The Comic Book Club: Superman: Earth One and Beasts of Burden/Hellboy

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This is what happens when Techland goes to the comic book store: we end up discussing what we picked up. This week, Douglas Wolk, Graeme McMillan and Evan Narcisse discuss the Superman: Earth One graphic novel and the Beasts of Burden/Hellboy: Sacrifice one-shot.

DOUGLAS: Let’s go back to the first announcement of Superman: Earth One, a bit under a year ago. Here’s what J. Michael Straczynski said at the time: “What I’m trying to do is to dig in to the character and look at him through modern eyes. If you were to create the Superman story today, for the first time, but keep intact all that works, what would it look like?”

That’s an excellent question, because it offers a good deal of insight into how, and how badly, this book fails. The first time I read this, I thought it was awful, but couldn’t quite pinpoint what bugged me so much about it (aside from Straczynski’s everyone-sounds-the-same-but-the-villain dialogue: I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone write Perry White as a Mary Sue before). I chatted about it with a couple of friends who pointed out that it’s not as bad as JMS’s Superman and maybe I should give it another chance. So I reread it, and midway through, I realized what its central problem is: It’s totally superfluous.

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You want to know what about Superman, the canonical version, still works in a modern context? Everything. It works just fine. You don’t have to change the formula to make it meaningful in 2010: in fact, you have to resist messing with the formula. All you have to do is execute it well. The best Superman story from the past decade, All Star Superman, executes the formula incredibly well, but doesn’t change it an iota.

So what, then, does Earth One do to modernize the basic concept of Superman? Nothing, really. The main point of distinction is “Krypton was a hit job as part of an interplanetary war.” Why does that make it modern? It doesn’t; it just makes Jor-El’s pre-emptive sacrifice of his son, with its overtones of both Abraham/Isaac and Moses, more confusing and less dramatic.

So maybe the premise is “standalone introduction to/origin of Superman”: the sort of thing that The Man of Steel was before John Byrne’s art started looking a little retro. But that’s already been answered with Superman: Birthright and, more recently, Superman: Secret Origin. (Which would actually already be out as a hardcover if Geoff Johns and Gary Frank had hit their deadlines with the miniseries.) Both of them nicely executed projects, both significantly better written and better drawn than this one.

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This is being sold as a “point of entry for Superman” story–the sort of thing where somebody who’s potentially interested in Superman (perhaps via, as Graeme mentioned to me the other day, Smallville) can get on board and see what’s so interesting about Superman comics. Except it’s not: if somebody told me they wanted to read their first Superman comic book and wanted something that was fun and exciting and not too drenched in continuity they’d already have to know, I’d point them toward All Star or “For the Man Who Has Everything” or in a pinch Secret Origin. Not this leaden, preachy, rote, thrill-less thing.

EVAN: Let me start off by declaring I like Earth One more than JMS’ Superman run, but that’s not saying much. The hardcover doesn’t get bogged down by the continuity of inherited storylines, and the oft-begged question of “Why’s Superman being such a jerk?” doesn’t really pop here.

GRAEME: And yet, this version of Clark Kent is a massive jerk in entirely other ways. Or is that just me? Maybe JMS can’t help but make Clark a jerk.

EVAN: The questions that Earth One raises for me are, “How do I like my Superman? Who do I want Superman to be?” And, from the most recent example of All-Star Superman to Busiek’s Secret Identity to Cary Bates’ run in the 70s and 80s, I like Kal-El when he’s the most preternaturally well-adjusted person on the planet.

DOUGLAS: Secret Identity! That was a really good one, too.

EVAN: That doesn’t mean that he never has conflict. Of course, he does. But, he’s able to deal with what comes his way. He may need to think his way to triumph, but the whiny uncertainty that’s characterized the character of late is nowhere to be found. Crying Kal-El (just for the sake of non-dramatic tension) is really unattractive to me.

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A non-geek friend of mine forwarded me a link from all the coverage the book’s been getting, and he was outraged that DC would change the cap to a hoodie. (The piece only ran the cover as the accompanying art.) Of course, the main look of Supes isn’t ever going to be very different for very long. But the changes that JMS makes to the origin are very problematic to me. JMS clearly loves the idea of Superman as symbol, but making revenge a motivation for him narrows the breadth of the symbolism. Ask any kid and they’ll tell you: Superman helps people. It’s not “Superman helps people and seeks revenge for Krypton’s death.” I’d wager that a lot more people are familiar with altruism for its own sake, rather than the need for vengeance. Even if it’s not less common, the idea of revenge is an odd emotional element for a Superman story, and placing it in a revamped origin story feels wrong.

Same goes for the planetary grudge match. That fate–and, later, its citizens’ hubris sealed Krypton’s doom–is one of the best parts of Superman’s origin. Boiled down, it’s basically, “Random shit happens… but we can rise above.” In this re-imagining, JMS dilutes the quasi-religious simplicity of the premise, which, again, is surprising considering how much he seems to love that stuff over in Superman. Having a race of wannabe-Krypton whiners take out Superman’s home planet adds nothing to the metaphors of immigration, assimilation and parental sacrifice that make the character’s subtext so rich.

JMS aims for “modern,” but just ends up with a confused jumble. For everything that I liked–the opening pages of Clark being awesome, the ship as Fortress of Solitude, the absence of Luthor–there were five plot beats that made me frown.

DOUGLAS: You liked the absence of Luthor? Interesting. I just figured that he’s holding back Luthor for some future volume (if Earth One turns into a series, rather than a pair of one-offs).

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GRAEME: I think that JMS got some kind of flop sweat here. There’s a lot that I think works – I love his take on Jimmy Olsen, which I think is the strongest I’ve seen in years, not including Morrison’s All-Star version, and as much as Emo Superman as a concept annoys me, it works for an origin story because it gives Clark a character arc and something to grow from on his way to becoming the Superman we know and I love. But it’s overwhelmed by a lot of seemingly random elements that just doom the book in my eyes, central of which is the idea that Krypton was destroyed by someone on purpose and that Clark’s purpose is no longer just standing up for what’s right, but standing up for what’s right and also seeking revenge for the death of his people. I mean, WTF? That just isn’t Superman. Much more than “Oh, look, Clark has a hood and a different haircut,” this is the major change to the character here, and it’s not a good one. Unless this is the start of, again, a character arc where Clark realizes that he’s not interested in revenge but instead doing what’s right, I call shenanigans.

(I’m also going to call shenanigans on the plot; I know that origin stories are hard and all, but the alien invasion was very generic and half-formed, and over far too quickly to have any real weight; it felt, more than anything, like JMS wanted to have an action sequence somewhere in the book, and dropped this in as a placeholder before realizing that he couldn’t come up with anything stronger. If nothing else, the plot hammering of “This is the alien race that was responsible for the death of your race – NOT REALLY! There were BIGGER bad guys!” felt really forced and false jeopardy. Also, the lead villain looked just like 1980s-era Superman villain the Silver Banshee, which was just odd.)

(Also also: Was it just me, or did this feel more like a Superman MOVIE than a Superman comic? There were two things in particular that seemed like they’d work much better in motion than on the page – the villain’s wings forming around him, and on a larger scale, the Red Sun gravity beam. Neither of those are particularly suited to the comic medium, but would have much more impact on screen.)

As the first issue of an ongoing Ultimate Superman series, this’d be one thing. I like it well enough that I’d read the next story, if only to see whether the dangling threads go in a direction I’d be interested in, or whether any of the characters other than Clark and Jimmy develop personalities (seriously, Lois really got screwed here). But as a $20 graphic novel that may or may not have a follow-up next year, and therefore should be able to stand on its own, complete in and of itself? It feels too unfinished and unformed.

DOUGLAS: Hellboy/Beasts of Burden: Sacrifice is an absolutely gorgeous little comic book–Jill Thompson keeps getting more interesting as an artist all the time. But comics like this are also both why I don’t follow either Hellboy or Beasts of Burden month-to-month, and why I feel like I’m missing out by not following them. This is a horror story with nothing particularly unsettling about it: the cues that there’s supposed to be something big and scary are all genre signifiers. (The farmer saying “I don’t know if I’d go in those woods if I were you. Folks say strange things happen in there”–oh, come on.) It’s got a neat, distinctive look-and-feel–animals who are only slightly anthropomorphized!–and I’m a sucker for that. Thompson’s watercolor technique is incredible. Dorkin and Mignola write fun dialogue. Everyone involved has miles of style. And yet I didn’t get any particular emotional involvement in the story (and couldn’t tell if a bunch of characters and incidents were callbacks to the earlier Beasts of Burden mini or if they were just dropped into this), and wondered why I should care about the outcome. Was I missing something?

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EVAN: Two summers back, I went on a massive Hellboy binge, and inhaled the omnibus and the next four or so collected editions in about a month. I totally fell in love with the demonic detective, and still think he’s the exemplar of how to do a modern-day adventure character. The continuity attached to him is significant but not onerous, and Mignola and his creators don’t feel the need to push things forward with every story. Sometimes, the projects are just new adventures and that’s okay.

So this crossover feels exactly right in that regard, which is to say it’s okay if Hellboy just wanders in to the Beasts of Burden world. He kinda just does that anyway in his own stories. The everyman attitude Hellboy approaches his work with makes everything he’s in a joy to read and also makes this book feel like a perfect melding. Every lead character here–the doggies, the kitties and Ol’ Goat Hoofs–has personality, and you can tell that Dorkin and Mignola made sure to give them all a moment.

And Thompson’s art totally kills it.

But, Douglas, I’ve never read Hellboy as a work that’s meant to scare the reader. The characters in the world get scared of the crap that’s going down, but I think we as the reader can just sit back and wait for Hellboy to talk trash. That said, the BOB continuity beats at the end of the book totally left me confused.

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GRAEME: Maybe I’m just a sap, but I can’t help but have emotional connection with Beasts of Burden, Douglas. There’s something about the portrayal of the animals that completely wins me over every single time. It’s not just Jill Thompson’s art, although it’s really wonderful, but the core for me is really the way that Evan Dorkin’s dialogue manages to seem both animalistic and human at the same time. Seriously, when bad things happen to these animals, I’m a mess just in worry that they won’t make it out alive. PUPPIES! KITTY! BE SAFE!

I get the criticism that nothing really unsettling happens in this special, but I’m not sure that’s what BoB (or even Hellboy, really) is actually about. It’s always seemed more supernatural/spooky adventure more than actual horror to me, and this oneshot follows that model pretty well. I don’t think this was as good, or as deep, as the BoB series proper, but it’s a lot of fun, if admittedly slight. After Superman: Earth One, it felt like a great relief to read something that didn’t take itself overly seriously, nor feel more important than it actually deserved. I’d happily read a lot more of this. When can we get Beasts of Burden/Concrete, Dark Horse?

DOUGLAS: Oh, that would be fun! Or Beasts of Burden/Usagi Yojimbo. If Usagi Yojimbo can team up with the Turtles, anything’s possible, right? And wouldn’t it be great to see Thompson paint a samurai rabbit?

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