I am incredibly late getting in on this, mostly because I gave up on comics about the time of the New 52. With the exception of retro/homage stuff like
Love and Capes, they're just not fun to read any more. Everyone here is probably sick of my rants about the current meme that Heroes are there to suffer and never to succeed (
e.g., modern comics, most movies/TV shows, Harry Potter, etc., etc.), so I will let that be understood as said.
I finally got to read the TP version of issues #1-8 -- dunno if there are any more -- and my initial reaction is that, as befits a series that shares its name with a certain TV show that did Superman, and heroes in general,
right -- not perfectly, but right -- this is a vast improvement on the drek that passes for comics these days, and especially Superman. Nor is this perfect, for several reasons: there's no real explanation of how the Kent/White family got to the New-52 world (unless they expect the readers to know a lot about comics that I skipped); they couldn't resist depowering Clark for no good reason (other than, I suspect, that they can't cope with
Superman -- ferPetessake, guys, go read some Elliot S! Maggin and take notes); and the super-villains -- Manchester Black and Maxima wannabes -- are not particularly impressive, but I suppose that's why they depowered Clark; at full strength, even the post-Crisis Superman (or any pre-STAS version, including Dean's) would have flattened both of them in an instant.
The art is quite good; Lee Weeks' pencils are more than adequate, though Scott Hanna's inking is a bit variable -- ranging from too much black in some scenes to not nearly enough in others. I do wonder who had the idea for Clark's black uniform: if the S-shield had been blue, I'd've suspected it to be a homage to the show; as it is, it could just be a shout-out to the Death of Superman storyline, or even JLU or Batman Beyond. I don't suppose it really matters; the important thing is that in the very first scene, Clark is wearing the true colours of Superman, not the modern abomination that Jim Lee designed. It is kind of funny to see Superman fighting someone else in a red cape, and there's a couple of panels in which you'd swear he was wearing it.
Regardless, this a huge step forward out of the New-52/post-Flashpoint mire for DC. But what really caught my eye was an ad slogan for the first issue; don't know if it was DC or the vendor, but it says almost all that needs to be said, really:
"Make way for the original power couple, for better, for worse, in sickness and in health, until death do them part!"Phil, who has bought more comics this week -- mostly Jack Kirby tributes -- than I have in the last 3 years!
