Every time that Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen have worked together, they've done something I've really enjoyed, and Superman: Secret Identity is no exception. It's a high concept story, where a weird coincidence sees a small town boy named Clark Kent actually realizing he does have super-powers, and it reads something like a cross between Smallville and Astro City. The story is grounded by Clark Kent's narration, by the feeling of what might really happen to a teenager who developed powers, and like the previous Busiek/Immonen collaboration Superstar, it examines the nature of celebrity and super-heroes, with both Busiek's script and Immonen's beautiful artwork reinforcing that realistic, ground-level exploration of the concept. Secret Identity still isn't what I'd consider a really great classic Superman story, something DC seems unable to deliver these days, but it's a great story about super-powers, hero's morality and some of the other issues surrounding super-heroes that merit further exploration.
Busiek has done a number of stories that examine the heroes' world from a smaller point-of-view. It's part of the high concept of Astro City, and had a lot to do with why Marvels was so good. Secret Identity is very much in that vein, because while Clark does use his powers in fairly spectacular ways, they are always contrasted against a realistic backdrop of a troubled high school existence and the kind of problems that could face real-life Kansas, rather than a threat from Braniac or Lex Luthor. Clark's struggle in this issue is about whether or not to reveal his powers and identity, but that struggle gains its strength because of how it relates to Clark's life, his difficulty making friends and the usual angst of being a teenager and growing up.
I'm usually no fan of the prestige format, and I must confess that I'd rather this had been an original graphic novel, but the larger size of the issue does give Busiek plenty of room, and he uses it well. Aside from a last page teaser, this is really a self-contained story, one which devotes a lot of time to the character development of Clark Kent but doesn't falter in depicting the more unusual things he can do either. Busiek shows Kent to be a smart, sensitive young man who is easy to relate to. He helps people and does the right thing with his powers, but he's not a boy scout or an unrealistic paragon. Too many writers have to portray super-heroes as either venal, selfish people or paragons of virtue and goodness, and Busiek hits a nice, realistic balance that is probably the biggest strength of Secret Identity. Even Clark's teen angst isn't overplayed, but just the sort of thing anyone who has been a teenager can relate to.
The other big selling point of the story, of course, is the big question of what's going on. The Superman comics and toys would seem to set this in a world other than the DC Universe, but the sudden, unexplained development of powers and mysterious men in black looking into rumors of a Superboy indicate that there's more going on here than just a dream. It would be all too easy for the revelation about Clark's powers to be hokey (Superman in a virtual reality trap, etc.), but I'm hoping (and at this point, guessing) that Busiek has something more clever up his sleeve.
Though I've always been fond of Stuart Immonen's artwork, he has adopted a new style for Secret Identity that is perfectly matched to the tone of the book and undeniably beautiful. It's a sort of washed out, oddly colored approach that is very realistic and yet at the same time has an unreal quality to it at the same time. The colors, with some panels sometimes done entirely in cool blues or hot reds, tend to enhance the mood of the story, and some of the pages have the same emotional punch as some of the work of Alex Ross or Tim Sale. In particular, the double-page splash of the gas main explosion is very evocative, although Immonen also does a great job on smaller moments, such as the joy on Clark's face when he first discovers he can fly or the anger visible in his burning red eyes when he discovers Case's betrayal.
