Rating: ****

There have been numerous Superman origins in the character’s 70 year history. From the original Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster origin, to the more recent John Byrne and Mark Waid origins or Superman’s early adventures that we’ve seen over the past 20 years. Now we get another new “origin” tale by Geoff Johns with this week’s Superman: Secret Origin. When I heard that they were doing this, I said to myself, “Is this really necessary?”  Well with the recent continuity changes that have been made over the past few years, I guess you can make an argument for it. If it were any other writer doing it, I would not be picking this mini-series up, but since it’s Geoff Johns and I loved what he and Richard Donner did with their recent run on Action Comics, I decided to pick it up.  Well, I’m glad to say that I’m not disappointed.

Our first issue opens in Smallville of course with Clark Kent as a teenager about to begin a pick up game of football with Pete Ross and some other Smallville teenagers. Clark catches the ball and runs into Pete, which breaks Pete’s arm. Distraught over the incident, Clark is confused by what’s happening to him. There to comfort him is his childhood sweetheart Lana Lang. She kisses Clark which gets Clark all hot and bothered, resulting in his heat vision to shoot off—he almost burns the school down.

I love this scene and the emotion behind it; although no teenager will ever experience what Clark is going through with having super powers, we have all felt like a fish out of water in high school and among peers. What’s so great about a lot of comic book and science fiction stories is the human element behind the super human events taking place.

Realizing that these incidents are going to continue, Martha and Jonathan Kent feel that Clark is now old enough to know the truth about his origins. They take him out to the barn and show him the rocket ship in which he crashed. The rocket activates a holographic image showing Jor-El and Lara; they tell Clark they are his biological parents. This frustrates Clark and he does not want to believe what they are saying.  He runs away and states that he only wants to be Clark Kent. He tells Jonathan that all he wants to be is his son, to which Jonathan replies, “You are my son.” Gets you all choked up, doesn’t it? A powerful and moving scene that again can make a kid who is adopted and discovers this later in life can make them truly relate to the character. A parent who has an adopted child can also relate to this as well through Jonathan.

On the flip side, we see a scene with a young Lex Luthor running away from his abusive father. As he runs away, he trips over a piece of Kryptonite. Lex saves the piece and shows it to Clark during their first at a town fair. Clark sees it and collapses; however, he recovers in time to rescue Lana from the tornado that hits. This was a little hard to believe a storm hits and then a tornado swoops Lana away in a matter of seconds, but it’s a comic book so, I suspend reality and enjoy the story.

We end with Martha Kent using the blankets from Clark’s rocket ship to make that famous red, blue, and yellow suit that we all know and love. Clark, however, doesn’t think too much about it and feels he looks ridiculous and we end there.

Good opening start to this series Some side notes about this issue include Jor-El looking like Marlon Brando from the Richard Donner Superman films only with a beard. Clark has a conversation with a kid named Kenny. I’m assuming Geoff Johns is keeping the retcon character of Kenny Braverman, who later becomes the villain Conduit. Nice to see Geoff taking things that other writers have used in the past concerning Superman and sticking with it. 

In what appears to be another nod to the past, in the background of a holographic image of Krypton that Martha stumbles upon, you can see a woman dressed similar to the way Superman’s mother Lara was dressed during John Byrne’s classic Man of Steel post-Crisis origin of Superman. 

Artist Gary Frank who worked with Johns on Action Comics, provides the artwork here and does a great job. Frank is great here as you get a majestic feeling when you look at his Superman stories. He does some fine panel-to-panel storytelling and knows when to use bigger or full page panels to give that grandiose effect to the moment.  I would say my one complaint is when he draws Luthor showing Clark the piece of Kryptonite. He looks ugly and weird. I’m assuming Frank was going for that mad scientist look, but I think he fails with that one panel. A very small fanboyish complaint of mine. I hope you permit me, dear reader.

So is this the definitive and final Superman origin? No, of course not. As long as Superman continues to appear in comics, TV, and movies, different writers will have different stories and ideas concerning the character. Some will be good, some will be bad. What will stay the same is the genuine feeling of what is right and what is good about humanity and how America is represented in the character of Superman: truth, justice, and the American way. Hats off Geoff on another great story.