Why isn't Superman Super any more?

Ever since the New Krypton storyline Superman has been shit.

For details on that look here...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superman:_New_Krypton

   The whole, 'bring back Krypton' shtick was a good idea, never done before in that way and could have lent itself to a great run of stories after the initial arc was over. Instead it started to choke over a trilogy and eventually it was put to sleep and buried in the garden next to the geranium bush.  But then mum and dad went out and got another puppy...

Sorry...THEN JMS took over writing duties and after his promising start on Thor (another beefy chap in a big red cape) everyone thought 'Hello, so long as he can stay on the book for longer than twelve issues, this could be a refreshing change.' But no, JMS decided (after a long period of Superman not really being Superman during this long period of time bear in mind) to make Superman go on what the aboriginal Australians call a 'walkabout' and what we comic readers like to call 'Why is Superman fucking boring again?'. JMS wanted Superman to spend a year (that's twelve issues) at the very least walking...WALKING across America on a spiritual journey to re-connect with who he is and what he's supposed to represent. He asks the question

'Does the world need a Superman?'

   Fuck...right...off.

   The world Superman lives in is shared by...

and

   I personally think the police would need pretty big truncheons to spank that monkey, so can we get over the fact that in this particular pocket of reality Superman's self indulgent whining little question can be answered by pushing your tongue into your bottom lip and making an 'urrrrrrrrr' noise?

Good.

   So JMS lasted a whole seven issues on Superman before someone was picked to go and tell him it was more fun reading the adverts and Chris Robinson squeezed out another seven. There's more but I want to keep the readers I have.

   Then! D.C decided to re-boot their universe, again.

   But this time it was a proper spit and polish with proper changes and proper fresh starts without the baggage of confusing continuity! Except for Green Lantern his continuity was more or less the same OH and Batman, his was compressed into five years but again more or less the same. And Justice League was to take place five years ago to help establish the team and Action Comics was ALSO set five years in the past despite Superman having a different costume to the one he wears in the Justice League and...

MMMMMNNnnnnnnnnnnnnnerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

            

        Before

After

   ANYWAY Action Comics, a perennial Superman tile was relaunched and Grant Morrison was tasked to re-invent Superman's first few months as a crimefighter! Good idea! We get to see a drastically de-powered Superman doing things he did back in the forties like fight crime bosses and corrupt officials and stop trains with his face! Even his costume reflects his blue collar approach to busting crime with jeans, worker boots and a Superman t-shirt and a red towel tied around his neck...yeah anyway, it was at least an exciting take on Superman being super and if we want to see Superman being the Superman readers have wanted him to be for the past few years then we can hop over to his titular book 'SUPERMAN!' were he's contemporary with his spanking new outfit and fresh new take on... oh my god I can't do this Superman #1 is fucking dreadful.

   Long winded script, redundant dialogue, crowded page layout, dull lethargic artwork, whining, pissy, moaning, twat Superman forgettable villains everything taking place at night so it's 'dark', nothings established and the big thing about the Daily Planet blowing up gets lost in the angst ridden mess. The first time we see Superman he's stood in mid air looking pissy, cape spread all angelic and he's in clouds, wow spot the symbolism. Not only that he's doing the one thing NO version or depiction of Superman has ever or should ever do, look down on the audience. 

Look up in the sky!

   Whether it was done on purpose or not this is as out of place as making Batman dress up in purple, red and yellow and saying he's an alien from...oh wait

Oh fuck off Grant Morrison it was a crap concept in the sixties.

   Superman has never lauded it over the mere mortals he protects yet this one image doesn't set up a sense of sympathy for Superman's loss of the Daily Planet but an overwhelming sense that this is a godlike being and we will have no connection to him whatsoever.

   I can understand wanting a little pathos in a comic, a little drama and with Superman and this being a re-boot it has to come with change and that usually involves the destruction of something iconic, in this case the Daily Planet building. It becomes a multi media outlet representing the changes in media and how the world is perceived today and mirroring (perhaps unintentionally) the launch of the New 52 DC line as a digital medium. It represents modernisation and is perhaps the only decent thing that occurs in this comic. But rather than be 'The Man of Tomorrow' and embrace the change and be the hero leading people into the future all Clark Kent does is whine, bitch and moan about how print isn't dead and whiney whine whine. Frankly he sounds like a fucking fanboy. Instead of the change being about a  light in the darkness it's about the twat who moans he can't see his collection of used newspapers and bottles of urine any more. 

   Instead of a memorable villain we get some 'thing' apparently made of fire that Superman carries into space to kill it. We get a despondent Clark when he learns that Lois is knobbing someone else. At no point do we get a sense of freshness, or triumph that will herald a new Superman.

   The art is so dense and cluttered it's impossible to follow, not challenging and interesting like Swamp Thing just a headache. There's a page with 14 panels and most of them full of word boxes or balloons. There's redundant dialogue describing what's going on in so many panels and god forbid anyone should have a genuine smile on their face.

   Superman #1 is to comics what the prequel trilogy is to Star Wars, a big fucking stupid mess that ardent fans will defend till their dead.

   Someone has even said to me it can't be worse than the nineties dross, well it is. You look back on that stuff at least it was entertaining. At least Liefeld did books SO phenomenally bad you could laugh at them.

   Superman #1 is none of the things that should go into a Superman comic, even a new one. It's painfully obvious that George Pérez has read too many Mark Millar comics and said 'This is what the kids want these days.' Well George, not from Superman. The point of Superman is to represent the best we can be by teaching us how to achieve that. All I saw him do in his inaugural issue was swim through muddy art and moan about everything then he killed a fire 'thing'. 

   Hurry up Grant Morrison, make Superman super again!