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A review by trin
Superman: Birthright by Gerry Alanguilan, Leinil Francis Yu, Mark Waid, Miles Millar, Dave McCaig, Alfred Gough
4.0
In some ways, what Waid is trying to do with this graphic novel is the exact opposite of what [a:Tom De Haven|9226|William Gibson|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1192825810p2/9226.jpg] was attempting in his (prose) novel [b:It’s Superman]. That book returns Supes’ origin story back to the 1930s, the era when the character was conceived; Birthright updates it to modern times with things like an internet-savvy Martha Kent and a Lois Lane who’s striving to break stories on The Daily Planet’s blog.
While it did not blow me away quite like It’s Superman, Birthright was still really good. Like De Haven, Waid does a great job of humanizing Clark, while at the same time emphasizing the ways in which Clark Kent is Superman in disguise (and not the other way around). Things get a little hammy at the end, but in general, there’s a nice emotional and psychological realism that makes the story compelling. The Lex backstory was especially inspired: Waid writes him as a disturbed genius who feels as alien in his brilliance as Clark is in origin. Reading this graphic novel is a kind of revelation: “Oh yeah! This is what Smallville would have been like if it were good!”
While it did not blow me away quite like It’s Superman, Birthright was still really good. Like De Haven, Waid does a great job of humanizing Clark, while at the same time emphasizing the ways in which Clark Kent is Superman in disguise (and not the other way around). Things get a little hammy at the end, but in general, there’s a nice emotional and psychological realism that makes the story compelling. The Lex backstory was especially inspired: Waid writes him as a disturbed genius who feels as alien in his brilliance as Clark is in origin. Reading this graphic novel is a kind of revelation: “Oh yeah! This is what Smallville would have been like if it were good!”