Whatever Happened to the Lex Luthor of Tomorrow?

I would call it something of an irony. No, not that I will be talking about yet another trip to Escape Velocity after I’ve “quit reading comics.” When DC unleashed INFINITE CRISIS some five years ago, it accompanied the event with a “One Year Later” gimmick across its line of titles, a chance for every character to reboot with a new starting point in the near future. I mention this in relation with the “Up, Up, and Away” arc that Geoff Johns and Kurt Busiek wrote for ACTION COMICS, a story that pitted Superman once again with his archnemesis Lex Luthor. Recently, within the pages of the same series, Paul Cornell brought Luthor through “The Black Ring” arc, and once again a defining showdown with the Man of Steel, culminating in ACTION COMICS #900. And then DC announced that it would be rebooting its entire line, this time from a newer, earlier starting point, in conjunction with another Geoff Johns event, FLASHPOINT.

Anyway, that’s the irony. Don’t know how many others have made that connection. Last time DC rebooted, it was Superman everyone wondered about. You know, Alan Moore’s classic “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?” It’s nice to see Luthor at the center, since in many ways, he’s never seen better character work than in the past fives years, notably “Up, Up, and Away” and “The Black Ring,” of course, stories that not only justified his legendary rivalry with Superman, but pushed it to cosmic proportions, yet never forgetting that unlike his enemy, Luthor is just a man, someone driven so insane with jealousy that he can ignore a great deal, even a scenario that gives him all the power in the world, quite literally. That’s what you call understanding character. And where does he go from there, anyway? Where else but a reboot, so he can start all over again?

Only DC knows the specific details about what will actually happen at the end of the summer, so I won’t spend a lot of time speculating, and yes, I’m not technically, actively reading comics anymore, so why should it matter to me? Because I still like to consider myself as a champion of the medium. Comics have only gotten better, off the backs of WATCHMEN, THE DARK KNIGHT RETURNS, James Robinson’s STARMAN, Mark Waid’s THE FLASH, Neil Gaiman’s SANDMAN, Y: THE LAST MAN, Geoff Johns and Green Lantern, Grant Morrison and Batman. If you still choose to consider them as juvenile, then that’s your choice. That’s your loss. It’s the whole reason I can’t take manga seriously. Those are comics which are hopelessly lost in juvenile ideas. That’s their whole point. That’s why they’re synonymous with their animated counterparts, anime, and why American comics are better translated into live-action film, like THE DARK KNIGHT. Christopher Nolan can do Batman. I don’t think anyone would care to see him do NARUTO.

The unabashed excuse for this most recent trip to Escape Velocity was the second chance to read ACTION COMICS #900, both for the “Black Ring” conclusion and the already-controversial Superman-renounces-American-citizenship story, which as it turns out isn’t in Paul Cornell’s main story but one of a few celebratory shorts, and is from the hand of screenwriter David S. Goyer. The whole comic is exceptional, from Cornell and Pete Woods (on his final work with Superman, at least for a while), which both concludes their own story and segues into “Reign of the Doomsdays” (the eventual trades will probably help distinguish them) to the Goyer piece that is eerily prescient for the wave of revolution in the Middle East he couldn’t have fully appreciated when he was writing it, to a Geoff Johns and Gary Frank personal interlude (something they rarely had a chance to do when they were on the book) to excellent additional contributions from Damon Lindelof (exploring a little-considered moment in Jor-El’s famous story with Ryan Sook), Paul Dini (with an instant-classic that takes a far wider examination of Superman than almost anyone else has ever considered), and finally, Richard Donner, who proves he still has a keen understanding of the character he once emblazoned onto the big screen. I knew I wanted to read two of these stories, but all of them are better than anyone had a reasonable ability to anticipate. A strong contender for best single issue of the year.

Do I feel ashamed to have once again broken my vow? Well, considering that I successfully broke the regular habit, not at all. Even if I’ve read perhaps more comics this year than I technically should have, I figure it’s worth it, especially when something like ACTION COMICS #900 comes together. The rest is icing:

FLASHPOINT #1 (DC)
I’ve already mentioned my extreme interest in this one, my enthusiasm for clever alternate versions of familiar characters and situations. But reading this, which many readers and critics seem to have found very easy to either downplay or outright dismiss, is far, far better than I might have expected, too. The narrator comes out of leftfield, and makes the whole issue read even better than it does initially. Geoff Johns is becoming a true master, and this one may actually be his masterpiece.

RASL #10 (Cartoon)
Jeff Smith, meanwhile, continues his subtle storytelling in RASL, not a marked contrast from BONE so much as a welcome evolution of it, with most of the fuzzy layers entirely removed, but not the intrigue. In fact, that’s what this book is all about, a heady trip that proves endlessly fascinating, even though it’s a long wait between issues, especially for something this fascinating. I hate to keep using the same terms with completely different books, because it begins to seem as if I view everything the same way, and therefore diminishes the impact of all my opinions. But I like to read what I like, and if what I like doesn’t compel me to similar observations, then I’m just wasting my time, aren’t I?

KIRBY: GENESIS #0 (Dynamite)
Alex Ross has finally hit on his next great comic, and it’s been a long time coming. To my mind, he has only two great titles in his career, the big ones, MARVELS and KINGDOM COME, and everything else has simply been him attempting to milk the reputation he gained on those books, any way possible, any way necessary, and that was never more evident than with the generic material he worked on with PROJECT SUPERPOWERS. The problem was that he began believing that he was as much a part of the creative force that resulted in his two great works as all his supporters kept saying. That simply wasn’t the case. He needed substantial help to reach those levels, and he had it in Mark Waid and Kurt Busiek, the latter of which is back to help bring this ode to Jack Kirby’s legacy into reality. It also doesn’t hurt that, once again, though Ross isn’t providing the regular interior art on his own, he finally has someone worthy of making it look respectable, even sensational, in Jack Herbert. That was another failing of PROJECT SUPERPOWERS. In short, everything comes together nicely in this book. Should definitely be worth reading.

BATMAN AND ROBIN #22 (DC)
Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason worked magic in the pages of GREEN LANTERN CORPS, and were rewarded with another tandem assignment. Even though few readers were ever to likely care as much about this title upon Grant Morrison’s departure, Tomasi and Gleason are reason enough to justify keeping it around, no matter how much longer that actually is. The biggest question of the post-reboot DC line is what will become of everything that has developed with the Batman titles in recent years. Will Morrison get to finish his epic in a kind of pocket universe? I certainly hope so…

THE L’IL DEPRESSED BOY #4 (Image)
One of those indy books with a great level of buzz to it, and certainly enjoyable. But really, I can’t help but think of Image as a whole as something of a USA Network of the comics medium, where quirky diversions come to stay.

DC COMICS PRESENTS: SON OF SUPERMAN (DC)
One of the deluxe reprints DC has been doing recently, in one-shot form, when the possibility of a standard trade isn’t particularly relevant. This one’s a real find, an alternate version of Superman from the mind of Howard Chaykin (but probably owes its return to the art of J.H. Williams III). Wondering what would become of Superman if he were to actually produce an offspring, this is truly fascinating, landmark material, almost a DARK KNIGHT RETURNS for the Man of Steel.

From here, a couple of not-necessary recent dollar reprints I decided to pick up:

HELLBLAZER #1 (Vertigo)
Circa the “What’s Next?” campaign inspired by the WATCHMEN film, a reprint that conveniently now allows me to sample John Constantine upon his recent return to the DC mainstream.

I KILL GIANTS #1 (Image)
Like L’IL DEPRESSED BOY, quirky material, satisfying and enjoyable, but still begs the question, if Image allows its creators complete freedom and this is the material they produce, doesn’t the company ever bang its head against the wall and wonder where all the truly epic, literary stuff might be? Sure, you can have your SPAWN, your WALKING DEAD, and all the fun comics you can shake a stick at, all the stuff fanboys say is “missing,” or simply isn’t superhero material, but I figure there should at least be some part that yearns for real posterity.

SERENITY #1 (Dark Horse)
For some reason, I’ve found it easier in recent years to support Joss Whedon’s FIREFLY franchise than when it was actually on TV, or the big screen, possibly because, in many ways, this is, well, Image material at heart. If Joss ever got out of his own way, he could produce truly great stories. But he still seems perfectly happy to be shackled by his own irony. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.