All-Star Superman

It was okay. I think that what happens in it could lead to some good stuff but this issue was pretty much your standard uber-mench Superman and your monomanical Luthor fighting each other indirectly.

Grant = love. That about sums up my opinion.

I haven't picked it up yet, but I'll be following it for Quitely's art, if nothing else.

I have been waiting for this since it's been announced... and I have to wait another week. Can't wait to read it, though.

I loved it right through the heart. I am just a touch shocked that DC made CHANGES to Quitelys artwork, AFTER they gave him their blessing. Other than that, it is a great book ,and I will be sad when Morrisons run is over after 12.

What changes were made?

This is the first Superman title I've bought since I was 13 years old, probably. And it was damn good.

The only part I liked about it was that there was no back story. Just assuming that everyone knew superman's full backstory by now.

I can't wait till superman says "I'm the motherfucking superman bitch"

Great book, wonderful art. It's Morrison in full on crazy superscience mode. My favorite aspect is that Clark Kent looks markedly different from Superman. They're the same guy still, but the disguise is actually believable. Good on you, Frank Quitely.

If you look closely, all the emblems on Supermans chest have been digitally added in on top of Quitelys "re-imagining" of the "S" Shield. I think it sticks out like a sore thumb. I liked the idea of a slightly different take on the logo.

See a comparison of the original and final designs here:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/co...g&article=2266

I finally picked my copy up yesterday, and have read it four times since. It's a great book, and it's tons of fun. I wonder if Morrison will ever see his dream of Superhero Manga-sized digests realized? This book seems perfect for it, content-wise. Anyone can enjoy it, really. This is probably the first truly all-ages comic I've read in quite a while. I've got to give Morrison at least that much.

Insane action scenes don't hurt either. Quitely sure knows how to bring the coolness.

Awesome begining to the run.
The art is so good i bought another copy to cut up and put on the walls.
The housemates all want to read the next volume and they hate Superman and comics.

This is the first Superman comic i´ve bought i a long time, having Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly team up on the book was too good for me to miss.

I'm stunned this thread died. I'm generally skeptical of Grant Morrison, but I love Quitely, and I wanted a new trade, so I picked this up.

It's nothing short of brilliant. Beautiful nods to the silver age Superman stories, the connections to DC One Million that are all over the place, and a genuine sense of superhero wonder without feeling dated. This is what I want from a superhero comic.

I can't wait to find out how Superman survives, and to find out what the deal is with the Unknown Superman of the year 4500, and...everything. This is great.

I thought that Issue 6 revealed the identity of the Unknown Superman...isn't that issue in the trade?

It does, but I'm not buying that as the end of it, if only because issue 2 has the Unknown Superman asking who J.Lo is. Generally, I figure that's a small continuity point and let it slide, but Morrison has been very deliberate in this series with the little points, and I think this one matters.

Yeah, possibly.

As an aside, Issue 8 was the first one that I haven't unabashedly loved.

I read a preview. Bizarrospeak is always a nightmare, even when it's done well. I'm actually a little disappointed that Grant Morrison couldn't come up with an innovative new spin on it that maintained the funny, backwards nature of bizarro with a tolerable level of readability.

Yeah it was a pain-in-the-ass to read, but it had some good moments. I thought the colours were way too downbeat, though.

Which made sense, narratively, but it wasn't very pretty to look at.

Zibarro is a great character, though.

Exactly. I get what they were going for, it just wasn't fun to look at like the rest of the issues.

EDIT: Smeagol here.

I actually preferred this one to the previous issue, which was a bit muddled. And the Bizarro-speak was genuinely funny, something Morrison isn't always good at. But I thought he genuinely accomplished something here by making Bizarro...kinda creepy. I mean, Bizarro himself is still goofy, but the cumulative effect of being trapped on a world full of stupid, crazy people with mixed-up logic, while slowly losing his powers, had a genuinely unnerving effect on me.

I liked the bit about Bizarro-Batman...shot to death by his parents.

The thing I appreciate about this series, as opposed to about 85% of everything Morrison does, is that it doesn't take itself too seriously. Even in the downbeat issues, like the death of Pa Kent one, its got, say, a Superman imp.

Fun stuff...not a lot of "fun" in mainstream comics nowadays.

I'm at Rum's house, he has CHUD on remember me so when I hit reply I sometimes do it as him by mistake.

While I'd agree with you about some stories, most of the stuff I've read of his has been marked by an appreciation for the fact that comics are supposed to be ridiculous and fun. What series are you referring to here?

I love this series, issue 8 was good, not great. I have to ask, am I the only one who found that final shot of Zibarro waving good-bye oddly moving?

My 85% number was admittedly pulled out of my ass--I just run cold on a lot of his work in general, even the stuff that is supposed to be ridiculous. I'm especially a non-fan of his Arkham Asylum, Invisibles, Batman, and JLA stuff.

Yeah, I know I'm in the minority.

Arkham Asylum was fucking atrocious, and his Batman has been hit or miss. I stopped reading JLA because of the horrible art backing stories that weren't worth reading, so yeah I agree with you on those things, but I've found the rest of Morrison's stuff I've read to be great.

I haven't read Arkham Asylum except for a few pages here and there, but it looks like a big problem was the art (and it sounds like Morrison and McKean were really at odds there).

I'm kind of stunned that anyone who was a superhero fan wouldn't like his JLA run. I remember someone a few months ago floating the idea that JLA One Million was the best intra-company crossover ever, and I found it hard to argue.

All this talk of Arkham reminds me that there's a new critical series about Morrison that just came out.

http://tinyurl.com/2em497

Vol. 1 covers Zenith, Animal Man, Arkham Asylum and Doom Patrol.

I liked Arkham when I was a teenager, but it comes off as silly-as-hell to me now. Batman digging a shard of glass into his hand while whimpering "Mommy" and all that.

And yes, McKean wasn't happy with the project overall...

What Madman posted pretty much sums it up about Arkham Asylum. The fucking subtitle does as well...'A Serious House On Serious Earth'? Get the fuck out of here. It's a BATMAN comic. The book is pretentious bullshit for those who can't come to grips with the fact they read superhero comics.

I also hated how suddenly Two-Face needs his coin to decide whether or not to take a shit, but that's really just a nitpick.

The problem with what I read of the JLA run (first two trades) was it felt like a watered down version of the Authority. I'm sure that sounds stupid considering the Authority are basically a more hardcore JLA, but if you think about it should the JLA really be trying to follow the Authority's footsteps in terms of storytelling? I suppose in terms of quality yes, but not necessarily style. I'd much prefer the JLA to have a more reverant style like All-Star Superman than try to keep pace with another title that's already completely outclassed it.

The art was also so repugnant I could barely keep my eyes on the page without cringing.

What Madman posted pretty much sums it up about Arkham Asylum. The fucking subtitle does as well...'A Serious House On Serious Earth'? Get the fuck out of here. It's a BATMAN comic. The book is pretentious bullshit for those who can't come to grips with the fact they read superhero comics.

I also hated how suddenly Two-Face needs his coin to decide whether or not to take a shit, but that's really just a nitpick.

The problem with what I read of the JLA run (first two trades) was it felt like a watered down version of the Authority. I'm sure that sounds stupid considering the Authority are basically a more hardcore JLA, but if you think about it should the JLA really be trying to follow the Authority's footsteps in terms of storytelling? I suppose in terms of quality yes, but not necessarily style. I'd much prefer the JLA to have a more reverant style like All-Star Superman than try to keep pace with another title that's already completely outclassed it.

The art was also so repugnant I could barely keep my eyes on the page without cringing.

Morrison's JLA launched more than two years before The Authority. Morrison was, as he often is, ahead of the curve on "widescreen" superheroics.

Porter's art was pretty atrocious, though.

Morrison's JLA launched more than two years before The Authority. Morrison was, as he often is, ahead of the curve on "widescreen" superheroics.

Porter's art was pretty atrocious, though.

I honestly don't get where you're coming from with the Authority comparison. The Authority, what I've read of it at least (mostly Ellis), explores the moral and ethical issues of having ominpotent super-people not merely protecting the world but governing it as well. JLA is fixed squarely in the "and then they save the world from super-gorillas" camp. The theme is the JLA as embodiments of all that's great about humanity. It's way more upbeat than The Authority. And I thought it was EXACTLY in the mode of All-Star Superman...a little less retro, but ideas like the far-future version of the league, or picking a batch of reserve members who have to hold the fort while the A-listers are distracted, are fairly consistant with how the JLA was portrayed in the silver age.

What did you think of One Million?

I honestly don't get where you're coming from with the Authority comparison. The Authority, what I've read of it at least (mostly Ellis), explores the moral and ethical issues of having ominpotent super-people not merely protecting the world but governing it as well. JLA is fixed squarely in the "and then they save the world from super-gorillas" camp. The theme is the JLA as embodiments of all that's great about humanity. It's way more upbeat than The Authority. And I thought it was EXACTLY in the mode of All-Star Superman...a little less retro, but ideas like the far-future version of the league, or picking a batch of reserve members who have to hold the fort while the A-listers are distracted, are fairly consistant with how the JLA was portrayed in the silver age.

What did you think of One Million?

Yeah, I realized that actually afterwards when I was sorting my trade collection last night. My mistake.

It seems Dan Jurgens and Howard Porter are two of the underhated artists of the '90s, and I say that with only minimal exposure to both, but what little I had was more than enough.

I only read the one trade, but from what I read it was basically an Authority story without any of the moral grey areas and interesting characters that make the Authority worth reading. I'll check out the rest of the run someday based on your praise, but the art really is holding me back from going further for the time being.

Not only have I not read it, I'm only vaguely aware of what it is. Could you give me some more information? I'm always up for a good comics story no matter what it is.

I'd google it, but I prefer a more conversational way of getting information as there's something more special about reading somebody recommend a story and/or summarize it than a Wikipedia entry.

It's funny because I learned that Morrison wrote JLA and picked up that book, but I didn't find out it was a big intra-company crossover until later. I've only read the JLA stuff myself, but apparently it tied in with most of the major books. The Justice League encounters their counterparts from the year 830,000, or something--several hundred thousand years in the future, at any rate. They come back in time to invite the modern-day League, and apparently various other incarnations of the League from throughout history, to participate in a special Superhero Olympics to celebrate...a special (and very weird) occurance that involves Superman. But once the modern League goes forward it turns out to be a trap set by a couple of JLA villains working together, and the future JLA is trapped in our time.

From what I understand, the various other DC books featured the characters fighting to survive the far future while, in the main book, the 830,000 AD league tries to hold things together on modern Earth with the help of the second-string JLA members like Plastic Man, The Atom, Oracle, and Big Barda. I only read the main storyline in JLA, but I could see how it was spinning off a series of cool stories for all the other books. Morrison basically builds up a gigantic history of the future of the DC Universe, some of which he's referenced in All-Star Superman, like the various Superman descendants of the future (the 5th dimensional Superman, the Unknown Superman, etc.) And he created a very memorable villain who's apparently about to surface in ASS as well. My favourite part was how the various JLA members were each assigned to a different planet of the solar system--for instance, Batman was the superhero of Pluto, which in his time was a planet-spanning insane asylum.

It was really awesome.

That's awesome. How is it collected in trades?

A single book that only collects the JLA issues, except I think there were a handful of small stories, like a Starman back-up that's pretty crucial to the main plot. I remember being a bit confused when I read it that we weren't seeing what was going on with "our" Justice League for most of the middle segment. But it's still fairly easy to follow.

Wicked keen. Will have to keep an eye out for it. Who did the art, BTW?

Issue 10 came out last week. It's probably the best Superman comic since Moore's "For the Man Who Has Everything." It's also strongly reminiscent of Morrison's own Flex Mentallo.

And without spoiling it, given the recent Seigel ruling, the next-to-last page is...well-timed.

Came out the same day as the ruling, even. The funny thing is, assuming Warners loses the appeals process, it would be illegal for DC to reprint a certain panel on that page without the Siegel family's permission.

...thus making the Flex Mentallo comparison all the more fitting, I guess.

Heh. Very good, sir.