Superman Year One #2 Review

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Let's go. Hello and welcome to The Pullback.

This is episode 376 .5. I'm of course TF2 and

Mike. Joining me is Mr. Joe Reed. Hello, sir.

Hello, hello. I honestly don't remember though.

I think the last time you were on was episode

362 we did Batman TMNT 2 Before then I think

it was episode 358 when we did the first issue

of this what we're gonna talk about second issue

of this today, but DC Comics DC Black Label Superman

year one issue number two I was not thrilled

with this at all, but before we get into that

Story and art are done by Frank Miller and John

Romita Jr. Danny Mickey is on inks. Alex Sinclair

is on color. John Workman is the letterer. John

Romita Jr. with Danny Mickey and Alex Sinclair

did the cover. Frank Miller with Alex Sinclair

have done the variant covers for this issue.

I remember kind of enjoying the first issue.

Clark learning his powers as a kid going growing

up in the high school thing and the bullying

and all this and all that and we left off with

that issue of him going into the military at

Naval Station Great Lakes here in Illinois well

this issue sees him, basically I'm just gonna

boil it down and burn it down for you folks like

he would with his heat vision, sees him washing

out of the Navy, and then going to Atlantis.

Uh, what? Wait a minute. I just realized, they're

on Lake Michigan, wherever this is, like underwater

world Lake Michigan. Yeah, they're trying to

say that Atlantis is in Lake Michigan. Yeah,

like oh No, no, no, they're not saying that I'm

sorry they're they're not he watched it he we

go to Great Lakes, Illinois And we see him doing

everything else and then he transfers out to

the Pacific So it is kind of correct. All right,

I see that's what it is Do they actually name

it as Atlantis or is it just miscellaneous Greek

underwater city? No, they say Atlantis cuz he

okay, so He okay, this is what happens. Sorry

folks where I just literally woke up out of a

dead sleep in the middle of the day But he was

at Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois He trade

gets transferred to the amphibious base out in

Coronado so that's where this is the most of

this book takes place is in Coronado out there

in the Pacific Ocean kind of thing and basically

this feels like to me a less funny version of

the beginning of Full Metal Jacket is what the

rest of the before he gets to Atlantis before

right before he washes out This whole Navy thing

feels like Sergeant Hartman versus Gomer Pyle,

even though in this case Gomer Pyle has superpowers.

But yes, they do call it Atlantis, the Paradise

demolished. So it is Atlantis. The only difference

is, to my knowledge at this point, they are using

Poseidon and not... Arthur curry Aquaman So this

isn't Superman and I'd like that's the first

thing I thought of when I saw Atlantis, you know

paradise demolished. I'm like, oh, oh, yeah He's

gonna meet Aquaman and that's not what happens

at all What happens is his this this mermaid

falls in love with him? wants him to make her

queen and he has to go back and he has to You

know get washed out of out of the military not

that he wanted to do that but we see a turn in

his character which i think is good. They constantly

promote killing. You know they try to ingrain

that into him like go ahead that's another kill

that's another kill that's another kill and his

stomach is turning. Like he doesn't want to do

this he doesn't want to be a killer. He wants

to be a journalist. I swear to God, now that

I think about this after reading it two different

times, he is Joker from Full Metal Jacket, 4212,

Basic Military Journalism. What the hell, Joker?

So he does wash out and instead of just going

out the front door, he hops the fence and walks

into the ocean. with his bags and everything

on on it on his back and he goes back to i believe

her name is lori uh and he then puts on his uniform

his real uniform and i believe this is the first

time we've seen him wear it in this series not

i don't know not too keen on it it's all right

i just i it's i You know, I remember, you know,

when you hear about the origin of Superman, and

all these cool things happen, and he learns his

powers, and of course, we all remember when he

spent, you know, like a year of his life underwater

doing, wait, what? Wait, no, this didn't happen,

and no one asked for this. The whole issue with

him going down there, this being, I guess, the

primary part of the issue, just seemed so out

of place from everything we would have expected

from Superman's first year. His first year was

spent underwater? Yeah Yeah, it's just it's a

little it's a little weird to me Yeah, but he's

down here with this mermaid in love with him

and Like I think am I right here that Poseidon

is like you have to prove yourself or you're

worthless and so they keep throwing things at

Superman trying to wipe them out and he's Beating

them kind of both discovering his new powers

or discovering how strong he actually is as he's

defeating these things They've thrown electric

eels at him. They threw a kraken at him. I think

my favorite part out of this whole issue is the

panel where it's right before his trials and

tribulations start. It's where he's kind of sitting,

you know, underwater on the bedrock and he says,

I can just see it. Clark Kent, King of the Seven

Seas. That's got one heck of a ring to it get

your tickets now folks I added the folks part,

but it's basically him in his super suit underwater

musing about Whether he's gonna be king of the

sea or not, and I'm like whoa This happened the

last time that I remember reading something by

Frank Miller You know Frank Miller was awesome

in the 80s and 90s. I love the daredevil stuff

the Batman stuff and Then what was it? It was

the Batman Batman and Robin and That first issue.

I think that was pretty awesome. I don't remember

if it was at the end of the first issue at the

end of the second And it takes this turn and

you're like wait, what? Yeah, what nobody asked

for that will give you drafts Robin into the

war. You're a soldier now What like wait wait

Frank Miller? No, and he kind of does the same

thing with Superman here Where I thought I thought

Frank Miller would have gotten over his His hatred

of Superman, you know, he treats him like a clown

in Batman Dark Knight And that first issue was

so good of this Yeah, I was like, hey, all right.

He's he's painting him like a human who's learning

these things about himself and then it goes all

weird yeah, it went very weird and I'm not a

fan of it. I think the art is amazing. I think

the art is very good. I just, the story is just,

it just killed me. It just was to the point of

what in the sand? Like, it would be different

if it was something like he has to go to Atlantis

to team up with, like we said just a few minutes,

a little while ago, meeting Aquaman. That would

be different, that would be kind of cool. But

it's him versus Poseidon for a girl's hand. And

it's like, really? Really? Wasn't DC Editorial

going, I don't think anybody wants to read that.

I don't know what DC Editorial is doing these

days. I could have sworn they had gotten better,

but I have no clue. The larger scale DC's got

the characters that I want to read about I want

to read about Batman I want to read about Wonder

Woman and Superman and all these guys they have

great characters But every single time I jump

on a DC book the first issue is kind of cool

like all right and then the second issue It amps

it up to 11 and it throws in weird stuff like

Superman fighting a Kraken Wait, why can't I

just it just goes so sideways from what I expect

that I lose interest immediately I have issue

three of this somewhere upstairs. I think But

and I haven't read it yet, but god, I hope it

comes back to reality after After this. How much

more do we want to say about issue number two?

Because I think we've pretty much boilerplated

it as far as what happens in the issue and our

disliking of it. Yeah. And I know this is probably

going to end up being a short, short episode,

folks. And we're sorry for that. But it just...

I can't talk at length about like, yeah, I don't

like this. And this is why I don't like it. This

was very weird to me. Like I said, the art is

good. It's not, it didn't impress me as much

as the art in the first issue did. Um, but the

story is just, okay. I understand. I completely

understand why he is washing out of the Navy

because he isn't, he is not a killer. He's not

that person. Um, and plus with who he, he really

is, he can't be that person because. In all of

those scenes that we see in this issue of him

saying, this is so easy that, you know, I have

to try to, to, for this to look difficult for

me, even though it is so easy, you know, I could,

you know, it goes back again to the end of Justice

League Unlimited. You know, I feel like I live

in a world of cardboard kind of thing. It goes

back to that because he has to fake it to make

sure he doesn't overdo it. There's a neat scene

in here where I think there it's a legit mission

that they're on and terrorists to go over this

boat one of the bad guys pulls a grenade and

Clark grabs the guy closes it in his hands reaches

and then like Colt pulls the guy against his

chest so he can see the grenade between his hands

like reaching around him and he that my favorite

moments of Superman are where he's immensely

powerful but He teaches them, teaches the villain

a lesson in non -violence, in that non -violent

moment where he close it in his hand, the guy

thinks everybody on that boat's gonna die, boom,

but of course Superman can contain that in his

hands. And that terrorist there learns like,

all right, this dude just gave you your life.

Go do something right with it. Love those moments.

But then he goes and fights for a girl in the

ocean. He wants his Ariel or something to the

character. Well, I mean, no, that's Warner. I

was going to say Disney now. Oh, no, that's no,

that's still Warner Brothers or whatever they're

on. I don't know. Anyway, yeah, I. You know what

I want an issue to be? You know, Clark being

a photojournalist in Afghanistan over there.

Doing super things learning to be a journalist

figuring out his powers like that seems like

a more interesting story I've never seen that

before I've heard of I've heard of Cannons where

that's what he did He went overseas and was a

photojournalist before he came back and joined

him made the daily planet But it just seems so

out of character to do this To me that it's it's

too much and too weird and you know all right

Okay. Yeah, I mean it's kind of like I don't

know if you I Don't know if you follow wrestling

all that much. I'm not sure if you're a wrestling

fan I wouldn't say a fan, but I respect the amazing

athleticism Okay, the concept of it. Okay, you

take basically The Undertaker versus whomever

let's say from from a couple years ago Undertaker

it was Undertaker versus Brock Lesnar because

those were the two biggest two of the biggest

guys in WWE currently they have three matches

so they have one match where one of them wins

the other match where the other one wins and

then you have the third match the rubber match

this is kind of like that middle match of a three

-way kind of battle where it's like like what

like like we said They threw this weird monkey

wrench into it and it's like, wait, what? This

is like introducing Hornswoggle into a Brock

Lesnar Undertaker match for some stupid reason

in my mind. I don't know. I would have loved

to have seen what you're saying. I wish that

that's what they would have done instead of taking

this detour to Atlantis. But sadly, that isn't

what we got. Zero to five on the rating scale

for me. I'm probably gonna give it a two and

a half out of five That's exactly where I was

going to yeah, I I Don't know I want to read

a Superman comic so bad I want to read it buy

it every week and enjoy it, but I just can't

I and again, this is the first time on this podcast

in six almost seven years that we've ever covered

the character I've never done Superman before

until now until this Frank Miller John Romita

jr. Series and I want to eventually do more Superman

but Not if it's gonna be like this and I know

not every writer write stories like Frank Miller

does so that's a good thing Hopefully I can talk

to a couple of Superman buddies of mine that

can and we've talked about several issues that

we might do later on Maybe next year in our seventh

year of the podcast in 2020 But as of right now

this at this point after reading this second

issue. I'm like I'll just go back and watch Lois

and Clark from the 90s. Thank you very much in

the animated series Yep, in the animated series.

Yep, and if listeners if you if you do want to

read a good Superman comic You've got to go pick

up Superman for all seasons that one Was really

good and Jeff Loeb Tim Sale also did a series

that took place in the Superman confidential

Comic it was a I don't know. It was a short series

And it was about 11 issues long and then there

was a break and then they concluded the story

issues later From the the Jeff load Tim sale

like that the whole story changed because they

weren't done with it on time or something that

is another good Good Superman story that I think

is collected in trade by now but Those are the

only two ones that I've just absolutely thoroughly

enjoyed And I think it's the only comics that

I've read that really gets Superman right So

before we go into basically the way I because

of the way scheduling works folks and everything

else Basically Supermarine year one number three

is gonna be the final episode of the podcast

for 2019 It is slated to be episode 380 .5 on

Whatever that last Wednesday is for this this

year Well for Christmas So Yeah, so with saying

that, Superman year one number three, here is

the description on Comixology. Oh boy. It is

the jaw -dropping conclusion to Frank Miller

and John Romita Jr.'s blockbuster reimagining

of Superman's origin. In this final chapter,

Clark Kent arrives in Metropolis, the city where

he will fulfill his heroic destiny. Witness the

first meeting between Superman and Lois Lane.

the beginnings of Clark Kent's career at the

Daily Planet, and the birth of his rivalry with

Lex Luthor. But when the Joker arrives on the

scene, the Man of Steel must enlist the help

of his two strange new friends, Wonder Woman

and Batman. It's got potential, but why do you

have to throw the other two of the of the Holy

Trinity of the of DC? Why do you have to throw

Wonder Woman and Batman in there? Why? Why do

you have to put the Joker in there? Why can't

you just leave it at being? It's everything I

said before I said the Joker, Wonder Woman and

Batman. Why can't it just be? Superman and Lois,

Clark and the Daily Planet, and Superman and

Lex Luthor. And if you really need some other

monkey wrench in there, throw, you know, the

Toy Man in there. Toy Man or Mizzius Pidlick,

you know, something. Something that doesn't require...

A Batman villain. Or a Wonder Woman. Or, yeah,

exactly, a Batman villain and then require...

So... here's hoping folks issue three is better

here's hoping we can end this year that so we've

only been around for six and a half almost seven

years this podcast but this is the end of the

decade this year and i'm not sure i want to end

the decade on superman year one so that episode

might get moved around i don't know yet not sure

ninja turtles 100 is in december Yep, that's

true, but we are so far behind on that too. That's

very true But we are like I what was the last

turtle thing we did wasn't it remember? Yeah

Lord Invasion of the Triceratons, I believe was

the last thing or No Kingdom of Rats Kingdom

of Rats was the last thing so we got some catching

up to do on that before we can get to issue 100

Sadly And with it being holiday time everybody

has plans and has family stuff and everything

else folks I'll tell you this now next week.

We've got Ryan Merkley and I talking about Star

Wars the 2015 Jason Aaron series volumes one

and two and then in November we've got two episodes

for you, not four this time around, but we're

kind of slowing it down for the end of the year.

We've got Back to the Future Vol. 5, which is

the final thing for that main ongoing, and then

a one -shot WWE Forever No. 1, and then December

is Transformers Galaxies 1 -4, which is the Constructicon's

rising story, Spider -Verse, and then, as I said

already, Man -Year 1 No. 3. So we'll see what

happens Anything you got going on that you want

to pimp out or anything nothing going on right

now we Geek sale is over. It was awesome and

huge and 50 vendors and we'll try to do it again

in Either June or September. I haven't even decided

that the September ones seem to be more popular.

It's a little more comfortable outside yeah,

as much as I love the idea of what the geek stuff

garage sale is. I don't know if I want to be

walking around whatever place you have it in

the middle of summer. In 90 degrees. No, it's

not fun. Yeah, no, not fun. Nope. Nice cool fall

day in September. Haven't had any rain. It's

a lot more pleasant. Yep. Yep, yep, yep. Alright,

where can the people find you online, sir? You

can find me on Facebook at Facebook .com slash

geek stuff garage sale. I take messages there

and get them immediately. You know, I have an

Instagram. I've given it to my students when

I do cool art projects or design things or find

cool buildings, but I need to figure out if I

want to make that available to everybody out

there. I don't know what kind of connectivity

that has, but I'm making some cool projects and

that's maybe I should figure out how to share

that with your good listeners here. So, hey,

we'll pay attention to that and look for that

and maybe it'll happen. Cool, cool. I am at TFU

and Mike on Twitter. You can also follow at ThePullBag

and at GeekCastRadio on Twitter as well as check

us out on Facebook and everything everywhere

else. Also, obviously, geekcastradio .com. We've

got a lot of cool things going on. Don't know

how many podcasts you actually listen to but

I this year earlier this year is the first time

like I Started listening to podcasts. I didn't

start producing them. I listened to them for

about a year or so before I said hey I could

do this And I have not listened to a lot since

I started producing but I started listening to

a show called Music Talks podcast. It's with

this guy named Terry Smith. He's He's over there

in the UK and what he does is is he has a single

guest on Each episode they pick one song for

every decade of their life and they talk about

Why they chose that one song Wow, he's got nine

official episodes out He's got a couple of b

-sides that he's done like special like extended

kind of Hey, you heard this on episode 8. Well,

here's episode 8's B -side and a little bit more

of that or whatever. It's very fun. I listen

to it every second Tuesday that it comes out.

Very, very cool. So I'm going to be doing a couple

of, I'm going to be doing three different shows

with him. What I'm going to do is, he's going

to have me on his show. I'm going to give my

choices. I'm gonna have him on GeekCast Radio,

and I'm gonna have him do his list over again,

because he had said a couple of times recently,

like if he could change his list, he would swap

a song out for another song, and I'm like, oh

hey, how about you just come on this show, and

I interview you, so he's gonna do that, and then

he's gonna interview me again. on my show because

I want to see if I can take an artist or band

and fit their songs into the decade, like the

60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s kind of thing. And

I've got this one specific band in mind and people

can go check that out once it's eventually online.

So a lot of cool things going on here at GeekCast

Radio. We've got Altered Geeks still going with

Steve Megatron. uh... uh... what else is going

on we've got uh... paul so you're part of the

risk all series still going almost done with

with the two thousand to be meant for two series

just go check out the cast radio dot com folks

everything is there make your great escape the

comics we will catch you next time you still

try to fight can't you see that it's hopeless

quit as long as he can still draw a breath. None

of my teammates will. Me? I've got a different

problem. I feel like I live in a world made of

cardboard, always taking constant care not to

break something, to break some water. Never allowing

myself to lose control, even for a moment, or

someone could die. You've just heard the latest

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