A Week of Short Stories Gives Many Visions of Superman

Yeah, you knew this was coming. This week, on Superman & The Authority #2, it’s an assemble-the-team montage of sorts, as Superman and Manchester Black bring their world’s best, brightest and most dangerously effective team together in their efforts to make the world a better place. Written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Mikel Janín, Fico Ossio, Evan Cagle, and Travel Foreman, colored by Jordie Bellaire, Sebastian Cheng, Dave Stewart and Alex Sinclair, and lettered by Steve Wands.

Meanwhile, it’s #6 of the anthology Superman: Red & Blue, featuring:

“Hissy Fit”, drawn and written by Sophie Campbell.

“The Scoop”, drawn and written by Matt Wagner, colored by Brennan Wagner and lettered by Dave Lanphear. 

“The Special”, written by Tom King, drawn by Paolo Rivera and lettered by Steve Wands.

“Son of Farmers”, written by Darcie Little Badger, drawn by Steve Pugh and lettered by Pat Brosseau. 

“Ally”, written by Rex Ogle, drawn by Mike Norton and lettered by Steve Wands. 

Armaan Babu: Phew. That is a long list of credits. This week really doubles down on the notion that the story of Superman really does belong to everyone – and we’re getting some excellent perspectives on the myth this week. Although, to be fair, it’s not all about Superman – Superman & the Authority puts some other heroes in the spotlight, just before they join up with the Man of Steel himself. I have been enjoying all of it, and am excited to discuss this week’s stories with you, Tony! How’ve you enjoyed this week’s comics?

Tony Thornley: This was quite the week. I enjoyed just about everything I read but these two books were something else. Quite the feast as it were.

Home is Where the Cats and Comfort Foods Are

Armaan: I was all satisfied with being able to neatly arranging these stories by their subject matter for our discussion, but there’s definitely an odd one out that this issue starts us off with. Nevertheless, it’s one I very much enjoyed, and the non-comics reading but cat-loving friends I’ve shown it to have enjoyed it as well. Sophie Campbell has been doing great things with adorably, expressive, and dangerous animals over on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and she does a great job here. She also makes very inventive use of color, filling almost none of the art in, using colored outlines and panel borders to evoke feelings. Short, sweet, and silent, Hissy Fit is a delightful appetizer for the main courses to come.

One of those, that also makes inventive use of color, is The Special. I go back and forth on how much I enjoy Tom King as a writer any given week, but I have to say, this was definitely Paolo Rivera’s story to tell. It’s a tale mostly told in black and white, with Rivera bringing in the colors for the most pivotal parts of Clark’s life. It’s a very Wizard of Oz trick – even today, my breath is taken away the first time Dorothy (another young Kansas person with an iconic red and blue costume, a fantastic dog, and a villain who favors green, come to think of it) steps out of her house and sees the colors of Oz. Rivera uses blue judiciously as lighting, and that first moment of Clark seeing his Kryptonian rocket ship give me chills no matter how many times I look at it.

What did you think, Tony?

Tony: So I have thoughts regarding content and thoughts regarding book design. Two very different things here. I have to say that the stories themselves really continued the win streak of this series. I need to go back and read issue #2, because maybe I wasn’t in a good mood when I read it?

Hissy Fit was an incredibly silly but still heartwarming story about Streaky the Super-Cat. I loved the use of color, even if I didn’t like the actual colors used (more on that in a minute), and Campbell’s work has such a great dynamism to it. I really would love to see DC launch a Superman equivalent to Batman: Urban Legends, and the moment that happens, Campbell should get the first lead feature.

King’s story is absolutely saved by Rivera. I think some of the moments were a little too earnest- for example, I can believe Jon Kent is a religious man, but the sermon he gave Clark felt really out of character. But Rivera’s work was gorgeous throughout, and had some truly wonderful use of spot color.

I also adored Darcie Little Badger and Steve Pugh’s work on Son of Farmers. It was sweet, it captured the essence of Clark Kent in a short page count, and just hit the feels. Pugh has grown as an artist so much over the last twenty years, and I think this is a perfect example of how good he is.

Armaan: I have to say, after the deliberate and minimal usage of color in The Special, Pugh’s more liberal use of it on the very next page was a jarring shift, at first, but after that initial shock, I was quickly drawn in. My favorite part of this story was hands down the montage of save-the-day Superman moments, both big and small – there’s an Alex Ross-like level of iconic being applied to each moment, and the redness of Superman’s cape against the icon-strengthening shadows is quite the effect. 

Tony: However, DC really needs to look at the readability of their comics! I have excellent vision- I had 20-12 vision as a teenager and at 38 I still have 20-15. However, the specific shades of blue being used here actually caused me some eye strain trying to read it. In Campbell’s story, her entire story is colored outlines on a white background- no figures are filled in. It’s a very cool idea, especially when she starts using red to show a pissed off super-cat! Unfortunately, the particular shade of blue that is predominantly used was just a couple shades too light for me to read it clearly, and the same with the white-on-blue captions used in Little Badger’s story.

Now, I read all my DC stuff digitally. These issues are probably minimal to non-existent in a print copy of the issue. However, DC really needs to be smarter about how things read in BOTH formats. I’ve run into this in other DC books in the past, and I probably will again. These books should not be physically difficult to read.

Armaan: As far as the readability goes, that’s not something I noticed, and I’m sorry you had to put up with that, Tony. Considering how popular these kinds of selectively colored books are becoming – Red & Blue with Superman, Black & Gold with Wonder Woman, and more – it’s something that definitely needs to be paid more attention to.

Coming Out to the World

Tony: Now onto something positive. I really liked the thematic link between the Wagners’ The Scoop and Ogle & Norton’s Ally. Our friend and colleague Cori McCreery told us the latter was one one of the best stories of the entire series, and I can’t disagree with her. These two stories were just such wonderful cappers to the entire series.

Armaan: Trusting in Cori tends to be a very good decision, especially when it comes to anything to do with the House of El. Both of these stories deal, in their own way, with Superman revealing his identity to the world. While The Scoop certainly gave me a lot to think about, Ally was a lot more of an emotional gut punch, and likely to be remembered for years to come.

The Scoop is a more Clark-centric story, as he struggles to gain respect as a journalist, covering more grounded stories while his own alter-ego dominates the front page. I’m of two minds about this tale. On the one hand, more stories about Clark Kent, the Journalist, please. I especially appreciated the paragraph we got right at the end: Clark’s opening paragraph to the memoir of his dual life that he will one day – but today – share with the world. I want to know more about what Clark is like as a writer, and I feel Clark’s struggle for validation as a writer in a world where eyes are drawn to sensationalism.

Tony: I really enjoyed that too. This is Clark Kent the social crusader. And I loved how much people responded to that, even if Clark himself didn’t notice it. I felt like Wagner should have leaned into that a little bit more- even if Clark didn’t feel like it, he WAS making a difference.

Armaan: On the other hand, the story does a pretty big disservice to Lois Lane, painting her as the sensationalist headline chaser ‘cause she knows that’s what sells. Contrast to the recent retelling of the Clark/Lois romance in the CW’s Superman & Lois, an almost completely opposite tale that shows Clark and Lois falling in love while trying to tell more socially important stories that were getting lost in the shadow of Superman’s exploits. The costumes in this story hint to an earlier era, but no matter when, I’d like to think that Lois & Clark would absolutely be on the same page about what kind of stories count.

Tony: I agree with you, but I also think that with Wagner specifically setting this in the 30’s/40’s, that characterization of Lois works. She’s evolved past that, without a doubt. But the Lois Lane of that time, that’s at least consistent. She feels like Katherine Hepburn would in the role.

Do I want more from my Lois? Absolutely. Am I okay with it for this one short? Sure. But only because of the time period it’s set in.

Armaan: Coming to Ally, this was a beautiful story. The tale is simple; in Superman’s public reveal of his secret identity, a fan finds the inspiration and strength to come out to his own family. I’m glad that Red & Blue is the place this story gets told, simply because of the anthology’s format. Superman stands out. Seen through the eyes of a fan, the rest of the world literally pales in comparison. The strength Superman gives to those who look up to him is felt as strongly as the vividness his colors give the page.

And then that moment as this fan leaves the background blues of his own life, and into the fully colored foreground with his family, his own secret revealed for all to see, the Pride flag in place of the ‘S’ emblem – that sudden splash of color is such a beautiful reveal. 

Tony: I absolutely adored that of the entire series, only these two pages were in full color. It made the moment have a way stronger impact than I think it would have otherwise. It’s also the best use of continuity that this entire series had. There were a handful of times that other stories used continuity and I think it actually hurt the stories. Here, it adds to this wonderful coming out story.

Really, the only thing this story was missing was our nameless protagonist getting a moment with Superman himself, which I don’t think was necessary for the emotional impact of this story.

Can We ALL Get Troll Blocking Hammers Please?

Armaan: If you’re a fan of short stories in your comic books, this is definitely the week for you. Over in Superman & The Authority, Superman and Manchester Black begin the work of assembling the team, and each new member gets their own spotlight in the best of ways: their very own tale, each illustrated by a unique art team.

These tales are interspersed with commentary between Manchester Black and Superman himself, and these two are such natural conversational foils for each other. Grant Morrison is clearly having as much fun writing these two as Mikel Janín is drawing them. They get to lean hard into Manchester’s cynicism. It speaks to how confident this creative team is in their portrayal of Superman that Manchester can point out how silly all of this is as much as he likes – the inspiration that Superman is just doesn’t budge. There’s a growing respect between the two, and the soil that enriches it is the Dream: both of them are excited about making the world a better place. Manchester Black might not ever say as much – but he’s clearly all in on bringing together the best team possible.

Tony: On a meta level, I think it’s saying something that I really love. This is a debate between the literal hope and optimism of Superman that Morrison represents and the cynicism of modern comics that Manchester was created to satirize. The refreshing thing is seeing Morrison draw a line in the sand metaphorically and saying, “This is where that cynicism stops. We don’t need it.”

And that’s true. Superheroes are meant to be the best of us, especially Kal-El. I always say whenever the DnD alignment chart meme pops up with comic book characters there is only one character that the alignment will always be neutral good. Everyone else can be up for debate. But Superman? He’s neutral good EVERY TIME. And Manchester comes around to that throughout the issue, even if he’s pushing against it the whole time.

Armaan: Someone who seems a little more chaotic good is our first recruit this issue; Natasha Irons, otherwise known as Steel.

There’s a lot to love about this comic, but this tale in particular was just an unmitigated delight. I love how Grant Morrison keeps bringing in their trademark exclamatory captions harkening back to a more Golden Age while setting it in a story about internet perils that lands like a well-placed hammer blow to the face. This could have very easily felt very hello-fellow-kids, as Nat fights manifested metaphors from the ‘net made literal, but in embracing the silliness of it all, it sets the tone just right. Sometimes you need a story that’s just out to have fun – and everything about this tale does just that, especially Steel herself: bold, self-sure and ready for action.

Also, the idea that if the internet gained sentience, its first reaction to humanity would be to be afraid of us all, lashing out in the only way it knew how? Yeah. That would definitely happen.

Tony: They are just writing a silly fight against the internet here (which Ossio draws the HELL out of), and I love it. Nat is such a great protagonist for this. I’ve liked Natasha for a long time but I don’t feel like she’s ever gotten the spotlight she deserved. If this series, and the Action Comics stories which come out of it, gives us a much more well rounded Nat Irons, then I think it’ll be a success.

Armaan: The other two stories bring in, respectively, Midnighter & Apollo, and the Enchantress – though the Enchantress isn’t part of the team quite yet. 

It’s diving into the weird horror in both these tales that I’m reminded of one of my favorite pieces of Morrison’s work: Seven Soldiers. Such weirdness in each of them, some unexplained, some not, every hero residing in such a unique niche of a shared universe. There, a common threat united them all (sort of). Here, it’s Superman bringing them together, and that’s a much more exciting idea. 

Midnighter and Apollo get a fun, and adorable introduction with gorgeous desert action, but it’s the Enchantress tale that’s grabbed my focus. Everyone else on the team’s an obvious pick, and their stories show us just why that’s so. I’m not sure what makes the unstable and deeply haunted Enchantress someone who needs to be on this team, though, and the slow horror tale that serves as her introduction provides no answers but leaves me intrigued. What did you think of these stories, Tony – and what do you think the Enchantress brings to the team?

Tony: Midnighter and Apollo’s intro is SO Morrisonian. Weird science! Snappy banter! Extremely clever pop culture jokes that are subtle enough not to feel dated in five years! It was very fun and Cable’s depiction of what was happening was so fun.

The Enchantress short was a trip though. Superman and his newfound team saving a witch from Hell… I enjoyed the mind trip greatly, and the cliffhanger page was just fantastic. Travel Foreman was exactly the right person to draw it as well. And considering how well Morrison likes using DC continuity, I look forward to their use of Neron next issue as the Authority escapes hell!

So, like I said, hell of a week.

Super-Thoughts!

• Superman’s got quite a collection of time machines in his Fortress, including a red TARDIS.
• Shirtless workout Superman as drawn by Mikel Janín – this book knows it’s got the hottest Superman around.

Armaan Babu

Tony Thornley

Tony Thornley is a geek dad, blogger, Spider-Man and Superman aficionado, X-Men guru, autism daddy, amateur novelist, and all around awesome guy. He’s also very humble.