Superman gets even more powers than ever before
COMIC VINE'S TOP 100 SUPERMAN STORIES reviewed!
#9: 'Birthright'
The second issue of 'Birthright' isn't much of an improvement over the first. The unengaging plot about social unrest in some fictional African nation trundles on.
There are a number of annoying things here. For one, the overuse of the 'S' symbol. In the past we've seen a ton of different explanations for it - all of them good - but here we get another one. It's the symbol of Krypton, emblazoned on everything Kryptonian, for some reason.
Then there's more power-creep. It isn't bad enough that Superman has a gazillion powers already? Now he apparently has some kind of aura vision that would be more suited to someone like Dr. Fate or Deadman or hell, even Animal Man. Also, at one point Superman tells us that he can "see' satellite transmissions... of course he can Ugh.
The art continues to be pretty bad too. Faces in particular come out very distorted. At one point, Clark looks like an old man in profile. And, there are times where a character's facial features are just left out entirely. That seems to be an ongoing issue. Either the penciller chooses to leave it out, or it never gets inked - in either case it looks bad.
One thing I did like with the art is a page size tribute to Action Comics #1 showing Superman destroying a car while villains flee.
Birthright makes an O.K. introduction to the character if you've never read a Superman comic in your life - but if you've never read a Superman comic in your life, there's so many better ones to start with; there's even better origin stories like The Man of Steel or Secret Origin.
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