{"id":170,"date":"2023-04-08T13:17:40","date_gmt":"2023-04-08T18:17:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/superman.nfshost.com\/blog\/?p=170"},"modified":"2025-01-14T21:56:37","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T03:56:37","slug":"superman-year-one-1-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sssuperman.com\/blog\/superman-year-one-1-review\/","title":{"rendered":"Superman: Year One #1 Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Note: I do not recommend that young kids read either this review or the comic being discussed due to a reference to mature content.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Frank Miller is a controversial comic creator, but he&#8217;s still a talented one. I&#8217;m not that familiar with his work, honestly, but I have read one of his more recent creations, 2019&#8217;s 3-issue series <em>Superman: Year One.<\/em> It&#8217;s a retelling of Superman&#8217;s origins, but a rather unusual one in some ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Issue #1 is the one I\u2019ll be reviewing here and the one I recommend the most. Interestingly, I actually feel like the individual issues of this series can stand alone for the most part, which is both a good and bad thing in some ways (though the bad part is irrelevant as far as the first issue is concerned). I will likely review the other two issues at a later date (though, as a preview of my thoughts, I\u2019ll just say that I also recommend #2 but don\u2019t recommend #3, as sadly there was a steep drop in quality). This review won\u2019t be spoiler-free, but I also won\u2019t give too many details of the plot away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The first issue was the most &#8220;normal&#8221;, but it was also amazing. It&#8217;s the standard things you&#8217;d expect from a Superman origin, but done in an especially compelling way. Krypton\u2019s destruction is brief but powerful \u2013 I actually teared up, which I\u2019m not sure has ever happened before when going over this part of Superman\u2019s origin. It was presented in a way that was poetic yet also very immediate with beautiful art depicting the destruction. The death of Krypton is often taken for granted, but something about the way it\u2019s portrayed here made me feel the depth of loss as well as the suddenness of the catastrophe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we get to the Kents, the toddler Clark is depicted as having subtle psychic powers to nudge his adoptive father into taking him home, which I think is an interesting idea. Clark\u2019s childhood has a wholesomeness and cuteness to it without abandoning the weirdness of his powers (I always prefer it when Clark has at least some powers in his childhood, so that\u2019s a plus for me). I love moments that drive home the fact that Clark has to learn to handle people and everything around him gently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When we get to him as a teenager, we see Clark deal with issues that are normal, but with the twist of he himself not being normal \u2013 stuff like bullies and his first relationship in the form of Lana Lang. It works incredibly well because the emotions surrounding these things feel so intense and accurate to how they feel in the moment, and the interaction with these things and Clark\u2019s powers and formations of his values and desires is very interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I like how the Kents are depicted. They don\u2019t feel perfect or over-idealized, but they feel very loving and real. We get to see stuff like Martha worrying about losing track of Clark because of his powers and her deep sadness when he leaves the farm. We also see an interesting scene where Martha tries to teach Clark strict nonviolence, and Jonathan reluctantly agrees with her in front of Clark, but in private teaches him that it\u2019s not so simple. I like seeing that the two have different viewpoints in a major way, and not wanting to fight in front of Clark is understandable and admirable. Another moment I love is when Clark is succeeding in football due to his powers and his parents look disapproving as they watch, but they don\u2019t show them harping on it or anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The issue ends in a very interesting way. Clark thinks that the way to learn more about the world so that he can protect it is by seeing the world, and he decides to do that by joining the Navy. It\u2019s a pretty unique twist, and as we see in the next issue, it actually works quite well. There\u2019s a final scene where as Clark leaves Smallville, he hones in on Lana using his recently more fully realized super scences. It\u2019s quite touching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In general, issue #1 did an amazing job showing the intensity of a young person\u2019s experience while also showing how Clark\u2019s powers interact with it all. It was emotional, endearing, and even thought-provoking. Honestly, it might just be my favorite Superman origin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I will say the art isn\u2019t perfect \u2013 though the backgrounds and coloring are beautiful, the bodies and faces of people look a bit odd at times. (Funnily enough, I think the biggest example of this can be found on the cover itself \u2013 what\u2019s going on with Superman\u2019s leg, and why are his arms so dang <em>long?<\/em>) But they <em>usually <\/em>look good and even when they\u2019re odd-looking, it\u2019s not so distracting that it takes away from the story significantly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Also, something that made me a bit uncomfortable and prevents me from recommending this story to younger readers is the fact that at one point, some teenage boys attack the teenage Lana and subtly threaten to sexually assault her, though they\u2019re not able to even prepare to do so before Superman intervenes. It\u2019s not inherently bad to depict bad people wanting to do bad things in a comic, but it just felt unnecessary and like it doesn\u2019t really add anything to the story either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, Superman Year One #1 is a masterpiece. I don\u2019t know how else to sum it up. I highly recommend giving it a try.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Note: I do not recommend that young kids read either this review or the comic being discussed due to a reference to mature content. Frank Miller is a controversial comic creator, but he&#8217;s still a talented one. I&#8217;m not that familiar with his work, honestly, but I have read one of his more recent creations, [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sssuperman.com\/blog\/superman-year-one-1-review\/\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> from Superman: Year One #1 Review<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[23,22,3,10,4],"class_list":["post-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-full-length-posts","tag-comic-review","tag-comics","tag-dc","tag-review","tag-superman"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Superman: Year One #1 Review - Small Screen Superman Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sssuperman.com\/blog\/superman-year-one-1-review\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Superman: Year One #1 Review - Small Screen Superman Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Note: I do not recommend that young kids read either this review or the comic being discussed due to a reference to mature content. Frank Miller is a controversial comic creator, but he&#8217;s still a talented one. 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