s surface has set in motion a chain of events which will result in Superman becoming “all-star” and no longer a person. Right away we're left wondering about the "imaginary" status of this story. Morrison also approaches this twelve issue series as a formal experiment in Silver Age storytelling, confining each story to one or two issues rather than the sprawling decompressed epics which usually characterize modern comic books. The cover of this issue was much-discussed as to whether it captured Superman in a moment of confident ease or was simply wimpy. Its inspiration came from a muscular cosplayer, “the most convincing Superman I’d ever seen,” at the 1999 San Diego Comic-Con. Morrison grilled this cosplayer for ninety minutes with questions as if he were really Superman, and the fellow answered in-character: The deservedly famous first page of this issue summarizes the whole Superman backstory in four panels and eight words. Besides the economy of prose, the Kirbyesque headgear on Jor El and Lara is a nice touch. The spaceship strikes a compromise between the classic Buck Rogers bullet shape of the Silver Age and the crystalline crèche of the Richard Donner film.  Luthor’s plot here is to make lots of money by investing in water (purchasing land and damming rivers) and then raising the Earth’s temperature through manipulation of the sun. This convoluted scheme (why not just invent something useful and become a legitimate billionaire?) seems intended to recall Luther’s land scheme in the first Christopher Reeve “Superman” film. There’s also a “bumbling Clark Kent” scene very much in the spirit of that film, as well as Golden Age "secret identity" antics. Morrison’s frequent art collaborator Frank Quitely is on his game here:  Luthor also wants to kill Superman with the stated reason being that he’s jealous that Superman isn’t getting any older. Morrison explored the convention of eternally young superheroes in the Bulleteer story of Seven Soldiers. Quintum’s “Bizarro worker drones” recall the Grundy zombie-servants of Limbo town in the Klarion story. Dr. Quintum describes his sabotaged exploration variously as an attempt to “bring back a spoonful of sun” and “steal fire from the sun.” His solar exploration ship is named after Ray Bradbury, whose (very) short story “The Golden Apples of the Sun” (1953) concerned a solar expedition in a ship named both Icarus and Prometheus which suffers a casualty while capturing sun material. Morrison’s story too has its Prometheus (Quintum, bringing fire to men) and its Icarus (Superman, fatally burned by flying too close to the sun). Bradbury saw the phrase “The golden apples of the sun” (in W.B. Yeats’ poem “ The Song of Wandering Aengus”) as a metaphor for the creative process; Morrison would understandably resonate with this notion. The opening pages of Final Crisis will soon show Metron playing Prometheus as well, bringing fire to Anthro. Superman calls Dr. Quintum’s aspiration (cracking Superman’s genetic code to grow more like him) “smart thinking.” Is anyone else surprised by this praise? We’re lucky that the Superman we have turned out well. But his presence has always been destabilizing, and the more like him, the more likelihood of a bad one, as has been shown many times before (and indeed later in this series, in several iterations). Does Morrison use this series to bring up his favorite themes? Of course he does. Here’s the idea that deep space exploration will be carried out by some sort of superbeings, not by regular humans in space suits and metal spaceships, as discussed in Doom Patrol:  Here’s the idea of tiny people who create and explore Microverses, as seen in Flex Mentallo, Final Crisis, and The Filth:  In this panel, Jimmy appears to have leaves coming out of his head. This may just be serendipitous, but it does recall Jimmy’s transformations into a human turtle and the like. Stay tuned for more discussion of that in issue #4. But more immediately, Jimmy is carrying a helmet and rocket pack, coming back from some lighthearted Silver Age adventure.  Lex Luthor’s use of a mind-controlled Kryptonite monster is very much like what happened in Superboy #86 (1961). In that issue Lex has a sledgehammer; in this one, he’s using a baseball bat.  
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Post by Deleted on Feb 14, 2019 23:05:25 GMT -5
I enjoyed this series quite well ... the stories are good and the art is done quite pleasantly, I may add here.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 14, 2019 23:56:32 GMT -5
Couple of those panels illustrate a weakness in Quitely's style; some facial expressions get pretty weird (faces, as a whole, too). He was a pretty good choice of collaborator, though. As much as there is Silver Age exploration, there is also a ton of Bronze Age Maggin and Bates in this series, particularly Maggin's take on Lex. The best illustration of that was in Maggin's Superman prose duo, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday. Maggin gave Lex a fully rounded personality. Morrison picks up on that, quite a bit. What this series did, much as Superman: For All Seasons, Man of Steel, and some of the others that retouch on the hero, outside of the monthly series, is tap into what it is about Superman that still inspires, while critics and snobs pass him off as cornball, rigid, or boring. He is a hero, to the core; and, sometimes, you just want a hero you can depend on. Every decade has reaffirmed that. In the late 30s, he was the guy who would stand up for the little man, against the bullies, robber barons, despots, and abusers. In the 40s he was the champion of freedom and democracy. In the 50s he was America, the superpower, but with a conscience and a moral compass. In the 60s he is the optimism of Camelot and the Space Race, and a comfort in the face of the chaos of the later part. In the 70s he is an icon you can count on, when institutions crumble. In the 80s he is the reborn hope that had been lost, while also acting as a counter-point to the "greed is good" philosophy. In the 90s he is messianic (reborn), somewhat confused (Red and Blue) and then the calm defender in the face of fear (Millennial anxieties). I wasn't reading in the 2000s and Teens; but, he is right there. Batman may be cooler, others may be edgier; but, Superman is the standard and is eternal. Now, if only writers would stop trying to turn him into something dark and edgy or something other than what he is and embrace it and use it more allegorically, you'd get better Superman stories. Morrison does it, Donner and collaborators did it, Maggin did it, Byrne did it, bates did it, Moore did it. Meanwhile, that quote encapsulates why I snickered at Supergods; Morrison is least convincing when he tries to sound academic. "By choosing to frame my encounter as a pop-shamanic vision quest yielding pure contact with embodied archetypal forces, " It reminds me of this...  |
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Post by EdoBosnar on Feb 15, 2019 3:11:24 GMT -5
All Star Superman is one of the few things written by Morrison that I genuinely like. It's one of the better Superman Elseworlds stories.
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 15, 2019 12:27:58 GMT -5
Morrison was asked what he wanted to accomplish with this series and he responded, "To be worthy of Superman".
At last! A writer who wanted to raise himself to the standards set by Superman instead of reducing the character to something manageable. Any interpretation of Superman which begins with, "Let's see, how can I reduce his powers, make him less intelligent, less majestic so he's easier to write" isn't valid. Yes, Superman can be a difficult character to write for given his abilities, but that's why a character such as the Man of Steel should only be handled by the best of the best. There's quite a bit of stuff Morrison's written that I don't care for, but I have to give him credit - All-Star Superman remains the best Superman story of the past 32/33 years and it's because he didn't run from the character's greatness but embraced it. No depowering; no making him out to be a country bumpkin; no reduction of his intellect and confidence to the point where others talk down to him; no Boy Scout naivety - this time, Superman got to be Superman. Intelligent enough to fashion a key for his Fortress out of star matter; certain enough in his abilities that he could save lives even when tripping over his feet as Clark Kent; and so powerful that his body had become a cosmic bomb. It says a lot about Morrison that for him, pre-Crisis Superman wasn't powerful enough.
I'm really looking forward to this thread - though it only lasted 12 issues, it was nice to have the real Superman back for a year.
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Post by rberman on Feb 15, 2019 12:32:54 GMT -5
Morrison was asked what he wanted to accomplish with this series and he responded, "To be worthy of Superman". At last! A writer who wanted to raise himself to the standards set by Superman instead of reducing the character to something manageable. Any interpretation of Superman which begins with, "Let's see, how can I reduce his powers, make him less intelligent, less majestic so he's easier to write" isn't valid. Yes, Superman can be a difficult character to write for given his abilities, but that's why a character such as the Man of Steel should only be handled by the best of the best. There's quite a bit of stuff Morrison's written that I don't care for, but I have to give him credit - All-Star Superman remains the best Superman story of the past 32/33 years and it's because he didn't run from the character's greatness but embraced it. No depowering; no making him out to be a country bumpkin; no reduction of his intellect and confidence to the point where others talk down to him; no Boy Scout naivety - this time, Superman got to be Superman. Intelligent enough to fashion a key for his Fortress out of star matter; certain enough in his abilities that he could save lives even when tripping over his feet as Clark Kent; and so powerful that his body had become a cosmic bomb. It says a lot about Morrison that for him, pre-Crisis Superman wasn't powerful enough. Interestingly, when rebooting Superman recently in the renumbered Action Comics, Morrison went to the other extreme, returning Superman to a Golden Age power level and a young adult personality who didn't always understand what the right thing to do was, and who had real world problems like rent a la Peter Parker. |
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Post by mikelmidnight on Feb 15, 2019 13:24:57 GMT -5
There’s also a “bumbling Clark Kent” scene very much in the spirit of that film, as well as Golden Age "secret identity" antics. Morrison’s frequent art collaborator Frank Quitely is on his game here One of the few things I disliked about the series is that I never cared for Chris Reeve's Clark Kent interpretation when incorporated into the comics. But that's a small issue and I realize I'm probably outvoted. Probably a tribute to the abhorrent mini-soldiers created by the Project in Kirby's Jimmy Olsen issues. As much as I like Quitely's art, I kept wishing Al Plastino had redrawn Jimmy's and Superman's faces. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 15, 2019 14:02:05 GMT -5
I'm not sure how familiar Morrison was with Superman's pre-Crisis history - when he took over Batman he called upon Michael Fleischer's Batman Encyclopedia for reference rather than recalling the stories he referenced directly - but there are some possible inspirations at play in this first issue which haven't been mentioned. 1. Actually, Morrison cited this one specifically as an inspiration. 
Superman 125. Morrison explained that he loved the outlandishness of this tale in which Superman acquires the ability to shoot little, tiny Supermen out of his fingers to help him go after bad guys. No doubt an inspiration or at least sign that he was on the right track with his "Superman's getting more powerful" introduction in All Star. I think it had been reprinted in the first Man of Tomorrow Archives at around this time and that might be how Morrison found it. 2. Action Comics 399.  Superman is plucked from the present moments before his death and sent to the future to be studied. There it's explained that he's actually the third Superman and was created to replace the previous Superman who died in action (who, in turn, replaced Superman the First). His memory of this fact was erased but he's shown the corpses of his predecessors as evidence. This is one of my favorite Superman stories of all time and seeing Superman standing alongside Lincoln, Washington, and Custer who have similarly been plucked from their own timelines before being returned home to die will always stay with me. "I dedicated P.R.O.J.E.C.T resources toward building a new race of superhumans in case... in case anything ever happened to you", Quintum states echoing the sentiment behind Action 399's "24th Century Historical Foundation" where "our chronoselector brought you here with the other great heroes because you were the last mighty Superman of your era!" Tell me that doesn't sound like Morrison who may have encountered this story in Superman from the 30's to 70's (or the later 30's to the 80's). Speaking of Quintum, while I entirely agree that Morrison uses a lot of gobbledygook to sound impressive (that Calvin & Hobbes strip nails my sentiments perfectly), he is nevertheless capable of some great dialogue when he tries. Quintum's "I'm trying to escape from a doomed world too, Superman... it's called the past" is a great line! 3. Luthor seemingly wanting to be sent to the electric chair may or may not have been inspired by the story "When Titans Clash" from Superman 17. There, Luthor is sentenced to death in the same fashion and seems eager to die. It turns out to be a trick by which the criminal can use the power from the chair to acquire powers he previously lost from a gem called The Powerstone. It was a fairly common trope during the Golden Age - The Joker pulled a similar trick to get a clean criminal record out of it - so Morrison may not even be aware of the tale, but it is one of the classics of that or any era so it wouldn't be unheard of. |
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Post by Icctrombone on Feb 15, 2019 14:23:03 GMT -5
I was very pleased that Quitely did the art on all 12 issues. It takes me out of the story of most mini's when they jam another artist in an issue because of deadline problems.
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Post by Hoosier X on Feb 15, 2019 15:03:04 GMT -5
I dislike so much of Morrison's work … but I love All-Star Superman! One of my favorite Superman storylines EVER!
And Frank Quitely's art is GREAT, though I do sometimes call it "Cabbage-Patch Superman" because I can't resist.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2019 15:31:34 GMT -5
And Frank Quitely's art is GREAT, though I do sometimes call it "Cabbage-Patch Superman" because I can't resist. Consider me a fan of his work as an artist and for you and Icctrombone praised him also ... and I'm considering asking my dear friend Jeff if he can let me read the whole shebang of All-Star Superman. |
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Post by Reptisaurus! on Feb 15, 2019 16:34:20 GMT -5
Couple of those panels illustrate a weakness in Quitely's style; some facial expressions get pretty weird (faces, as a whole, too). He was a pretty good choice of collaborator, though. As much as there is Silver Age exploration, there is also a ton of Bronze Age Maggin and Bates in this series, particularly Maggin's take on Lex. The best illustration of that was in Maggin's Superman prose duo, Last Son of Krypton and Miracle Monday. Maggin gave Lex a fully rounded personality. Morrison picks up on that, quite a bit. What this series did, much as Superman: For All Seasons, Man of Steel, and some of the others that retouch on the hero, outside of the monthly series, is tap into what it is about Superman that still inspires, while critics and snobs pass him off as cornball, rigid, or boring. He is a hero, to the core; and, sometimes, you just want a hero you can depend on. Every decade has reaffirmed that. In the late 30s, he was the guy who would stand up for the little man, against the bullies, robber barons, despots, and abusers. In the 40s he was the champion of freedom and democracy. In the 50s he was America, the superpower, but with a conscience and a moral compass. In the 60s he is the optimism of Camelot and the Space Race, and a comfort in the face of the chaos of the later part. In the 70s he is an icon you can count on, when institutions crumble. In the 80s he is the reborn hope that had been lost, while also acting as a counter-point to the "greed is good" philosophy. In the 90s he is messianic (reborn), somewhat confused (Red and Blue) and then the calm defender in the face of fear (Millennial anxieties). I wasn't reading in the 2000s and Teens; but, he is right there. Batman may be cooler, others may be edgier; but, Superman is the standard and is eternal. Now, if only writers would stop trying to turn him into something dark and edgy or something other than what he is and embrace it and use it more allegorically, you'd get better Superman stories. Morrison does it, Donner and collaborators did it, Maggin did it, Byrne did it, bates did it, Moore did it. Meanwhile, that quote encapsulates why I snickered at Supergods; Morrison is least convincing when he tries to sound academic. "By choosing to frame my encounter as a pop-shamanic vision quest yielding pure contact with embodied archetypal forces, " It reminds me of this... As always when it comes to Morrison I disagree. Calvin is trying to be obfuscatory and meaningless. Morrison is being fairly basic and comprehensible here, at least by Grant Morrison standards. Superheroes are archetypes which represent (at least) the values of western culture or (probably) the values of human civilization entire. He's changing his consciousness to interact and manipulate these archetypes. Basically when he writes superheroes he's trying to write myth in the Jungian sense. I mean, it's pretentious as hell but I think the point is pretty clear. (Also I've read a lot of Morrison.) Also I need to reread but I thought All Star Superman was a huge disappointment after WE3. I don't remember much about it and my notes say "Ha! Mxyztplk, but mostly Kinda boring." But rberman is making it sound awesome. Maybe I just need a study guide. |
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Post by berkley on Feb 15, 2019 22:44:27 GMT -5
yeah, I agree with Reptisaurus, that Morrison quote might sound pretentious but it isn't meaningless: he meant something quite specific with all those fancy words. But I think Cody has a kind of instinctive distaste for this kind of thing - I notice Steve Gerber has come in for some criticism as well (no offence intended, just an observation that I'm prepared to have corrected if inaccurate).
Regarding All-Star Superman, from the outside looking in - and by "outside" I mean both that I haven't read much of Morrison's Superman or Batman and that I don't feel much interest in those characters - I've always had the impression that Morrison really is fascinated by them, that he put a lot of serious thought and effort into his work with them, and that anyone who is a fan will probably find these comics worth investigating.
I only wish he were as interested and as conscientious in his work with some of my own favourite characters! But what can you do.
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Post by rberman on Feb 16, 2019 19:29:14 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #2 “Superman’s Forbidden Room” (February 2006) The Story: After their many games of cat and mouse, Lois Lane has trouble believing that Clark Kent really is Superman. She didn’t just want to be right; she wanted to be the one to prove she was right, and Clark’s unexpected confession has taken the wind out of her sails. He takes her to the Fortress of Solitude and shows her his collection of exotic weapons, as well as a machine which is receiving garbled message from future Superman Kal Kent, something about fighting Solaris, the Tyrant Sun in the year 50,400, which is thirty thousand years before Kal’s own timeframe. At dinner, she’s angry at the thought that he’s been lying to her for years about his identity, and angry that he is obviously keeping some other big secret from her now. She throws her fork, knocking over her champagne flute, and stalks away. An airborne drug in the fortress intoxicates Lois, multiplying her suspicions into paranoia. Once Lois comes to her senses (after an attempt to kill Superman goes thankfully awry), he presents her with her birthday present: A day’s worth of super-powers.  My Two Cents: The plot of this story homages the legend of Bluebeard, whose wife had insatiable curiosity about a forbidden room in their home. Finally exploring it, she found the heads of his previous wives. Curiosity killed the cat! Lois gets in trouble too. At dinner, she comments that she’s seeing issues in black and white now, and indeed her POV panels looking at Superman are in black and white. Given that Morrison doesn’t like Randian dichtotomies like that, we are to understand that Lois is in the wrong, even before her drug exposure takes her mistake to a new level.  This issue plays with all the bizarre sexual politics of the Silver Age stories in which Lois went to absurd lengths to discover who Superman was. Kurt Busiek already took his turn at this, as we saw in Astro City: Local Heroes #2 (2003). In our current story, Superman’s choice of having dinner with Lois on the Titanic is portentous, inasmuch as he too is a sinking ship. When Superman expresses regret to Lois at not “taking a partner,” and Lois points out that no one is qualified. It’s a double-entendre; he never had either a sidekick or a wife. The end of this issue shows him offering Lois the chance to be both.  The plot of this issue also invokes Morrison favorites such a bad drug trip (as seen in too many Morrison titles to name, but Animal Man is the lengthiest) and mysterious communications with the future, like Xavier’s three encounters with future Phoenix in New X-Men. We see two future versions of Superman: One is Kal Kent from the 853st century, a character from the Supermany Dynasty depicted in Morrison’s 1998 series DC One Million, as discussed in the JLA thread here. Kal and the Superman Dynasty appear to be yet another example of a big Morrison concept rejected by other DC scribes, and Morrison is doing his best to keep the notion alive. Our Superman calls Kal “the Man of Steel of Tomorrow” which is a portmanteau of Superman’s titles “Man of Steel” and “Man of Tomorrow.”  The other future self is an Unknown Soldier version of Superman with whom Lois has a brief private conversation. Lois’ message from the future is decidedly less profound than the one Xavier had with Phoenix, showing how ignorance can not only prevent us from knowing answers, but even from knowing which questions are worth asking in retrospect. His question makes less sense once a future issue reveals his identity. Disguised versions of common characters were a popular Silver Age contrivance.  Superman’s trophy room clues us into the Neverworlds alternate reality of our story. Superman has Batman’s giant penny, as well as an intact Space Shuttle Columbia and the Titanic. A Legion time bubble has comfy seats and a control panel now. The world of Kandor is the most Morrisonian concept here—not that he originated it, but that he uses this theme often, a world just like ours but on a much tinier scale. Morrison will give Kandor a small (heh) story of its own in an upcoming issue. Lois also gazes briefly at a large, star-filled cube in the trophy room. There’s no dialogue about it, but it too will be important several issues from now. Superman also tells Lois that he has used Braniac’s shrink ray to archive threatened civilizations. Morrison will expand on this concept at great length during his Action Comics run. Note that the double splash page below has credits in the style of a movie poster, and that this comic book is rated "DC: General Audiences, for pulse=pounding, rip-roaring action to be enjoyed by all." The gratuitous shot of Lois showering nude notwithstanding.   Superman’s fortress contains a baby Sun Eater. This might seem odd considering how catastrophic the Sun Eater was to the world of the Legion of Super-Heroes starting in Adventure Comics #305 (1963), but in the context of the message Superman received about Kal Kent fighting Solaris, it’s perhaps not such a bad idea to have a Sun Eater lying around after all. Morrison is playing with more “star/sun” imagery here since Superman himself derives nutrition/power from the Sun in a direct manner.  Superman Robot #7, helping Superman with his genetic research, is reported to be malfunctioning, a detail which will prove significant in a future issue.
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Post by codystarbuck on Feb 17, 2019 1:54:24 GMT -5
The confession to Lois was a bit that really didn't work as well, given that they had been married for quite a while in contemporary continuity.. Even though this is its own world, taking the Silver and bronze Age stories as its text, it just felt....outdated.....more than any other nostalgic element.
Fortress stories were always filled with someone getting into trouble for snooping or causing an accident. There's an old Action Comics tales of Superman and Supergirl feuding, after being affected by a gas released when they were destroying alien weapons, in a vat of super acid. They start squabbling and Supergirl builds her own Fortress entrance, then they end up nearly killing each other. (Action Comics #402, "Feud of the Titans!").
DC Special Series #26 featured a sort of history of the trophies and the Fortress of Solitude, with story from Roy Thomas, in one of his rare outings with Superman. It was pure Roy, with references galore to old Fortress-themed stories, done in a Treasury Edition, to really let the art sell the expanse of the Fortress. Ross Andru is the artist (Romeo Tanghal inking); so, it's not quite Adams or Garcia Lopez (PBHN); but, it was pretty decent (aside from some goofy armor on our villains of the story).
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