Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli's Batman: Year One stands out as a seminal addition to the Batman canon, not just because it's an exceptionally well-crafted story, but because it marked the first time any creators had attempted to explore Bruce Wayne's early days on the job in such depth. Many DC fans have no doubt wondered how Miller might apply that formula to the Man of Steel. Now they'll find out, as Miller reunites with Daredevil: The Man Without Fear artist John Romita, Jr. for Superman: Year One , the latest addition to the mature readers-focused DC Black Label imprint. Sadly, this latest origin revamp isn't shaping up to be a worthy companion to either Batman: Year One or The Man Without Fear.

Get a Sneak Peek of DC's Superman: Year One 10 IMAGES

Loading

7 Best Superman Comics to Learn About Krypton 8 IMAGES

Right off the bat, there are two fundamental problems facing Superman: Year One. One, Miller and Romita are hardly venturing into uncharted waters here. Superman's origin may well be the most retold story in comics, if not all of pop culture. Just in the last decade we've seen Superman: Secret Origin, Grant Morrison's Action Comics and Superman: American Alien each offer their own takes on Clark Kent's formative years. Year One need to bring something sufficiently unique and compelling to the table to justify its own existence. In short, it doesn't.Two, for all that Miller has done to shape the direction of the DC Universe, he's never been particularly kind to Superman in his past projects. The Superman of books like The Dark Knight Returns, The Dark Knight Strikes Again and All-Star Batman & Robin is basically a powerful idiot with a fascist streak. That take works well enough when Superman is the antagonist, but what about when he's suddenly the hero of his own story? Though to Miller's credit, it did often feel as though he was trying to repair Superman's reputation in The Dark Knight III: The Master Race. And that process continues here.Unlike some origin stories, Year One aims to provide a full, comprehensive account of Superman's early life. That means the book opens with the destruction of Krypton and little Kal-El's solitary journey across the stars. As much as that piece of the Superman mythos has been explored and reexamined, this is where Miller and Romita are best able to lend their own touch. That entire sequence is presented from a first-person perspective. We see the death of Krypton through Clark's eyes. We see him soar through space with only his own reflection to serve as company. Through it all, Kal's narration setts the mood. It might seem strange to frame the opening chapter form the perspective of a toddler, but obviously this is no ordinary boy.That emphasis on Clark's superhuman intelligence and awareness is maybe the one area in which Year One successfully deviates from the norm. Miller and Romita take great pains to portray young Clark Kent as being as intellectually removed from his peers as he is physically. When you can devour novels and textbooks in seconds and think in super-speed, how do you for normal friendships and attachments? How does a boy like Clark sleep when his brain is being constantly bombarded with every noise and movement for miles around? It's unfortunate that this element is downplayed as the story moves along and Clark becomes better about adjusting to the mundane world around him. That sense of alienation is worth deeper exploration.For the most part, issue #1 hits on the familiar beats you'd expect from a story centered around Clark's childhood in Smallville. Clark forms bonds with Pete Ross and other social outcasts. He falls in love with Lana lang. He chafes at the limitations of being a powerful alien masquerading as an ordinary teenager. Clark's origin only really begins to diverge from what readers expect at the very end of this issue. It'll be up to Year One #2 to establish whether that risk pays off. Suffice it to say, that wrinkle is concerning, given Miller's handling of Superman in the past.However, Year One's problems run deeper than the fact that it leans on so many of the usual origin tropes. For one thing, the book is weirdly indecisive about the era in which it wants to be set. In a recent interview with DCComics.com , Miller indicated that Superman: Year One is connected to Batman: Year One and his other Dark Knight Universe projects. That suggests he and Romita are basically telling the origin of the Superman seen in The Dark Knight Returns. There's really nothing to establish that connective tissue in the story itself. The Dark Knight Returns is very much a product of its Cold War era, whereas the fashion and technology on display in this issue suggest a more or less contemporary setting. Then again, some of the corn-fed Kansan dialogue is so cheesy that the book might as well be taking place in the same universe as the George Reeves TV series. Clark telling Lana he intends to "court" her is an especially bizarre scene.Tonally, the story is all over the place. At times Miller and Romita aim for the sort of sweeping, wide-eyed innocence that are almost mandatory in stories about Superman’s youth. At other points, the book veers in a much darker direction, as if to remind readers of the DC Black Label sticker on the cover.Those darker moments tend to hinge on a subplot involving Clark feuding with a group of high school bullies. It’s easy enough to respect the intent here. Miller has always seemed drawn to the Golden Age version of Superman - a hero who was less interested in battling gaudy supervillains than delivering wish-fulfillment fantasies about beating up slumlords, gangsters and serial abusers. That’s basically what unfolds in this issue, as Clark becomes a mentor/bodyguard to the outcasts and misfits of his school and butts heads with a group of bullies apparently so ferocious they have school officials and even local law enforcement looking the other way.Simply put, this issue is at its weakest when it focuses on the bullying subplot and related matters. Both the bullies and the bullied are such stereotypical cliches that this story loses any sense of weight or significance. Most of Clark’s friends can be summed up as “the Goth kid,” “the fat kid” and so on. The script never adequately explains how these bullies are able to manipulate the adults of Smallville. And this subplot culminates in a revolting scene that feels badly out of place in a Superman comic, mature readers or otherwise. That scene serves as a moment of profound cynicism in a book that generally strives to be more optimistic than Miller’s Batman work. Not only that, Clark's grand epiphany isn't a Superman-worthy "violence isn't the solution," but rather, "When violence fails, employ more violence."Another striking thing about issue #1 is the surprising lack of closure to many story threads. This book follows Clark’s story from Krypton up through his high school graduation. It’s a lot of ground to cover, even in a prestige format comic, and often subplots aren’t resolved so much as glossed over and forgotten with the passage of time. This issue also never does enough to explore Clark’s relationship with his adoptive father. There are several points where you’d expect Pa Kent to push back against his son’s reckless display of his powers and self-serving behavior, but this is another area the book tends to gloss over and ignore. By the time Clark comes of age, you don’t get the sense of him having that fully formed morality and sense of decency his parents are meant to instill. Maybe that’s the point, but it's always worrying to see a version of Superman who lacks that firm moral compass.Visually, at least, Year One is able to hold its own against many of the great origin stories. Romita clearly put a huge amount of work into bringing this story to life, and its show in his detailed environments and dynamic figures. The opening sequence and its novel first-person approach is the big centerpiece of this first issue, but there are plenty of other standout moments over the course of these 60 pages. For example, Romita draws an exciting scene where Pa and Ma chase young Clark across a cornfield, eventually using it to transition from one stage of Clark’s childhood to another.More than with most pencillers, the quality of Romita’s work really hinges on finding the right inker and colorist. You might expect Romita to team with inker Klaus Janson here, given their own long history together and Janson’s own contributions to many Dark Knight Universe books. Instead, Romita is paired with inker Danny Miki and colorist Alex Sinclair. The result is something very different from the norm, and in a good way. Miki’s light, feathery inks create a much different sensation. It creates a lighter tough that suits a Superman story that downplays the costumed drama and spectacle. And Sinclair’s vivid colors help maintain that wistful, sentimental tone, even if the script often seems unsure if that’s the tone it’s striving for.There is one significant and almost constant visual flaw hounding this issue. Romita’s style is many things, but “realistic” is not one of them. And normally that’s fine. However, Romita always seems to have trouble when it comes to rendering children and teenagers. That’s no small problem in a book centered around Clark Kent’s childhood. All too often, Romita’s younger characters look like tiny adults - normal heads grafted onto short bodies. It often becomes difficult to distinguish the relative ages of characters. Even at the end of their high school career, Clark and Lana could just as easily be 12 as 18. Fortunately, given the chronological nature of Year One, this isn’t likely to be nearly as big a problem in the remainder of the series.