Action Comics 1 Thoughts

Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Rags Morales

Perfect.

I hate to start off with such glowing praise, but that's what this first issue of Action Comics is. Perfect. For years, Superman has struggled to remain relevant in a world which is increasingly cynical and gray. It's caused him to slip to the middle of the sales charts while DC pulls stunt after stunt out to try and remind comic fans about the character--largely to no avail.

So what do you do? How do you make a character like Superman interesting, without changing the core of who he is? Well, as it turns out, the answer to that is simple: You take the character back to his roots.

The original Superman didn't just fight mad scientists and threats from places no one's heard of. He fought organized crime and corrupt businessmen. Of course, when he was created, that's not what people wanted to read about--so characters like Captain Marvel, who had more traditional superhero tales, outsold him at the newsstands.

But that was decades ago, in the late 30's and the 40's. And I imagine it just never occurred to DC, until now, that in a time where people are demanding more realism from their stories, and in a time where businessmen get to embezzle billions of dollars from their own companies only to see their companies get bail-outs from governments while banks foreclose on the homes of honest, hard-working people--that maybe...just maybe, people might prefer to see a guy actually fight for the little man.

And boy does it work. Action Comics 1 starts roughly six years in the past, at the start of the DC Universe's new history. This version of Superman has never faced Brainiac, or Doomsday, or even Lex Luthor. He's never met Batman or any other superhero. Heck, he doesn't even have a costume. He's just a guy in tattered jeans and a blue T-Shirt with his signature emblem on it, tracking down CEOs who use illegal labor and bribes to make buildings on the cheap.

He's a wild card--someone with a lot of power, who's just cocky and angry enough to use it. And the story deals with that, too. You don't just get to jump off the side of a building holding billionaire business owners trying to force them to admit their crimes without incident. Nope, this is a Superman who has both the police and the army after him for his rampant vigilante-ism.

But he's no anti-hero. On the contrary, he's polite enough to tell someone attacking him to go to the doctor and get an ulcer checked. He refuses to attack anyone that can't be a real threat to him. He puts himself at great danger to save the lives of anyone at risk around him. No, he's a hero with a capital H. He's just angry. Angry at all the people who already have all the power but they're still bullying those that don't. From the macro scale (see the CEO incident), all the way down to the personal scale (the issue has a mention of him tossing an abusive boyfriend out the window of his own apartment and into a river), this is a Superman that has no problem skirting around the rules to get the job done.

As someone who gets ill at the sight of yet another "extreme!!" ultra-violent anti-hero--who can't stand The Authority, or the Ultimate Universe or any of their ilk--I have to say, I like this new Superman.

Yes, he's angry. He SHOULD be. We should be. Every time a wave of people lose their jobs but higher ups keep their seven figure salaries. When experienced workers get fired because it's cheaper to hire someone new and pay them base salary. When some scum puts his hands on a woman. Or takes advantage of the elderly or mentally disabled and makes off with their money on some scam. Or gangs brutally murdering people because they had the audacity to snitch on their illegal activities.

These things that we see every day--even the nicest, altruistic person should be enraged by them. And if they had the power, I have no doubt they'd do the same things we see here. Shit, I would.

And that's the hook. For the first time in ages, Superman is a relatable character. He's doing what we WISH we could do. Superheroes were always a power fantasy, Grant just reinterpreted the fantasy into something older people can identify with.

I'm sure sooner or later he'll be back to dealing with world-threatening bad guys, and I'll welcome that too--but for now, it's nice to have him come down to Earth for a bit.

Can't wait for issue 2.