DC’s All-Star imprint launched with the much anticipated All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder, written by Frank Miller and drawn by Jim Lee. While the idea of the All-Star comics – stories holding to no set continuity, written and illustrated by the industry’s greatest talents — is an inspiring answer to Marvel’s starting-over-from-the-beginning imprint, Ultimate, the lukewarm critical reception to Batman & Robin didn’t bode well for DC’s fledgling experiment. Thus, some fans have been holding their collective breath as Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman #1 quickly approached.

Those fans can breathe a sigh of relief. All-Star Superman #1 is not just better than Batman & Robin has been thus far – characterizations, pacing, and plot are much more gripping here – it is better than almost any single-issue Superman comic in recent memory, and affirms the All-Star line to be one of the great innovations in comics this year.

The story begins with a team of astronauts attempting to reach the sun, when one member suddenly begins to mutate into a self described “genetically modified suicide bomb in human form…courtesy of Lex Luthor” – it’s Morrison at his most unnerving, all the more effective thanks to Quitely’s wonderfully creepy Akira-meets-Jack Kirby style – and our hero comes to save the day. It turns out this was all a ruse by Luthor to get Superman to fly so close to the sun (his source of power) that his cells would go into overload, burst from within, and thus, Superman would find himself to be dying. And it appears to have worked. From there, we’re introduced to Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and the rest of the gang.

What Morrison has accomplished here is not to be understated, and it’s thanks to the proverbial sandbox that the All-Star line has provided for him to play in. Morrison’s Clark Kent is a bumbling, slouching, warm-hearted oaf who is corny enough to yell, “Stop the presses!” Lois Lane and Clark Kent aren’t married as they are in the regular comics, and Lois doesn’t even know that Clark is Superman. Luthor is established as a cold, calculating mastermind, and his plot to kill Superman is already more convincing and more pleasing than the “Doomsday” story ever was. All this makes for an engrossing read with the characters in their classic iterations – not what they’ve become – and just as we would like to remember them.

Most importantly, however, Morrison and Quitely have restored Superman’s “wow-factor.” The cover depicts our hero sitting atop a cloud at dawn, overlooking Metropolis, and peeking back over his shoulder with a slight smile on his face. He has the look of a parent watching over his sleeping children, wondering what the day will bring. It’s an arresting work of art: Superman looks magical, inspiring, and heroic, and like much of what follows, the cover reminds us why we loved this character so much in the first place. Mission accomplished for the All-Star imprint.

Comic Reviews