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Interesting but somehow unsatisfying ( )

I know I'm supposed to like Grant Morrison's work. I don't. I've tried very hard to do so, but out of every five stories I read, I only really like one.

So it is with this collection. I know I'm supposed to like this one too, since it was so critically acclaimed and won two Eisners, but I didn't. Of the six issues here, only the one where Lois gained super powers for the day really seemed fresh. Otherwise, the characters were paper-thin (especially Luther) and the stories banal. Frank Quitely's art has never really appealed to me except for his work in Sandman: Endless Nights.

I realize I'm in a minority here, which is probably why I have tried so hard to like Morrison. But to me, he usually only succeeds in creating stories without a single likable character. I guess that's what passes for "post-modern" these days. But I just don't think that dark equals good. Dark has to have some substance, but Morrison just very rarely has any. ( )

Finally, this series has been released in a format that I can afford to buy. Well, half of it has. Whither volume 2? I need it now because Morrison's take on the Man of Steel is picture perfect. Fun, brave, and upstanding, this is exactly what I need from Superman. In these six issues, Superman gets supercharged with solar radiation, which gives him new powers but will ultimately kill him. So, he tells Lois Lane the truth he's been hiding from her all those years-- Lois, in one of the book's funnest moments, still refuses to believe that he can possibly be bumbling Clark Kent! After some gratuitous Lois fanservice, Superman gives her a potion that makes her Superwoman for a day. This results in a fun story involving Dino-Czar Tyrannko and his dinosaur people at the Earth's core, but the idea is squandered as it focuses more on Superman, Atlas, and Samson competing for Lois's affections than Lois's new abilities. Still, Lois remains strongly written throughout the book, as does Jimmy Olsen, who gets a chance to shine in his own story, "The Superman/Jimmy Olsen War!" Lex Luthor is also on top form, as "The Gospel According to Lex Luthor" shows us a Lex who has been condemned to death for his crimes, has built an escape route, and will not use it because he doesn't care what happens to him, because he's managed to ensure that Superman will die first. Awesome. The only story that didn't work for me was "Funeral in Smallville", which just didn't engender the emotional reaction it was obviously going for. Frank Quitely's artwork is magnificent throughout.

A wild and exciting ride into a new mythos of Superman. You know, stepping back from comic books for a while and re-entering in trade paperbacks has given me a new appreciation for these stories as taking place out of time. It's not the chronology of events, with so many beginnings and endings, reimaginings and deaths and rebirths. It's the characters themselves, and the accretion of their adventures. It's created a wide plain of history that new writers and artists can pull from, a rich mythology in which the heroes may never die.

Of course, that's probably what they said about Gilgamesh.

But, then, look at Arthur. Good stories, good ideas, good archetypes just seem to live forever sometimes, don't they? ( )