Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel Author: Visit Amazon's Grant Morrison Page | Language: English | ISBN:
1401235476 | Format: EPUB
Superman: Action Comics, Vol. 1: Superman and the Men of Steel Description
Review
“Believe the hype: Grant Morrison went and wrote the single best issue of Superman these eyes have ever read. This rebellious, working man's hero is a different guy from any Man of Steel most of us have seen before.”
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USA Today “A ripping read.”
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Entertainment Weekly “Entertaining.”
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YAHOO! Associated Content “A solid superhero comic with good action.”
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Time Out Chicago “It's fresh air. I like this all-too-human Superman, and I think a lot of you will, too.”
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Scripps Howard News Service “Casts the character in a new light, opens up fresh storytelling possibilities, and pushes it all forward with dynamic Rags Morales art. I loved it.”
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The Onion AV
Club “With a heavy dose of philosophy tied to his characterizations,
Action Comics is already showing signs of being a typical Grant Morrison yarn. For those of you who aren't familiar with his work, that's a ringing endorsement.”
—IGN
“Captures the spirit of what makes
Action Comics great for the modern age…. Strong, well-executed superhero imagery and storytelling that flows effortlessly.”
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Comic Book Resources, Five-Star Review
“A different and welcomed twist to Superman.”
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ComicVine “Brassy and brash.”
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io9About the Author
Writer Grant Morrison is known for his innovative work on comics from the graphic novel
Arkham Asylum to acclaimed runs on
Animal Man and
Doom Patrol, as well as his subversive creator owned titles such as
The Invisibles, Seaguy and
WE3. He has also written best-selling runs on
JLA,
Seven Soldiers Of Victory and
New X-Men and recently helped to reinvent the DC Universe in
All–star Superman, 52 and Batman.
- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: DC Comics; First Edition edition (May 7, 2013)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1401235476
- ISBN-13: 978-1401235475
- Product Dimensions: 10.2 x 6.7 x 0.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
DC Comics is home to some of the world's most iconic characters. Superman and Batman, Green Lantern and the Flash--these heroes hold almost universal appeal, and have both entertained and inspired people for generations. But that's also the problem; burdened by decades of convoluted continuity, these characters have grown stale in the eyes of many fans. Hence "The New 52," a massive reboot of the entire DC universe. Every character has been revamped with updated origins, tweaked personalities, and given a modern edge in the hopes of finding, and retaining, an enthusiastic audience.
Standing prominently in this reboot is the legendary Superman himself. Knowing a redrafting of Superman's story would require the utmost care, DC enlisted Grant Morrison, the genius behind the incomparable All-Star Superman series, for the task. Action Comics Volume 1: Superman and the Men of Steel collects the first eight issues of Morrison's highly anticipated work, melding the straightforward tale of Superman's early heroics with the author's patented blend of esoteric concepts and high-minded idealism.
And it opens nicely, with a Superman, looking like a kid out of college in his simple t-shirt and blue jeans combo, forcing a confession out of a corrupt business guru. Readers will soon find this Superman a bit more wry, brash, and capricious than his earlier portrayals, with a temperament that can go from light to dark in an instant. And the story initially has fun with this, pitting Superman against both the police and military until he faces bad boy Luthor for the first time.
Grant Morrison's re-imagining of Action Comics takes its cue from the 1938 comics where Superman first appeared. In those comics like in this one Superman can't fly yet, he doesn't have all of the powers we're used to seeing in him, and seems to always be lifting heavy objects like cars or wrecking balls. Also, as he's a young man (early 20s) he isn't as wise or experienced as the Superman of, say, "All Star Superman" (also written by Morrison) where he displayed a profound understanding of humanity and life in the universe. Here he is an exuberant young man energised at living alone for the first time in a city and realising that he is the most powerful being on the planet. He's using that power to make things better for everyone without a real plan in his head - he just keeps going, keeps moving: Action Comics!
There's a lot to like in this book with Grant Morrison at the helm. His masterful book "All Star Superman" was a defining book for the character and showed Morrison understood Superman like few writers have ever done. That said, "Action Comics" isn't as brilliant as "All Star" but has much to recommend it. The set pieces are wonderful like the Krypton sequence where we see Kal-El's parents prepare their only son to be saved from their utopian dying planet. Krypton is really beautifully imagined here looking like a delicate cross between fantasy and sci-fi. Morrison gives the reader an impression of a larger, developed society and culture with overtones of Earth's current environmental problems, largely ignored by too many people.
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