Superman: Earth One [Hardcover]

J. Michael Straczynski (Author), Shane Davis (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2, 2010 | Series: Superman

J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5, joins forces with rising star artist Shane Davis (SUPERMAN/BATMAN: THE SEARCH FOR KRYPTONITE) to create this original graphic novel that gives new insight into Clark Kent’s transformation into Superman and his first year as The Man of Steel. This is the first in a new wave of original DC Universe graphic novels, featuring top writers’ and illustrators’ unique takes on DC characters.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

From Superman: Earth One
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From Booklist

Looking to Marvel’s Ultimate line, DC launches its Earth One series with a modernization of the world’s first superhero. With 72 years of various “imaginary stories” behind him, if you’re going to reimagine Superman again, you’d better distinguish yourself. It’s all quite recognizable: Lois, Jimmy, and the Daily Planet are all here, though the menace of Lex Luthor is replaced by an alien armada hunting the last son of Krypton. Torchbearer of the Todd McFarlane–Jim Lee aesthetic of modern comics art, Davis provides sleek figures, intense detail, and subtle integration of current hairstyles and fashions (including a nip and tuck to the old supersuit itself) that do the lion’s share of the contemporizing. Ultimately, though, it’s Straczynski who distinguishes the work, humanizing the dynamic between characters and adding a compelling twist of melancholy to young Clark Kent’s search for purpose. This is not a revelatory reexamination of a great American icon but the script and storyboards for a great Superman summer blockbuster, and one with a lot of heart, at that. Grades 9-12. --Jesse Karp

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 136 pages
• Publisher: DC Comics (November 2, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1401224687
• ISBN-13: 978-1401224684
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.4 x 10.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #29 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Publishers > DC Comics
  • #43 in Books > Comics & Graphic Novels > Graphic Novels > Superheroes

More About the Author

J. Michael Staczynski was born in Paterson, NJ in 1954, from a lower-middle-class blue-collar family that moved 21 times in his first 18 years. He began writing in earnest and selling at the age of 17 and hasn't stopped since. He graduated San Diego State University with degrees in Psychology and Sociology.

As a journalist, he has written over 500 published articles for such periodicals as The Los Anglees Times, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Penthouse, Writer's Digest, San Diego Magazine, the San Diego and Los Angeles Reader and TIME, Inc. He has also published numerous short stories in Amazing Science Fiction Magazine, Pulphouse, and various anthologies.

As a television writer and producer, he has written over 200 produced episodes, including workj on The New Twilight Zone, Nightmare Classics and Murder She Wrote. He also wrote, created and produced the series Babylon 5, Crusade and Jeremiah.

Moving from TV to film, he wrote Changeling (directed by Clint Eastwood), Ninja Assassin (produced by the Wachowskis), provided the story for Thor (directed by Kenneth Branagh), wrote Underworld 4 (starring Kate Beckinsale), and has written numerous other films that are currently slated for production.

He has won the Hugo Award (twice), the Saturn Award, the Eisner Award, the Inkpot Lifetime Achievement Award, the E Pluribus Unum Award from the American Cinema Foundation, the Space Frontier Foundation award, the Ray Bradbury Award, the Christopher Award, and over a dozen others.

He was also nominated for a British Academy Award (BAFTA) for his screenplay for Changeling.

He writes ten hours a day, every day, except for his birthday, New Year's Day and Christmas Day.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superman for the 21st Century! Absolutely awesome..., October 27, 2010

By 

CarlosAle7 (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Superman: Earth One (Hardcover)

This graphic novel is everything I had hoped for, and much more. I've been a fan of Superman for 10 years, but I've never been able to completely relate to Clark Kent / Superman; it always seemed like he was too perfect, too removed, too different. Well, Superman: Earth One has changed all that for me. This is a story about a young guy trying to find his way in his world, wrestling with temptations and fears, and striving to do the right thing by the people who have adopted him as one of their own. There are many moments in this novel that touched me, but two stand out: Clark "visiting" Pa Kent, and the truth behind Krypton's apocalypse.

J. Michael Straczynski's writing is full of conviction, hope and realism. Superman's world is our world, and his trials and triumphs are ours, too. Shane Davis' art is gorgeous throughout, depicting Metropolis and its citizens with a cinematic flair not too often associated with comic books. I won't spoil the story, but trust me when I say you won't be able to put it down until you reach the last page.

Do yourself a favor and read this book. And if you know a kid or a teenager lend them your copy or give them one. We all need better heroes nowadays, and Superman is the greatest of them all.

I can't wait for the sequel!!!!!

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a must read for Superman fans, November 16, 2010

By 

GraphicNovelReporter.com (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Superman: Earth One (Hardcover)

Superman: Earth One presents Superman the way you've always known him--and yet radically different. His story is entirely familiar: Rocketed from the doomed planet Krypton while still an infant, he lands on earth, to be found and raised by the kindly Jonathan and Martha Kent, who instill in their adopted son the best values and sensibilities the world has to offer. But Earth One (part of a larger series from DC focusing on iconic characters in more "real-world-like" settings) has a gravitas and a sense of place that anchors it more solidly in the world we know than practically any Superman comic in ages. Even better, it's a "mature" comic that kids, teens, and adults can all read and enjoy.

Writer J. Michael Straczynski is a comics veteran, so it's no surprise that he crafts a story that draws you in immediately, even as it covers the most familiar aspects of Superman's life. Straczynski is also a regular TV and movie scribe, so he naturally imbues his story with a cinematic pace and scope. It works amazingly well. Even a long-winded voiceover from the late Jonathan Kent, a plot device that could have gone horribly wrong, or at least been unforgivably cheesy, succeeds and inspires the reader just as it inspires Clark Kent to live up to his full potential.

Artist Shane Davis does a remarkable job not only with Metropolis but also with the legendary core cast. His Clark Kent and his Superman are young and vibrant (both recognizable but still different enough that you almost believe a pair of glasses and a nerd act are enough of a disguise for the most famous man in the world), and his Lois Lane is beautiful and lifelike. Jimmy Olsen and Perry White shine under Davis's pencils as well.

One thing the story does not have is Lex Luthor, and thankfully so. The Superman-Luthor rivalry is tired, in comics, movies, and TV. Seeing Superman come to grips with his Kryptonian nature and his humanity at the same time while trying to save the world from a shockingly horrifying alien invasion is a joy. Involvement from the overexposed Luthor would only have mired the story, and Straczynski wisely avoids it.

If you're looking for a reason to enjoy Superman again, to understand why you liked the hero in the first place, Superman: Earth One is the place to start.
-- John Hogan

43 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Fundamental Misunderstanding of Who Superman Is, November 6, 2010

By 

Bryan R. Shipp (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Superman: Earth One (Hardcover)

I'm a longtime J Mike fan, having enjoyed his work on Real Ghostbusters, Babylon 5, Rising Stars, Squadron Supreme, Thor. . .and I'm a longtime Superman fan, too. I had high hopes for this book, thinking it'd be a case of two great tastes that taste great together. Imagine my surprise after reading it this morning and discovering that, no, J Mike fundamentally doesn't understand the character of Superman.

I know he loves the character, I know he's a longtime fan (longer than me, given the difference in our ages). But reading this comic, I got no sense that J Mike knew what that special magic is that makes Superman so very different from all the other comic book superheroes on the market today. Absolute All Star Superman did a much better job with Superman than J Mike is doing, and Grant Morrison is really much better as a Batman writer.

Overall I have to say this book is "good enough. . .I guess." The scenes involving the Daily Planet and its cast are top-notch material. Much of the rest of the story is recycled from other, often better stories into a patchwork quilt of Superman-like ideas without Superman-like heart. The art is very good, though in some places the artist trips over himself.

So what specifically went wrong with this book? (SPOILERS AHEAD)

...

There are a lot of great touches in Superman: Earth One. There is a scene wherein Clark buys a newspaper even though the newspaper machine is broken and he could have simply taken a Daily Planet without paying for it. The scenes with Perry White, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen working at a dessicated husk of a Daily Planet are no short of brilliant.

But Clark/Superman himself. . .and the morality that makes him. . .are the problems here. We're confronted with a Superman that doesn't WANT to be Superman. His parents tried to push him into being a superhero--his mother sewed his suit, a holdover from John Byrne's Superman: The Man of Steel, Vol. 1, but in this story the "S" stands alternately for "Son (of another world)" from Martha's perspective or "Superman" from Jonathan's perspective. After Jonathan Kent's death, all Clark wants to do is find a great job with gobs of pay so he can help support his mother. . .he's not interested in truth, or justice, or any of that nonsense. This entire story shows us a Clark/Superman coming to terms with who he is, who he wants to be, and who he SHOULD be.

And that would be a great story, except that almost all the dialogue outside of the Daily Planet reads like actors who know their lines but don't understand them. They ring false and hollow, like a poorly-executed stage play or a high school production of Shakespeare. Clark walks around with a slouch and his hoodie up, like some kind of street punk. He has a fantastically emo speech while sitting on his father's grave in the wee hours before dawn. Beyond that, he has very little to say--much of what it means to be Superman comes in pointed sermons from his father and mother in flashbacks throughout the book that serve as underscores to what is happening to Clark at that moment in the story--a "See, this is what they were talking about" sort of narrative structure. I suppose I would like it more if I weren't so familiar with J Mike's writing, but I am, and at this point the technique just feels tired.

J Mike also isn't above cannibalizing his own ideas from other books he's written. After the Kents take baby Clark away from the mountainside spaceship crash (I think J Mike or Shane Davis, the illustrator, needs to bone up on his geography if he thinks mountains are in Kansas), the government arrives in "black helicopters" and captures the spaceship. . .and proceeds to experiment on it in secret for the next 20 years. An idea last seen in Supreme Power Vol. 1: Contact by none other than J Mike Straczynski.

So, cutting to the chase, an alien dressed like a member of Insane Clown Posse. . .but with metal-and-energy wings. . .that he doesn't need to fly, he just has them because they're cosmetic, I guess?. . .arrives with a bunch of spacecraft and starts tearing the planet apart. Turns out he and his people. . .planetary neighbors of Krypton. . .blew up Krypton 20 years ago and they've been on the hunt for the last remaining Kryptonian ever since. Why did they hate Krypton and go to war with them? Because the plot compelled them to! So these aliens show up to find the last Kryptonian and, whether he shows or not, they're going to kill a lot of people just cuz. And with that, Clark actually has (an albeit brief) debate with himself on whether he should reveal himself.

But of course he does, and they fight and fight and it's all supposed to be very epic. . .except that Mark Waid did it better in Superman: Birthright. And while they fight, the people of Earth aren't really interested in helping Superman and aren't really inspired by him--the way they see it, this is all his fault anyway. Only Lois and Jimmy seem to really give a hoot, and help rescue Superman from the anti-Superman-weapon-du-jour, a red sunlight energy beam. Meanwhile, the ship that brought Superman to Earth, the one in the custody of the government, self-repairs, joins him in the battle to free Earth, and he climbs aboard and uses it to attack the alien capital ship.

Yes, that is correct. SUPERMAN doesn't defeat the enemies with his own powers and abilities. He climbs into his interplanetary baby carriage and lets it do all the work for him.

And after the end of the battle, in a recording from his spaceship, he is told that part of his purpose in life is to "Avenge the murder of Krypton."

Now, there are a lot of problems with this as a Superman book. The feel and flavor of it are all wrong for these reasons:

First, Superman is an inspirational figure. That is one of the things that makes Superman, among all the superheroes in comics, unique. People (in the comic universe) look at him and are inspired to be better people or do greater things because of him. People LIKE him. By taking that away from Superman, you're left with another "big strong guy who does property damage." I suppose you could say that this is the story of proto-Superman, of Superman before he's learned to be an inspirational figure, but in that case this is the story of Superman BEFORE THERE WAS A SUPERMAN. Not really an interesting or engaging story there, more of a "oh, we've seen this before in Batman Begins [Blu-ray]."

Which leads to another problem--Superman's previous raison d'être was to help people. To fight for truth, justice, and (originally) the American way. He was the Boy Scout. I would argue that to change that aspect of the character is to make him into a completely DIFFERENT character. . .in which case, why don't you just make that completely different character? (Answer: J Mike already has, in the aforementioned Squadron Supreme. . .itself a Marvel take on a more "realistic" backstory for Superman). Now, in this book, we're presented with a Superman who must avenge the murder of his world. Sound familiar? It should. That's Batman's backstory.

So in this book, J Mike successfully both removes the flavor of Superman stories and transforms Superman into Batman with a different power set. Which is done specifically to try and make Superman more engaging for a modern audience. The problem is, when you change Superman into a completely different character to make him interesting for a modern audience, you're not presenting the modern audience with Superman. . .you're giving them something, oddly enough, COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

The art in this book is, like the writing, satisfying but occasionally clumsy. Shane Davis suffers somewhat from that mid-90s tendency to shove as many superfluous lines in his artwork as possible. Not as clumsy as Rob Liefeld, not as skilled as Jim Lee. The overall look for the book is fantastic, very moody, with a 30s vibe to the buildings of Metropolis that I think works really well.

That said. . .I do not understand why he felt the need to redesign Superman's costume. It's very much like Superman's normal costume. . .but there's a gold edging around the S-shield (that, I'll admit, bothered me probably way more than it should have), there appears to be some kind of extra padding around the sides of his torso and inner thigh (and I can't help but wonder if the costume sounds like corduroy pants when he walks as a result), and his (stirrup) boots are flared at the top. He also has enormous Beltloops of Power that were large enough to be distracting.

I wish I had been able to love this book. But this is not the best work of its writer, or of its lead character. And the freshest Superman of recent memory remains All-Star Superman, with its wacky--but absolutely SUPERMANy--oddity.