I love the character of Superman. I’ve been buying all the Superman titles off the newsstand/comic shop for 28 years without missing an issue. I’ve picked up back issues and have every issue of Superman and Action back to about 1954, and most of the secondary titles from about 1960 on.
I loved the wild “anything goes” weirdness of the Weisinger years (“Great Scott! Myxtzptlk has turned that submarine into a giant banana!”), I loved the bizarre (and all too brief) Kirby stuff (“Goody” Rickles? Giant Green Jimmy Olsen?!), I loved the depth and thoughtfullness of the Elliot S! Maggin years where Maggin examined what the responsiblities of a Superman were and weren’t. I loved his explorations of the idea that ultimate power doesn’t have to corrupt. I liked the Bates years, with their “comfortable old slippers” feel. He didn’t do anything new or exciting, but he told competent stories.
Then Byrne took over and like a child destroying something he’s not bright enough to understand*, all the history, richness and depth were gone. Krypton was no longer interesting, it was sterile. Clark was no longer an everyman that readers could identify with, he was (to paraphrase Byrne) “A brie-eating yuppie”, and gone was a Superman smart enough to know that killing was wrong, Byrne had Superman kill, because Superman was to dumb to know that killing was wrong until he tried it out. :rolleyes: (A few years later, there was another story about how Superman was too dumb (as a late teen) to know that driving drunk was wrong until he tried it out. )
Anyway, Byrne left, and slowly others (Roger Stern and George Perez, mainly) began to repair the damage that Byrne’s slash-n-byrne writing had done, and largely succeeded.
Then came the Death and Resurrection of Superman. So-so story, though I’ll give 'em points for innovation. But since then, the books have been floundering downhill. There have been issues here and there that’ve been good, but nothing that really clicked with me. Then, recently, four new writers and artists took over the four Superman titles.
I can usually ignore bad art, but this goes beyond the pale: Superman’s now being drawn as an anime-version of The Hulk. His chest is 7 feet wide and he has teeny little legs. Gone are the sleek lines of a Curt Swan, or a Wayne Boring or a George Perez, Superman now looks like a circus freak (If any of you remember Megaton Man, he now looks something like that).
But beyond that, I’m sick of the Superman writers teasing and pissing on older fans like me.
The current team of writers seemed to be floundering. Stories were meandering, characters no-one cared about were introduced and disapper without a ripple (remember Kancer or Tumor or whatever the hell it’s name was? Remember the purple ram-horn guy in the Superman outfit from the fake Kandor? Neither do I.), stupid mega-plots drive the book (what the hell happened in World at War anyway? It was gibberish) at the expense of telling stories. I was getting set to quit the book out of sheer boredom when the writers brought back the “real” Krypton about a year ago. It wasn’t a good story, but I’ll admit it caught my interest. And, I enjoyed seeing more of Byrne’s damage being undone. And as a final bonus they brought back Krypto. I thought that this would be the start of something good. The writers seemed to be having fun playing with the concept of a super-powered dog…that was a dog. (The silver-age Krypto wasn’t really a dog. Dogs shouldn’t think in complete sentences.) I could overlook obnoxious art if the stories were interesting.
Unfortunately, apparently the reason they brought back the ‘real’ Krypton was to ruin it ("See? We gave you the ‘real’ Krypton. But now it’s dark and ugly. And we’ll maim Lara. On panel.) and the reason they brought back Krypto was to butcher him. Boy, I’m impressed :rolleyes:
And that’s it. The final straw. I quit. I don’t want to pay to see a corpse being defecated on.
I love the character of Superman, but y’know what? The guy running around isn’t Superman. Sure, they can call him that, but sorry, he’s not. They’ve undermined everything I cared about with the character and I’m sure that Seigle and Shuster would be appalled at what’s been done to the first and best super-hero of them all.
I’ll save the money I woulda spent on the Superman books and buy back issues or Archive Editions. At least there I’ll get to read Superman stories again.
Goodbye, Kal-El. It’s been fun.
Fenris
*Proof of this: Byrne, when he decided to turn Luthor into Kingpin, explained how he thought the “Superboy made Luthor bald” origin was stupid. Um…except that that was never the whole reason. He apparently didn’t bother to read the source material. Even in the original version of the origin from the late '50s, there was much more to it than that. He also thought that Superboy was stupid because 'everyone knew Superboy couldn’t die ‘cause he grows up to be Superman. So what’s the point of Superboy stories?’ :rolleyes: