By: Grant Morrison Publisher: DC Comics Average Rating: Binding: Hardcover Label: DC Comics Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 160 Publication Date: April 04, 2007 Release Date: April 11, 2007
Product Description: Two of the comics industry's top creative talents, writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, the acclaimed team behind JLA: EARTH 2, reunite to redefine Superman based on the timeless, essential iconic elements that everyone knows about the Man of Steel.
In the first volume, the World's Greatest Super-Hero rescues a doomed group of astronauts on the surface of the sun when he's exposed to massive amounts of solar radiation no one could possibly anticipate how he'll be affected - except Lex Luthor!
A HUGE DEPARTURE FROM MOST MODERN GRAPHIC NOVELS I am an enormous watchmen fan, and this book is almost the exact opposite of that. While watchmen is dark and gritty this book is fun and lighthearted. It is also very emotionally resonant. Be warned though it does get a little weird in places but is still awesome. This is exactly how superman should be portrayed. He is pretty much flawless, just how he was created to be. The art is amazing and makes the emotional scenes much more impactful. This book actually made me like superman again. If you can handle a bunch of zainy time traveling aspects that might turn some off, there is an amazing superman story to be told.
The best modern Superman story The All Star imprint allows good writers to perform brilliance. Being free from the boundaries of continuity, Grant Morrison has written an outstanding story. With a nod to the Silver Age of Comics, Morrison has woven the outrageous and puerilely wonderful elements of that era with a modern flare.
An excellent addition to the Superman library, even if it is only "fantasy.";)
Superman In Top Form All-Star Superman reaffirms the love of the Kryptonian Crusaider that many fell in love with! From epic battles with titans, to a perfectly 'clumsy' Kent, Morrison, Quitely, and Grant have put together a perfect example of why Superman lives on today and into tomorrow!
You MUST own this story. This is hands down, one of the most beautiful, moving, and loving tributes to Superman ever written. The stories in All Star Superman are lyrical, beautiful science fiction tales that really resonate. Morrison's treatment of Superman is respectful, fun, emotionally true without being insipid, and filled with a sense of wonder and awe. The Superman here is the quintessence of the character, in that, somehow, Morrison manages to distill what everyone subconsciously responds to about the fictional character into his twelve part story. These stories, and the entire All Star Superman run, also suffers from none of Morrison's usual weaknesses, which tend to be his penchant for overloading his writing with throwaway abstract concepts that can distract from his main narrative and a stubborn unwillingness to sacrifice complexity at the altar of clarity. He avoids this terrible habit here, and tells straightforward, though by no means simplistic or trite stories.
What really makes all this worth it though, is the unbelievably dynamic, beautiful, moving, amazing pencils by Frank Quitely, unquestionably a genius craftsman. I guarantee if this volume had been drawn by anyone else, people would talk far less about it. I can't say enough about his work, and would have highly recommended the volume for his art alone, even if it wasn't the perfect compliment for Morrison's science-fiction-pop-fantasy take on the Man of Steel.
My only complaint is about the format of the book. Greed is a terrible thing. In order to exploit readers to the greatest extent possible, and to ensure they squeeze every single last drop of money from their registry of stories, the company does the shameful thing of releasing the twelve issues of stories in two volumes, first in hardcover, and then in softcover. They will then eventually release the two in one volume, probably again first in hardcover, then in softcover. Were it not for the fact that I didn't own the single issues, I would never have bought the two volumes. I think it's downright immoral to present what was clearly intended to be read as a complete whole in two separate parts, just to make some extra money. Imagine if Watchmen were released today. Instead of getting one nice large paperback volume as you can right now off of Amazon, you'd have to get two separate volumes for something that should never be separated. It antagonises readers and frankly punishes them for liking your product. At the very least, even if DC decided it wanted to make as much money as it could from this, they might have just released a hardcover and softcover edition, and just charged the price of the two volumes for the one. At least they could have ensured they provided the entire story to the reader, which is really how this story should always be presented. It's just immoral, and wrong as wrong can get, to split this story up, once it's been completely released in single issue format. But as I said, greed is a terrible thing.
Five stars nonetheless, as Morrison and Quitely can't help DC comics' greed, (although they probably don't complain too loudly cos I'd imagine they benefit from the royalties,) and if you don't own the story, this is the only way to read it for now.
Good stuff This was so much fun to read...and the artistry is top notch. Superman is my all time favorite, so I may be biased...but this is a great, great book.
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