Superman Earth One

J. Michael Straczynski

Shane Davies

In Superman Earth One, Clark Kent weighs his life options. Does he want to be the hero his parents rather obnoxiously want him to be, or does he want to "pass" as a normal but very gifted person all his life?

It makes for a very grim Clark Kent. He broods as he walks around Metropolis. He worries about having a job that will allow him to help his mother financially. He stares into the cityscape, a lot. He ponders how he can put his gifts into good use. He has an existential moment as he floats in space. He is very intense. And then suff happens.

The pacing is way off. The story starts really slow, and without build up throws a huge battle in the middle of Metropolis. Even if you consider that it has a filmic story structure, it's still too slow in the first act. At the same time everything feels too compressed. The character motivations get really muddled.

For example, in Superman's original origin (ja!) Martha and Jonathan couldn't have children and were too old to keep trying. Clark was a miracle to them, they found him by accident and he was exactly what they wanted. In Superman Earth One, Martha and Jonathan are very young when they find Clark and they decide to keep him because he displays super strength. But they'll tell everyone in Smallville that Clark is a bastard and that Martha's no good "laybout" sister made them take care of the baby! WHAT! For the rest of the story, they come off as salivating stage parents, sewing his costume, naming him and talking about branding. Ugh.

Lois and Jimmy get simplified. Lois even more so than Jimmy. Jimmy gets to be fearless searching for the perfect shot because the "truth" is there. Lois gets to debate why a reporter should be able to inject their opinions into the story. She gets shut down by Perry and since she didn't get to name Superman (Jonathan Kent did) and since she didn't write the first interview with Superman (Clark shows up last minute with one) all she did was report on the alien invasion, and save Superman's life AFTER Jimmy tried to do it by himself and failed. Uff.

So yeah there's this alien invasion because (sigh) a planet that was constantly in war with Krypton made a deal with a mysterious character (Braniac? Braniac! Braniac!) and they blew up the whole planet and NO ONE was supposed to survive. So this alien comes and tries to kill Clark but he really forces him to grow up and become Superman. For the sequel, you have the possibility of more aliens attacking Earth plus the mysterious (Braniac) character (Braniac).

As you read Superman Earth One, you feel like you're watching a movie you've seen a couple of times. Familiar and different at the same time but frustrating all the way around.