Road to Superman (2025) - Superman for All Seasons Review

 

Alright, back with the Road to Superman (2025). Let's get to it.

Superman for All Seasons was a 1998 four issues miniseries with DC Comics publishing, while Jeph Loeb wrote the story with the late Tim Sale drawing every issue.

The story is, a young Clark Kent is living in a small Kansas town believing to be another ordinary kid. Until his discovers he has superpowers and he comes from a different planet. As Clark grows to be the hero known as Superman, four people who hold different but big parts in his life think and adapt to this sudden change in their lives.

• Negatives

I've got nothing.

• Mix

Nope, nothing here either.

• Positives

Alright let's get to the more brief stuff first. Like the pacing. Some areas were a bit slow, but 99.99% of the time this can be a quick read.

Then there's the humor. It's primarily in the dialogue. Lots of back and forth comments, and I think my favorite bit was when people were spit balling ideas of what Superman's name should be before settling on Superman, and Jimmy's name suggestion was so bad Lois told him to stick to photography.

Alright now for the big parts that make this graphic novel so great. Starting with Tim Sale's art. First a sneak peek at some of his work for this comic series.

If you ask me, I don't believe I showed you all of the really good stuff. But the reason why Tim's art is so great was because not only was he good with facial expressions and body language, but he was able to capture some beautifully drawn smaller moments and was no slacker when it came to a double page spreads. I mean it, if you read this those double pages are gorgeous. Which when re-reading this and seeing Tim's art once again makes it all the more sadder he's no longer with us. But hey, he left a great body of work.

But let's also give credit to Bjarne Hansen's colors. The guy blew my mind when I read this way back when, and his color work still blows my mind. It's gorgeous and graceful. I could look at Bjarne's colors all day and never get tired. And along with Tim Sale, he's able to tell us what season the story takes place in without making it obvious.

The last praise I'll give goes to the story. One aspect is we explore Superman's humanity. While there is some action to be had, Jeph Loeb mainly focuses on Superman's character. We see his heroic heart, but we also see him go through set backs and for a good portion of the story we see him go through self-doubt. But Superman isn't the only focus. We also read and see the impact Clark/Superman has on other people. A matter of fact, the story is told from their perspectives. However each of these points of views can be similar but also manage to be different from one another. While some such as Lois Lane view him as a mystery, we also get a more personal view from characters such as Superman's adoptive father Jonathan Kent. So overall Jeph Loeb was still writing about one of the most iconic superheroes of all time, but his story for this miniseries was very human.

While some of favorite superhero comics involve tons of action, I very much enjoy smaller stories such as this one.

My final rating is, A MUST READ!

I honestly had a blast revisting this. But that's all for now. Come back on Thursday, Feb 27th, for yet another comic book review but this time on the Marvel side, with my review of Daredevil: Born Again. Until then, enjoy the rest of your day.