Action Comics, Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel by Grant MorrisonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
General Lane and Lex Luthor team up to capture the new super hero calling himself Superman. But is the deal Luthor has made with an alien intelligence worth the price?
I know this is the comic book equivalent of blasphemy but I've never much cared for Superman. In fact, his death and/or replacement is about the only thing that's ever made me buy his books i n the monthly format. When the New 52 hit, I thought Superman might have suddenly become interesting. Did he?
Yes. Grant Morrison returned Superman to his roots in this volume. Gone is the near omnipotence that I've found boring for decades. He's much more like one of his inspirations, Hugo Danner of Philip Wylie's Gladiator. He can be hurt. Not only that, he actually has a personality for a change. Grant Morrison has taken Superman and made him a crusader and activist of sorts.
The stories in this volume are okay to pretty good. They suffer from a bit of Morrison-itis. A ton of things going on, not a lot of focus. Still, Morrison reintroduces a ton of classic Superman characters and concepts in this volume and actually makes Superman a fairly fresh and interesting character for the first time since John Byrne's reboot in 1986. I like what he's done to freshen up Lois, Jimmy, and the Daily Planet. Not too sure about the adult Legion of Superheroes yet but we'll see.
The artwork is very good, the best Superman's had in years. I actually like the t-shirt and jeans costume quite a bit. The costume minus the red underroos seems incomplete. Maybe it needs some black or something.
Like I said, this is probably as interested in a Superman comic as I'm ever going to get. At the end of the day, though, it's still Superman. 3.5 stars.
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