"Superman: Secret Identity" by Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immomen

First off, let me say that I am not a huge Superman fan. As characters go, I don't find him very interesting for all the typical reasons: he's too static making the stories boring, he's too powerful making the stories boring, and he's too much of a boy scout - again making the stories boring. I've always preferred superheroes with more depth and edge.

If the Grant Morrison/Frank Quitely team hadn't starting working on "All Star Superman", there is no doubt in my mind that I wouldn't have read "Superman: Secret Identity". I remember seeing the issues when they came out a couple of years ago - the story was originally released in four issues in the presige format (DC speak for double sized issues in expensive packaging). At the time I thought to myself: "hmmm, I really like Busiek's writing, and I really like Immomen's art - it's too bad that this is a Superman story".

I passed on the book and never looked back, even when Heinrich told me that I should read this. Fortunately I came around eventually, because this turned out to be quite a good read.

The story focuses on a teenager in the "real world" - on the planet Earth we live on where superheroes exist only in comic books, and Superman is no more than a popular character. The books protagonist has had the misfortune of misguided parents who named their small town Kansas son Clark Kent. Understandably, the child grows up ridiculed. The genius of Busiek's story, however, is that ten pages into the first issue, this mild-mannered Kansas boy somehow develops strange powers, awfully familiar to Superman fans.

So really, this story isn't so much about the established Superman character, as it is about the core concepts of the character. Each issue takes place at a distinctly different point in Clark's life, and the reader gains limitless insight into the psyche of comics greatest character.

I really liked this twist on the archeotype, and it provided a freshness to the character that I revelled in. Maybe Superman has always been too established of a character for me and this story (like "All Star Superman") provided me with an opportunity to see the character anew. Whatever the reason behind it, with this story I found myself more than just enjoying a good read, but being sucked right into the Superman world. It was a pleasant surprise.

"Marvel Superheroes: Secret Wars" by Jim Shooter

I went to Borders (the large-format English bookstore chain) last week while Troë was at soccer to have a look around. I have several books sitting unread on my bookshelf at home still, so I was there more to browse then buy. With that in mind I started flipping through books in the graphic novel section.

One of my favorite things about Borders is how great the graphic novel section is. The Bournemouth Borders store has more graphic novels than most comic book shops I've been too and they have the books (roughly) arranged in alphabetical order. It's not the most extensive selection, but it's damn better than anything Chapters has ever done.

I was familiar with the Secret Wars title mainly because I had discovered many years ago that Secret Wars Issue 8 is the comic in which Spiderman first discovers the alien black costume. (This is the costume that directly leads to the creation of the Spiderman villian Venom.) Needless to say, I was instantly intrigued but I put off reading it because of the difficulties involved in collecting 12 older comic issues, and because I have been burnt before from buying comics merely based solely upon a random occurance of ancient character history. Also by the time I started reading comics Venom and Carnage were already established characters and the black costume was long forgotten so this wasn't a story that I felt I had to read.

The other thing I really like about Borders is the comfortable seats scattered through-out the store for customers to sit in and read. Chapters used to provide this service, but stopped doing it years ago. I was pleased to discover an empty seat to drp myself in and promptly became one of those customers I hated when I worked at Chapters.

The premise of the story isn't that uncommon to the comic genre (dozens of big name characters - good and evil - are mysteriously spirted away to a foreign world and forced to battle each other) but this is one of the best approaches I've read. In the forward Jim Shooter explains that what he set out to do with this story is to dramatically change each of the characters involved - and he skillfully does just that. Albeit many of these changes were short lived in the Marvel Universe, but most were character tweaks I had heard of.

The story telling tries to balance the dozens of major characters evenly and dosen't do a great job of this: I think both Spiderman and the X-Men get short shafted; but when Dr. Doom easily steals the spotlight in many of the isue I found it didn't bother me. Doom was brilliant. Don't get me wrong - I've never disliked the character of Dr. Doom - but he was just so amazing in this story.

Also many of the characters from Marvel's inital HeroClix line - Infinity Challenge - that I had never heard of were prominent chacters in the story line. (Yes, I'm a geek, get over it.)

This is a great read for anyone who enjoys the major characters of the Marvel Universe.

"Watchmen" by Alan Moore (writer) and Dave Gibbons (artist)

There are two types of comic book stories that I especially enjoy. The first is stories about superheros: stories about super-powers, costumes, secret identities and the like. The second is stories about more mature topics (typified by DC's Vertigo imprint) that deal with real-world issues in an intelligent and adult manner.

"Watchmen" is a story of both of these types. It is the most intelligent piece of literature that I have ever read. It just happens to be a graphic novel about superheroes.

Set in the mid-eighties, in an earth so similar to our own that it could very easily have been, the series twelve issues follows the exploits of a group of real world superheroes. These are not the archetypical characters that one usually stumbles across in comic books (or in mainstream novels either, for that matter). The characters in the "Watchmen" mythos are each complicated personalities; these are flawed people trying desperately to make a difference in a world slowly desending into hell.

The story was written by Alan Moore. With "Watchmen" he approached in a brand new way, a field that was over-run with stagnant stories and over-used characters. (And this is hardly the only time that he has done this.) "Watchmen" is well-regarded by the comic book community as one of the greatest stories ever told. It won many awards (including a Hugo, making it the only comic to do so) and frequents must-read lists.

I must admit that this last week was not the first time that I had read this story. About five years ago Curtis collected each of the twelve issues - a week or two at a time - and I read them then, as he did. This was, however, only my second time reading the issues. I have been meaning to re-read the story for quite some time. (Troë just bought me the complete run as an anniversary present.)

I was surprised at how much more there was to the story then what I had percieved on my first read. I quite liked it the first time, but now I have such a greater appreciation for the creators. With "Watchmen", they created something entirely new and original. And they did one hell of a job.

This is a story that everyone should read. I say this with no bias towards the subject matter or the format. (Well, maybe a little.) This is simply a smart story told in a manner different than what most people are used to.