Superman: Birthright. (Issues #7 - #9)

Once again, I know that there has to be AT LEAST one reader of my blog, so why not leave a comment so I know you were there? Nonetheless I may as well finish reviewing the whole story and not just abandon the project in the middle. So here is parts seven to nine, enjoy!

Part seven opens pretty damn depressingly with Clark’s attempts to go unnoticed working, really well. Too well. However they quickly change the pace to an incredibly well drawn rescue attempt and the people are actually calling him a hero this time! But fuck, Luthor ruins that by setting off an explosion that makes Superman appear to be doing the damage, not saving people from it. He then takes Superman down with what appears to be a Kryptonite telescope. Yeah for the most part the comic seems to be trying its hardest to join the Marvel school of writing comicbooks but every now and then it acts totally goofy. Which is in this case, a good thing. Because I hate all the ‘gritty realism’ Marvel bloats itself on. So now the reporters are starting to lean towards Superman being evil. WHY IS EVERYONE IGNORING ALL THE LIVES HE HAS SAVED. FUCK. 

This then leads to the main meat of the issue, which is a flashback of when Clark and Lex used to be friends. Just for people who aren't comicbook fans, this version of the Superman mythos is directly lifted from the Superman TV show 'Smallville', because before that, Luthor and Superman were never friends. To be fair, this version of Clark's and Lex's past does actually make their future relationship of Luthor and Superman make a lot more sense, so I'm glad it's here. There are hints to their past together dotted around but this is the first time we get a proper flashback. We learn that Luthor has gone out of his way to erase this part of his life from existence. And I can see why, this version of Lex is probably an even bigger douche than the modern one. The Lex in this story seems a lot more superhuman than I remember him being. The Lex I knew was basically, ‘what if Ironman was a villain?’. But here he seems to be some kind of supergenius instead, to the point of alienating himself. It’s almost like he’s from another world…SYMBOLISM. In one scene in the Flashback Clark uses his super speed to catch up with Luthor. So on their first meeting Superman claimed to know Luthor, Clark Kent appears at the same time, claiming to know Luthor from Smallville and in the past never cared if Luthor saw him use his powers. Admittedly I don’t think he sees him using his powers in this scene but this guy is basically a fucking supergenius why can’t you work out Clark is Superman?! Anyway basically the flashback can be summed up with LEX AND CLARK USED TO BE FRIENDS CUZ ONE’S AN ALIEN AND ONE MAY AS WELL BE. 

Coming back into present day Clark foreshadows at some more flashbacks before we go to our closing scene, which I’m not really sure is going on…. It seems like Luthor is trying to weaponise the Kryptonite in his possession (although he already has the telescope thing) but instead he reveals that locked inside the Kryptonite was Kryptonian secrets which he can translate into English. Firstly, since when did Kryptonite do that? And secondly, if he can’t guess where Superman is from correctly how can he translate the fucking language of Krypton?!

Part 8 is basically Luthor’s origin story. I don’t know Luthor’s original backstory, I know all the exposure to Kryptonite gave him cancer but aside from that, I have no idea, so this backstory may be new and revamped or the same old fair. 

It opens with Clark and his Dad looking for the Kryptonite where Lex's fathers mansion used to be before it was blown up. And this basically acts as foreshadowing for the flashback that comes right after it…how pointless.

The flashback opens with them really pounding you with the LEX IS REALLY SMART message but I guess they need to make him seem really special when his adversary is a guy who can see the metaphysical, stop speeding trains and shrug off a grenade to the face.

The comic has dotted around that Lex’s Dad was an asshole and that was a major motivation for why Lex became such an insecure douchebag come supervillain, for some reason though even in this issue which is basically completely built around a flashback for him, they don’t flesh this out. There could be some really powerful scenes here, to really make us feel for Lex and think differently about the man we know he will grow into. The issue misses out on this opportunity.

Anyway, moving on from 'Lex’s Dad is a dick' the comic decides to go and emphasise just how nuts Luthor is getting. Which all leads to Clark getting his first exposure to Kryptonite and Lex blowing himself up. Why he, at the centre of the blast, survived seemingly without medical attention while his Dad was reduced to ash…isn’t explained. I’d say it doesn’t really matter but they felt the need to include the detail of the Dad turning to ash, so why ignore the detail of Lex’s parent super human feat? 

Also, I think the comic…read me. You know how I said ‘why doesn’t Luthor guess Clark is Superman?’. This issue closes with a bullshitty reason as to why. ‘He’s not looking.’ He’s not… HE’S NOT LOOKING?! So he wants to frame the man, make him hated by the world but he doesn’t care who he is because Luthor doesn’t want to believe someone better than him came out of Smallville? WHAT A LOAD OF BULLSHIT!

Part 9 opens with Lois running from one Superman rescue scene to another in search of him. Ultimately putting her own life in danger so he’d come rescue her. This then turns into a short action sequence/display of Superman’s power. As expected, it’s awesomely drawn and good fun. Lois then goes on to explain Superman is in a lot of trouble now Lex has convinced everyone Superman is part of an alien invasion. The comic does help to justify why everyone isn’t just trusting Superman off the bat and the reasoning does make a lot of sense and is probably the most modern moment of the whole story so far.  

We then get an ULTRA MODERN SCENE with Clark talking to his Mum via MSN. Aw yeeeaaah. Yeah it’s pretty fucking stupid that a large chunk of the narrative of this issue is told through an instant messenger client. First the comic utterly fails to do any modernisation and then tries way too fucking hard. 

There’s also this seeming pointless scene and a running gag through the story about people calling Jim, Jimmy… yeah, padding, more fucking padding. Anyway, after the padding is done, off we go to another action sequence and another Luthor Supes moment!

Luthor pencils Superman in on his own past. How he knows all this…I don’t know. And just as Superman finds out where he has come from, Luthor comes with the great bit of news, Krypton blew up and took everything with it, everything except Superman, the last of his kind. Holy shit, Doctor Who? Anyway, Luthor takes a picture on his mobile phone of Superman’s reaction to all this making this, THE MOST MODERN ISSUE YET! Luthor then goes on to give more exposition around Krypton and Kryptonite and... it’s not really necessary but I’m not complaining about a comic attempting to much fleshing rather than the usual too little. Luthor also explains his motivations for wanting to ruin Superman’s reputation, because Superman showed him up. And this is pretty much fucking retarded, but it’s still better than ‘just cuz’ and the flashback did make a good attempt at making Luthor’s motivations make a lot more sense than it just being an excuse. It seems the comic read me again. Luthor then twists their little meeting into Superman attacking him apparently ‘proving’ the impending invasion.

It then closes with a giant spider robot thing from Krypton, what the fuck...

My major problem with this issue is, it seems Superman here is more like, what if Bruce Wayne was Superman. He threatens people, instills fear in them and is drawn draped in shadow, you know, kinda like Batman…this Superman is nothing like well, Superman...

Anyway, to be concluded in the dramatic final installment of 'Superman Birthright: A Comicbook Review' (Issues 10 - 12)...