Yesterday was the Man Of Steel’s birthday (yes, really) and, honestly, when is a better time to revisit my all time favourite Superman story than the Big Blue Boy Scout’s day of celebration. Surprisingly, it isn’t “All-Star Superman”, but Mark Waid and Leinil Yu’s “Superman: Birthright.” This also helps wash out the horrible taste left by “The Coming Of The Supermen” from last week!
Read on below to find why “Superman: Birthright” is my all time favourite Superman story!
Written by Mark Waid
Illustrated by Leinil Yu
Everyone knows Jor-El sent his infant son to Earth to avoid death on Krypton, but now take a closer look at Jor-El’s emotional struggles with the decision. Plus, Kal-El’s early days on an alien world and the discoveries that set him on the path to becoming a legend!
There have almost been as many origins for Superman as there have been types of Kryptonite. They’ve range from good to great… well, whatever “American Alien” is, but none of them have ever quite been able to touch “Superman: Birthright”. The brainchild of Mark Waid and Leinil Yu, “Birthright” was an attempt to update Superman’s origin story for the 21st Century seeing as the last version of the origins was from 17 years prior in John Byrne’s “Man Of Steel”. With “Birthright”, Waid and Yu made everything old seem new again and brought an all new life to the early days of the Man Of Tomorrow.
The thing about Superman’s origin story is that everyone knows it like the back of their hand. Hell, it’s so well known that Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely can cover it in four panels. This is inevitably followed by the question “Why even cover the origin story anymore?” which is a fair enough point, but the one thing always missed in Superman origin stories is the reason Clark puts on the costume. See, Superman isn’t born out of tragedy. The best Superman writers, including Mark Waid here, know this. There’s no defining tragic moment like the death of his parents or the death of his uncle that makes him put on the suit. Clark Kent is the same person before the ‘S’ as he is afterwards and the way “Birthright” explores that through his reporting in Ghana is one of the most unique story elements I’ve ever seen in a Superman comic.
Through “Birthright”‘s first three issues, Waid and Yu explore Clark’s life before Superman, showing him to be just as much of a hero without the costume. The first two issues cement Clark’s skills as a photographer as well as his carefree, youthful nature which stands in stark contrast to the stoic, father figure Superman that defined the character for decades prior. This is a Clark Kent who smiles, who uses his powers for the simple things like play wrestling with a lion, but who doesn’t squander those powers. He protects people, even as journalist Clark Kent, because he can’t not help those in need. This is the kind of comic you put in front of people who just don’t “get” Superman as it really brings out the emotional connection to Clark Kent.
Now, I’ve praised Mark Waid’s writing a lot here – and why wouldn’t I? it’s half the reason this book is amazing – but it’s time to give the other half the spotlight. Leinil Yu’s artwork isn’t what you might normally expect to fit with the character of Superman, but somehow it’s the perfect fit for “Birthright”. The scratchiness of Yu’s linework, the overexagerration of characters’ expressions, the grandiosity of the two-page splashes littered throughout the series all speak to sense of scale and wonder befitting the character while infusing the story with that touch of realism that brought it into the 21st Century. Sure, you have aliens and superheroes and cities being destroyed, but you also have teenage angst and burgeoning relationships, self-doubt and betrayal and Yu brings those emotional qualities to the fore in his artwork.
Yu’s artwork is brought to a whole new level thanks to the colours by Dave McCaig. Yu’s sense of realism in the linework is given a sense of vibrant grandeur with a colour palette that pops with brilliant blues and reds, brings a green and gold warmth to Ghana and Smallville and brings clean, silver spires to Metropolis. The book is, in a word, gorgeous and a lot of that is thanks to Dave McCaig’s colours, which brings the over-the-top sense of awe and wonder to Leinil Yu’s distinctly grounded linework. It’s the perfect combination for a Superman series that feels both grounded and part of the real world yet isn’t afraid to embrace the fact that it’s a Superman series.
Continued belowIf there’s one downside to “Superman: Birthright” it’s, to me, the fact that, outside of Lex Luthor, there’s not much of a villain for Clark to face. Without spoiling it, the antagonist of the series is Lex Luthor who, as always, has a plan to take out Superman, but I always felt there was a missed opportunity to have another of Superman’s recognisable foes in there to fight against Superman. Luthor’s plan is an engaging plot point and makes sense within the series (and feels like a more interesting version of what Man Of Steel tried to do with Zod), it just always felt slightly lacking to me. Still, that’s only one problem I have with the book and nothing’s perfect, right? Everything else the series gets right more than makes up for it.
Overall, after reading “Superman: Birthright” again to write this, it’s rekindled my love for it and really put into perspective why I class it as my favourite Superman story. It brings a emotional grounding to the story of Clark Kent in a way that doesn’t sacrifice Superman’s heroism. The existence of Superman in this Metropolis doesn’t cause some worldwide panic where he’s called in front of the Senate to debate whether he’s good for the world. His existence as a hero is never questioned in the story by the world, it’s questioned by Clark. Waid and Yu focus on Clark’s self-doubt and uses the story to create the affirmation that, yes, the world does need a Superman.
You won’t see the words ‘False God’ scrawled across a Superman statue anywhere near this book, but you will see Superman a gigantic ‘S’ symbol to protect a child from cannon fire and that’s what Superman is.
