More Reviews
Welcome back from Mars if you are unaware that Stan Lee is doing a series of one shots in which he "re-imagines" famous DC characters. Batman and Wonder Woman are already done and he now turns to the most famous super hero of all time (sorry, Spider-Man); Superman. In this case he is joined by John Buscema, an artist most familiar to Marvel Comics fans as the man who seemingly drew a thousand issues of Conan, the Barbarian. Buscema is also the artist Stan Lee called on to replace Jack Kirby on Thor. The back-up story this time around is by Michael Uslan and Kyle Baker, more on the in a moment.
The Just Imagine series has been going for a several months now. It no longer has the element of surprise as fans should pretty much know what to expect. This is actually a good thing as unreasonable expectations led a lot of fans to be disappointed with the first issue of the series. Let's get that out of the way right now. This is not Frank Miller or Alan Moore or Neil Gaiman writing. It's Stan Lee. There were complaints that the first two issues were dopey or even insubstantial. They were. Guilty on both counts. They were also fun. For everyone who complains that comics were better in "the old days", these book are tailor made for you. A lot of the elements in Stan Lee's writing is wrought with cliché's, but then, most of these became clichés because everyone was trying to emulate Stan Lee's writing style.
In this particular "re-imagining", a policeman of sorts in another universe by the name of Salden finds himself chasing Gorrok. Gorrok has killed Saldens mate and takes off for another world (three guesses) in a one of a kind Space/Time Bender ship. Upon arriving here, Salden learns the language, has a brief stint as an acrobat and take the name Clark Kent. He meets Lois Lane, a pushy agent who wants to profit from the amazing things that Salden/Clark Kent find that he can do. She dubs him Superman and sets about marketing his image and skills. Gorrok... well, Gorrok tried to take over the world.
It all ends just as you would expect it to. No surprises, no real twist. Just a familiar story that is comfortable, but certainly not challenging. Buscema's are is fine, not as ornate as Jim Lee's (who did the Wonder Woman book) or as fluid and formless as Joe Kuberts. I didn't like this one as much as the other two, mostly because Lee's Superman is basically a surly, unfriendly cur. The villain here is even more two-dimensional than we could have hoped for. No motivation whatsoever is given for why Gorrok has such a personal hatred of Salden, except for the rather flimsy reasoning that Salden put him in jail. All that being said, it is still a mostly fun read. The fun part of these books is seeing what Stan Lee keeps and what he throws away. For the most part, he pulls the rather clever trick of making a totally new character, while still keeping most of the elements that made the characters what they were in the first place. We take it for granted, but it is really not as easy as Stan the Man makes it look.
If the main story is a bit less than the previous two books in the series, the back up story makes up for it. Michael Uslan and Kyle Baker contribute a story of a 3rd rate publisher who manages to beat everyone to the punch with a Superman comic. As he rants at his staff of hacks and yes men, both Stan Lee and Julius Schwartz are clearly among the group. When the publisher gets carried away and envisions a whole stable of "super" characters such as Superboy, Supergirl, Supermonkey, Superdog, Supercat, Superhorse and even a Superape, the Julius Schwartz lookalike immediately chimes in his approval of the Super-Gorilla idea. It's a classic moment for anyone who knows a little comics history. There's all sorts of quibbles that you could make about this book, but to make them would be missing the point. This is a comic book and nothing more. Sometimes that can be enough.
All images on this page
are copyright 2001 DC Comics
