Customer Reviews

It's Superman!

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I want to heartily urge everyone to read ITS SUPERMAN by Tom DeHaven, but also want to "warn" you that its a very different type of Superman story...in some ways.

Its basically Superman's "origin" but set more in the "real world" than ever before. You will find much, much more Clark Kent here than the Big Blue Boy Scout. There's real people populating this novel, real emotions, real actions, real personalities, and really wonderful, quirky characters and situations. DeHaven veers off from the comic book Superman mythos at various points but these diversions are worthwhile and fascinating.

One of the most interesting characters in the book is Lex Luthor. DeHaven paints him as the train wreck you can't look away from, evil and calculating, but intriguing and deep. He's a combination of the out-and-out villainous Luthor of legend and the more-recent crooked-businessman from the modern comics.

The dialogue is crisp and multi-faceted and the scenes are poignant and...humorous.

Yes, there's humor here, but this is definitely not a "comedy" novel. DeHaven's fans will know what to expect. The situations are sometimes so outrageous that you may laugh and smile at the same time you cringe and feel the horror.

Its not a pristine world this Superman lives in. Its a sweaty, often soiled world and all is not clean and bright. But is is captivating and literary.

Bravo, Mr. DeHaven. A truly unique novel.

Jim!

I was in my local comic book shop(yes I am a comic book geek and proud of it)when this book caught my eye. All I can say is it's not quite what I expected but far,far more.

The author touches all the main points of Superman's origin without being a slave to continuity. I particularly enjoy his grounding of the story in real Depression era America. He takes his time developing the characters instead of throwing Superman at the reader on page 1.

I'm about two-thirds of the way through at this point and have yet to even see Superman and you know something? I don't even miss him! I highly recommend this book to any comic book/superhero fan.

Tom DeHaven's novel "It's Superman!" is a slightly revisionist, somewhat satirical and all around entertaining retelling of the early days of the Man of Steel. Set in 1935, DeHaven's version has many of the characters that comics fans have known for decades, but he places them in a more realistic setting. Eighteen-year-old Clark Kent is a seemingly ordinary high school student coming of age in Smallville, Kansas. He longs to get away, but he doesn't want to abandon his ailing parents, who we are told adopted him under mysterious circumstances. Meanwhile, in the sprawling metropolis of New York City, plucky young reporter Lois Lane is trying to save her sometimes boyfriend Willi Berg from the clutches of corrupt city Alderman Lex Luthor, who has plans that can only be called megalomaniacal. Willi, on the lam, ends up in Smallville, where he befriends Clark. After living as hobos for a while, they briefly settle in Hollywood. Clark, who has long noticed that he has powers far beyond those of mortal men, becomes a movie stuntman, where he acquires a costume meant for some B-movie "scientifiction" serial. Before long, New York, and destiny, beckons.

DeHaven's main contribution to the Superman mythos, aside from the character of Willi Berg (a New York Jew who basically "conceptualizes" Clark's alter ego--something like Supe's real-life inventors, jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster), is to fill in the blanks from the original comic book stories. He puts in a lot of detail about the time period, in particular the politics and pop culture. This can sometimes be grating, as when he simply lists personages of the day, as if to say "look, I've done my research! Aren't you impressed?" Still, it's interesting to see how he weaves the problems of racism and the depression into what's usually viewed as escapist fantasy. The book also adds in satirical elements, sometimes playing with the characters (Superman has a hard time keeping his costumes intact!), but usually their circumstances (Clark's misadventures in Hollywood and Luthor's political machinations). Although the overall tone is light-hearted, DeHaven tries to make some point out of it. He clearly loves the comics; this novel is an attempt to try to appreciate them anew from a more adult perspectiive (while it's definitely meant for grown-ups, with its bursts of bloody violence and hints of sex and booze, it's not entirely inappropriate for kids--they'd probably be bored, though, since it's pretty light on superheroic action).

It's interesting to compare this novel with the latest film version of Our Hero's exploits, Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns." While I'd love to see the novel realized as a film, it's unlikely to happen for a variety of reasons, mainly the book's lack of huge action set-pieces, which Singer's film provides in spades. Of course, the Superman presented in the movie is not only larger-than-life, he's downright messianic--even Christlike. DeHaven's Superman is a guy unsure of his powers and disturbed by his responsibilities. He just wants to fit in. This is a Superman so down to earth he's even an agnostic! If you found the movie to be a little (a lot?) overblown, this book is the perfect antidote.

I write book reviews for a major metropolitan newspaper and my review of IT'S SUPERMAN has not yet appeared, so I'll just say this: Tom DeHaven is super! Each year I have to pick the best novel of the year. I have pared the list of 80 books I reviewed to four--Jonathan Carroll's GLASS SOUP; Neil Gaiman's ANANSI BOYS; Graham Joyce's LIMITS OF ENCHANTMENT; and IT'S SUPERMAN. You can't go wrong with any of these titles. I got my review copy for free, but I bought three copies from Amazon for Christmas presents for members of my family.

First of all, anyone could find this book a fun page-turner. You'll never miss the first dime if you order it.

Also, you'll enjoy Dehaven's treatment of the character enough that some other Superman renditions will start to seem a little corny. Hopefully we can look forward to some more work from Dehaven in the actual comics.

So enough generic praise- "It's Superman!" is worth your 15 bucks.

Like my title might indicate, I picked up "It's Superman!" shortly after reading Steinbeck's classic novel.

I was impressed with how seamlessly Clark Kent fit into Tom Joad's decade. How interesting to read one and then the other... it is fascinating to see a Superman before Hitler, before the bomb, before big budget movies and giant "S" insignias appearing on t-shirts and soda cans every few years or so. We're lucky to live in a world with a Superman in HDTV, but "It's Superman!" reminds us that America is not so shallow as that.

Here we get Superman growing up WITH our country, not as a freak show side effect of our prosperity. Dehaven's Superman is more organic now that he's free of the kryptonite trappings of marketing campaigns. It trades flashy new America for honest old America.

If modern pop songs make you long for pre-1965, acoustic Dylan albums, then you'll like this book.

If 2006's Superman movie made you miss Tom Welling's Clark, then you'll like this book.

Here Clark isn't Jesus, he's just a kid who would probably be a little intimidated, jealous and suspicious of Bruce Wayne, Lex Luthor, Jack Kennedy and Justin Timberlake. Clark here has more in common with Forest Gump than the all-powerful Superman we know today.

The verdict won't be out until long after we're all dead. Future societies will have to debate for themselves whether or not a "Superman" really existed on their own superstition ridden version of the History Channel, but if Providence intervenes, then this will be the FINAL Superman. It may be "the one" that will eventually live on as America's conflicted Jesus, (certainly more than "Neo"). Although THIS Clark Kent may someday be forgotten underneath a mountain of McDonald's wrappers with Superman sequel advertisements etched in grease, it is for now our best chance to read the real deal about the America's definitive good guy. God Bless America! God Bless Superman!

Let me just get this out of the way first.

I really loved this book.

I am a huge fan of the two Elliot S! Maggin Superman novels and this novel by DeHaven is better than both.

John Prine has a great song entitled "Jesus, The Missing Years". It kinda, tangentially, touches on one of the great mysteries of western religion/history/literature. Where was Jesus during those years between his childhood with Mary and Joseph and the moment he stepped forward to be baptized by his first cousin, John? I often thought of that while reading It's Superman.

This novel, and make no mistake, it is a fully-realized novel, covers three years...1935-1938. While we start the book with Clark in Smallville...and a clever opening, "Our version of the story begins...", the real central character is a small-time con in Metropolis (here always New York) named William Berg. Will is dating a young journalism student named Lois Lane and he's decided to try to go legit by becoming a crime scene photographer. Through a series of circumstances, he finds himself in the right/wrong place to discover up-and-coming New York alderman, Lex Luthor, has a lot more ambition than anyone dreams. While on the run from Lex and his quickly organizing forces in Manhattan, Will (now using the last name Boring...wink, wink) finds himself in Kansas where he meets a young, hungry reporter for a small town newspaper. Clark, knowing there is more he should be doing in this life, decides to travel on with Will to California. There he will find true love for the first time (not Lois!), get work in the movies as a stuntman (somehow, he's never hurt!), and learn more about his developing powers. Eventually, Will will be witness to the coming together of three of the biggest fiction icons of the 20th century...just in time for 1938 and the public debut of a certain caped wonder.

What really intrigues me about DeHaven and this book is how well he makes 30s America come alive. This Clark Kent, while as good-hearted as we all know he is, is truly a kid from the post-dust bowl midwest. He's very different from the silver age master of all he surveyed. This kid becomes the rough and tumble Superman from Action Comics ..1...the superhero who spent more time going after exploitive employers and wife beaters than aliens and monsters. There is a touch of scifi that creeps in near the end, but it is definately more Startling Stories than Star Wars.

If all that wasn't enough...DeHaven has all of the characters come together at the end for an event in 1938 that is personally near and dear to my heart. He already had me, but those last few pages had me smiling and weepy.

I'm looking for DeHaven's other books now and am heartened to hear (from the author himself on the Comic Geek Speak podcast) that he is working on a book covering the cultural impact of Superman.

I'll be looking up in the sky for it.

I'm not just just the biggest comic geek you're likely to meet, I'm specifically a huge fan of Superman, and so I was thrilled when my girlfriend gave me this new novel by Tom DeHaven for Christmas. It's Superman is the latest retelling of the origin of the Man of Steel, and this latest retelling takes the character back to where he began -- the 1930s and the Great Depression. Opening up with Clark Kent as a teenager in 1935, the story show him as his mother dies, he gets mixed up with a photographer from New York who has been framed for a murder he didn't commit and slowly begins to decide to use his mysterious powers for the benefit of others. DeHaven does a really strong job of recreating the character in his original Golden Age context, although the book is filled with more modern sensebilities -- commentary on race relations, for example, which fit the character very well. At times he fills young Clark with a bit more angst and self-doubt than longtime fans (myself included) may be comfortable with, but overall it's a really strong read and a really original contribution to the Superman legend. Definitely recommended.

Superman, in all his media forms (comics, movies, TV shows), has always gotten so bogged down with absurd plots involving bizarre settings and baroque villains that we often forget he's still just a farmboy from Smallville, Kansas. A farmboy that can do everything. De Haven's "It's Superman" cherishes his beginnings as the most fascinating part of the character. How a bumbling, mediocre small-town reporter becomes a renown superhero is quite an incredible story, and De Haven handles it with a light touch but not going too light. There's a believability here that is absent from many superhero orgin stories.

The other main character of the novel is Lex Luthor, and he's presented quite believably as well. He's still evil, and the kind of evil that isn't easy to sympathize with either. But he's also funny, brilliant, and could hum any tune that you could think of. De Haven handles all the characters with similar ease, class, and humor, and he handles plenty. Don't go into this novel expecting Supes to be fighting baddies every other chapter. There's only one real battle and that only takes a couple minutes. No, this novel is about Clark dealing with his powers and feelings.

It's a very fun read.

I'm a fan of Superman, but haven't ever been a huge Superman comic geek. This book is a fantastic read in general, completely separate from the Superman references (which are actually quite few). This is a story as much about Lois Lane and Lex Luthor as about Clark Kent.

The most impressive thing to me was the amazing job the author does setting the scene of the 1930s. With character language, narrative style, and all over description, you feel like you were actually IN 1935!

This is a great book, even for people who aren't into superheroes.

Tom De Haven did something in "It's Superman!" that no one has done before. He's done a deep and welcome character evaluation of Superman. But not the modern Superman who borders on perfection, but Superman as Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster envisioned him back in the early 30s, when they were 2 kids in Cleveland with a new take on old mythologies.

When originally presented to the world, Superman wasn't a near god with chiseled good looks and a profound view of the world and it's politics and an absolute sense for right and wrong. He was a guy, a bloke, with gifts trying to find the best way to use them. He was about taking down mob bosses and beating up abusive husbands. This is the Superman right on the cusp of becoming the world's greatest superhero. This is the story of Superman from a different time, and in all it's aspects this story reflects that. I might go so far as to call this the untold origin story of Superman from the Fleischer cartoons.

What makes this unique though is the feel of it. It feels like a story out of the 1930s with it's old fashioned pulp prose, but that underscore realistic human interaction and dialogue of the period. Sure, now a days, visionaries like Alan Moore, Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns have given us great glimpses into the psyche of the Superman we know today, but Tom De Haven took the Superman of yesteryear and gave us that same in depth view, but with greater care and skill then was available, or shall we say afforded the character back when Superman was nothing more then a child's escapist fantasy, and was felt undeserving of that kind of depth. It is, in my eyes, one of the three best Superman stories of the last 10 years, and this coming from a tried and true fan of the Red, White and Yellow. This story should appeal to fans of Superman of any generation, and for those turned off by Superman's near omniscience in his current iteration, this story presents a more vulnerable, and definitely more human view of the Man of Steel, while still holding on to the basic truths of Superman: He fights for Truth and Justice, and is an inspirational icon of hope, and being the best one can be for no other reason then the value of being a good person.