Rating:  -
Like when Frank Miller put his personal touch on Batman in the classic Year One telling of Batman's orgins Tom DeHaven puts his own unique spin on Superman making a classic hero fresh again.Set in the 1930's and with a great eye for period detail,a great collection of despicable characters that reminded me of Dick Tracy and some inspired surprises(Clark as a Hollywood stuntman!) this is a truly creative and ambitious novel.It's true that there's not a lot of superheroics here nor a straightforward plot and that the focus often drifts away from Clark Kent to the many other characters.Despite those offputting aspects this is a smart,darkly humorous sometimes just plain nasty entertaining novel that will leave you wanting more.
Rating: -
Ignore the naysayers who say this isn't a good Superman book. This is the AUTHOR'S OWN INTERPRETATION of a Superman story, and I think it's well-written, set well in it's time-period, and very engaging. If you're looking for Superman smashing through walls and deflecting cannon blasts, then you're reading the wrong story. Like Kurt Busiek's recent "Secret Identity", this is a brand new take on the whole story, and it's well worth a read.
My ONLY nitpick is that the author really overdoes it with the use of italics. He uses italics in almost every paragraph, and it become distracntingly annoying after a chapter or two. Otherwise, this is a great book and I highly recommend it.
Rating:  -
As small as the picture of Superman appears on the jacket of this book is the kind of exposure De Haven gives to The Man Of Steel: i.e., not nearly enough presence. I totally agree with the two star ratings here. I started out really enjoying this book. Yes, it dove readers head-first into the 1930s. Yes, it played a little havoc with the traditional tale by including plenty of unusual references to the mob and other assorted shady characters. And yes, De Haven is an excellent descriptive and dialogue writer.
That said: no, the story isn't rewarding. No, some of the leaps of faith one has to make are too great (stunt man costume where the "S" stands for "Saucer Man"? No Martha Kent? Lex Luthor as an alderman?). There wasn't enough about Clark as he "discovers" the Superman side of himself. Yet other characters are painstakingly created and in some cases, cast "against" type. But the Man Of Steel himself is a flimsy construct. One painted in not so vivid strokes. An "average" joe without much of a sense of who he's becoming or how he got his powers. Clearly, any book dealing with Superman should have a field day in trying to have our hero discover the "why" and "what" of who he is. Not here.
After three chapters, the reader has clearly had enough. I begrudgingly read through the rest of the book, ashamed I'd spent so much money and gotten so little back.
In the end, super-hero based novels have a tough time competing against graphic novels which continually reinvent the wheel without breaking the basic format (try the one where Supe crash-lands in Russia instead of America, it's a superb "what if" story). It's Superman is far from being a great retelling of a modern-day myth.
Rating:  -
The mythology of Superman has been retold and re-invented (often needlessly)in various media over the last 68 years. While in some cases it was considered necessary - Richard Donner's Superman film was reacquainting the world with the hero as something more deep than a cartoon character; John Byrne's comic book The Man of Steel was re-inventing continuity after it had become nearly incomprehensible for some readers - others, such as Mark Waid's Superman: Birthright, are just reinventing the wheel. In Tom De Haven's It's Superman!, I feel like it's not inclined to go in either direction - the retread is unnecessary, but boy, it's a fun read.
It's Superman! sets the mythology of Clark Kent and co. in the years between 1935 and 1938, changing locales between New York City, Hollywood, CA; and Smallville, Kansas. Clark Kent is an average-looking, averagely intelligent, yet gifted writer for the Smallville Herald-Progress, and he is having great difficulty dealing with the new powers he has been discovering as well as the mortality of his dear adopted parents. Meanwhile, feisty and promiscuous Lois Lane is taking journalism classes in New York, and one of her boyfriends stumbles upon evidence that could corrupt alderman Lex Luthor.
De Haven not only paints the locales and their era vividly - Smallville really feels like a middle-America farm town, while New York, replete with its Hooverville shanties and Broadway neon, feels both exciting and scary - he halso rethinks the why's and what-for's of these relationships. He does take some brave turns in telling the story, but there is a sense of respect for thel egend here as well. De Haven refers to his story more than once as 'Our tale,' and there are nods to the early comics that fans will appreciate. This journey is breezy, fun, moving, and occasionally disturbing. Recommended, whether you are a die hard comic fan, a casual fan of the character, or just want to be introduced to a fresh take on a classic world. Final Grade: A
Rating: -
I am NOT a Superman fan. I'll grant that I like comics, but not the Big Blue Boy Scout. But Tom De Haven COMMANDS you to appreciate every little thing about Clark. Start at the beginning. Why is Clark nervous and fretting at the desk in the Sherriff's office? Not because he's an alien, but because he's a 17 year old boy!
The characters in IT'S SUPERMAN are well-wrought, to the point that you want every one of them to succeed, even the flawed and corrupt Lex Luthor. In fact, Lex was so wonderful, you wanted HIM to succeed, too. Even Lois-- and I'm definitely not a big fan-- was just top shelf in the way De Haven depicts her as a strong-willed, ready-for-anything power to be reckoned with.
This book should make you want to read every other De Haven book out there. This is my first, but it won't be my last.
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