The New 52's Superman

Well, I decided to wait a couple months before passing any kind of judgement on DC Comics' "New 52" relaunch. I'm focusing on three of their titles here - Action Comics, Superman, and Supergirl - because they were really the only comics I was reading ten years ago when I was collecting comics. 

It wouldn't be fair for me to comment on and compare the new Batman to the old Batman when I wasn't reading it before anyway.  In all actuality, it's not really fair to try and compare the New 52 to the classic DC Universe anyway.  DC Comics never asked us to compare, but to instead focus on the New 52 as a chance to jump on or, in my case, come back to the characters.

Part of me wants to believe this was DC's solution to finally getting rid of Superman's red trunks.

"How do we get rid of Superman's underwear?"
"Let's just relaunch the entire company and get rid of all underwear..."
"Brilliant!"

I decided not to review Action Comics #1 on the day it came out, because one singular story isn't enough to judge an entire series on.  Comic books these days don't constrain themselves to single-issue stories anyway.  Most series rely on the sub-plot to carry from book to book so they can publish a collected edition later.  It's smart.  It's crafty.  And it's why I stopped collecting comic books individually all those years ago and chose to buy Trade Paperback editions instead.  I'm not interested in making a profit from these adventures.

And now we're three months in, and what do I have to say for the New 52?

So far, so good.

Comic book fanboys (you know who you are) tend to get really caught up in the splash of things.  When the first images of the new costume designs appeared online, some fans were in an uproar.  Comic book fans are not like any other kind of fan.  That's not a bad thing though.  They are incredibly invested in their favorite characters, and are passionate about every little detail.

"Why the hell does Superman look like he's wearing armor?  Why would he need to wear that?"

I think the new Superman costume is pretty cool.  But, it depends on who is drawing it.  The image above is by Jesus Merino.  This new costume looks good in his style.  The covers to the Superman series are by comic legend George Perez (who also writes the book) but the costume just doesn't look right by him. 
This new Superman series has been great so far.  I have really enjoyed the fact that in the first three issues, Superman has yet to combat a familiar menace.  That's proof to me the Man of Steel isn't being re-hashed with the same adventures over again.

Over in Action Comics we're seeing a younger Last Son of Krypton in his early adventures.  Having a Superman in a T-shirt and jeans got the most media buzz of anything in the New 52.  I like what writer Grant Morrisson has done so far to show us the parallels between these early adventures and Superman's classic 1938 exploits.  This "new" Superman is actually more like Siegel and Shuster's original vision than we've seen in a long time.  But I hope Morrisson doesn't get too carried away with the nostalgia effect.  The biggest problem with Superman in the last 20 years has been all the history surrounding the character.  How many times have we seen a new interpretation on the image of Superman holding a car over his head to pay tribute to Action #1?

Really though, I'm not worried about Kal-El here.  I think he's in good hands.  And the stories so far have been really entertaining.

Supergirl also received a makeover... not that it hasn't happened a million times in the last thirty years or so.  Is she Kryptonian, an angel, a purple-ish putty thing, or a robot this time?  Her stories have been really quick-paced, and literally nothing happened in the first book, so I'm glad to see in issue #3 a story is starting to develop.  It's actually the title I was most excited for with the relaunch.

All in all, I've been pleased with the New 52 from DC Comics.  If their goal by doing this was to get people reading comics again, then they've succeeded because I haven't subscribed to a monthly comic since 2001. 

And if their other goal was to eliminate all undwear from the universe, then I can do my part by going commando.