To tell you the truth I wasn’t keen on this Superman reboot, all the changes to the family of books and everything. See I didn’t mind the Donnerised version we’d seen for the past ten years under Johns. I loved his Secret Origin trade. Hell I liked that Clark and Lois were married.

But, this is something. This is a Superman I can get into, yet this is not a new Superman. It plays like the original 1938 Superman in a modern world. Depowered, strong but not planet moving strong. He’s much more relatable than he has been in a while. Not exactly fighting for the American way, but for the oppressed. battling Slum lords, crooked politicians and any other scumbag preying on the poor. To make him fresh Morrison gave us the original interpretation. This is not the variation on Miller’s Dark Knight Returns we’ve come accustom to. Since that book Miller defined him to a generation, which he did just as much as Batman. We saw Superman as a conservative, suburban role model. Look at New Frontier, similar approach. A symbol for a perceived American way of life.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. But that definition helped root in a problem with the character. He became old fashion. He became your father’s, or grand father’s superhero. Batman was cool, he was the anti-authority guy against that. As a person who is fascinated by what had come before I sought out those old Superman stories in my youth, I bought that book Superman: 30’s to 70’s. I loved the old stuff that why I’m a big JSA guy,and anything to do with early comics or films. This Superman is that. The crusader. And I loved seeing Superman leaping through the air dragging some bad businessman by the ankle, or crashing in on a wife beater at night, hoisting him into the air. It’s Superman back to basics, back to his first interpretation and he seems more alive than he had been in a while.

I wish he could stay like this, depowered, could get hurt. But you know its only a matter of time before they put him in that ugly armor with the utility belt. Oh well, at least the first arc will be a blast to read.

My only complaint is that the story moves so fast that in the middle I got a little confused with the name dropping of characters I wasn’t familiar with, plus Morrison syntax can at times make you pause. I could care less about the other Superman books, Action is the only one that I’ll buy.