Superman Kicks Some Butt, Finally (Justice League #2)

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Superman Kicks Some Butt, Finally (Justice League #2)
By Andy Frisk
October 26, 2011 - 12:39

Much ado about nothing has been made over how cool and realistic it is that Grant Morrison’s Action Comics Superman is such a wimp. Superman has gotten his butt kicked over in the pages of Action Comics (2011) pretty seriously. This is supposed to be some kind of grand new direction, along with Morrison’s metaphysical musings on the whole “Superman as sun god” thing. Has anyone out there been reading Superman comics over the last few decades? (Um…forget I asked that. I think that’s the problem…) The Generation X Superman (as I lovingly refer to my dearly departed Superman as he existed from 1986 thru 2011) often and regularly got his butt handed to him by the likes of Batman, Green Lantern, and even The Flash. It seems that every superhero in the DCU (as it was called at the time) got their turn to kick Superman’s ass in order to prove how tough, cool, and relevant they were. In Frank Miler’s seminal The Dark Knight Returns (1986), Batman nearly kills Superman. Doomsday did kill Superman, by beating him to a bloody, bruised, and eventually body bagged pulp. The Gen X Superman was no where near as powerful as the Silver Age Superman was, and that Superman could only be defeated by killing himself as evidenced in Alan Moore’s Silver Age Ending tale “What Ever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?” Yeah, it’s been cool to beat up on Superman, physically and metaphorically. Maybe things are changing though? Maybe the DCnU is just as confused about itself as we are? Maybe it’s all about the new Superman flick in development? Or maybe, just maybe, Geoff Johns is seriously trying to make Superman something he’s rarely been in the past to a wide range of readers: cool.

In Justice League #2 (2011), Superman and Batman “meet” for the very first time. Of course, “meet” means fight. Today’s average mainstream superhero comic book reader would rather see heroes fight one another than actually…oh I don’t know…fight evil, so yet another Superman vs. Batman duel seems to be in order. The only thing, and I reiterate: THE ONLY THING, that makes this confrontation palatable is that Superman ends up not only with his hand around Batman’s throat, but nearly bashing the smart assed (and dumb assed…wow…Hal’s stock has fallen dramatically) Hal Jordan/Green Lantern to a pulp, and dispensing with the “no one can touch me” Barry Allen/Flash with a flick of a finger. Unlike most of today’s average mainstream superhero comic book readers, I don’t get off on seeing the good guys beat up on each other, but I do enjoy the fact that Superman, as much as I might dislike his current incarnation, is being shown, at least here in the pages of Justice League (2011), to be in a league all his own (pun intended).

Maybe all of the new bad-assery being assigned to Superman is simply meant to pave the way for the next on screen incarnation of my favorite superhero, scheduled for a 2013 release under the title Man of Steel and directed by Zack Snyder. After all, DC Comics is seriously attempting to catch up to the Marvel Movie Machine. Showcasing Superman in full butt kicking glory though is a welcome sight regardless. I do take some issue with a “punch first ask questions later” Superman, but Bats and GL had it coming this issue. Also, Superman isn’t a total fool who thinks with his fists (or constructs, like this horrible characterization of Hal Jordan does), since he easily could kill Batman, Green Lantern, and The Flash yet exercises extreme control over his powers, hence avoiding even seriously bruising any of them. No, this DCnU Superman is a tough cookie, at least as his ranking above the other three big DCnU heroes displays, but not a mindless brute as I feared he would be.

I want a Jim Lee signed print of this hanging on my wall.

There is the underlying thread of the much reviled (as much for me mentioning it as it being true) corporate directed storytelling theme going on in Justice League (2011) #2 though. If you want to boost the value, in coolness cred, of a superhero that hasn’t been widely regarded as cool recently, in order to actually attempt to conjure up some box office magic, in the form of receipts, what better way to do so than to show him kicking the collective asses of the three most popular and highly visible DC Comics characters? Batman, Green Lantern, and The Flash have had some pretty successful, if not completely literary, runs recently in the pages of DC Comics’ series featuring them, and Batman currently resides at the top of the box office in revenue generated, as evidenced by the returns earned on The Dark Knight (2008). Green Lantern (2011) might not have been nearly as good a film, literarily or revenue wise as the recent Batman films were, but it can’t be considered a total flop. Superman is languishing at the bottom of on screen cred ratings and comparative comic book sales. So yeah, corporate dictated and bottom line focused storytelling demands that Superman be made cool, desirable, and profitable…post haste. I’ve drawn the ire of some interesting characters by focusing on the necessity of corporate profits dictating the direction of the creative process at DC Comics, but one cannot deny that these types of directives exist. It’s not all bad, having profit margins dictate storytelling that is. At least we finally are getting a story that focuses on just how Superman should be ranked along side his peers in the department that is, sadly, the most important to a wide audience: super power ability and power ranking.

Slowly, and I mean very slowly, I’m beginning to warm to the DCnU Superman in certain areas only. Again, all of these so-called hip updates to his age, power set, and costume were able to be done alongside the retention of the things that defined Superman for a generation, namely his marriage to Lois, his parents remaining alive, and his cousin not being remade into a total idiot. The DCnU Superman is showing some promise, but no matter how good the storytelling potentially might get, the Gen X Superman will always be my Superman.