So it's been 10 years since DC slew Superman, rejuvenating the characters and creativity on the titles. My, how things have changed. The Man of Steel needs another creative boost now, but I don't think it's to be found in a look back at a high point. Still, it was the pinnacle of comics sales and media attention on the industry, and it makes sense that DC should choose to revisit it.
Rookie reporter Ty Duffy desperately tries to find a new angle from which to approach the anniversary of Superman's "death," though he longs to dive into hard news as opposed to feature-oriented retrospectives. He meets with Jimmy Olsen to discuss his historic place as a recorder of those awful events, but he discovers another fellow, a disabled cop, has a much darker story to tell. Meanwhile, the object of Ty's story, the Man of Steel himself, investigates a disastrous accident in an infamous part of the city.
It's always fun to see what kind of powerful effect Sienkiewicz's inks will have on the style of a more conventional (but nevertheless talented) comic-book artist like Jurgens. The inker's gritty, exaggerated influence is unmistkable here, but it doesn't completely bury Jurgens's distinct style. The collaboration brings an appropriately dark atmosphere to the book. I did have a couple of qualms with the visuals, though. I thought Ty, as a rookie, is portrayed as a little too old, and at times, the monochromatic color schemes in the flashbacks seemed to wash the line art out a bit.
When I first heard about this limited series, I rolled my eyes a little. Sure, I enjoyed many of the stories that arose out of 1992's Death of Superman, but I wondered if the storyline was best left dead and buried -- unlike the title character -- a decade after the fact. Jurgens has struck upon some down-to-earth plots in the periphery of that classic super-hero story, and he's offered up an accessible story so as to include readers who weren't on board with comics 10 years ago. Hell, this issue alone is quite accessible; I missed the first issue and had no problem picking up on the plotlines here.
The problem with this series is that Jurgens seems to have so many ideas that he crams too many of them here. He doesn't fully explore Jimmy's perspective, and the cop's more bitter take on the Superman/Doomsday fight merits a deeper examination. And then there's the mystery plotline in which Superman is more directly invovled; it smacks of conventional super-hero storytelling and doesn't really fit with the tone that dominates the rest of the book.
