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SUPERMAN: DAY OF DOOM #1
"Chapter One: Doomsday"
Not Recommended (2/10)
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DC Comics
Writer/Pencils: Dan Jurgens
Inks: Bill Sienkiewicz
Colors: Hi-Fi
Letters: John Workman
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Price: $2.95 US/$4.95 CAN |
Early on in this series, the lead character, a reporter, wonders about whether this story really needs to be rehashed and covered again. While reading Day of Doom, I had pretty much the same question, and by the time I'd reached the end of the first issue, I'd come to the conclusion that no, it really didn't. Superman's death, at the time, was kind of a fun, if brainless, action story, and the fallout and return were decent Superman tales that actually stand out as the last time I enjoyed the Superman books. In retrospect, however, the story was an empty event, and to go back and create a special mini-series to examine what turned out to be an everyday event seems a little silly.
It doesn't help that Jurgens has created a lead character, Ty Duffy, who is completely unlikable. He's arrogant, not terribly bright or good at his job to justify that arrogance, and his motivations seem to be more than a little selfish. Granted, there's plenty of room from that starting point to give him something of a journey to becoming more noble, but after only one issue with the guy, I was ready to write him off. An unlikable protagonist coupled with an uninteresting story does not make for gripping reading.
And this is a pretty uninteresting story. I read the Death of Superman story, I didn't really need to see it rehashed in this issue. In addition, the attempts to make the event out as more than it was falls flat for me. Perry White comes off as a bit overbearing, trying to convince a rookie reporter to do yet another pass on the story of Superman's "death." Given his return, Superman's "death" just doesn't seem like an event, and though Jurgens brings this up through the mouths of his characters, I never bought the other characters' retorts that it really was important. I don't think it's impossible to make us believe that Superman's death still has impact, even though it's just a footnote in his career at this point, but the enormity of it really doesn't sink in this issue.
The saving grace could have been the artwork, as Dan Jurgens provided some great art during his time on the Superman books. Unfortunately, Sienkiewicz is a poor choice of inkers for Jurgens, and the result is that the artwork looks like a bit of a mess. I can see the intent, which is to marry Jurgens's strong line and sense of action with a more gritty and realistic style from Sienkiewicz, giving the story a down-to-earth feel, but the two artists just don't synch up that way, and it just looks mismatched instead.
There is a potentially interesting story going on here, as the train "accident" and the damage in the closing pages of the issue seem to hint at a more current problem that could resonate with the destruction that Doomsday caused in his time. But in focusing on only the aspects of Superman's "death" that we've already seen, as well as continuing to try to convince the readers that the Death of Superman was a big deal rather than an event that merely spiked sales and started the downward spiral of the bust period, left a bad taste in my mouth.
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