It would be more than fair to say that Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns transformed the comic book medium. Along with Watchmen, Miller’s four-issue miniseries began DC’s Dark Age – the stories became not only more serious, but more experimental, violent, and unique. The mainstream titles of previous decades had become dry and boring, allowing creators like Miller, Moore, Morrison and others to reinvigorate the medium. While some tales like Watchmen remained stand-alone (until the mid-2010s at least), Frank Miller’s Batman world marched on through the years. Fifteen years after Dark Knight Returns, Miller delivered The Dark Knight Strikes Again, the sequel which many waited for excitedly. Gone was the unique storytelling and impactful art, replaced by MS Paint level visuals and the worst of writing and dialogue. Other tragedies followed, like All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, The Master Race, and a few others which left little impact. With more stories possibly in the pipeline, it’s fair to say that Miller’s Dark Knight Universe, despite its appeal in the eighties, is a creative failure. But in 2019, Miller went in a different direction. While Batman received countless stories from Miller, it was now time for the Man of Steel.
Superman: Year One was a three-issue miniseries published in 2019 under DC’s Black Label imprint. Think of it like Vertigo, except with mainstream DC heroes. Written by Frank Miller, the art for the miniseries was provided by John Romita Jr and Danny Miki. Also, like many other Black Label stories, Superman: Year One was published as a deluxe format series, meaning that the issues are wider and larger. Why? Who knows, and frankly who cares.
Is there anyone who doesn’t know Superman’s origin? Eighty-five years on from his creation, Superman is certainly one of the most famous and well-known superheroes. Every movie, animation, and TV show has shown that origin story at least once, from Jor-El’s warnings, to the destruction of Krypton, and to an infant Superman crashing on Earth in Kansas to be adopted lovingly by the Kents. But perhaps the best origin for Superman comes from the comics, specifically John Byrne’s six issue miniseries The Man of Steel. With appeal, colour, and character, Byrne retold and rejuvenated Superman’s origin clearly and effectively. So, more than decades on from The Man of Steel, what can Frank Miller offer that is new?
First of all, in terms of continuity, this story (I assume) takes place in the Dark Knight Universe, the same world featuring stories like The Dark Knight Returns, All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder, and even Batman: Year One (a story which takes place both in the mainstream chronology and this one). Therefore, Miller is allowed much more room to basically do what he wants – after all this won’t affect the mainstream timeline whatsoever. In terms of the story, Superman: Year One begins hugely predictably. It’s Krypton. It’s time has come, and Superman is sent to Earth where he is found by Jonathan and Martha Kent. That’s about the first ten or twenty pages covered. In those first pages, it’s instantly clear what Miller’s problem is. It isn’t the scene-setting or sense of drama, both of which are actually quite strong. Instead, it’s his dialogue. While the Miller of the 1980s could go overboard with dialogue, and the Miller of the 1990s wouldn’t dare write any dialogue, the modern Miller selects a bizarre style of constant stop-go dialogue. Each panel will home around two, three, or even four small captions of dialogue or narration. These captions may contain only a few words, but it breaks up the pace of the story too much. Too many captions, regardless of how much dialogue they include, clutter up the story and art too much. Perhaps this approach works in a more horror-based story, but this is no spook. The quality of the dialogue is far from grand, but that’s expected from Miller at this point. Regardless, the plot of the story continues with Superman growing up as Clark Kent, going to school and working with Jonathan Kent on his farm. Superman takes full advantage of his super powers, and throughout the first issue, we are witness to rather pointless reimagining’s from The Man of Steel. For instance, Clark meets Lana Lang at his school in Smallville, only to fall in love with her and trusting her with the knowledge of his alien origin. He takes her flying above Smallville – scenes which aren’t unique. They simply develop Superman into the same character we’ve come to expect. That said, Miller does add some new details. For instance, Clark is bullied at school and once he fights back using just a taste of his super strength. While no one is killed, it’s definitely different to see Clark fight against his own bullies and learn how to control his powers. Aside from that, the content of the first issue is nearly exactly as you’d expect. It’s fairly breezy – much of the dialogue really is pointless and just gets in the way.
However, the second issue offers a definite change of pace. While in Man of Steel and other origin stories, Superman moved straight from school/college to Metropolis to become a journalist, Miller offers an interlude with Superman: Year One’s second issue. To bridge the gap, Superman goes to military school. Okay, I think I can get behind that. It seems a bit rough and weapons-based for Superman, but this is a good opportunity for his American patriotism to develop. The first half of the second issue is fairly dull and vacuous. After military school, Clark joins the navy where we witness the usual laborious training scenes. Ever since Full Metal Jacket, every training squadron has got to have a mad shouting sergeant and constant talk of death, blood, and murder. This is where Superman doesn’t really fit in, and Miller shows Clark’s discomfort during training. This puts him on the path to fighting crime and evil separately, much later as Superman. However, the issue’s second half does show Superman’s first adventure as a hero. Using his unlimited breathing powers, Superman heads underwater only to find Atlantis.
This is very unexpected, and he throws himself into a plot involving King Poseidon. Superman falls in love with the King’s daughter, and the ruler resents it. With a kraken and many other beasts, Poseidon tries to kill Superman, but in the end the Man of Steel survives and sends Poseidon into exile. With that, Superman rules Atlantis with the King’s daughter. After the first half, this change feels very sudden and, often, a bit too farfetched. Superman enters Aquaman-territory here and while there is some good action and Miller writes something quite unique for Superman, it doesn’t really fit in with the mood of the miniseries. It may be a tad simplistic at times, but the Atlantis story isn’t too bad or unbearable to read. It’s just a bit pointless in the grand scheme of things. It ends up taking so many pages out of the second issue that it begins to evolve into it’s own even larger story, which creates problems since the third issue basically fails to mention the Atlantis story.
With the third issue, this is where Superman must really become Superman. Still living under the seas, Superman rescues Lois Lane from near-death as an underwater expedition goes awry. After rescuing her, Superman is confronted by a group of soldiers, who are small fry compared to his power. Somehow, after meeting her for only a few minutes and throughout all of that time she was unconscious, Superman enlists himself as Lois Lane’s guardian for life. Therefore, he takes her back to Metropolis. In a matter of five panels (panels, not pages!), Clark decides to become a journalist – we see his training before he joins the Daily Planet, working obviously with Lois Lane, but also with editor Perry White. Nothing here is particularly new – Superman creates his Clark Kent guise and makes a name for himself. All typical stuff. The original plot begins fairly deep into the third issue. We are introduced to Lex Luthor, who is shown to basically be in control of the city. After hearing of Superman’s war on crime and his powers, Luthor manages to enlist the help of this gullible hero. Luthor orders him to head to Gotham to take down none other than Batman, another new hero who uses far more brutal methods compared to Superman. Surprisingly, the Man of Steel ignores Luthor’s clear lust for greed (his aim is to take down Batman so he can become one of America’s strongest and most powerful leaders), and takes on Batman in a fight. It’s clear that Miller only includes this so he can hark back to the good old days of The Dark Knight Returns. Their battle in the epic ending to that story was about the same thing – the use of power and how those like Batman break the law at a moment’s notice. Batman is as you’d expect in a Miller story – miserable and moody. His fight with Superman isn’t too shocking in any way – both heroes underestimate the power, strength, and abilities of the other. And then suddenly, Wonder Woman turns up out of nowhere to stop the fight. She literally comes out of nowhere and for some reason both Superman and Batman stop and follow her orders. She believes that the three of them must work together to fight crime. They so do here as together, they work out that Luthor is actually working with the Joker as part of their plan to dominate Gotham and make more money for Luthor’s business. With that, Luthor’s first brush with Superman ends with defeat for the villain, and the story comes to an abrupt end. I guess that means the stage is set for Superman now, even if Miller fails to deliver a finale scene or anything like that.
The good way to measure the success and quality of Superman: Year One comes when you compare it to Batman: Year One. A visionary but also highly readable story, Miller’s Batman origin story feels far less cluttered than the Superman story written thirty years on. A problem here is that Miller tries too hard to put everything from Superman lore in these three issues. You have to remember that in Batman: Year One, there was only a very brief mention of the Joker, let alone a single appearance or even mention of any other major villains. All we had was Batman, Catwoman, and Gordon. Here, we’re introduced to Superman, Lois Lane, Perry White, Jimmy Olsen, Lex Luthor, and many others far too quickly. Sometimes, less is more. Also, Batman: Year One had both one overall plot, and one overall focus. The plot was Batman and Gordon’s war on the underworld and the mob bosses. The focus was on Batman and Gordon’s development as characters over the space of twelve months. Miller added many other details, involving characters like Catwoman, but those two fundamental elements of the story remained under the spotlight. Here, there is no one overall plot. With each issue, you get a different story, and in the case of the second and third issues, you get a second story as well. Multiple plots at once can work well in an ongoing title or a complex story, but a Year One tale should not be as obese as this. As for an overall focus, I guess Superman’s development would qualify. However, the transformation of Superman’s origin by Miller is frankly pointless. After all of Miller’s writing, Superman emerges from everything as the same character he is in the mainstream universe. This is in total contrast to Miller’s Batman. Sure, the origin may have been the same, but a different mood and a rougher Gotham City transformed the Dark Knight into a grimmer and more violent (often far too violent in some cases) version of the mainstream version. At least Miller’s Dark Knight felt like something different. Here, his Man of Steel is virtually identical to the same old one we’ve been reading about for the best part of a century. In short, comparing these two stories to one another is like comparing a space-hopper to a Jaguar.
While the plotting and characterisation may fail to impress, what about Miller’s writing? Certainly, his writing has improved a degree after his All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder series, but it’s still nothing to write home about. I’ve already mentioned the overuse of captions and how intrusive they can be in the story, but the quality of the content isn’t great either. Miller tries too hard to be dramatic and he rarely lets the art convey the story. Could that be down to the fact that he isn’t the one drawing this miniseries? Who knows. Regardless, the only saving grace of the miniseries is that it isn’t awful. The problem is that it is dull. Sure, some creative choices aren’t great and occasionally awful, but the big problem is that the story just isn’t hugely original or memorable. Like The Master Race, The Last Crusade, and The Golden Child, Miller’s three most recent Batman stories, it fails to leave any real impactful impression. Overall, it’s more bad than good.
Although we may be blessed that Miller isn’t the one who drew Superman: Year One, John Romita Jr isn’t exactly great. While it’s clear that work has been put into the artwork, it fails to excite. Drama is there, but I don’t feel enthusiastic or that interested in the story’s visuals. Romita Jr’s anatomical drawings are also slightly odd, with some characters enjoying very long arms and legs. It’s an odd detail to notice, but that’s all I’ve really got for Romita Jr here. The inking by Danny Miki is fine enough, but again it doesn’t do anything for me. At least Frank Miller’s variant covers – despite their atrociousness – are entertaining.
VERDICT
Overall, Superman: Year One is an unexciting and below average insert in the Miller universe. It lacks any of the impact of Batman: Year One, while Miller himself appears to be an unoriginal writer worn out and no longer creative enough to continue. Compared to something like John Byrne’s Man of Steel, Superman: Year One doesn’t define a generation of Superman. It doesn’t really do anything…
Next Week: The Batman Adventures: Annuals and Specials (The Batman Adventures Annual 1-2, Holiday Special). Written by Paul Dini, Glen Murakami, Bruce Timm, and Ronnie Del Carmen, with art by Bruce Timm, Mike Parobeck, Matt Wagner, Dan DeCarlo, Klaus Janson, John Byrne, Rick Burchett, Glen Murakami, Ronnie Del Carmen, Butch Lukic, and Dan Riba.
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