All Star Superman... OVER RATED!
All-Star Superman is one of the most over-praised comic book in recent memory.
I didn't hate but it was only... okay. I'm basing my opinions on having a collection of over 20,000 books and as someone who started reading Superman with regularity in 1983... so I have over 22 years of reading along with a substancial collection of Superman comics.
There were other Superman stories this year that were better and it doesn't go near the best of the Superman stories like Byrne's reboot or Moore's What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Maybe my expectations were too high (as in not reachable) but it seemed.... pedestrian. A lot happened but when it was over it felt like nothing did and I was hard pressed to remember SOMETHING that blew me away... or even made me say "wow that was awesome..." or ANYTHING. It felt like a bottle of beer that is half empty... when you want a full one.
I also go the "been there, done that" feel when I was reading it. From Superman revealing his identity to Lois to squaring off against Lex Luthor... Been there. Morrison is working with an icon and can't stray TOO far from what makes Superman super... but it just didn't awe or wow me like I was expecting.
The art wasn't too shabby... in fact I think it's Quitley's best work. But now I'm wondering about him keeping a regular schedule... and I don't think he can do it.
I find Morrison is best when he's working on something TOTALLY different and original (WE3) or something so unusual he makes it his own (Doom Patrol). I thought the potential was there for it to be GREAT, but with all great fiction you have to CARE for the star or the book (comic, novel or whatever) and though Superman was diagnosed with radiation poisoning I didn't care.
That Luthor was "serious" now about killing Superman didn't seem to threatening because we only have his word that he's tried before Granted it IS only 1 issue in, I think they should have had flashbacks inserted to fill in somne back story... so in that regard I feel the execution was off slightly. We were thrown in the middle of a story with no idea HOW we got to that pooint or why. I think a story like that can be done, and quite well, but it should have been done AFTER we got to know the characters first.
I was hoping for some serious ORIGINALITY from Morrison. This is a chance to do RADICAL and off the wall things with Superman (while still maintaing the CORE of the character) without offending the purists. Instead we got Superman bating a bad guy, revealing his identity to Lois, Lex threatening to beat Superman... all done before.
Morrison's Doom Patrol (using 40 year old characters) was a TOTAL change from the original concept. Really the only simplarities were the names and the BASIC core of the character. The stories were fantastic and (again) ORIGINAL.
I didn't hate but it was only... okay. I'm basing my opinions on having a collection of over 20,000 books and as someone who started reading Superman with regularity in 1983... so I have over 22 years of reading along with a substancial collection of Superman comics.
There were other Superman stories this year that were better and it doesn't go near the best of the Superman stories like Byrne's reboot or Moore's What Happened to the Man of Tomorrow. Maybe my expectations were too high (as in not reachable) but it seemed.... pedestrian. A lot happened but when it was over it felt like nothing did and I was hard pressed to remember SOMETHING that blew me away... or even made me say "wow that was awesome..." or ANYTHING. It felt like a bottle of beer that is half empty... when you want a full one.
I also go the "been there, done that" feel when I was reading it. From Superman revealing his identity to Lois to squaring off against Lex Luthor... Been there. Morrison is working with an icon and can't stray TOO far from what makes Superman super... but it just didn't awe or wow me like I was expecting.
The art wasn't too shabby... in fact I think it's Quitley's best work. But now I'm wondering about him keeping a regular schedule... and I don't think he can do it.
I find Morrison is best when he's working on something TOTALLY different and original (WE3) or something so unusual he makes it his own (Doom Patrol). I thought the potential was there for it to be GREAT, but with all great fiction you have to CARE for the star or the book (comic, novel or whatever) and though Superman was diagnosed with radiation poisoning I didn't care.
That Luthor was "serious" now about killing Superman didn't seem to threatening because we only have his word that he's tried before Granted it IS only 1 issue in, I think they should have had flashbacks inserted to fill in somne back story... so in that regard I feel the execution was off slightly. We were thrown in the middle of a story with no idea HOW we got to that pooint or why. I think a story like that can be done, and quite well, but it should have been done AFTER we got to know the characters first.
I was hoping for some serious ORIGINALITY from Morrison. This is a chance to do RADICAL and off the wall things with Superman (while still maintaing the CORE of the character) without offending the purists. Instead we got Superman bating a bad guy, revealing his identity to Lois, Lex threatening to beat Superman... all done before.
Morrison's Doom Patrol (using 40 year old characters) was a TOTAL change from the original concept. Really the only simplarities were the names and the BASIC core of the character. The stories were fantastic and (again) ORIGINAL.
posted by He Said... She Said at
8:31 AM
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