A Sense of Doubt blog post #3827 - Superman Year One - a review - Comic Book Sunday for 2508.10

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3806 - Superman Year One - a review - Comic Book Sunday for 2508.10

SPOILERS!!

I have been sitting on this post for a very long time. So long, that I quite forgot what I wanted to share about Frank Miller and John Romita, Jr.'s Superman Year One, so I had to re-read it.

Having done so, and then having re-read the Earth One: Superman books (three volumes) and having seen the new SUPERMAN movie, I feel a BRIEF three part review is order.

Here we go.

Let me start by saying that I am a huge fan of John Romita, Jr. and love his art pretty much always. His work here is not what I like best about his work, which may be due to finishes by others. 

Frank Miller is an industry icon, of course. But I have often had issues with his work. And I have many issues with this series in particular.

Lastly, the Black Label format and length of the issues are factors in why this series works less well than EARTH ONE, which sustained a story over more pages.

Here's my list of things that bothered me, and I will expound on them one by one:

• Superman doesn't breathe water
• Superman would not join the military
• Poseidon is a pig.
• No resolutions of bullying, Atlantis stories - weak
• Nice resolution to military story BUT Superman would not be discharged like that - weak

I can accept changes made to an existing mythology to tell a good story are worthwhile, but these choices did not result in a story that was all that good. Interesting not good.

My list is out of order because the biggest issue I had is the change to Superman's powers to allow him to breathe water for the storyline with Lori Lemaris.

Nowhere in Superman's long saga and his well-established mythology has he shown the ability to breathe water. As I mentioned, changing existing mythology to be able to tell a good story is all right. I will explore some of those choices with EARTH ONE and the new Superman movie (2025).

The problem here is that this story is NOT a good one. It's not interesting. It's not worth telling.

The character of Lori in this incarnation has lost all of what made her interesting in the original.

This Lori is a simpering lovestruck girl with no ability to change her situation.

And her father, Poseidon, is a pig. He resists her relationship with Clark because he expects his daughter to replace his dead wife in "all ways." Ewww. Gross.

Granted that the original Greek mythology may have precedent for gross father-daughter coupling like there's also a God posing as a swan to rape a young girl, but that's no good reason to depict that in our modern times in a comic book.

And then the Atlantis story is unresolved. Not resolving stories is a major issue with this series. The second issue with Clark prevailing against Poseidon and his Kraken. He wins Lori and seems set to live out his days underwater as her suitor (a Prince, then?).

And yet, in issue three (and there's only three issue to this series) he saves Lois from the Atlanteans attacking her underwater exploratory vessel and the focus shifts to the surface world, Metropolis, Lois, the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor, etc. After his epic battle in issue two and his "winning" of Lori, there's no goodbye, no explanation even for what happens. There's no even a caption that mentions his time in Atlantis and why that is now over as he goes to college and then moves to Metropolis.

Really, terrible storytelling.

But Miller established a propensity to NOT resolve stories in the first issue.

Despite some problems, the first issue is the best. The Kents are well-depicted in age and manner when they adopt the baby from space, Kal-el, whom they name Clark Kent.

Stories of Clark's school days are very well done as is the budding romance of his first love: Lana Lang.

Clark makes friends with the social outcasts who are terribly bullied. just like most of the readers of the comic.

Clark tries to stop the bullying but gets in trouble. His parents also know what he could really do to normal human boys, and how he must be so very careful all the time.

The bullying story unfolds smartly. It's my favorite part of the entire series. The bullies escalate the violence, attacking Clark's friends, punishing them for the pain that they cannot bestow on Clark.

And then he learns that Lana has it all on camera and plans to help Clark expose the bullies. Except the bullies find out, and they attack Lana, taking her camera, and threatening to rape her. Clark shows up just in time, dispatches the bullies, retrieves the camera, and shares with Lana what he can really do, flying her up into the night sky.

And then nothing. The bullying story just stops. They discuss using the photos to expose the bullies, but that's not shown. Instead the Clark-Lana romance becomes the focus and the story fast forwards through the years.

In high school, Clark joins the football team and does too much, shows off too much, which is not in line with who Clark is. But his actions set a precedent for how Miller plans to show us a different Clark Kent, but the choices are just not worth making to tell this story. It's not a good story.

Terrible story telling.

And again, there's no return and resolution to this story with Lana.

And then Clark joins the military.

Wha....?

Just not a good story.

Clark's motivations to join the military, as he tells his father, are to see the world, starting with the oceans. He says "the seas are calling to me."

But with his powers why would he need to see the world via the military.

And even though Clark is capable of better hiding his powers, he doesn't. He doesn't need to show off his stamina, his ability to hit the bullseye every time. And yet he shows off. And then in a terrible story line of modern "terrorist" pirates, he smothers a grenade, an unnecessary thing to do with his powers,  and is given an honorable discharge for insubordination???

It's very stupid and insulting to our intelligence as Superman fans.

If Clark wanted to succeed in the military, he could.

The military storyline has the best resolution of any in the comics as Clark has an actual goodbye with the commanding officer who has seen the mer-people, too.

But that's small solace for an overall effect of the three issues which is not very good.

And I am not alone in this opinion.

Copy and paste this link if the hyperlink doesn't work:

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/superman-year-one


The first issue earned a 6.4/10 overall. The second a 5.2, and the third a 4.4.

I actually think the second issue is the worst, so I would give that one a 4.4 and go slightly higher on the third, despite its lack of resolution and hasty conclusion with a dues ex machina arrival of Wonder Woman.

I would rate them:

Issue One = 7.7

Issue Two = 4.8

Issue Three = 6.9

But really, overall, just not very good.

By contrast, the Earth One series is much, much better. Granted more pages so more space for resolution, yet still, better storytelling and better conception of the character of Clark Kent/Superman, someone fans have known and loved for 87 years.

JMS (J Michael Straczynski) and Shane Davis modernize and re-interpret Superman's story: Clark wears a hoodie!

Here, the origin makes more sense and does not alter the core mythology in any dramatic way: no breathing water, no military career!

Here, the childhood and origin material is handled in flashback. Jonathan Kent has died, a loss that weighs heavily on Clark.

Since Clark can do virtually any job humans can do given his abilities, he tries out several but realizes he is less interested in the pursuit of financial security than in doing the right thing, helping people. He considers the Daily Planet -- where we are introduced to Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen, who play large roles in the story -- but he is discouraged and chooses not to pursue work there.

He does not fully understand his Kryptonian heritage yet, and the arrival of his first major adversary awakens the ship that brought him to earth in a government bunker, with the explanation that any molecule of the original craft can regrow the entire ship. The adversary is from another race of people in the Krypton solar system, a people who are responsible for destroying Krypton. They plan to do the same to earth.

With the aid of the ship, Superman now revealed to the world in his full uniform and cape defeats the evil aliens from his birth solar system and then assumes the mantle of Clark Kent, the "mask" he will wear the rest of the time according to his mother, Martha. And out of all jobs he could do, he chooses the Daily Planet, walking in with an "exclusive" interview with Superman. He hides his ship in the arctic and asks it to teach him what he needs to know to "survive, use his powers well and wisely, and avenge the murder of his home world.

Granted, the story unfurls over probably triple the pages of Miller and Romita Jr's Superman Year One, but even with fewer pages, it's telling a better story without altering the basis of the mythology.

The second volume further develops the Clark Kent story. Sure, he made a big splash with his Superman interview, but now what? He needs to learn to be a real investigative journalist, like Lois, who is suspicious (and jealous) and so she investigates this "Clark Kent," who has suddenly come into their lives.

Clark rents an apartment (he had been staying in a hotel) and we are introduced to two characters: a drug-addict who sits on the stoop (Eddie) and his neighbor Lisa, who in throwing herself at Clark will test his resolve as a sexual encounter could be lethal to an ordinary human. Later, we learn that Lisa moonlights as a sex worker when she cannot get acting or modeling work, which seems a bit stereotypical that she is introduced as a sex-starved woman throwing herself at Clark. But when she shares her moonlighting work with Clark, testing his moral rectitude, he accepts her without judgement.

Meanwhile, welcome to the story landscape the Parasite and later the Luthors, husband and wife, Lex and Lexi.

Clark also struggles with his role in the world and if he should interfere in oppression of people by their governments, such as on the island nation of Borada.

 

With the help of his ship, he uses a containment suit to keep the Parasite from draining him, so he can defeat the creature, and then he saves Lisa from an abusive client (a John).

We see a darker side of Superman as he flies the abuser to Alaska or Siberia (he's not sure) and leaves him there within walking distance of a village.

He also aids the people of Borada in overthrowing the oppressive dictator, but he cannot save Eddie, the drug addict, who dies while he's helping all those others.

At the end, Lois chooses to drop her investigation, and the U.S. government hires the Luthors to create the means to kill Superman as the military is nervous that were he to turn his power against them, they would have no means to stop him.

Sadly, though Shane Davis is not able to helm the art on the third and final volume, Adrian Syaf with inks by Sandra Hope is a good substitute.

In the final volume, Lisa accidentally discovers that Clark is Superman and proves to be a good person as she does not sell the information to enrich herself.

The big villain of the volume is Zod-El, supposedly an ally from Krypton, but we all know that Zod is not Superman's friend. But Zod's arrival does enrich the Kryptonian history lesson for Clark before their battle to the death.

Back to Lisa not enriching herself, when Superman is about to be killed by Zod-El, she saves him, giving him a breather to allow Lex to zap Zod-El with the weapon intended for Superman only to be killed in the attempt, a heroic self-sacrifice for Lex Luthor, who is usually the villain. Made vulnerable like a human, it is Lexi Luthor who shoots him with a hand gun and kills him. She blames Superman and takes on the role of Lex Luthor, the villain, in the aftermath of her husband's death, just in case there are going to be more volumes in this series.

Earlier on, Lois created a "Superman Signal Light" like the Bat Signal to summon the Man of Steel and agrees to give him advice.

Following, Clark confronts Lois about her investigation, and they establish a truce.

And it's Lisa not Lois that Clark brings home to meet his Mom, even though they are not romantically involved, yet... further hints for another volume.

The volume ends with Superman giving an impassioned speech at the United Nations, and shaming the U.S. government for trying to kill him.

All in all, in the three volumes, the story delivered stands high above Miller and Romita Jr's Superman Year One, and probably would even if they had fewer pages to tell it in the DC Black Label format.

And the critics gathered by COMIC BOOK ROUND UP agree with me.

https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/superman-earth-one

Aggregate scores of volume one are 8.1 with volume two earning a 7.6, and volume three a 6.9, oddly.

I feel that all three could score 8-something out of ten. On my Good Reads, I rated the first volume 8.8/10. Volume two = 9.4/10. And volume three 8.7/10.

Quite a bit higher than the average reviews in COMIC BOOK ROUNDUP.

I already posted about the Superman movie here:

Friday, July 18, 2025

A Sense of Doubt blog post #3804 - I Went to the Superman Movie!

I didn't really review it.

SPOILERS!!

As I have mentioned multiple times in this post, if changes are made to the existing Superman mythology to tell a good story, then I am all for it.

The current Superman movie tell s a great story but how it engineers that story is flawed.

I think the 2025 Superman movie is the best Superman movie ever and possibly the best superhero movie. It's really great.

Like Superman: Earth One, it leap frogs the origin and depicting a lot of what most everyone know about Superman and where he comes from. The characters are well known: Lex Luthor, Lois, etc. So these do not need to be established as they are already established. Lois and Clark are already in a relationship, and so this movie will explore some relationship problems with them.

Setting up a story in which the world turns against Superman, so that he must re-win their trust, love, and loyalty is a very good story to tell. Superman is such a paragon of virtue, the best of us, the big blue Boy Scout. Showing him lose the public's favor and work to regain it is a good story.

But how he lost it was not.

To have the Lex Luthor created Engineer from Wildstorm's The Authority (Thank you Warren Ellis) "repair and recover" the "damaged" transmission from Superman's parents in which they urge him to conquer the earth is a great way to turn the public against him, reminding everyone that he's an alien. BUT it should have been proven a hoax at the end.

Even though I also dislike the portrayal of the Kents as two low-IQ country bumpkins, the final image of Clark watching video of "his parents" and his childhood in Smallville instead of his Kryptonian parents was a very lovely and homey ending. BUT the video of Jor-El and Lara urging him to be a conqueror should have been proven false. That change to what we understand of Superman's mythology makes him the son of what we could consider monsters: not good.

But most everything else was great. The casting was fabulous.

Krypto, the Justice Gang, Metamorpho, Supergirl, all fantastic.

Great casting of Lois and Jimmy.

But it's Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor who nearly steals the whole movie.

He was tremendous!

I loved the movie but the change to what we know of Superman's Kryptonian parents was a bad choice.

Thanks for tuning in!!

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