Grant Morrison writing more Superman! Superman’s a hero of the people who does almost more good in his day job as a muck-raking reporter than in his cape saving individuals! Lex Luthor is working with Lois Lane’s dad!

It is my humble opinion that this should have been the first book published and released by DC for their new 52. I loved this characterization of Superman and Clark Kent and feel like comics is better off as a result of it. This is out there, in the modern age, and there’s no way we won’t be seeing more of these “early adventures” type stories for Super in the future. For everyone who complains about Superman being boring because he’s invulnerable and the strongest thing there is, you need to read this issue.

I know I’ve already compared one hero to Spider-Man in this set of reviews, but I’m going to do it again. Never before have I seen Superman get so easily bruised up and beaten down. Never before have I read Superman expressing pain and discomfort so quickly and easily. These are minor things though, compared to the story itself. It’s an origin story of Superman we’ve never read. It feels, in an intangible kind of way, a lot like Superman’s version of Batman Year One. It’s not at all in the same style, and where I love the art of B:YO, I was left less than thrilled by the uneven drawings of artist Rags Morales. In some panels he shines in both depictions of Lois and Superman, but others just feel clumsy and don’t carry the same iconic qualities.

I’m really excited to see where the story goes, and the last page (a full-paged spread of a very unlikely image of Superman), actually made me raise my eyebrows a bit at how surprised I was by it. I’ll take more Peter Parker Superman please.