8, going on 9, years ago, DC did something radical. No, not in the slang 90s way but in the major, seismic shift sort of way. They took their entire line of comics, cancelled every single one of them, and rebooted their entire universe. Not only did they reboot it, they reset it, making a pseudo-Ultimate Universe where heroes were near the start of their careers, without decades of story baggage. The Wildstorm and Vertigo universes were folded back into the main DCU and an overarching threat was teased during the final pages of “Flashpoint,” the event that birthed the New 52. It was a promise of more interconnected titles, a greater coherence within the universe and 52(!) titles to start, with more on the way in subsequent waves.
Gone were the JSA. Gone were all but one of the Robins (not really). Teams that once had hundreds of members and rotating casts were reduced to their core membership. The Teen Titans existed, but didn’t. It was a weird time.
It was a bold move and while, in theory, it could have worked, the practicalities and execution fell flat on its face and gave us nearly a decade of material to shake our collective heads at and ask: what the hell happened?
Well, that’s not what we’re here for! To celebrate the end of the decade, we here at Multiversity thought it’d be a neat idea to go back to the start of the New 52 with fresh eyes to see if things were better, if things were worse, and how well these books have stood the test of time. Over the next two weeks, we’ll be covering every single title of Wave 1 of the New 52, divided up by the “imprints” they spearheaded, an idea I, Elias, genuinely wish they had kept.
These titles were meant to be an entry into a simplified universe — let’s see if these #1s accomplished that goal and brought us something Super for the then semi-new decade.
Action Comics #1
Written by Grant Morrison
Penciled by Rags Morales
Inked by Rick Bryant
Colored by Brad Anderson
Lettered by Pat Brousseau
Reviewed by Erik Hyska
I started following comics semi-weekly in 2013 (a year after the launch of the ‘New 52’), so I was somewhat oblivious to the weight of Grant Morrison, writer of the definitive “All-Star Superman,” returning to Superman to flesh out Clark’s early days in the post-‘Flashpoint’ reality. “Action Comics” never became the critical or fan favorite comic book that “All-Star” was, and a lot of the criticism revolving around the run focuses narrowly on the characterizations of the ‘new 52’ Clark not being the pre-‘Flashpoint’ Clark. This always seemed unfair to me, because as brash as Clark may have come across, the core of the character was always present and the same level of understanding that Morrison brings to “All-Star” is evident in the first issue of “Action Comics.”
Morrison and artist Rags Morales begin “Action Comics” #1 with Glen Glenmorgan (aka Mr. Metropolis) closing a deal with a devious looking man. A flash of red streaks through the second panel and suddenly Superman is standing in the company of the two men with his red cape, blue t-shirt, and blue jeans. Superman says to the antagonists, “Rats. Rats with money. And rats with guns. I’m your worst nightmare.”
For some, Superman’s dialogue may come off as clunky or so headstrong that it seems out of character, but I think those criticisms are missing the point of who Superman is at this moment in his life. He’s meant to come across as young, inexperienced, bold, and risky. Where an older Superman may wait to see how the interaction plays off with Glenmorgan and his business partner, this Superman jumps through a window to take down Glenmorgan. Seeing these moments and understanding who this Superman is and juxtaposing it with previous interpretations of the character drew me in as a reader and made me appreciate the differences.
This comparing and contrasting extends to the rest of the classic Superman cast. Lois and Jimmy are featured in the story as journalists early in their careers at the Daily Planet. Lex Luthor is depicted as an overweight, energy-drink guzzling genius who sees Superman as a threat, but has not built an obsession in seeing him bested by himself. And Clark himself is not the fumbling and awkward hayseed from Kansas, but rather a broke, hard-working journalist making a name for himself as a serious member of the press. I love these differences because for their subtlety and believability. It makes sense to me as a reader to see Lex, unchallenged by his fellow humans, regress to an out-of-shape man who’s been bored until he first interacts with Superman.
Continued belowWhere Morrison is precise and rich in his characterizations and the overall structure of the plot, Morales’s illustrations feel economic and stunted. Morales can effectively convey what is happening on a page with action and framing his characters, however the details of the characters themselves and the inconsistency from panel to panel are sloppy. In particular, Superman’s torso is so oddly shaped that it pulled me out the comic several times to try and understand why Morales chose to draw the character that way. However I really appreciated how Morales illustrated and designed Clark as a shabby recent grad who’s closer to Harry Potter than a slouching Christopher Reeves.
Final Verdict: 8.5 – “Action Comics” #1 is only the first puzzle piece of Grant Morrison’s Superman origin story. Its straightforward plot is the perfect vehicle for introducing the new interpretations of the stars of Superman’s cast in a clever and comprehensible way. Morales’s designs are strong, but his paneling and movement are elementary.
Superboy #1
Written by Scott Lobdell
Penciled by R.B. Silva
Inked by Rob Lean
Colored by the Hories
Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual
Reviewed by Reid Carter
It is pleasantly surprising how well this issue holds up. The hook for the issue is really strong, and puts Superboy in a dramatically engaging environment. Substituting N.O.W.H.E.R.E. for the pre-New 52 Cadmus, Superboy forming an uneasy alliance with the scientists who created him is a territory that hadn’t been explored in years. The introduction of two new faces to Superboy’s origin–Gen13’s Caitlin Fairchild and Deathstroke’s daughter Ravager–give it an interesting new coat of paint, and establishing doubt as to whether or not Superboy is a good person sets up what could be a great anti-hero story.
The real let down here is the dialogue, which is incredibly stiff. The writing is old-fashioned and feels at odds with artist R.B. Silva’s more modern style. Silva’s faces are so expressive that Lobdell could likely have trusted them to deliver many of the emotional beats that are laid out directly in caption boxes, and I’m struck by just how much better the issue would have read if you lifted most of those boxes out.
The final stinger of Superboy facing off against the Teen Titans presented an idea that was far more frustrating in later issues than it is here; as a closer for issue #1 it feels like just the right kind of tease, exciting and laying out a clear path for the future of the series.
Final Verdict: 6.7 – On the whole, “Superboy” has a relatively strong start, with interesting characters and a compelling, propulsive narrative.
Supergirl #1
Written by Michael Green and Mike Johnson
Penciled by Mahmud Asrar
Inked by Mahmud Asrar and Dan Green
Colored by Dave McCaig
Lettered by John J. Hill
Reviewed by Brian Salvatore
Supergirl is one of the characters with the blankest slates at the start of the New 52. When we meet her in “Supergirl” #1, she is brand mew to Earth, unaware of when and where she is, and most of the issue is her being attacked by not Rocket Reds after her ship winds up in Siberia. The bulk of this issue is action, and Mahmud Asrar, one of the breakout artists of the New 52, does some exceptional work here, both in establishing a visual language for Kara from the first issue, but also making the action not feel like filler, but giving it a richness and perspective that many action-heavy books just don’t have.
Writers Michael Green and Mike Johnson essentially are just writing one long Kara monologue here, but manage to dump a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time, and never resort to straight info dump. It gets close a few times, but the nature of the monologue, centering it on a perceived sense of dreaming, allows some wiggle room. The issue isn’t exactly bursting with information, but everything we get, more or less, is important to the rest of the run.
In this first installment, Kara establishes herself as a first class warrior, and someone who seems less than concerned with collateral damage. While this somewhat contradicts years of stories and/or how the character is written before and after, I respect the decision to attempt to give Kara new qualities that may distinguish her from all the other Supers.
Continued belowThe issue flies by, and may be considered somewhat slight for that reason. While it isn’t one of the more complex issues of the run, it does its job pretty perfectly, as the mission statement of the book is nicely laid out in its first few pages. Asrar’s art is stunning, and Green and Johnson clearly have ideas for the characters, even if they don’t exactly pack this issue with too much.
Final Verdict: 7.3 – A strong start, both visually and conceptually.
Superman #1
Written and laid out by George Perez
Illustrated by Jesus Merino
Colored by Brian Buccellato
Lettered by Carlos M. Mangual
Review by Vince Ostrowski
One of the bigger aims of the ‘New 52’ was an attempt to separate Superman a bit from his “big, blue boy scout” persona. To accomplish this, Grant Morrison was given “Action Comics”: a messy, wacky, but ultimately satisfying “year one” take on the character as only Morrison can provide. Meanwhile, the great George Perez was given “Superman”, and the task of bringing him into the “five years into the age of superheroes” status quo that the ‘New 52′ was promising across the rest of the board. In “Superman”, the reader is assured that the character had never hooked up with Lois Lane (making it possible to later move him into a relationship with Wonder Woman), that he is still relatively green, and that the public doesn’t yet implicitly trust him, which was one of the clunkier and more baffling aspects of the reboot. This Superman was kind of brash, which is certainly an editorial choice, but he also was good-hearted and does the right thing. Where “Superman” #1 fails the character is in the depiction of Clark Kent. Keeping Lois and Clark from having a romantic relationship is a choice that, while I disagree with it, can certainly be mined for valid storytelling. But this depiction of Lois and Clark is bereft of anything resembling chemistry and warmth. By the end of the issue, when Clark goes to knock on Lois’ door, he comes off more as a weird stalker than one of her coworkers and closest friends.
So many of the other choices in “Superman” #1, from the writing to the art, are intended to “modernize” a character that was perceived to be too old fashioned and unrelatable. This is a problem that Warner Bros. is reportedly having even today, in the Year of Our Lord 2019, as they try to develop another movie series around him. It’s inexplicable, but the ‘New 52’ didn’t have the answers either. Another editorial mandate seemed to be that every character needs to be depicted as hot as they can reasonably be. Perry White is a muscular, chiseled-jawed mountain of a man. Jimmy Olsen is clearly Justin Bieber. This all perhaps seems like nitpicking until you consider that this phenomenon occurred across the entire ‘New 52’. Characters were de-aged and thinned up all over the place. But if this issue is trying to thematically update Superman for then the year 2011, the narrative approach feels plucked straight from the ’80s. The writing during the issue’s major conflict (against an amorphous fire creature) relies heavily on narration provided from a newspaper column that Clark writes about the battle. The writing never gets out of the way of the art, but the art isn’t going above and beyond the script to begin with. Merino’s style is somewhere between Jim Lee’s angular, cross-hatched ’90s approach and Perez’s own art (I wonder if this was a stylistic choice made in his honor), which ends up being fine, but not making any strong impression.
Final Verdict: 5.0 – “Superman” #1 is the encyclopedia entry of what a middle-of-the-road superhero comic looks like.
