Last year, with great fanfare, writer J. Michael Straczynski came to DC Comics and took over Superman and Wonder Woman. After a few issues of lackluster interest he was taken off the books, his future plots given to other writers to finish. The reason that DC gave for the shocking news was that his new hardcover graphic novel, Superman: Earth One, was such a blockbuster in the sales department that Straczynski would immediately go to work writing another hardcover graphic novel and not mess around with petty monthly books. I read the first few issues in his short Superman and Wonder Woman runs and they were pretty awful. Superman: Earth One, though, is a terrific read. It tells the origin of Clark Kent in an alternate Earth, although it's not really that different at all. Clark grows up in Smallville, heads to Metropolis, writes for the newspaper, meets Lois Lane, faces an alien menace, and eventually reveals that he's Superman to the world. The origin story of how his planet Krypton is destroyed is changed a little bit, but it's mostly just a typical Superman origin story minus Lex Luthor. The art by Shane Davis is awesome stuff, albeit he's better working on small panels. His splash pages are terrible for some reason. Davis reminds me of Rob Liefeld, which a lot of people hate, but I've always loved his bombastic style. This is super entertaining stuff, and it's too bad they didn't just run this as a four part monthly in Superman. We would have been spared that forgettable "Grounded" storyline where Superman walks nonchalantly across America. Ugh. ***
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