The birth of a Classic?
Last week I experienced - for the first time in a long time- a new comic book withdrawal. I'd read all of my new comic books within a few days, and as a result, was in desperate need of more reading material. It was during the subsequent search that I re-discovered and re-read my trade of All Star Superman. It's been years since I last read it (by years I probably mean about 4); and rather spontaneously I decided to write a review for each issue.
I'll be honest from the outset; I class All Star Superman as among one of my favourite mini-series ever written. Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely one of my favourite creative teams. Regardless, I'll try and be as objective as possible in my reviews of this series. After all, it isn't absolutely perfect, there are flaws, slight slips in the art quality, slight slips in plot management and writing. And yet, if you only ever plan on reading this review, I will highly recommend this series to anyone interested in the mythos of Superheroes, comic books or exquisite story-telling in general. Now, onto Issue 1; "....Faster.....". (Warning: minor spoilers may exist within this review)
On the Plot and Death:
Grant Morrison is known for his intricately detailed plots and his wildly "out there" moments. He pushes the boundaries in his use of character and storyline. It would be fair to say that this issue is no different. This being an "All Star" title allows GM canonical freedom - free reign on the characters, without the hindrance of years of continuity. Morrison utilizes this freedom with immediate effect. He kills Superman, or - at least- sets the events in motion that will lead to Superman's death. The reveal of Superman's impending demise happens about 8 pages in- roughly half way through the issue. Structurally, it works. Plot-wise it allows Morrison to get it out of the way, and focus on the what is to come. It adds gravitas to following issues, with each development holding weight to the overall story. The reveal could have quite easily occurred in issue 6, but would have been far, far less effective. But perhaps most importantly, Morrison conjures a way to kill the Man of Steel that doesn't feel like Plot Induced Stupidity, and is absolutely ironic.
The main purpose of issue 1 is to set up the story; to set down a solid foundation for what is yet to come. That's not to say that it doesn't have its fair share of action. A crisis is averted and people are saved- as per the usual Superhero recipe. Morrison plays on this throughout the series; the reader's expectations to the expected. We expect the Hero to defeat the Villain. We expect Lex to be defeated by Superman again and again. Each more ingenious plan to be scuppered as easily as the last. What we don't expect, for once, is for the Villain to win.
With the reveal out of the way, Morrison focuses on Clark's reaction and his actions following the news. It's clear that Clark has a plan, has things he feels he needs to do before his death. One of those things is to reveal his identity to Lois. Readers had waited years for Clark to reveal his identity to Lois, and he had done prior to this series, but here Morrison plunges right in. As a comic book fan it was a brilliant moment to read and I did, admittedly, do an enthusiastic fist-pump in the middle of the comic book store. Essentially, that's what is really great about this series and this issue, Morrison gets what is fun about Superman, he gets what we, as readers, want to see. He gets that Superman has all of these amazing powers, and he can use them whenever he wants to, to do whatever he wants to do. This is something I'll go into greater detail in later reviews, as it's used with greater and greater effect.
On the Art:
Of course, I couldn't just comment on Morrison's writing when Quitely is on pencils. Needless, to say Quitely brings his trademark clean, detailed style to All Star Superman. Unlike New X-men, where the female characters could be drawn- at times- in an unflattering way, here Quitely shows a marked improvement on his drawing of both male and female characters.
Grant's colours compliment Quitely and Morrison perfectly. Notably, the use of lighting is spectacular (see below).
The colouring is simply awesome, and makes each page, each panel, shine. However, Quitely's pencils have been criticized by many fans for being too, (for lack of a better word), wrinkly. Faces in particular have been noted to contain lines that don't appear, if at all, until later years, immediately aging characters that would otherwise appear youthful. It's a relatively minor issue, but one that luckily doesn't hold much weight in this series. (But again, was quite prevalent in the earlier New X-men series).
The Bad?:
Nothing of any particular note, although the fact that this issue is dominantly exposition detracts half a star. The story really goes into over-drive in following issues, and is better for it. Note, that the rating will remain consistent for this series. I will award five stars for better issues, and a lower rating for worse- as would be expected.
Conclusion:
".....Faster......" is an excellent beginning to this mini-saga. The art and the writing is consistently brilliant, the colouring exquisite. An awesome start to an overall awesome series.
