Superman Vol. 1: Before Truth by Gene Luen Yang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A decent book, but for me, just not the sum of its parts.
You’ve got Gene Luen Yang, who is definitely a comics talent.
And you’ve got John Romita Jr., who is one of my all-time favorite artists.
So why only 3 stars?
Well, the story starts strong, but it left me a bit bored.
The things is, I don’t really like Superman stories where the story is about a vaguely de-powered Superman. It feels a little pointless to me. It’s like doing a story about Batman where all of a sudden he sucks at fighting. Or an Aquaman story where he can still swim, but he’s not great at it. For some reason, de-powering superheroes isn’t something I’m all that excited by.
I think there are some interesting roads to go, for example Superman experiencing a human hangover for the first time, but I can kinda watch anyone do that. Hell, I did that. Let me tell you, it was an experience for me and for my mom’s kitchen sink, which I vomited in. Why do I need to watch Superman do it?
Let’s be honest, a Superman with no powers, that’s like a Star Wars movie with no lightsabers. A Scooby-Doo episode where the bad guy is a legitimate ghost as opposed to an old man who has incredible costuming skills and really should be working in film.
And when Superman doesn’t have powers, he’s just man. Regularman. Standardman. Normal-If-Still-Pretty-Ripped-Man.
And the thing is, in this story, he has SOME power, but not his normal power. It’s hard to tell how much he has at any given time. The rule seems to be that he has however much power the narrative requires, but just barely that much.
JRJ’s art is cool, as always, and I think Gene Yang’s storytelling really shines early on when Superman is interacting with the Justice League. It’s when we get a little further into a story that’s complicated by the intersection of tech, identity reveal, and powers fading that it feels like the pages are running all over to keep up with themselves.