I've been working through the reviews I haven't posted on the blog in the order I read them for the most part, but seeing that Issue 701 from this story is getting some Internet play led me to bump up it in line.

Superman: Grounded, Vol. 1 by Michael J. Straczynski

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


In Action Comics #1, one of the first villains Superman took on was a wife-beater. The early Superman Golden Age stories introduced us to a guy who was concerned about real people and their very real problems. In one early adventure, he helped a down on his luck boxer come back. In another, he took the place of a man who was being pushed around constantly to help him a chance at success and happiness. In one unforgettable story, Superman helped a little boy at an orphanage ran by an abusive headmaster.

However, that Superman hadn't been seen for five decades or more. The drug dealers, gangsters, and abusers that terrorize people in our modern world had been deemed unfitting challenges for the man of steel as they can't really hurt him. Instead, Superman has to fight the big villains: Darkseid, Luthor, and Brainiac. The comic writes decreed Superman was too big, too grand, and majestic for ordinary people with their ordinary problems.

Superman: Grounded is therefore a throwback to the Superman of the 1940s and 50s. Superman left Earth to fight to save New Krypton in a previous issue. After that failed, some felt that Superman wasn't really loyalty to Earth: that he was alien and concerned with the affairs of alien worlds. Yet, when a widow blames him for the death of her husband (in a way that's rather far fetched), Superman makes a decision to start walking across America, getting in touch with ordinary people and their problems.

At first, when he started walking, I was reminded of the scene from Forest Gump when Gump began to run, but then as the story began to play out, I smiled. Superman's walkabout saw him helping people wherever he went, setting a good example and helping people in need. Sueprman's deeds were not hugely mighty, but they captured the often-forgotten heart of the Man of Steel. He spends hours on top of people talking to a suicidal jumper, he helps a man diagnose the problem with his car, takes on some crack houses, teaches a disturbed stalker a few lessons, and encounters an abused boy whose waiting for Superman or perhaps for anyone with enough compassion.

At its best, the book inspiring, moving, and evocative. It also gives an up close look at Lois Lane as she concludes she's a "bad feminist" as she comes to term with the choices in her life that have left her in Superman's shadow. We have a Perry White story that doesn't work quite well and seems to detract ever so slightly from the tone of the book while still working in a few humorous moments particularly when Perry acknowledges he could get fired from the Planet and he determines to start his own "blob" if that happens.

While this type of story couldn't go on forever, it was something wonderful while it lasted, it's an amazing story for its time and a must for everyone who loves to see the warm heart of Superman.



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