Books : Superman: For Tomorrow, Vol. 1

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Rating:

- One of the best Superman stories ever!
You can't miss this book. The only people complaining are the 'old men' of the comic book industry that are afraid of change and new ideas. This is a beautiful book. It features some of the best writing and art i've seen anywhere. It's a must buy!

Rating:

- Very interesting...
How far would Superman go to save the Earth? Apparently, pretty damn far! Story opens with half of everyone in the world gone, just vanished! Including, Lois. Superman begins to loose grasp of his humanity in a big way as he finds not only can he not save everyone all the time and that he is not always in the right all the time, but that a device of his own creation caused the vanishing in the first place (a Phantom Zone generator he was to use in case Earth was to fall the same fate as Krypton). The crisis of faith is the theme of this story as Kal confides in a dying priest for clarity.

Jim Lee's art is, of coarse, remarkable. The story (especially in vol. 1) can be a bit on the confusing side, but it's still a cool read. The addition of General Zod is pretty nice too

Rating:

- Confusing, but ultimately worth it
When For Tomorrow first started hitting the comic book store shelves in single issue form, it was met with a decidedly mixed reaction from readers. Some felt it to be utterly confusing and intirely boring, while others saw it as a deep, introspective graphic novel (mistakenly) published in serial form. A story that would best be enjoyed when read in a single sitting. Now with For Tomorrow finally printed as two trade paperbacks, we can finally have that experience.

So, the question is, is it really that deep, introspective graphic novel? Does reading it in one sitting make it any better? If, I had to give you a definitive answer, it would be yes, For Tomorrow's purpose and point is much more clear when digested over an afternoon than it ever was over the 12 months when I first read it as a monthly.

That said, it isn't perfect. And it isn't a story that plays out like your standard comic. The narrative is non-linear. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, that means the story's timeline jumps to and fro from past and present. And maybe even future. Think Gulliver's Travels. Or maybe even the first half of Batman Begins.

This non-linear story is obviously what confused readers originally - god knows, it confused me. The opening chapters raise many questions that are never fully answered until the story's closing pages. This, I won't lie, is a failling. Probably the biggest failing of the book. In my opinion, at least. The plot is so oddly told and unfolded, that the actual story seems not to matter. As if it's only a secondary concern next to the main purpose of the book; philosophy, faith, Superman, and everything in between.

This is where the book shines. The story doesn't matter. The plot is unimportant. What you're getting here is - in my mind, at least - a first class look - no, journey - into Superman's mind, and soul. We examine his faith. His belief in both humanity and himself. And see that even someone as "perfect" as Superman can make a mistake. Maybe that's cliche, maybe some of the more macho readers out there will complain about an overly emotional Superman, but for me - and hopefully you - it gave me a look into the character that I had honestly not seen before.

Aside from the introspective on Superman, there's also pretty prominent philosophical wonderings on faith, religion, and how Superman relates to those two things. I won't try to give any interpretations of those wonderings myself, but for those who love subtext, and a little remarks that can leave you pondering them well after you've finished reading the book, For Tomorrow will certainly be very welcomed.

While it's not as prominent point as other things in the book, I also found the expression of Superman's love for Lois to be very wonderfully done as well. From describing her heartbeat as "his rhythem" to live, to his passionate reunion with her later in the book, it's romantic, but not overpowering, and never distracting.

And, of course, to top all of that off, we have a knockdown, drag out fight with one of Superman's most powerful and sinister villains; Zod. While I think the effectiveness of the fight is diminished slightly by the rather confusing events leading up to it, I must admit, it makes for a really fun read - thanks largely to Jim Lee's fantastic art.

Which brings us to possibly the best thing about the book; the art. Jim Lee is - to me and manly - simply one of the best there is. He's the superstar artist in the comics industry at the moment, and while that may overrate him a bit, I still believe him to be one of the absolute best.

So, in closing, For Tomorrow is a mixed bag. It can very well be overly confusing and seemingly pointless. And it can also be very deep and beautifully introspective. I won't try to predict whether or not you personally will like the book, all I can say is I certainly consider myself all the better for having read it.

[Please note, this review is for both Vol. 1 and 2 of For Tomorrow]

Rating:

- What saved this from getting a no star rating
I currently own the full run of this storyline and I found that the only highlight of Superman: For Tomorrow was Jim Lee.
His rendition of Superman and the Justice League were top notch. I'd like to see him draw the Flash title. Although as the series came to it's conclusion messy inking made his artwork suffer greatly.
Brian Azzarello's writing turned me off as I kept scratching my head thinking Huh?!.

Rating:

- Just as overhyped and confusing as Batman: Hush
This review will deal with both volumes of this series. One year ago a million people simply vanished with no clue as to what happened. Superman has a hard time dealing with this because not only wasn't he there to stop this event but because Lois Lane was one of the missing. One the surface of things this sounds like a promising start for a story but it didn't end up that way. I had never read any of Brian Azzarello's work prior to this but had heard his name mentioned in connection to the type of gritty crime stories he was known for. I'm not going to say that that type of story could never work with the Superman character but it certainly doesn't work on this occasion. In my opinion there is a lot of filler in this series and if you remove all that this could have easily been done in six issues instead of twelve. Superman spends time with a priest talking about what he sees as his failure to save all these people but this priest is facing trouble of his own. He is dying of cancer and has lost his faith, which is made very clear by his blasphemous language. To make matters worse Superman tells the priest his wife is among the missing. Now does this make sense to anyone? Why would you volunteer this information to anyone even a priest? And why do we have to suffer through yet another priest who has lost his way and turned his back on God? Isn't there a writer out there who thinks it's just possible that a priest could go through rough times and stay true to his faith? Is this too much to ask for?

We don't find out until close to the end of the series that Superman himself is indirectly responsible for all the vanishing people. To sum up both volumes of this story doesn't take very long. Lois had asked him what would the people of Earth do if what happened to Krypton happened here. To ward off this possibility Superman uses Kryptonian technology to create an idyllic place inside the Phantom Zone for the people of Earth to live in peace with all their needs provided for. He then sends the key to this place into the Phantom Zone for safe keeping with robot copies of his Jor-El and Lara. He then makes himself forget all about it leaving Lois the only one who knows. Does any of this make sense to you? What if something happened to Lois or she wasn't able to reach him when a potential disaster would strike? And the whole thing with Superman talking to the priest and telling telling him he has a wife seemed way beyond stupid. Why not talk to Ma and Pa Kent? Or his JLA friends? The priest wants to be cured from cancer so bad he turns himself over to this mercenary guy he doesn't even know or trust and gets made into a cyborg monster for his trouble. It's just pathetic. And Azzarello falls into the habit so many "hot" writers of the day have fallen into by using half spoken dialogue in numerous scenes. By this I mean one character starts to say something and the other character answers as if he knew what was going to be said. This annoying practice is carried on throughout the book. There is a kind of running joke between Superman and the priest about this when they seem to be reading each others minds, but it seems to me that is the only way their conversations could make any sense to each other since they have trouble finishing a sentence. Jim Lee's art was great as usual but its all this book has going for it and the ONLY reason I could think of to give this more than one star.

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