A review by clarks_dad
Superman: Birthright by Gerry Alanguilan, Leinil Francis Yu, Mark Waid, Miles Millar, Dave McCaig, Alfred Gough

4.0

A good story that resonates with the Superman Returns film. All of the adventure and fun of a superman story are present, but I just didn't like the characterization very much. Clark seems a little cocky and arrogant. Confident in his powers and his ability to just change the world. To me, Superman is by nature a brooding and solitary figure who is struggling just to fit in. I didn't like all the side-panel smirks he was giving people who said ironic things about his identity every four or five pages.

Other than that, there are some real genius innovations in this retelling of the origin of the Man of Steel, including showing Clark's formative years as an investigative reporter prior to working at the Planet. Commentary on Clark's university years, and early run-ins with Lex Luthor.

This retelling makes a lot of sense and it updates the Man of Steel for the 21st century, but he deals with no large scale personal problems. Everything seems external and epic, which is the story's [b:saving grace|130916|The Saving Graces A Novel|Patricia Gaffney|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171995451s/130916.jpg|126092]. Luthor's research into Kryptonian technology is well told and his intellectual stature is appealing. He is portrayed as the smartest man on earth, certainly a more worthy adversary for Superman than a bumbling old man whose only power seems his ability to spend ungodly amounts of money on anti-Superman research which always seems to fail.