Superman: Earth One: Worth Every Penny

When DC Comics announced their new Earth One line of stories in December of last year, many of us were surprised - and not necessarily in a good way - to hear that each tale would come in the form of a 100+ page hardcover graphic novel. That's a pretty expensive way to launch a new line, and a price point of $20 obviously eliminates some potential sampling by fans on a limited budget. It seemed an odd choice, to say the least.

Having just finished the first release, Superman: Earth One, I can absolutely see why they went that way. The re-imaging of the Man of Steel, from the mind of writer J Michael Straczynski and the fingers of artist Shane Davis, is truly breathtaking. Its pace is quite a departure from what we're used to, given the 22-page serialized form of most comics, and it benefits greatly from that freedom. It takes its time introducing its young Clark Kent, who's both like and unlike any version we've seen before. He's still a noble spirit who grew up under the loving guidance of Jonathan and Martha Kent, but he's more multi-dimensional than we're used to in our Man of Steel. His major motivation is to provide for his adopted mother after the death of Jonathan, and he resists for the longest time any urge to don the red-blue-and-yellow jumpsuit that's been prepared for him.

In fact, it takes a full-on alien invasion of the Earth before he accepts his role as super-protector, and even then he makes it clear that he's not there to do the job of police, fire fighters or other heroes. He doesn't want to take away Mankind's sense of self-determination, but rather to field the problems - like marauding aliens! - that our regular response teams just aren't set up for. And hey, I give Straczynski major kudos for going balls-to-the-wall with Kal-El's coming out party. There's a very "9/11" feel to the scenes where the alien armada begins targeting Earth cities for destruction, and that's about the largest canvas imaginable for the world's greatest superhero to debut upon.

The portrayals of Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen were superb, although neither of them were terribly-well developed in what was clearly Clark's story. I liked all of the nods to modern newspaper realities, such as dwindling circulation, online presence and the need for real-time updates. Assuming that we see more of this new "universe" in the coming months, I look forward to finding out where JMS will take the trio of intrepid reporters.

Still to come is Geoff Johns' Batman: Earth One, but I'm having a hard time imagining that it'll beat the standard set by JMS here.