This week marks the start of the new Sunday Pages format, incorporating capsule reviews alongside news tidbits. Since Julian’s now joining us, you can identify his contributions by the initials [JHa] and mine by [JHu], while Seb , obviously, gets to keep the more concise [SP]. We’re still feeling out the specifics, so be sure to let us know how you’re finding it, and whether or not you think it could be improved! Look inside for mini-reviews of Action Comics #869, Amazing Spider-Man #572, Greatest Hits #1 and X-Factor #35, as well as some discussion of Neil Gaiman’s reaction to the new Hitchiker’s Guide book.

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There’s been something about the timing of All-Star Superman. It was strangely fitting that #10, with its portrayal of the creation of Superman in a world in which he didn’t exist (interpret it literally as “our” world if you want, but let’s not get into the metaphysics of it all right now), should have come out in the same week as the Siegel ruling. And now, barely a month after a clueless studio exec said that the next Superman movie would “try to go dark”, Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely wrap up their magnum opus with an issue that shows a deep-rooted understanding of exactly what Superman means (clue : it’s not “going dark”).

I’m well aware that quoting wholesale a passage from the issue isn’t really the best thing to do in a review - firstly, it’s a reproduction of copyrighted content, and secondly, it spoils it for those who’ve yet to read - but the following speech, delivered by Jor-El (yes. Jor El. Don’t ask, just read it), is the pure encapsulation of Morrison’s vision, and the series as a whole, and as such I can’t help but share it :

Your work is done. You have shown them the face of the man of tomorrow. You have given them an ideal to aspire to, embodied their highest aspirations. They will race, and stumble, and fall and crawl… and curse… and finally… they will join you in the sun, Kal-El.

There’s plenty more I want to say about this issue, but it’s going to have to wait until I can do some kind of retrospective - because anything I say is going to have to delve into pretty major spoilers for the way the whole thing wraps up. And I can’t even really say anything new about the quality of the series, either. What, you really think they’re suddenly going to have dropped the ball at this point? But I can say that almost everything is wrapped up in a satisfactory way (although not always in the manner you’d expect, and a lot is done through subtle hinting rather than directly showing you - but then, right from the moment in issue #1 where Clark rescued a man’s life by “accidentally” knocking him over, the blend of subtlety and bombast has been one of the series’ defining attributes). There’s a touch of strangeness about a couple of the finale’s elements, and the specific note upon which the closing pages dwell is not the sort of image you’d expect either. On the other hand, there is absolutely no fake-out - Morrison somehow manages to deliver the ending that he’s been promising from day one and yet still turn it into a story about hope, and belief in the future.

And it doesn’t scrimp on the action - nor shy away from the big punch-up promised at the end of #11 - or the tender moments, or the iconic imagery, or the beauty of Quitely’s draftsmanship, or the mind-screwery (or the “Did he really just do that?” moments - in this case, I’m pretty sure he’s making a direct reference to one of the most infamously-awful aspects of JJ Abrams’ aborted movie script, and making the idea work in the process). Let’s not go over the top, though, mind. It’s not the best issue of the series (those are #6, #10 and #11), and in telling “the last Superman story”, it’s placing itself directly up against Whatever Happened To The Man Of Tomorrow? - and, although they do different things (Morrison’s is bravura, experimental, unique; Moore’s is quintessential, timeless, iconic), All Star falls just short of “greatest Superman story ever” in such a straight comparison.

But that’s hardly an insult. The simple fact remains that we have been treated to a genuine, bona fide masterpiece. These are the men who brought us Flex Mentallo and We3, and yet they’ve still managed to make this the absolute high-point of their respective careers. And now that it’s a complete whole, I can finally even go so far as to call it the absolute high-point of twenty-first century comics so far. You can never really say, of course, whether people will still be talking about a particular book in twenty, thirty or even fifty years’ time. But in the case of All-Star, I think it’s a pretty safe bet that they will. The only question is - how will either of them follow it?

I’m quite kindly disposed towards James Robinson at the moment, having recently picked up volume one of The Starman Omnibus and been reminded of just how perfect in almost every conceivable way that series (er, up until Jack goes into space) really is. I’m not sure whether this made me want to like his burgeoning Superman run a bit more or not, but certainly, the third issue is the most enjoyable so far.

It’s been a difficult run to get a handle on, primarily since the main plot has consisted of little more than Supes having a big punch-up with someone a bit stronger than him. But what this issue makes apparent is that, as with much of Robinson’s comics work, this is really about nuances, and moments. And so scattered around a fight sequence that really has far too many echoes of Doomsday to be accidental (but then, it’s hard to know exactly which ’90s Superman stories are supposed to have even happened now we’re on New Earth) are a number of scenes that suggest that maybe Robinson does have a handle on at least part of what makes a good Superman tale, even if the whole doesn’t quite convince as much as it should just yet.

Of particular note is a two-page flashback sequence with Clark and Lois at home that’s slightly cheesy but just about gets away with it (not least because it features Clark reading a paper called “The Opal City”), and an even better scene that finally deals with the unfortunate problem of having Lana Lang in charge of Lexcorp, at the same time making her far more of a character than she’s been in, ooh, decades, really. More, please. And then there’s the closing page, an utterly brilliant - and unexpected - moment that’s one of those rare “Cheer at the page!” events, and which showcases a unique but entertaining grasp of canine “dialogue”.

As I think I mentioned when reviewing the first issue of this arc, a real attraction of the book right now is the presence of Renato Guedes as artist. I’ve been championing this guy - “the new Butch Guice” as I always call him, and will continue to do so until it catches on - for a while now, and it’s great seeing him really cut loose on a character that it feels like he was born to draw. While issue-long fight sequences tend to bore me a bit (and this one has gone on for two), it’s well-choreographed, and indeed rather brutal at times. It’s also great to see his more unconventional take on Supergirl given some prominence, and we can only hope that this interpretation catches on a bit more with other artists. One slight criticism is a sequence on the penultimate page which is a little unclearly-told - Steel and Bibbo either suddenly appearing from nowhere or instead being a poorly-conveyed piece of metaphor - but generally this is a lovely-looking book. Indeed, with this and Action Comics - and, if you care to count it, All-Star - the Superman books as a line look better than they have done in years, perhaps even better than any other current DC line.

It’s not perfect, and it certainly feels like the last two issues could just as easily have been told in one - but there’s a definite sense that Robinson is working on a return to proper, classic-style Superman storytelling; and this, combined with his use of character strokes, is making it a pretty decent read so far.

James is away at Reading this week, so TSP is left in my hands. Muah hah hah hah hah. It’s a quiet one as a result, but some of our favourite creators - Gillen/McKelvie and Bryan Lee O’Malley - have put excellent and/or teasing things online this week, plus there’s the rather bizarre statement by that bloke at Warner Bros. about DC movies, and some infuriating spoilers courtesy of Kick-Ass movie news…

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Every Wednesday we take turns to delve into our trusty longboxes, pluck out a dusty back issue, and give you our thoughts. We’ll also try and place it in the context of the time it was originally published.

Alright, I’ve put it off for long enough. Let’s do it. Let’s look at Armageddon 2001. DC’s ill-fated 1991 crossover spectacular is infamous nowadays for all kinds of reasons, primarily for the fact that it hinged around - and planted clues for - a mystery whose solution was abruptly changed at the last minute. The identity of future supervillain Monarch was planned all along to be Captain Atom - but when the information leaked out to some fans (astonishing in that pre-Internet age) DC chickened out, and changed it to Hank “Hawk” Hall, despite the myriad continuity flaws that it subsequently sparked.

I was originally going to look at the concluding part of the saga in the second of the bookending special issues; but there’s just too much to talk about adequately in the confines of a limited review. While not unentertaining, it’s a mess of an issue, largely because you can see where the story’s going in setting up a realistic path for Atom to become Monarch - and then faking out halfway through before rattling through an unnecessary and shoehorned-in Hawk and Dove plot (one of the most glaring problems is that Monarch’s eyes had already been shown to be blue, intended as a clue, in issue #1, before being switched to Hall’s brown for #2) and underwhelming conclusion. That’s not to mention the fact that the entire premise of the crossover - Waverider looking at the futures of various heroes to try and discover Monarch’s identity - is rendered pointless by the realisation that he’s only checking out potential futures (we get to see three distinct ones in Superman’s case, by virtue of his having three titles on the stands at the time), and so each of the individual stories we’ve seen before are all pretty meaningless.

That said, as I’ve stated before, in Nineties DC Crossoverville it doesn’t matter if the main event is a bit guff - it’s still possible to get some great standalone stories in the tie-in issues and annuals. Armageddon allowed for the writers to have fun with some potential futures, and some genuinely decent stories came out of it - this Superman issue, actually the first in the crossover’s chronological sequence, a case in point. Rather than being suger-coated and positive about Superman’s influence on the world (something which the corresponding Action Comics issue would later be, by contrast), it’s quite relentlessly negative, and is an examination of what happens when a man in whom the world has placed their trust and safety is driven mad and abuses that power.

The catalyst is a nuclear accident that wipes out Metropolis and all of Superman’s nearest-and-dearest - after this, he becomes a somewhat deranged figure, pledging to strip the world of nuclear weapons by any means necessary, and living a bizarre existence with Lana Lang and his senile mother. Increasingly out-of-control, his neglect leads to the death of a serviceman in a submarine, and in battle with the Justice League, that of J’onn J’onnz (somewhat strangely of a heart attack, of all things). It’s left to Batman to end the madness and bring down his one-time friend once and for all.

It’s a neat, dark little tale, featuring inversions and almost parodies of the likes of Superman IV and The Dark Knight Returns (having been sicced on Superman by the government, Bats wears an outfit similar to Miller’s creation for their final battle at Crime Alley - and as with Miller’s story, the government lackey wins). What’s particularly daring (if hardly unprecedented) is the way in which it posits that Superman’s existence is not necessarily beneficial to humanity, and that should unfathomable tragedy warp his mind in some way, he can be just as dangerous as any villain, even as he persists in the belief that he’s doing the world a service. A neat touch, also, is the increased bombast of Superman’s costume as he takes on more of a self-righteous role.

Still, it’s not perfect. Jurgens concocts a decent story, befitting his status as one of DC’s foremost purveyors of time-travel and speculation-related stories, but there are flawed moments - dialogue in particular - that also betray how early in his career it is. The Justice League sequence in particular is pretty embarrassing (would Booster Gold, Fire and the Martian Manhunter really be a realistic future lineup by themselves? Or is it just that they were the only heroes without Armageddon stories of their own?), especially in the cringeworthy dialogue and characterisation of Fire, and the exposition-filled sequences with the tedious Waverider grate in the extreme (as they would throughout the crossover, in fact). The issue is found wanting on the art front as well - you half wonder why Jurgens didn’t draw it himself, although he was presumably busy doing the main Armageddon issues. Either way, Dusty Abell’s storytelling is functional enough, but his elongated faces have a cartoony, almost comical look to them that feels at odds with the attempted gravitas of the story.

Nevertheless, this was definitely a strong start to the crossover, and demonstrated the potential of the central conceit. By now, “alternate future” or “hero gone wrong” stories are fairly de rigeur (there are definite parallels with Red Son here), but they were rather rarer at the time, and Jurgens demonstrates effectively what he was trying to do with the story as a whole. It’s just a shame that the appalling fudging of the outcome has rendered the entire event such a laughing stock to modern eyes. Dig through the stories themselves, though, and there’s plenty to enjoy.

There’s plenty of news worth commenting on straight out of Wizard World Chicago as the Summer’s con season truly gets going, including reflections on the unfortunate passing of Mike Turner, Ghost Rider news (seriously), the near-mythical Superman 2000 pitch and Eric Stephenson’s recent promotion.
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