Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
Words: Adam P. Knave and D.J. Kirkbride
Pictures:Robert Love
Release Date: 27th November 2013

Right, ok, stop me if you’ve heard this one before. This is a mini-series that explores the reality of being the worlds only superhero. Chuck is the worlds only Superman – gifted with flight, strength and invulnerability he has protected the world and helped the helpless for over 80 years… but being immortal takes it’s toll. Having seen everyone he loves and cares about die of old age he begins to question… is it worth it?

It’s a shame that the story of a disillusioned Superman is one that we’ve all read far too many times to care about anymore. There’s only so many interesting ways that this story can be told and they’ve all been done before  – and done better too – both Watchmen and Kingdom Come had this general theme central to their core. It’s not that the writing in this book is bad per se, the dialogue has a good pacing to it and the nonlinear flashback/forward narrative works exceptionally well in delivering years of backstory while also giving pathos by resonating with the contemporary time period of the story, it’s just that it doesn’t do anything new. It feels like this comicbook is 15-20 years too late to be edgey.

This isn’t helped in the slightest by the artwork. The anatomy feels all wrong – I can understand the ridiculous muscles, that’s almost mandatory in a superhero comicbook but in many panels the limbs and torso are way too long. While this could be chalked up to a stylistic choice on Loves part it is most definitely NOT a choice that works for this reviewer. The colouring feels flat, too. Intended to bring about the feel of classic four-colour-comics to juxtapose with the more mature themes of the narration it instead makes the comicbook feel unfinished – lacking in fine detail and thus saps the world it depicts of any potential depth, preventing the reader from being emotionally engaged with the protagonist.

Underneath this first issue there is a good writing team, seemingly waiting for the right story to tell. This is not that story. At least, not yet. The quality of the dialogue and the competency of the narrative will have me checking out the second issue of this three issue miniseries but my bar of expectation is set very low indeed.

Rating: 3/10.

The writer of this piece was: David McIntyre aka (Big Dave)
You can also find David on Facebook