Superman: Earth One Vol. 2

by J. Michael Straczynski, Shane Davis (Illustrator)

Overview

A New York Times Best Seller!

Following the events of the NEW YORK TIMES bestselling graphic novel by acclaimed writer Michael J. Straczynski and superstar artist Shane Davis, comes the long awaited sequel SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE VOL. 2!

Young Clark Kent continues his journey toward becoming the World's Greatest Super Hero, but finds dealing with humanity to be a bigger challenge than he ever imagined! From a ruthless dictator to a new love interest who's NOT Lois Lane, things are never easy for this emerging Man of Steel.

And the worst is yet to come, in the form of a man-monster with an insatiable appetite, the Parasite! The only thing that might appease his hunger is The Last Son of Kryptonian! But that will also mean he will have Superman's powers without his conscience, and Kal-El cannot come anywhere near him, even though he has to stop him!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781401235598
Publisher:	DC Comics
Publication date:	04/01/2014
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.70(w) x 10.10(h) x 0.30(d)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

J. MICHAEL STRACZYNSKI has worked in television, comics and, most recently, motion pictures. In comics, he is known for The Amazing Spider-Man, The Twelve, Thor and Silver Surfer: Requiem, as well as SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE Volumes 1 & 2 and BEFORE WATCHMEN for DC Comics. He is the creator of the hit TV series Babylon 5, and was nominated for the 2009 Best Writer Eisner Award. In movies, he is known for writing films including Changeling, Thor and a forthcoming reinterpretation of Forbidden Planet.

Editorial Reviews

The whole Daily Planet gang is back with Clark Kent/Superman working overtime to save the world when he's not making deadline. This time the major threat comes from Parasite, a curmudgeon serial killer who is transformed into something even worse by a lab experiment gone terribly, terribly wrong. Fortunately, the Man of Steel saves the day. A trade paperback original.

Eisner Award winner Straczynski (Babylon 5; Amazing Spider-Man) does more than contemporize Superman’s story: his hero is a wild card who grew up alienated and isolated, whose human parents’ wishes for him are more about self-actualization than doing good deeds, and whose birth parents have tasked him with avenging Krypton against its enemies…Davis’s artwork combines classic superhero design with contemporary detail and a slightly dark edge. Fine stuff.”—Library Journal

From the Publisher

This sequel to the bestselling first volume is intended as a sort of “Superman 101,” a graphic novel meant for someone who hasn’t extensively read comics before. Too bad, then, that it’s not likely to inspire a need to read further. In volume two, Clark Kent starts his double career as reporter at the Daily Planet and as Superman. The plot is straightforward and updated (Jimmy Olsen writes a blog), but there’s nothing extraordinary enough to make this anything beyond a capable Superman tale. Additions to the established mythos swerve into cliché: a hooker with a heart of gold is Clark’s new neighbor; Superman defeats a dictator by inspiring oppressed citizens to rise up. Davis’s art is crisp and energetic, especially in extended fight sequences, and an epilogue sets up the next volume with a clever and unexplored twist on Lex Luthor. This is an enjoyable Superman story, even if uninspiring for new readers. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

Superman's origin has been reimagined many times over the years, most recently in DC's "New 52" reboot (LJ 11/15/12), Geoff Johns's lackluster Superman: Secret Identity, and this compelling series. In the first volume, Krypton's destroyers track that world's last survivor to Earth and threaten to destroy this planet as well, forcing a young Clark Kent to step up to its defense and publicly reveal his powers. Here, he's pitted against a new, serial-killer version of the energy-draining Parasite, a villain who opens up new possibilities to the U.S. government's quest for a potential countermeasure in case Superman ever goes rogue. VERDICT Eisner Award winner Straczynski (Babylon 5; Amazing Spider-Man) does more than contemporize Superman's story; his hero is a wild card who grew up alienated and isolated, whose human parents' wishes for him are more about self-actualization than doing good deeds, and whose birth parents have tasked him with avenging Krypton against its enemies. And his new girlfriend, Lisa Lasalle, has a shameful secret that has nothing to do with aliens, villains, or super-science. Davis's artwork combines classic superhero design with contemporary detail and a slightly dark edge. Fine stuff.—S.R.

Library Journal