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When one looks in the box, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the cat.

Reactor

SUPERMAN SECRET ORIGIN 1 of 6?
Written by Geoff Johns?
Penciled by Gary Frank
Inked by Jon Sibal?
Colors by Brad Anderson
Published by DC Comics

What happens when you take one of my favorite characters and one of my favorite writers and slam them together? You got an all-around classic comic book that you don’t need to know years of continuity to enjoy. From the title you can guess what the story is about. It’s Superman’s origin written by one of the best comic writers going today, Geoff Johns.

So we’ve all seen the movies, and I’m sure most of us have read something about Superman in our lives. He’s a pop-culture icon. What makes this so different?

While I don’t like answering a question with a question…why does it have to be different? I can tell you that it’s unlike most of the comics gracing the shelves today. It’s not dark or angry or trying to prove a point. What we get is Superman’s origin from his days in Smallville with Gary Frank illustrating. If Norman Rockwell sat down to draw a comic book I think this is as close as we can get without the Rockwell signature. It’s that slice-of-life midwest America and how a young boy deals with finding out he has powers. Forget puberty.

Clark plays football with his friends and because he pushes that much harder he breaks his best friend’s arm. We’ve seen this before in the television show Smallville and I’m sure it’s done on purpose. Geoff after all is writing a few of the episodes this season. But unlike Smallville, what I liked about this particular story is that Lana already knows Clark has powers. Both may not know why and certainly not that he’s from another planet. But they know he’s indestructible.

One day as children they were playing hide and seek in a cornfield. But Lana never saw the thresher coming. If it wasn’t for Clark she would have died, and likewise without even knowing he had powers he sacrificed himself for his best friend. The fact they lived through it all was probably considered miraculous. However Geoff doesn’t take the biblical slant. All Clark can say is “I’m stronger than steel! Cool!”

Clark says he’s afraid to touch anyone. He doesn’t want them to get hurt. Lana tells him not to be afraid and leans in for a kiss. They both find out Clark has heat vision. You can only guess how and why.

Through it all Jonathan Kent, Pa, picks him up from practice, and then from school, always with some kind of ambulance or fire truck at the scene. So he thinks it’s about time that Ma and Pa Kent tell their boy where he comes from. Ma thinks it’s a bad idea but Clark right there with them keeps asking what they’re talking about. Martha give in.

We all know this. Clark’s ship is hidden in the basement of the house. All they intended to do was show Clark. What happened when he touched it was something that none of them expected.

Jor-El and Lara manifest themselves through the ship in a holographic image. It’s what we’ve seen before in the movies, except this doesn’t happen in the Fortress of Solitude. It doesn’t exist at this point. Geoff takes it from a more human level while still giving us some nice visuals to play off of.

But what you wouldn’t expect is the reaction from Clark. He uses his fists to beat the ship until the hologram turns off. He wants to be normal. He wants to be Clark Kent. Pa’s son.

Jor-El and Lara have all the expressions of loving parents but the cold images they show themselves as say otherwise. Clark goes on to tell them to stop enrages, the exact opposite of how he is around his Earth parents, and all they can do is stare back through the recording. No humanity, if any, can be found in the Kryptonians.

We get other little nods to the Superman lore such as where Clark gets his glasses. His mother fashioned them from the crystal shards that Clark “punched” off the ship.

We see Luthor’s beginnings, coming from a broken home and literally tripping over a Kryptonite artifact.

Clark begins to make excuses of why he can’t play football with his friends and see the beginning of the bumbling reporter we all know and love. But Lana knows better and puts him in his place. This is the first time in years I actually like Lana Lang. Smallville has made me jaded.

But you have to ask yourself, if he’s manifesting all of these powers, what about flight? While it wasn’t there in the beginning, it’s become integral to the legend of Superman. Well let’s just say Lana asks Clark to help him set up her aunt’s floral booth for the county fair and a twister rolls in.

They’ll find out that this time the glasses hold in the heat vision.

In between it all we get more Lex that seems like a brainy kid that hates the world. Maybe it’s just the town. Maybe it’s just his family. But he sees something in Clark. Perhaps a friendship or at the very least a somewhat equal.

And at the end of it all Clark wants to help people. But Martha says he’ll have to wear something more durable. She’s seen enough of her share of torn and tattered clothing.

The ending is priceless and if you’re a fan of A Christmas Story you’ll know where this is going.

Geoff writes dialogue between characters that is natural. His script is pure silver age and everything about it shows you why comic books are fun. We get a portrait of The Boy of Steel in a small town without going too far or too bogged down in continuity we don’t need to know (although the future is eluded to by the crystals…) to enjoy the origin of Superman.

It’s beginning anyway.


Anthony Schiavino can be found talking comics, movies, television and all things pulp at his website

PulpTone.com

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About the Author

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Anthony Schiavino

Author

Writer, Screenwriter, and Graphic Designer. Anthony Schiavino (Ska-vee-no) is the creator and writer of Sergeant Zero, represented by David Hale Smith, and co-publisher of EPISODES from the ZERO HOUR! Anthony is currently working on his first novel, Shotglass Memories. From the halls of Marvel Comics as an x-mutant editorial intern, to the heights of the Flatiron designing book covers, and straight on through as newspaper art director, he's seen action and then some. His greatest achievement, however, is and will always be his daughter.
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