Superman Secret Origin is yet another (possibly unnecessary?) re-hash of Superman's origin, with still further claims by DC that it is the "definitive" origin for now. There have been several in the last 20 years alone and though all have their charm and attraction, SSO was billed as an ultimate intimate portrait of what made Clark Kent into Superman. Written by the prolific Geoff Johns and drawn by the definitive Superman artist of the last ten years, namely Gary Frank, SSO promised a lot.... and mostly fails to deliver. You can usually tell when a collection of stories doesn't quite hit its marks - look for a foreword or introduction by a famous person that mostly avoids talking about the actual work or makes the barest mention of the pages that follow.
Although ostensibly about Superman's "origins," Johns, in a genuine surprise, wastes no time going over where Superman is from or how he got to earth. Rather, his initial interest is in the "secret origin" if you like, of Clark Kent. To that end, much of the series is dedicated to some of the smaller moments that help Clark eventually become Superman, and in his early days, that help Superman claim his place in Metropolis. When we meet Clark, he's a young boy about to learn a crushing secret that changes his life forever. With the support of his adoptive parents, Clark quickly, (actually faster than a speeding bullet) adapts to his new status in life, gains acceptance in the form of his friendships with members of the Legion of Superheroes, and eventually moves to Metropolis, where his personal alienation from his co-workers and ordinary people is eventually eclipsed by his widespread acceptance as Superman by the people of Metropolis, although not without some significant support from Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen.
While on fairly familiar ground, SSO had the potential to be pretty fantastic, by focusing on the profound alienation, a being like Superman would feel on his adoptive world. Instead Johns approaches nearly every issue as if he had a checklist of important events for Clark/Superman that he wanted to put his own personal spin to. Elements are re-introduced and tweaked or changed, seemingly at random to suit the writer's whims and fancies. Lex Luther is again returned to Smallville and become a boyhood... acquaintance of Clark's, but remains very much the powerful corporate figure popular in Byrne and Wolfman's relaunch. Clark is once again Superboy who spent time in the far future with the Legion of Superheroes, complete with Superboy suit and all. Two important villains are re-introduced, one to embarrassingly comedic effect and the other to service nostalgia.
In the case of the Parasite, Johns commits one of the most heinous creative sins a writer in his position can commit, which is to actually revise a character's origin, so that it is actually *worse* than it currently is, with the result that the character is even harder to take seriously than before. I picture the Parasite in a prison, being asked by a pyschiatrist how he became who he is, relating the story thus, "Well, doc, see, it's like this: I ate a radio-active donut!!!" If there was one sequence in this entire volume that made me realize that neither DC, nor Johns were really paying much attention, it was the new origin of the Parasite. Where was the editor, when Johns sent in a script, proposing a secret origin for a supervillain, involving eating radioactive pastry? It's a stupid idea that's executed in a stupid way and I wish someone had paid attention and argued against it. On the other hand, the tweak of Metallo's origin is genuinely interesting, although the visual take on the character, resets all the great progress that's been made with him in early Byrne issues and on the Adventures of Superman animated series.
When it was released in single issues, the series suffered several delays, some extending by several months, something which is fairly typical of Geoff Johns written limited series, but which seemed especially accute here. There's a tendancy to blame Geoff's artists when things go awry but I'm not sure that applied in this case. It was also released in the middle of the all the changes in management at DC were announced, with Dianne Nielson taking over as president and Paul Levitz leaving, Geoff Johns becoming Chief Creative Officer, etc, etc, so perhaps with all that was happening, Geoff was understandably distracted. There are also signs all over, that the series was initially intended to be something else or to have headed in a slightly different direction. One of the covers shows Superman standing beween his Kryptonian parents, which never happens in the actual pages of the entire series, and there's an unused cover for issue 6 that was used with the initial solicitation, but which was completely unrelated in any way to the contents of the story, they eventually released. It's interesting that the HC contains six issues that are slightly longer in page count than any normal six issues, which suggests to me that Johns actually had more story to tell than his initial format permitted him. That's an indication that the story had quite a bit of potential that never quite gets fully realized, and in the end, one is left with a distinct impression that SSO, just didn't get the attention or focus it deserved by the creative and editorial people behind it.
Having said all that, SSO has some thrilling moments and mostly works, if only as a somewhat disjointed, but reasonably entertaining average superhero origin. In the end, the resolution of the tension introduced by General Sam Lane is a little too neat and convenient, but it nevertheless puts front and center one of the most obvious, but underused elements of Superman's status on earth, namely that he is an alien. Johns deserves credit for hitting this point on its head. So while it might not be quite the epic reimagining we wanted, SSO has stuff that works.
By far though, what makes this series important to own, is the beautiful artwork by Gary Frank. In a very short period of time, Gary has become my favourite Superman artist, and his Superman is just quite simply, one of the best versions since John Byrne's in the mid-80s. SSO is chock-full of wonderful, wonderful art, and for that alone, is very much worth owning in this HC version. Gary Frank is the definitive Superman artist of the last decade, with perhaps the exception of Alex Ross, and I can't rave enough about it. He does do a decidedly Chris Reeve take on the character, so if that isn't your cup of tea, then please stay well clear of this. But if you're a fan of the Donner films, Frank's rendition of the MOS will lift your spirits and inspire. He's just that good.
Overall, it's not that the stories collected here are poor in and of themselves, or that as a whole, the new origin fails completely. It's rather that, there's something incredibly beautiful, moving and mythical about Superman's origin. That means that, if someone is going to retell it, there should be some strong compelling reason. The justification for doing Superman's origin, possibly the best superhero origin in all of comicdom, should be more than just about writer's ego, or about setting up company dominos for other series. The first purpose of any such series, should ultimately be to service the character first, because the story is already so familiar, a reader should know immediately why it had to be retold. Unfortunately, SSO straddles the line between what could have been a genuinely beautiful coming of age story, about a boy destined to become the world's greatest hero, and a move on DC comics' part to make sure all its ducks are in a row for its intended relaunch of Legion of Superheroes. This could easily have been done in the course of the regular monthly series and without dedicating a whole new, separate origin to it. Because of that split personality, as well as an apparent need for Johns to go down his own checklist of "things I'd like to write my version of," SSO never achieves truly great storytelling status, and after reading it, I still wasn't completely sure why it was necessary.
13/01/2011: Update: It appears from the rumour mill that filmmakers of the upcoming "Superman Begins" (or whatever it will actually be called,) may very well draw inspiration or perhaps an element or two from SSO, for their new version of the Man of Steel. So at least we have a hint about why SSO might have been necessary: reboot the character on film, freshen his origins in print. Or in other words, give the filmmakers something fresh to work from. Comic companies frequently do this. See recent series from Marvel about both Cap's and Thor's origins, for example. Despite any criticism though, I still recommend reading SSO and still think it's a worthwhile volume to own.
