Surprise! Bet you didn't expect this! But yes, for this Road to I'll also be reviewing what influenced James Gunn's upcoming Superman movie. Although not everything single one. Cause he listened a lot. So instead I'll be reviewing what I can. But enough of my rambling, let's get to the review.
Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? was a 1986 storyline that was published in the 1939 volume of Superman with issue #423 and ended in the 1938 volume of Action Comics with issue #583. Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? acts as the final tale to the Silver Age version of Superman and his long history, before the reboot following Crisis on Infinite Earths was fully set in motion. The story was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Curt Swan.
The story is, a Daily Planet reporter is interviewing Lois Lane about what happened to Superman following his disappearance ten years ago. She recalls how his enemies attacked him but in far more violent ways than before. Her, Superman, and their friends were all wondering the same thing during this dark period, how will this end for the Man of Tomorrow?
- Negatives
I've got nothing.
- Mix
Nope, nothing here either.
- Positives
Now I do got somethings to say for this section, starting with the pacing. You'll just breeze by this, without feeling like the story is dragging on. I myself was able to finish reading with only a few minutes, while getting a lot of story.
Then we have Curt Swan's art. I'm probably gonna lose comic geek points for this, but I'll acknowledge that Curt is a legendary Superman artist and deserved to be spoken about in the same vein as the other great artist and not just being a Superman artist. Having said he's not my favorite out of the more old school comic artist, but I think he did a phenomenal job here. He's got very clean lines, his action scenes were well done, and he greatly worked well with the tone of the story being told. It's also very fitting a guy mostly recognized as the top Silver Age artist was lucky enough to get the chance to draw this, especially since it's very fitting given what version of Superman this is. And fun fact, this was Curt's last major contribution to Superman comics, and what a way to go out.
Speaking of tone, I loved the tone of this. While Alan Moore is mostly known for dark stories such as V for Vendetta, Batman: The Killing Joke, and his most famous of all, Watchmen. While he still applies that darker tone here, after the big bads are defeated, during the latter half of Action Comics #583 there is a more hopeful tone. Especially for the ending.
The other fantastic aspect of Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? is how it manages to balance out the two different eras. What I mean is while the story's tone is more in line with the grittier take on comics like we've seen from the late 80's to now, the story still sticks with a lot of the more outlandish stuff of the Silver Age. Such as villains called the Kryptonite Man, Metallo's more goofier costume, and side characters such as Jimmy Olsen and Lana Lang getting more gimmicky powers. While being dirtied up a bit like the Modern Age, there's still some love given to the Silver Age.
The last praise I'll give is how this did give the Silver Age version of Superman a great ending. I won't give anything away just in case you want to read this, but what I will say is after so many years of this version of the Man of Steel fighting the good fight whether it'd be serious or just outright goofy, he deserved the ending he got.
While not being a huge fan of the Silver Age (another thing that'll probably make me lose some geek cred 😆), I absolutely love this story. If you're a fan of Superman or getting into the character, then I strongly recommend reading this.
My final rating is, A Must Read!
That's gonna do it for me. Sadly the next stop will be....Superman IV: The Quest for Peace 😫. Thankfully that won't be until Nov 25th, but still. Anyways, due come back on Saturday, Sept 21st for my review of Transformers One. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.
No comments:
Post a Comment