Superman: American Alien #1 Review

Writer: Max Landis / Artist: Nick Dragotta/ DC Comics So, earlier this week, I sat down with the fellas at the Vexed Men podcast to talk all about Superman books. After about an hour of love and laughter (because the gang over there is incredibly warm, welcoming, and classy), I signed off because they had to talk about the latest Superman mini-series, Max Landis’ American Alien, and I didn’t want them to spoil it for me. In retrospect, I kinda wish I’d stuck around for the spoilers. “Well, damn, Oz, why would you want someone to spoil a brand new comic for you?”, you’re probably asking yourself. To answer your question, when the comic isn’t very good I have no problem with you saving me the four bucks. So, the idea behind this series is that it’s six stand-alone stories that each depict a different moment in Clark Kent’s life growing up. And, of course, because it’s written by Max Landis, we’re supposed to believe that each moment is presented in a way unlike anything we’ve ever seen (according to Landis, naturally). If you’d never read a Superman comic or, perhaps, had never heard of Superman before this first issue, that might be the case. For the rest of us, it’s just thirty pages or so of Clark Kent being scared to fly. I suppose this would be a novel concept ten years ago if Jeph Loeb had done it….oh, wait. He DID do this.

The disappointing thing is that we know Landis is a competent writer. We know that he’s obsessed with the Superman mythology and has bold ideas ab…