About book Superman, Vol. 1: What Price Tomorrow? (2012)
This one is barely three stars from me. I didn't like the storyline and I thought it was confusing the way it was written. The explanation of what was going on barely made sense. Also, Superman and Clark Kent just don't have any standout character. The tendency is to see Supes as a boring Boy Scout. I admit I did feel a bit like that about him, compared to Batman, who I totally adore (faults and all). However, when Superman's character is explored with the depth and the insight that he deserves, you can see why he is such an enduring icon of comic books and superherodom. This book doesn't add to the story of Superman for me at all. His inner life is not delved into, and one merely sees him going from calamity to calamity and not what his instincts, head and heart tell him about those experiences. What drives him to do what he does, as apposed to lip service to "Truth, Justice, and The American Way." The artwork is okay. It's not profound, but neither is it poorly drawn and inked.I'm not a huge fan of Lois Lane, and I certainly didn't like her in this either. At this point, if I wasn't shipping Batman and Wonder Woman so hard, I'd totally want Superman to get with Wonder Woman based on this book.I feel like I am bashing this pretty hard. I think it's disappointment. I had finally worked myself up to reading a Superman title and to find myself wanting more is a crushing experience. Will I keep trying? I think so, but right now, I'm not a big fan of the New 52 Superman run thus far. Of all the New 52 reboots, I think one of the most confusing to long-time fans has to be Superman. For a character who had been around for 73 years and grown something of a following in that time, comic fans who had grown so used to Superman’s mythology were thrown for quite a loop when the first arc, “What Price Tomorrow?” first appeared. In addition to the changes in the costume, Superman and Lois are no longer married--not even dating--Lois is now head of programming for a news channel and is no longer a reporter for the DAILY PLANET. Superman has only been in Metropolis for 5 years at this point and, while he’s proved himself a hero and protector of the city many times already, there’s still some mistrust there with a few citizens.“What Price Tomorrow” is written by legend George Perez and while the details of this new world are still hard to take for many of us, the story itself is well constructed and thought out and is a good start. I say a good start, but in reality, even people who have never read a Superman comic are going to come into this first issue wondering what the hell. But those are just details. The STORY is the important thing here.Over the course of this story, Superman is faced with three different challenges. In the first, he battles an alien made of fire that seems intent on burning up all of Metropolis, but upon further investigation it seems the creature isn’t necessary catching things on fire, it’s turning them into fire. It’s not burning the buildings of Metropolis, it’s changing their make-up so they seem to be made of fire instead.Next is an invisible alien, a large lizard-like creature that everyone in Metropolis can see and hear except, for some reason, Superman. Last up is an alien that threatens to turn the city into an icy wasteland, but much like with the fire creature, this new threat isn’t really freezing anyone or anything, it seems to be turning them into ice. The people are still intact, but now everything, bones, organs, etc, is made of ice.Up to this point, Superman has been protecting the city he calls home. But then he sees it’s not enough to protect the city from the threats, especially when it seems as if these threats are appearing because of him. It’s not a matter of “good thing Superman was here to save us”, but instead he believes it might be a case of “if he weren’t here, the city wouldn’t need saving”. So he makes the most logical move. No, he doesn’t decide to leave Metropolis, nothing so simple and expected. Instead, he decides to show he means business by destroying every threat the city has faced thus far. Previously he had saved the city from a horde of giant robots. He had left the remnants to be studied, but now decides to destroy those parts. He had previous saved the city from a giant gorilla attack and, ever since, the gorilla is being heavily sedated and studied as well. Superman kills it, so it can never threaten his city again. There’s a terrorist group called the Sky Raiders who main goal is to show the Superman can’t save everyone all the time. They’re in custody but this new Superman can’t risk them breaking out and resuming their previous activities. Plus, an example needs to be set. Sky Raiders, gone.The people of Metropolis can’t believe this new Superman and don’t know if they should try to reason with him or just get the hell out of town while they still can. When a mysterious blonde woman wearing a familiar red and blue outfit and speaking Kryptonian appears, trying to match Superman power for power, things get even more heated.Lois, who quite possibly has discovered Superman’s secret identity (this is a plot thread I really wish had been followed up in this arc because I wanted to see the outcome), is yelling in her apartment for Clark to pick up his phone when suddenly we see a fragile looking Superman floating in space, trying to answer the call.But if Superman’s out in space, who is Supergirl fighting? The answer is, in my opinion, one of the most cleverly plotted storylines I’ve read in a comic in years, and it all goes back to the first time Superman saved Metropolis on a large scale, the story told in “Superman and the Men of Steel” in Grant Morrison’s ACTION COMICS arc. That was a truly unexpected, but very welcome, twist, and it made me sit up and take notice of this new Superman and wonder if I should keep reading it after all. Alas, a month or two later I stopped buying New 52 books altogether, but after this first arc, if I had kept buying them, I’m pretty sure SUPERMAN would have remained on my monthly list.George Perez has been in comics since the early 1970s and he’s drawn pretty much everyone there is to draw, especially in the DC universe. Being the artist on DC’s CRISIS ON INFTINITE EARTHS, he got the chance to tackle almost all of them. And his reboot of Wonder Woman in 1987 once again established Princess Diana as a major contender in that world. Perez left the title after the completion of “What Price Tomorrow?” citing editorial intrusion and, since the book had to be consistent with ACTION COMICS, which takes place 5 years earlier and was written by the less-than-forthcoming Grant Morrison, he didn’t know where the story was supposed to be going or what would be allowed in terms of his own ideas. While I don’t blame Perez for leaving, I think the work he did in this arc, given the restrictions he was under, was pretty darn good.Jesus Merino and, alternately, Nicola Scott provided the art and it was solid work without being too flashy. Unfortunately, I think a story this grand could have used some flash. Superman is never given a chance to truly shine and display any of the grandeur that is his due. In fact, the only really impressive shot is the reveal of Superman unconscious in space near the end of the book.I think of all the altered characters, fan were probably least pleased with the changes made to Superman, so it was imperative to the success of the title that fans get a great story upfront. Thankfully Perez managed that with excellent skill, despite countless editorial changes and issues that he shouldn’t had had to deal with. But he certainly made the best lemonade out of lemons he possibly could and I think “What Price Tomorrow?” is a hell of a book.
Do You like book Superman, Vol. 1: What Price Tomorrow? (2012)?
Boring. Nobody uses the word "creep" anymore and since when is Superman a whiner?
—Crick
Not as good as the old school comic books.
—Sophia1300
Grumpy Superman and negative Nelly Clark.
—rachiee
