Book Review: Superman by Mark Millar

Superman by Mark Millar written by Mark Millar, art by Aluir Amancio, Georges Jeanty, Jackson Guice, Mike Manley, Sean Phillips, and Mike Wieringo

Before Mark Millar became a star in comic writing with hits like Superman: Red Son, Marvel Civil War, and Old Man Logan, he wrote a variety of Superman stories in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They are collected in this volume. The stories are a lot of one-offs. Some of them are really odd and not satisfying, like an Elseworlds-ish story of Harvey Dent as a cop who turns into "Superman" by an intelligence-boosting accident. Another story has Superman blasted into an alternate universe where survivors of Krypton are coming to turn Earth into their new home world by force. In other stories, Superman faces off against Lex Luthor with more or less interesting results. This is a mixed bag that I only found occasionally entertaining.

Not recommended unless you are a Superman completist or a Millar completist.

Book Review: Superman: Red Son by M. Millar et al.

Superman: Red Son written by Mark Millar, pencilled by Dave Johnson and Killian Plunket, and inked by Andrew Robinson and Walden Wong

What if Superman's spaceship had crashed not in the American heartland, but in the middle of the Soviet Union? That's the premise of this book. Superman is adopted at a commune by farmers and doesn't come to the big city until his powers have grown. This time, the big city is not Metropolis but Moscow. He doesn't bother with the mild mannered report gig. He goes straight to Stalin and becomes a state hero. But Superman's ambitions are more than protecting the Motherland. He prevents accidents and saves people from tragedies on a global scale. American Lex Luthor puts this to the test when he has a Soviet satellite crash toward Metropolis. Superman averts the disaster and has an all too brief meeting with Daily Planet report Lois Luthor (yeah, she's Lex's wife in this story!). Superman believes in doing what's right but how will that work out with a Soviet upbringing?

The plot and politics of the story are more complicated than an initial impression and, indeed, the first half of the book reveal. Superman works to spread a utopian ideal across the globe, but his passion for truth, justice, and the Soviet way leans too much on the later element to the detriment of the first two elements. Wonder Woman shows up but she is little more than a love interest and battle partner with Superman; the writer missed an opportunity to contrast the Soviet utopia with Paradise Island's utopia. There's a Soviet Union version of Batman, too. He's more of a freedom fighter against Superman and all he stands for (I guess like the Batman vs Superman movie), though he is a less active opponent than Luthor.

The first two-thirds of the book were interesting but unsatisfying to me. A lot of conventions and tropes of the Superman mythos are reversed or twisted in different ways, leaving me with a feeling of inconsistency. Lois as Luthor's wife is an interesting idea and is played out fully; Jimmy Olsen is a CIA liaison to Luthor's company for no apparent reason other than to have Olsen show up. He doesn't get any development that makes any sense. The conflict between Luthor and Superman dominates the last third of the book and plays out in interesting and satisfying ways for both comic book conventions and for the deeper ideas the story comments on.

I almost quit reading this book about a third of the way into it. I kept reading to see how it would play out and am happy that I did. I still feel like this premise could have had an even better treatment or would be more convincing if it was more detailed. The book didn't hit the mark for me, it's surprisingly average for a great starting concept.

Book Review: Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Wolverine: Old Man Logan by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven

Mark Millar is famous in comic books for ultra-violent, blood-soaked, high-concept stories. He's the author of Wanted (a bunch of assassins with amazing powers duking it out), Kick-Ass (a kid decides to be a superhero without any superpowers and is constantly beaten to a pulp), and Nemesis (a wealthy socialite goes on a crime spree as if he's the moral opposite of Bruce Wayne). Old Man Logan follows in these footsteps.

Wolverine tries to lead a quiet life as a farmer in a dusty future California. The story begins fifty years after almost all the superheroes were killed. The supervillains have taken over and divided up America among themselves. The Hulk clan runs the west coast and they've been harassing Logan's family. Logan can't make the rent payment on his farm so Bruce Banner's redneck grandchildren threaten to eat his family if he can't pay double next month. Enter the blind, aged Hawkeye who recruits Logan for a cross-country trip to deliver a mysterious package. The money will set Logan's family up for months. Logan accepts on the condition that he will not fight, just drive across the country. Hawkeye doesn't believe him but does accept.

The story is a journey of discovery. We readers discover what America would be like if supervillains were running the show. We discover how they came to power and what they did so Wolverine turned into a pacifist. Logan discovers how bad things are and if his inner berserker is really gone.

I enjoyed this book as an imaginative reworking of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven. In addition to ripping off the plot, Logan is depicted almost exactly like William Munny both as a character and in his physical appearance. The ending is different.

Millar provides some interesting twists on various characters (mostly villains) which is fun if you are already familiar with Marvel's universe. The violence and blood are over the top so it certainly isn't for everyone.