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Superman #680
Atlas, Part 4 of 4
Posted 31 Oct 2008
Writer: James Robinson
Artist: Renato Guedes and José Wilson Magalháes
Artist: Alex Ross (cover)
Publisher: DC Comics
2.00 out of 5 Stars
Reviewed by Louis Vitela
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Superman writers don’t have to do too much to keep me
buying. A little kryptonite here, some Lex Luthor there, it all works
for me. It’s perhaps difficult to explain, but not picking up
Superman monthly is like leaving the house without wearing my
wedding ring. It nags at me. Even though I often know how the books
will play out just by looking at the covers, Superman is still
on my pull list. Yet having just read the entire “Atlas”
arc in one sitting (concluded in Superman #680), I’m not
convinced this fellow in the cape and tights is the Superman
I’ve known all these years. It’s nagging at me.
From page one I felt like I was completely out of sync with Mr.
Robinson’s style, like he had invited me for a ride on a
cart that had triangle-shaped wheels. Sure it might move, but if it
does it won’t be a smooth ride. The bumps began with his choices
for Supes’ internal dialogue. Here’s a bit where Superman
(we only see a tattered cape in this panel), beaten to a pulp by
Atlas, begins to wax poetic: “My lady the sun. She gives me her
light and her life and I am forever grateful.” The context is
that he’s declaring how weak he feels, as if the sun were no
longer providing him his powers. There, the plot element is
established, or at least hinted at; I just have a hard time with the
lapse into poetry. I can’t remember Superman ever talking that
way, even to himself. (Had it been Rick Veitch’s Question, it would have been quite palatable.) Beyond the
super poetry slam, some of Mr. Robinson’s syntax is just
strange. I had to read these panels aloud two or three times before I
caught a glimmer of how he intended them to flow: “Lois looks at
a dog – no, a creature in her eyes – something that scared
her and which the love of her husband for it made her –
she’d like to say uneasy –...” This example is not
unique; the book is bursting at the seams with this sort of
writing.
Perhaps most jarring for me is what seems to be a fundamental
recharacterization of Superman. At one point in the story, Superman
speeds off to seek Zatanna for some magical aid. Instead of finding
the spellcasting beauty he finds her cousin, a less powerful and
decidedly snottier magician. For the myriad ways Superman could have
responded to the fellow’s posturing, he employs a new power: his
super-withering stare. Post-stare, he declares, “My, you are an
arrogant little fellow, aren’t you?” This had no effect on
the magician, but had a huge impact on me. This character is so
different from the Superman I’ve known all these years that
it’s hard to accept him as the same guy. At the moment
I’m ready to believe that he’s been secretly exposed to
the previously unheard of fuschia-colored kryptonite, the radiation
from which makes Kryptonians wax poetic at ridiculous times and also
deliver the occasional bitch-slap.
A bright side to this strange Supes is the spot-on artwork and the
layout of the book. The art and expressions and action are so well
executed that the pictures tell the story better than the words. Pages
were broken up into more than the usual number of panels, and this
really pulled me into the timing of the story, allowing me to
experience the clock ticks along with the characters. I hope this team
leaves that tool within easy reach, it really works well for them.
As for my nagging feeling, it’s still there. I absolutely
recognize that Superman writers have a tough job. These are
writers who have to contend with decades of backstory and the
shepherding of nothing less than an international icon, both in terms
of the character and of the book itself. I also recognize that the
shepherd of the moment wants to (justifiably) add his or her own mark
to the icon, leave a thumbprint in the form of a memorable story or
character adjustment that nobody’s thought of before. Mission
accomplished, I guess. This Superman is memorable, but only in the way
a miscast actor is remembered for a regrettable high profile role.
—CCdC—
Cover image used without explicit permission in accordance with the "Fair Use" provision of US copyright law.
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