One would think there aren’t very many places to take a Superman origin story, especially after the outstanding Birthright and the still slogging on Smallville series. But writer Geoff Johns and artist Gary Frank have a lot of aces up their sleeves.
The last two issues weren’t perfect, but they brought in great tones and ideas that were perfect for re-telling Superman’s origins out of Smallville. With the third issue they take Clark/Kal-El to Metropolis. And here the series really blows up. With Clark’s first day in the Daily Planet, meeting Jimmy Olsen, Lois, Perry, and the setting up of things with Lex, this is a jam-packed issue, very busy but not cluttered, lots of things happening but all at perfect pace.
There’s a bit of whimsy and magic on every page, and artist Gary Frank does a great job of recalling Christopher Reeve, even in the wooden movements of Clark Kent. The clumsiness is fun to see, and when Lois confronts him about it, tells him she knows it’s a front, it’s a great scene. An even better scene is Johns&Frank’s version of the helicopter scene from the first Superman film. That one screamed both homage and great new play on the scene at the same time. Which is what this series does when it’s at its best.
