Byrne makes me laugh so hard! He doesn’t even have to try. It’s AUTOMATIC, BABY.
Zeph, loving the new Darkseid av, you’re pimping. :tup:
I’ve got a delima: which Supes trade should I buy next, Secret Identity or Red Sun?
They’re both good. Grab the first available. If they’re both available, then I guess I’d suggest Red Son, as Secret Identity technically does not feature Superman.
And if anybody ever needs a quick Super-fix, I was leafing through DC’s “Superman in the [insert decade here]” collections this morning. Superman in the 60s has a lot of really good stuff in it. Next in line would probably be Superman in the 40s, which actually includes a few of the 30s stories as well.
I like Secret Identity more than Red Son. Red Son is basically just a really damn fun Elseworlds superhero story with nice artwork. Secret Identity’s about as close to Vertigo as Superman can get. Other than It’s A Bird… of course. Also, I enjoy being contrary to goody. He’s like, Bizarro-Zephy.
Personally, I do not see the purpose of the “Superman in the [decade]” TPBs. None of them are as good as anything from the '90s. The Death of Superman, aka The Second Greatest Comics Epic of All Time, is pretty much THE final stamp on the character. (And it is the greatest selling “graphic novel” of all time. The fact that it has sold so much simply goes to show that everyone likes it because it is so extremely wonderful.) I mean, Superman dies in that story. It doesn’t get more epic than that.
Red Son might be primarily fun (particularly Batman’s head gear), but it does have some good stuff to say about Superman as a character–specifically, what he might be like if his natural compulsion to help people was filtered through an authoritarian upbringing, rather than good old fashioned American values.
John Byrne didn’t write it. Therefore, it is naturally second rate.
this reason alone warrants red son coming first. please, do yourself a favor reggie, go for the commie superman.
One of my friends is both a communist and has a wool ear flap hat. He also loved Red Son. I have him nearly convinced to convert his hat into the Batman hat.
my god man, you understand how fucking awesome that is… but i don’t think others (read: people who haven’t peeped red son) truly comprehend.
your friend has a ruskie hat. are you a bad enough dude to convince him to convert the hat into ruskie bats hat?
(please if you make this happen, post a picture for me)
For great justice, if I can convince him to go through with it, there will be pics.
Hmmmn. I think I’ll go with Red Sun first then Secret ID.
I was wondering what my fellow Superman fans felt about the Super TAS version of Clark Kent? He wasn’t the bumbling oaf that seems to be so dominant in most modern Supes stories, which was fine by me. I like clusty Kent but I feel that when they use him too much it just diminishes the Clark aspect of Supes.
The Animated Series Superman is basically the definitive Superman of the past couple decades. It was like the only high profile Superman thing of the '90s that was actually good. I remember trying to read Superman comics and not really getting into them when I was a kid. I thought Superman was a tool. But the Dini/Timm show was the first encounter I had with Superman that made me start thinking he was interesting.
Just compare the writing on the show to any of the Superman comics of the time. I don’t think any of those comics comes close to measuring up.
Yeah, Superman: TAS was pretty much the only saving grace for the big guy in the 90s. I did think that their Clark was a little weak. Tim Daly did a great job as Supes, but it was pretty impossible to believe that Clark could be a different person.
When I was a little kid, I pretty much knew Superman from the Fleischer shorts and the movies with Christopher Reeve, which are pretty well steeped in the pre-Crisis era. When I started buying comics, not only did I dislike stories of the current Super-books, but I also barely recognized him as the character I knew. Clark was so outgoing and assertive that he really was just Superman in a pair of glasses, and that’s a big problem with a lot of the post-Crisis interpretations. Clark doesn’t necessarily have to constantly be doing pratfalls, but he does have to have that timid, mild-mannered streak in him. His personality is the majority of the disguise, not the glasses.
What do you think Superman will most likely do once his Clark image dies? Just remain Supes, or craft another image?
Good question. He’ll probably return as Clark’s long-lost son, nephew, cousin, or whatever. Just being Superman full time isn’t really a viable option for him.
In most speculative future stories that take place after Clark Kent has gone by the wayside, Supes can be charitably described as unhinged.
I’ve been temporarily without new material (until I grab the new Ex Machina TPB tomorrow), so I mini-binged on Supes, rereading both Red Son and All Star Supes, Volume 1. Nothing quite like kicking back and enjoying the best Superman that modern comics has to offer.
Speaking of the new Ex Machina, The Escapists finally came out in hardcover this week. We gotta get that.
I just read Superman: Where Is Thy Sting? by DeMatteis and Liam Sharp. It’s a prestige format one-shot from a couple years back and I just came across it randomly while browsing at the store. Not too much action in it but plenty of DeMatteis-style introspection about life, death, and morality, Krypton style. It was a good read and just the right length. The artwork was nice and had some intricate details and memorable imagery.
Been a while since I picked up a Super comic or a trade. I’m way past due on All-Star #9. When is #10 supposed to come out? When Bush gets kicked out of office?
I’ve said it before but I really wan cop DC Universe: The Stories of Alan Moore. Everyone says he does a great Supes.
BTW, which do you guys think is the better voice actor for DCAU Superman: Tim Daly or Greg Newbern? I think they both play the character pretty well but I think Greg feels a lot more natural as The Man of Steel.
I hope to get some ASS on my birthday. Which is in March.
This would be a rare occasion on which Everyone is correct. Most of the other stories in this collection are excellent as well.
I prefer Tim Daly. It’s not that George Newbern sucks, it’s just that Superman doesn’t get a lot of time to shine in JL/U. Daly had to hold up his own series for three seasons, and he did a marvelous job as the Big Guy. (Clark, not so much, though again, Newbern barely even got a shot at the milder side of Superman, so Daly pretty much wins it by default.)
Did anyone read Superman: True Brit by John Byrne? I heard it’s the greatest Superman OGN of the past 19 years. That’s what everyone on the Byrne forum says, and I believe them because they are very smart people there.
You know, I never really noticed too much difference between Newbern and Daly. When I first watched JL, it took me some time before I realized it was a different voice actor. Newbern’s performances seemed to improve with time, though. I was just watching some episodes last night and he does a nice job sounding angry at Batman in that Brainiac/Darkseid two-parter. I don’t remember Daly ever portraying Superman with that kind of undiluted venom. On the other hand, like goody said, Daly’s the master at the mild-mannered aspect of Superman - and at the end of the day, I suppose that’s what counts the most.
I was actually just watching that episode not too long ago. Superman pretty much told Bats to “GTFO,” which is uncharacteristically firm of that particular version of the character.
My ultimate misgiving with the JL version of Supes is that he’s a wimp. Early on in the series, he’s physically weak outright, and even later on, he’s still dumb and indecisive. There are other reasons to like the show, but their treatment of Supes during that time always rankled me. By contrast, Bats was too good. He could run, jump, and punch as well as the superpowered characters, which is too much even for him.
I understand that if Supes was as awesome as he typically is, then there wouldn’t be much of a point to having six other characters constantly following him around, but come on. He’s SUPERman. Respect, please.
EDIT:
I haven’t read True Brit. I hear it’s kind of funny, so I might pick it up sometime, but it’s not exactly on my “must have” list.
(My next acquisition is going to be Absolute Watchmen, come hell or high water.)
Anything by Byrne is funny. Not that he ever gets the joke.