Sick and tired of the brash, abrasive and headstrong Superman of the New 52? Can’t stomach the shaved head and t-shirt look he’s been rocking lately? Well, Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks have the solution for you as they bring the classic, post-“Infinite Crisis” Superman and Lois Lane back into the limelight.
Read on for our review of “Superman: Lois & Clark” #1. Be warned, though, mild spoilers may follow.
Written by Dan Jurgens
Illustrated by Lee Weeks
Following the epic events of CONVERGENCE, here are the adventures of the last sons and daughter of the Krypton and Earth as they try to survive in a world not their own. But can they keep this world from suffering the same fate as their own? Can this Superman stop the villains he once fought before they are created on this world? What is Intergang, and why does Lois’s discovery of it place everyone she loves in jeopardy? What will happen when their nine-year-old son learns the true identity of his parents? Make way for the original power couple, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do them part!
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… the post-“Infinite Crisis” versions of Clark Kent and Lois Lane who were imprisoned on Telos, but who, after the events of “Convergence”, were sent back to reset the Multiverse by stopping the original “Crisis On Infinite Earths” and afterwards decided to make the modern day, New 52 version of Earth-0 their home while living in secret on a farm with their son?
That’s probably the first real problem surrounding “Superman: Lois & Clark” #1: it is way to complicated to actually explain without first explaining decades worth of DC continuity. I feel like Carl Sagan. If you wish to summarise the plot of “Superman: Lois & Clark”, you must first invent the DC Universe. It makes for a very strange reading experience right off the bat as the story Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks are telling is so mired in the history of the DC multiverse that they spend almost as long explaining the backstory leading up to this issue as the actual events of this issue. Though, how they managed to summarise “Convergence” in two pages is a feat I certainly admire.
Despite the fact that reading this issue feels like sitting a test on the history of DC without studying, it’s hard to deny that the actual storytelling on display is, for the most part, enjoyable. The goal with “Superman: Lois & Clark” is to bring back the pre-New 52 Superman, red underwear and marriage to Lois Lane intact, and tell new stories with him because I guess DC finally decided to listen to fans who don’t like New 52 Superman, but didn’t want to get rid of him. However, while the novelty of seeing that version of Superman again does make me want to give this issue a 10/10 and sing it’s praises from the heavens, the issue doesn’t quite live up to that promise.
We only really see Superman in his classic costume in the beginning as he… stands in the background of the events of the ‘Origin’ arc of “Justice League” whil they fight Darkseid because I guess he’s been in the New 52 since the beginning, but just didn’t bother to help when stuff like “Forever Evil” was going down? But whatever, that’s not the point. The point is that for an issue that seems to be focused on mining the nostalgia vein that is seeing the classic, red underwear Superman return, it doesn’t exactly show him being all that super.
While the first two pages are an interesting enough hook, the only other time the issue shows Superman in action is much later in the issue as he saves a crashing space shuttle as part of an actually interesting plotline. The rest of the issue, thought, is focused on the domestic life of Clark Kent, Lois Lane and their son on the farm they’ve been living on. It’s not a bad move, per se, as Jurgens uses it to explore the human side of the characters by showing how they’ve had to adapt to being stuck on a world that isn’t their own with younger doppelgangers of themselves running about.
Continued belowWhat’s strange about this issue is the pacing. The story seems so mired in trying to explain the circumstances around how Clark and Lois found themselves on the New 52 Earth (something that barely actually effects the story outside of making Clark change his costume to something closer to “Justice League: Beyond” one and making him operate in secret which is a whole other problem with the concept entirely) that it feels like Jurgens and Weeks just ran out of pages. After the genuinely impressive scene of Clark saving the crashing shuttle, the issue cuts to a scene of Jonathan, Clark and Lois’ son, in school being caught watching a report on the shuttle on his phone. The scene feels like it’s going to continue on the next page, but as soon as you turn the page, Jurgens and Weeks have abandoned the idea and gone on to have a last page tease of… something to do with a missing MacGuffin in space? It was a really flat ending that cut from scene to scene to scene in a way that felt like Jurgens and Weeks just ran out of space as opposed to them winding down to a conclusion to the issue.
While Jurgens’ writing has it’s definite ups and downs this issue, Lee Weeks is strong throughout. His art style is sharp and has something of a tinge of the noir in its sharp inks and dark shadows. His art isn’t quite the bombastic, vibrant Superman art that defined post-“Infinite Crisis” Superman, but instead nails the feeling that Superman has been stranded in the New 52. However, his art feels somewhat curtailed this issue as, despite the fact that he’s able to completely nail the action in the opening pages and in the shuttle crash scene, the majority of the issue has him drawing dialogue scenes on a farm. His storytelling doesn’t suffer for it, mind you, and his artwork is strong throughout, but I feel like the issue would have benefited from more of his rendition of Superman than Clark Kent. Week’s art is brought to life by Brad Anderson, who contrasts the shadows and inks of Week’s art with a surprisingly vibrant palette that mixes the punchy blues and reds of Superman’s costume with more rustic and earthy tones for the farm.
Overall, this is an issue that, to me, failed to live up to its potential in a lot of way. With the promise of bringing back a more classic version of Superman at the fore, I feel like I should be in love with this issue, but the decision to set the story in the New 52 universe and spend so long trying to explain the aftermath of “Convergence” really watered down the story a lot. That lead to some really spotty writing from Jurgens as you can feel the times when he wants to let loose and really tell a Superman story, but the setting constrains him to having this Superman hide out on a farm and operate in secret . Thankfully, Lee Weeks’ art is fantastic throughout and is perhaps the only part of the issue where the marriage of this classic Superman and the New 52 style actually works. With this rather rocky first issue out of the way, though, I certainly have hopes that this issue will begin to live up to its potential in coming issues.
Final Verdict: 6.3 – Amazing art and a few great moments here and there, but this issue feels more like the tidying up of the aftermath of “Convergence” than the start of a new story.
