Released on September 18th, 2019
I did read #1 and #2, but #3 came out way back on September 18th of last year and I just got around to reading it. The whole series has been on my Ipad since then, and it is a pretty good book, though I guess not good enough to give me an incentive to read it in a timely fashion. The reason that this book was kind of a big deal when it came out was the fact that writer Matt Fraction finally returned to writing a book at one of the big two. He used to write for Marvel years ago, and he wrote just about every book they have (X-Men, Fantastic Four, Iron-Man, Thor). The best thing he ever wrote, though, was Hawkeye, which was tongue-in-cheek and comedic but also heartfelt, unique, and highly entertaining. That was the last book he did for the big two until he came back last year with this Jimmy Olsen 12 part mini-series. In his time off from the mainstream superhero world he was working mostly on Image's Sex Criminals, which continued his bizarre, absurd, tongue-in-cheek type of humor that blossomed with Hawkeye. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen is pretty much more of the same. It's not particularly a laugh-out-loud book, but it is supposed to be stupid-funny, also cute-funny. It's such a weird book that, when you read it, you kind of can't believe a major company like DC okayed it. It feels like a book by a writer who doesn't care if he gets fired tomorrow, if that makes sense. The basic story is that Jimmy Olsen, who's a reporter at Metropolis' Daily Planet alongside Clark Kent (in case you're reading a frigging comic book blog and don't know Superman), is trying to be killed by someone. Olsen fakes his death and heads to Gotham City to lay low and uncover the truth behind who's trying to kill him. That sounds pretty simple...but there's a lot more going on. The book is set up into short chapters with different characters. We get a story with distant relatives of Lex Luthor and Jimmy Olsen a hundred or so years ago. We also get a story with a porcupine man going to Jimmy Olsen's lawyer's office...for some reason. And there are others that I guess have something or other to do with the main plot. I probably read #1 and #2 last summer so I'm a bit lost. The art by Steve Leiber is nice and looks cartoonish, which helps set the perfect tone. The book has a lot of words and thus probably one of the few DC or Marvel books actually worth $3.99...plus it's a lot more entertaining than both Superman titles that Brian Bendis is writing (I gave up on both of them last year). So it's fairly light and fun and forgettable, just like Jimmy Olsen. **1/2
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