Jim Lee (1) (1964–)

Genuine work of genius, dazzling in its formal craftsmanship, density of vision and in its control of huge numbers of characters, themes, plots, concepts and universes, executed in a way that seems gloriously, confusingly mess,y but upon careful reading appears to be generating that sense of teeming, overwhelming chaotic detail through sheer dint of good writing. Whether you're interested in a work of genius based around variations of the DC universe executing yet another variation of the show more Crisis On Infinite Earths is a whole other matter.

The story is about multiple realities being invaded by malignant higher life forms using comic books which provide glimpses of superhero adventures in different alternate realities as meta mental traps, allowing them to propagate across the multiverse. Between two bookends we explore the looming threat impinging on different Earths with different artists as appropriate to the style of each reality, Morrison showing off his rather intimidating imagination, skill and knowledge. The high-point is probably the Pax American issue with Frank Quietly, where the Carlton characters who were the basis for Watchmen find themselves on different sides of a conflict when one of them assassinates the President they were supposed to be protecting. In some ways the sprawling mess of Multiversity is a rebuke to the claustrophobic formalism of Watchmen, but the Pax Americana chapter in particular pulls of a whole slew of eye-popping experiments in graphic narrative without ever resorting to the rigid structures and layouts of Watchmen.

This was my second read-through of the whole thing, and I enjoyed it a lot more in one sitting and with an idea of what to expect. That the whole thing turns out to be a prelude to an epic adventure that has not yet materialised doesn't detract from it - comics are always barreling towards their next Crisis crossover anyway, might as well acknowledge it and conclude that even if that story is never told, it's happening right now, somewhere, out there in the Multiverse. show less

The thing I really like about Superman-- the thing that I think Superman For All Seasons captured so well-- is that he's a guy who feels like the weight of the entire world is on his shoulders. He doesn't angst out over this, not usually, but feels it all the time. He has the power to do the greatest good of anyone in the entire world; how can that not weigh on him? So he does his best, like any hero would do, but not even Superman's best is always enough. Sometimes, he fails.

For Tomorrow show more begins a year after the Vanishing, an incident where over a million people vanished instantaneously. Superman wasn't there-- he was in space, doing what Superman does, helping people-- and he holds himself accountable, not the least because among the Vanished is one Lois Lane. Superman travels to the apparent origin point of the energy waves that cause the Vanishing, tracking them down to a country in the Middle East. When he arrives there, he doesn't find the source of the Vanishing, but he does find a civil war: one he decides to end.

All of these events are being narrated by Superman to Father Daniel Leone, a Catholic priest. Exactly why Superman feels the need to deliver his story under the seal of confessional isn't clear, but he tells Daniel that his sin "was to save the world", and it's certainly related to the actions he took after the Vanishing, which were drastic, to say the least: he stops a battle in the civil war, tracks down the leader of the insurgents, only to find he's already won. So he helps stabilize things by cleaning up the area. But what he eventually discovers is that the now-toppled regime was who created the Vanishing device, which has fallen into the hands of General Nox, the insurgent leader, and Equus, his cybernetic henchman. The dialogue between Superman and Father Leone runs over all these scenes, proving an insight into Superman's state of mind, and it is immensely well done: Brian Azzarello seems to get Superman. He's upset without being angsty, troubled without being tortured. He sees himself as one of us, and that is why the burden he bears is such a hard one. He doesn't always win, but no one tries harder.

It's hard to judge this story right now, because it's not a story. In its infinite need for profit, DC split the For Tomorrow story up across two different trade paperbacks, so all we get here is the first half. And it's not even really a first half, given the terribly out-of-sequence way we're learning about events. We might have half of the story, but it's not a continuous half. But what's here is good: Superman's frustration is portrayed well, as is his drive and determination. I love the bit where he fights four elementals (summoned by a mysterious woman who I hope is explained in volume two) determined to cleanse the earth of human life, defeating them through cunning and sheer force of will, not punching.

Of course, not everything quite works, not yet. Though I like the disjointed narrative in general, and I love the in medias res opener, there are parts where it's almost impossible to parse what's going on, especially with Superman's talk with the Justice League. Though maybe this will be filled in later. The Justice League's reaction to the Vanishing is oddly muted, too: obviously this is because it's a Superman story in a Superman book... but it makes them look like jerks to tell Superman he's too involved to handle the issue but seemingly do nothing about it themselves. I don't really get what's up with the confrontation with Aquaman, either. And Equus is a pretty uninteresting villain, though on the other hand, General Nox and Mr. Orr are working for me so far. And as for the earth elemental being formed out of Mt. Rushmore...

But the heart of this book are the conversations between Superman and Father Leone, and those work. A lot. Daniel has his own demons to deal with: just like Superman he wants to help everyone, and just like Superman he can't. The rapport the two men have springs up immediately and works very well, giving a focus to the often-disjointed story. I like the banter they have as both attempt to answer the unanswerable, always switching roles as questioner and answerer.

Even when Brian Azzarello's writing slips a little though, it all still works: Jim Lee's art is fantastic. That man knows how to draw Superman in an iconic pose, and that's a good thing given how often the character seems to pose here. His Superman isn't someone you'd want to mess with. All the art is handled well, though, especially the settings, which effectively move from gleaming Metropolis to war-torn desert, from lunar fortress to underwater, from a Catholic church to deepest space.

I don't know where For Tomorrow is going yet, but that doesn't stop me from looking forward to volume two. Superman should always be written this well. show less

What the heck happened here? Volume One of For Tomorrow was exceptional-- one of the best main series Superman stories I had ever read. But with this... Brian Azzarello goes completely off the rails.

Let's start with what I liked. Thankfully, Azzarello still gets Superman. I mean, gets him. In this volume, we get an explanation for the mysterious Vanishing and the orb that caused it: it turns out that Superman himself built the orb. Why? It turns out that his entire life, Superman has been show more haunted by his father's failure: his world about to be destroyed, and all Jor-El could manage to do was save one person, his own child. What kind of protector is that? Superman created the orb to shunt Earth's population into the Phantom Zone, the ultimate fail-safe. So far, so good. I really like this idea that Superman feels this need to outdo his father, to surpass his failures. It fits well. I can even kind of buy the notion that Superman has the technical know-how to design and build the orb to do it.

Where things get kooky, though, is that Superman staffs this world in the Phantom Zone with robot duplicates of Jor-El, his mother Lara, and Clark Kent. Creepy much? He sends the orb with them so that they can reactivate it if the need be. And apparently, having done all this, he wipes his own memory of it.

But the Phantom Zone was not empty, unknown to Superman. For within the Phantom Zone lurked Krypton's greatest threat... General Zod. And this is where things go from kooky to bad, because Azzarello's Zod is terrible. This is not the casually arrogant god played by Terence Stamp, this is a demonic brute, one of many in this comic. There's not really much to distinguish him from Equus, even though one supposedly is the master and the other the servant. The depiction of Zod does absolutely nothing more me; I can see why the fact that Superman had met Zod before was totally ignored for Last Son just a few years later, which was a much superior take on the character. Why bring back Zod if he could just be any old brute? (There is, however, one great bit where Zod asks Superman to save him... then lets go of Superman and falls into a vortex just to get on Superman's nerves.)

Anyway, Zod realized what the orb was and sent it back into our world to ensure that Superman would somehow be drawn back in the Phantom Zone: presumably, that's when it made its way into the hands of the Middle Eastern despot who used it cause the Vanishing. It's all a bit convoluted, but it can be puzzled through eventually. But it just doesn't work for me; it's too complicated to resonate effectively. This world Superman constructs-- Metropia-- represents his ability to atone for his father's "sins", so what does it mean that Zod, another of his father's "sins", populates it for him indirectly and smashes it up? Um...

The other problem with this book is Father Daniel Leone. The center of Volume One were the conversations between him and Superman, as both attempt to navigate their places in the world, as both are the people everyone looks to for help, leaving them with no one to look to. A beautiful relationship was being built there, with each of them as each other's confessor. Yet here, that is all cast aside. They barely talk, and Daniel falls into the hands of arch-mercenary Mr. Orr, who augments him into a replacement for the super-solider Equus, called "Pilate". Um, why? We're told that the fact that Daniel has cancer assists the mutation, but surely there are many more people with cancer, almost all of them more skilled at combat than a Catholic priest? The character is almost cruelly discarded by Azzarello here, becoming a pointless nobody in short order. I mean, there's a neat moment where Pilate saves Superman by figuring out how to send the orb back to him again, but this could have been so much better. What a waste. All that build-up in Volume One was for nothing.

Equus is still dumb, too. Other weird things include Mr. Orr's dealing with the mystic lady, who was never explained in any capacity, and his ability to manipulate Wonder Woman, who ought to know better. I did like that Wonder Woman came to stop Superman from reactivating the orb and sending himself into the Phantom Zone, though, and the Superman/Wonder Woman battle here worked pretty well, especially in its ending.

This does lead me to another point: Wonder Woman has nice legs. In fact, every woman drawn by Jim Lee has nice legs. And Lee wastes no opportunity to show them to you. Wonder Woman wears an improbably short skirt, and this skirt flies upwards at ever opportunity during combat. We even get the occasional glimpse of panties. Classy. Lois Lane is similarly sexualized. Apart from Clark in Metropia, where everyone else wears baggy clothes, she spends her time in a tiny shift that shows off both her legs and ample cleavage. While going tree-climbing. Why? Goodness knows. At least Superman gets his fair share of shirtless time in, too. Other than that complaint, though, Lee's art is typically gorgeous.

I wanted to like this story, I really did. And Volume One is still fantastic. But this volume neglects what made the first one work so well, and muddies the waters with the completely unneeded additions of General Zod and Pilate. A disappointing conclusion to what ought to have been a fantastic story, For Tomorrow does at least end with a great line from Superman: "I will always be there to save you. Because I am Superman. Believe that, until the end. The End. I wonder, when it comes... who will save me?" (Man, Azzarello's characters tend to talk in clipped, dramatic pronouncements. Oh well.) show less

This was supercool. I absolutely loved it, and while I managed to restrict myself to small portions in the beginning, in the end I gave up and devoured the books in one go.

First of all, the artwork is so fucking pretty. It was one of those cases where sometimes I'd turn a page and be breathless for a moment, because wow. So gorgeous. So even if the story was, I dunno, boring or not to my liking, I would have had a great time just because of the whole look of it.

But the story wasn't boring, show more and it was exactly to my liking. I was even right about who the villain was! At least sort of. It was a wonderful read - trying to figure out who the bad guy was while at the same time experiencing some sort of emotional rollercoaster ride (Superman! Catwoman! Nightwing! Robin! Jim Gordon! Alfred!).

And with every Batman comic I read I want to read more. It's a good thing there are so many out there *g* show less