I just finished re-reading this the other day, and as a big dc-head, I wanted to ask you about it. Have you read it? In my opinion, its a tremendous read and hits the superman character pitch-perfect. Even though he was born on another planet and has amazing powers, he was raised as an all-american farmboy with humble beginnings. Its maybe a million times more interesting a character than whatever weirdo loner that Morrison has turned him into. People love post crisis superman up until Death of Superman. I just don't understand why DC would allow Morrison to totally regress their second biggest character. Anyway, I digress. Have you read Superman For All Seasons and what did you think?
Yes, although All-Star Superman is still by far one of the greatest interpretations of the character ever, I'd say. And that's Morrison at his best, doing it as a love letter to the Silver Age in 12 issues. Although really the current run on Action Comics is pretty awesome; it's the revolving door creative teams on Superman that are killing the character for me. But yeah, For All Seasons was a tremendous read, not doing anything particularly new or exciting with the character but just a damn fine Superman comic. I'd also recommend the JLA Elseworlds mini The Nail for a similar take on the character.
Red Son has to be my all-time favorite Superman story. Elseworlds tale of what would happen if Superman had crash landed in Communist Russia instead of the U.S.
ReplyDeleteWhile All-Star Superman is my favorite Superman story really ever (and that's from a big Superman fan), another that really has to be brought up is Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen's Secret Identity. A nice little love letter/reimagining of the Clark Kent of Earth Prime.
ReplyDeleteWas this email from Dougie, or Dougie?
ReplyDeleteI was JUST coming in to say that. I'm pretty well read when it comes to comics and that still stands head and shoulders above everything else for me.
ReplyDeleteBest Superman story ever. Plus,Russian Terrorist...umm...***Man,for those who haven't read it.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wwedvdnews.com/mick-foley-wwe-dvd-news-greatest-rivalries/28745/
ReplyDeleteon the upcoming Foley dvd:
"It was then reported by Mike Johnson at PWInsider.com that last week WWE also recorded interview footage with “The Franchise” Shane Douglas for the documentary."
who would have ever thought we see Shane Douglas appear on a WWE program again?
I really dug Busiek's normal superman run, too. Camelot Falls was very enjoyable. It's more traditionally comic bookish than SI is, but very fun.
ReplyDeleteThe best news all year is that dc has finally figured out that Morrison sucks and he'll be essentially gone come 2013. Best Christmas present ever. His batman run is being completely reversed as we speak!
ReplyDeleteApparently Scott has more than one reader with tremendous taste in comics!
ReplyDeleteI love Superman for All Seasons. Loeb gets a lot of hate these days, but his work with Sale was one of the things that really got me into comics. I picked up For All Seasons and then immediately afterwards got Spider-Man Blue, Daredevil Yellow and Hulk Grey, all of which I love dearly. Not to mention their Batman stories. I wish they would have gotten around to doing Captain America White. I asked Loeb about it at Wondercon a few years back and he said Sale has been sitting on the script for a few years now. Sucks.
ReplyDeleteI also love Superman: Secret Identity. I really liked Superman: Secret Origin by Geoff Johns as well. I'll agree that the definitive Superman story is All Star Superman, though. I'm not much of a Morrison fan, but I'll admit he knocked it out of the park with that series.
It was from John Sorrow. He's a totally different guy, isn't he?
ReplyDeleteI don't love post crisis Superman anywhere near as much as this author. I'm fine with Morrison's take, so yeah. different strokes for different folks.
ReplyDeleteWhich one of DC's 52 universes do you live in? Is that how it happened in yours? Because here on Earth-Prime, Morrison's choosing to leave because he's burned out by the monthly superhero grind.
ReplyDeletePublishers aren't in the habit of firing their best-selling writers. You can not like his work, but you're an even bigger idiot than I thought if you can't recognize that Morrison has open invitation to write whatever he wants, whenever he wants.
And his Batman run hasn't even finished yet, much less "being completely reversed". Whatever that means anyway, since we are talking about fiction here.
I read Superman For All Seasons recently myself. Really great story but All-Star Superman has that amazing page in issue #10 with the suicidal girl that, to me, is the best Superman-related thing I've ever seen. I still don't understand why they cut such a powerful sequence from the animated adaptation.
ReplyDeleteI also think that one panel in Dark Knight Returns when he winks at Carrie is great as well.
All Star #10 is the greatest single Superman issue I've ever read, and that page is the crown jewel.
ReplyDeleteYeah, he's 'choosing to leave'. Just like bendis. Oh and so far we have nearly completely eliminated the idiotic 'batman franchises' thing and Damien is next. So, as always, as soon as Morrison is gone, they have to start undoing his damage. And I can't stop smiling.
ReplyDeleteDamien is going nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI'm intrigued to see Scott Snyder's take on Superman. He writes such dark material that it's very interesting to see what he'll do on a character that's all about hope and optimism.
ReplyDeleteHe's going down. He's going down to Chinatown.
ReplyDeleteHe's going to train with Lady Shiva and Lynx?
ReplyDeleteIf only Morrison or Bendis (you know, the working, successful, professional comic book writers) understood the characters as deeply and intimately as you do, Dougie. Your insight is truly wasted on cable installation.
ReplyDeleteFor that very reason, it's a great opportunity for him to shake being pigeonholed as the "dark" writer. He's already shouted out All Star Superman, and Action Comics Vol. 1 #775, "What's So Funny About Truth, Justice & the American Way?", as among his favorite takes on Superman, so that's encouraging. I just wish he weren't saddled with Jim Lee for it.
ReplyDeleteYeah, nobody likes Jim Lee. :eye-roll:
ReplyDeleteThey should email me. I could definitely help them. They're terrible.
ReplyDeleteI hear you on Jim Lee. His art will always be one of my favourites but it seems so dated now.
ReplyDeleteheh heh heh.."dc head".. heh heh heh
ReplyDelete*runs and hides in the corner*
Good thing I never said that. Lee sells comics, there's no doubt about that. Unfortunately, my enjoyment of them isn't proportionate to their spots on the sales chart. (See how that works, Dougie?) Whatever chance Snyder's story may have had at being truly great ends with Lee drawing it.
ReplyDeleteHe draws one face, is incapable of conveying emotion through character 'acting', and sacrifices storytelling clarity for tonally inappropriate, kewl perspectives. Draws the hell out of fight scenes and vacant cheesecake, but I'm assuming that any great comic is going to require more than just that.
Yeah, you're in an extreme minority as usual.
ReplyDeleteI prefer For All Seasons to All Star. All Star is a great distillation of the Superman mythos including all the super crazy over the top stuff. FAS is quieter, more down to earth, and more character driven, which I prefer.
ReplyDeleteHow dare you have a strong opinion...and on THE INTERNET, at that!
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can have a maverick like you around.
I'm generally not a big Superman fan, but apart from those that have been mentioned, two that I enjoyed were;
ReplyDeleteMark Waid's Birthright. You can sort of think of it as DC's first attempt at copying what Marvel was doing with their Ultimate universe early on. It retains a lot of the Superman mythos, but at the same time modernizes them(like Ma Kent being really into UFOs and conspiracys)
Joe's Casey "What's so Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way" issues of his run. In it, Casey attempts to answer the criticism that Superman's whole Boy Scout attitude no longer works in this era. It was also made into an animated movie titled Superman Vs. the Elite which I think is their best animated work.
Obviously I'm not in the majority, but I've kinda soured on Lee's art as well. In high school, I was drooling over his work on Batman: Hush and I always loved his X-Men art, but I think Joe makes some good points. All of his faces look the same and I don't like the costume redesigns he did for the new 52. I've always been a fan of more cartoony artists anyways like Sale or Samnee or Marcos Martin, so my taste is probably not aligned with most fans.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, I'll buy the hell out of a Snyder Superman regardless of who's drawing.
Gotta say I'm with you on this one, Dougie. Morrison can be fantastic (Animal Man, All Star Supes,) but I really hate his Batman run and especially despise Damien. And then there was Final Crisis, which was awful. Morrison should stick to creator owned stuff like Joe the Barbarian and let other people write coherent comic books.
ReplyDeleteAll-Star Superman is the only Supes series I've bothered to pick up. It was great, on the level of GM's run on New X-Men.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it's actually kinda funny that Grant Morrison is considered a "counter-culture" writer when his main credits include such "underground" titles as Superman, Batman, Justice League and the X-Men.
ReplyDeleteSuperman for all seasons rocks hard! If your looking for an extended run on the character that's also really good I would recomend the Geoff Johns run from several years ago. His take was not only down to earth with the characters it also had some great action. We'll everything up till the influx of the tons of Krypton character's. That's actually when Johns decided he was gone. Johns brought back a lot of cool elements of the character from pre crisis without going completely hokey and old school.
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