Writer: Grant Morrison
Penciller: Frank Quitely
Digital Inks & Colors: Jamie Grant
Even more Morrison…
So going into this comic, I had always thought that something was off behind the perception of Superman. Many people believe that a character who can’t die is somehow boring. Well, Grant Morrison took that thought and then swiftly kicked it to the curb and defied perceptions in this story.
Thanks to a “botched” attack by Lex Luthor on a ship exploring the sun, Superman simultaneously is given new powers and then promptly given one year to live before the pressure kills him from the inside out. We find this out within the first thirty pages, and then we are given the treat of reading of a doomed immortal.
Knowing what I do of Clark Kent, I am not at all surprised he chose to reveal his secret identity to Lois Lane, and I also was not surprised that Lois did not believe it for one second. I found this refreshing because in most of the Superman fiction I’ve seen so far, she instantly believes the connection, but that’s not life. How is a reporter, someone whose job is literally to hunt down the truth, going to believe as grandiose of a “switcheroo” as Kent being Superman.
I thought Superman/Clark bringing Lois to the Fortress of Solitude was appropriate and a good way to prove his point, although it could have backfired when she starts to become paranoid and attacks him. “Luckily”, his new powers granted him immune to the attack and he’s allowed to explain the situation in a little more detail.
Then, when you didn’t think it was possible, Morrison takes us further down the rabbit hole when Lois is given 24 hours of Superman’s power. It was both incredibly romantic and served as an interesting sequence where (together) they defeat a massive beast and then kiss on the moon following a very heartfelt exchange.
In the year following, Luthor claims to be at peace as long as Superman is killed by his actions. This version of Lex Luthor was far more sinister and intelligent than versions of him I have read or seen previously. I did not expect him to somehow survive being executed, or to even have the kind of allies as Solaris to where the sun could have been tampered with specifically for the purpose of “poisoning” Superman. It is quite ironic that learn Solaris will (supposedly) one day become an ally of the people of Earth.
At the same time, I knew it was bad news bears when Luthor was able to obtain powers similar to Superman, and my heart dropped between the panels when Kent falls over dead and Luthor decides to attack Metropolis. For a moment (and because I’ve seen the kind of craziness that Morrison can produce), I thought that he’d really leave Luthor as a powerful tyrant in the universe. Thankfully, I was wrong, and in a series of panels that sort of reminded me of the exchange at the end of the Harry Potter series, Clark chooses to come back to life and takes Luthor down.
Now, up to this point, you may be wondering why I am giving a synopsis of the run. It’s for the following moment that left me with even more questions regarding Superman. For a very brief time Luthor is able to see the world as Clark does, and starts to cry before he’s taken out. Now, this did a few things for me. It led me to believe that Superman is aware of the collective suffering going on in the world at all times. It made me have more respect for the character, even if the reveal did have a Jesus-like quality to it. In short, it really added a dimension to Superman that I had not considered.
It’s easy to forget that Kal-El is an alien, and as such, maybe his understanding of the world is simply beyond ours. Maybe he just possesses the physical and emotional fortitude to withstand such cognitive dissonance. This is further proven when Superman leaves his fate with the Sun itself, flying into it to repair the damage done. A select few may believe he will return, but as it turns out, Metropolis may see her Savior once again.
Frank Quitely and Jamie Grant did a very solid job with the artwork. It wasn’t the best I have seen, but given the tone of the run and some of the themes handled, they knew how to convey the emotion Morrison’s words created in each panel. Each characters grief and anger was drawn in a painfully accurate way. This just added to the final few panels of Lois and Superman, as well as the sections of the story where we are allowed to see the true grief of our doomed hero.
Read this comic, but do so knowing that you may come away from it with a completely different perspective on Superman.
In this reader’s eyes, that’s more than a good thing.
Categories: Comic Books, Review
The 616 Project 
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