Superman: The Journey

Superman (1987) #217, 221-225

by Mark Verheiden

As Superman bounces from battle to battle, facing old enemies like Bizarro and new ones like cybernetic warriors called OMACs, he quickly becomes overwhelmed and even his relationship with Lois becomes strained, while, Lex Luther plans to finally get his revenge.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Superman, Comics, Dc Comics

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2006

About the author

Mark Verheiden is an American television, movie, and comic book writer. He was a co-executive producer for the television series Falling Skies for DreamWorks Television and the TNT Network.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote]

Oh Superman, here you are again in another crappy book. Why’s it so durn tricky to write you a good storyline, eh?

Well, “storyline” isn’t quite the word for Superman: The Journey, the subtitle ironically being a mockery of the concept of a narrative. Because The Journey isn’t a story - it’s a mish-mash of random Superman issues from the Identity/Infinite Crisis era with no connection or point to any of it. It should be called Superman: The Stalled Journey That Ended Up in a Ditch.

In one issue Superman’s built his new Fortress of Solitude in the middle of the Peruvian jungle; in another he’s battling Bizarro in Metropolis; in another he’s fighting Omacs somewhere. I actually paused for a minute there to remember what this book was about - and I was paging through this book just before this review to remind myself what happened in it! It’s just that forgettable!

The issues are so random that there are blocks of text in between issues to inform the reader how we went from one story to the next and why Superman’s here and doing this. It’s that kind of book. Disjointed, messy, incoherent, pointless.

The one takeaway you’ll get from The Journey is Ed Benes’ love of drawing all of the female characters like porn stars. Every female character has exposed midriffs, push-up bras with their cleavage popping out of their minimal clothing, the tightest shorts and the shortest skirts so he can frame them for butt shot after butt shot.

Some good examples of the sexist nature of this comic is the bedroom scene when Lois and Clark are standing around, Lois in a revealing nightie while Clark’s fully clothed. Later on Jimmy Olsen’s assistant Kelly is wearing a corset, microskirt, fishnets and stilettos while he’s wearing jeans and a shirt. When Superman’s fighting Bizarro, he’s shot from the sides, on top, from long-range; when Lois is battling an Omac, nearly every single shot shows off her bum, front and centre. The ones that don’t focus on her bewbs and midriff, and she’s always bending over or kneeling.

It’s just crazy bad. I mean, Jimmy’s assistant wearing all that stripper stuff – that wasn’t at some nightclub, it was at work! What office anywhere allows that kind of “uniform” in the workplace - the porn version of The Daily Planet? It got so bad that in one panel where Lois and Kelly are walking in the rain, before I recognised them, I thought this was a side story starring a pair of hookers!

To be totally fair to Mark Verheiden, he writes Superman the character perfectly well. I don’t care for fascist psychopath Injustice Superman or dickhead Superman Earth One; I like classic Superman, and he’s definitely here in this book. It’s just such a shame he’s got nothing to do except rote Superman stuff. If there was a story rather than one non sequitur after the other, this might be a decent Superman book.

Instead Superman: The Journey is yet another depressing example of mainstream comics objectifying women. Sigh. The search for good Superman books continues....

[Pochodnia fandomu]

Może byłoby więcej gwiazdek, ale tyle niepotrzebnej nagości kobiecych postaci i ich wygiętych ciał dawno nie wiedziałam

[Sarah]

More like 4.5. It doesn't quite earn that fifth star, but this was still a really solid read. I've come back around to another Superman kick, and the summary on the back of the book highlighted many of my favorite Superman elements--namely Bizarro and a focus on Clark Kent--so I decided this would perfect. And, I was right. This comic had a great focus on Clark Kent's relationships with Lois and with Jimmy, had a great Bizarro story, and a really cool issue that highlighted the foil between Superman and Lex Luthor. I really enjoyed, in particular, Lois and Jimmy's thoughts on Superman--the husband and the friend. The cameo from Supergirl was also a nice touch. There were obviously a lot of plot points that happened outside of this particular collection, but a brief page summary helped alleviate any confusion if you hadn't actually read those. (Oh, the joys of comic books and trying to keep everything straight!) And I love that the comic ended with Superman being the icon, the inspiration, that he is supposed to be. I love my tortured heroes and my antiheroes as much as anyone (more than some), but there is something so undeniably refreshing about a hero who does the right thing. Superman may be a "Boy Scout," but that doesn't stop him from being complex, too. He has fears and doubts, and he makes mistakes. But, despite those, he still makes the right decisions. It's refreshing that, in a world seemingly determined to focus on negativity, a character like Superman is still so popular and so loved. Comics like these aren't just fun stories with solid writing, their also nice little beacons of optimism.

[Sean]

Superman deals with OMACs and Lois's reactions to his actions. First off, relationship drama with these two is almost always weak as they've been built up by DC for decades to be indestructible, so its rarely interesting. Sadly, that's the case here. I enjoyed the OMACs here for possibly the firs time ever and the introduction of Black Rock was decent but not fleshed out enough. I also thought author Mark Verheiden did a good job showcasing Clark's humanity and Jimmy's struggles filling Clark's shoes. Ed Benes' art was very good. Overall, an unspectacular read that does a decent job with the heart of who the character is.

[Desmond Killian]

A Bizarro story, a new Blackrock who looks a lot like Witchblade, and a retcon that Lex is older than Clark; in the years leading up to Infinite Crisis, there really weren't many good Superman stories.

[Raiveran Rabbit]

Too much shit truncated into the user-unfriendly format of the comic book. This is the end result breeding of too many comics and too many people trying to shove too few points of interest with too-little depth or gravity into or around garishly-drawn illustration, which would be rendered pointless if this was an actual story.