Superman – Earth One: Volume One

I know, we don’t really need another retelling on Superman’s origin story. But the Earth One line from DC shakes things up. It feels like superheroes could really be a reality in our every day lives right now. There’s an immediacy to this series that is intriguing.

I was introduced to this line of comics with Green Lantern. In that tale, Hal Jordan was working for a space mining company when he discovered an ancient ring and started a new generation of Green Lanterns. Obviously, Earth One is not the Earth we live on. It is slightly different but feels close enough to our Earth.

In this Superman story, we learn that Krypton was not destroyed by natural causes. An alien race sabotaged the planet, determined to rid the galaxy of all things Krypton. When they realized that someone had survived, they decided to go from planet to planet to find him and finish what they started.

Once the aliens get to Earth, Superman is forced to reveal who he is to the world and stop them from destroying another planet.

(Spoiler Alert)

I want to reveal something from this story now. If you plan to read it and don’t like spoilers, please read no further.

This book parallels the story we know from the original Christopher Reeves movie. Except, in this version, Lois Lane doesn’t get the interview with Superman, Clark Kent does. And it is almost exactly the same newspaper article.

It was a nice little twist on the Superman mythology and well enough received that subsequent volumes were published. I might just have to read further.

My List of 2018 Reads – novels, comics, and more.