All Star Superman

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All Star Superman, launched in November 2005, is an ongoing comic book series featuring Superman, written by Grant Morrison, drawn by Frank Quitely, and published by DC Comics. DC claims that this series will "strip down the Man of Steel to his timeless, essential elements."

This is the second series to be launched in 2005 under DC's All Star imprint, the first being All Star Batman and Robin. These series are attempts by DC to allow major comics creators a chance to tell stories showcasing these characters, without being restricted by DC Universe continuity.

Story

[Spoiler warningSpoiler warning]: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The first 12 issues will form the initial story arc of the series.

The series begins with the rescue of helionauts by Superman at the edge of the sun's surface. It appears that Lex Luthor orchestrated the near disaster in order to cause havoc with Superman's powers by overwhelming his cells with solar radiation. The massive amount of solar radiation supercharges Superman, giving him at least one new power (extension and manipulation of his own bioelectric aura) and tripling his strength. (Superman is easily able to push against 200 quintillion tons of force, with one arm no less.) At the same time, this supercharge is causing cell death within his body, which will eventually be fatal to the Man of Steel. Superman returns to his Clark Kent persona, and, obviously shaken by his condition, reveals to reporter Lois Lane his dual identity.

In issue 2, Superman takes Lois to his Fortress of Solitude, where he seeks to help her adjust to the new information regarding his identity. A skeptical Lois becomes paranoid when accidentally exposed to certain alien chemicals. She believes that Superman is plotting to kill her. She recovers after attempting to kill Superman with a kryptonite laser that he kept on display in his armory. They discover that he is now immune to the effects of green kryptonite. Superman explains that Lois's paranoia is due to chemical exposure and presents Lois her birthday present: a supersuit and a chemical elixir that grants her powers like his for twenty four hours.

In issue 3, after Lois gains Superman's powers for 24 hours, Superman and Super-Lois meet Samson, a time-traveler from the year 2061, and Atlas, another superman of myth. Together, the two defeat an evolved dinosaur dictator who is attacking Metropolis. After returning the dino-man to the center of the Earth, Samson gives Lois some Radioactive Crown Jewels he "borrowed" from the Ultra-Sphinx. Samson shows Superman a Daily Planet paper with the headline "Superman Dead", taunting him while flirting with Lois. After the Ultra-Sphinx shows up demanding the return of the jewels, Lois is threatened with death unless the Sphinx's question is answered correctly: "What happens when the unstoppable force meets the immovable object?" After a moment, Superman correctly answers: "They surrender". After this incident, at Samson and Atlas' insistence on a feat of strength in order to "win" Lois, Superman arm-wrestles both strongmen, breaking their arms in the process. Superman and Lois later attend Lois' birthday party at the bottom of the sea, and, still later, the two kiss on the moon. By 3:30 MPT the super-powers leave Lois and she falls asleep, before Superman can ask his own, very important question. The newspaper headline "Superman Dead" is revealed to have none other than Metropolis' finest journalist on the byline: Clark Kent!

In issue 4, Superman must once again come to the rescue of Jimmy Olsen, who is running the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. as part of Jimmy's popular "For A Day" series. While exploring P.R.O.J.E.C.T. headquarters, his guide shows him the "Underverse," a newly-discovered layer of reality with extreme gravity fluctuations. However, the tables are turned when in the process of recovering P.R.O.J.E.C.T.'s equipment, a piece of Black Kryptonite is discovered (Black Kryptonite was previously unknown in All-Star Superman continuity). This Black Kryptonite, amongst other things, turns Superman evil, weakens all his superpowers, and removes any sense of grammar from his speech; Jimmy must find a way to stop him before the P.R.O.J.E.C.T. is forced to use a Phantom Zone projector on him, ironically donated by Superman himself for just such an emergency; apparently, in the All-Star universe, it is not possible to retrieve criminals from the Phantom Zone. A major subplot throughout the issue is Jimmy's apparent struggle with a curse from "the Queen of the Gypsies" to suffer bad luck until the next full moon.

Continuity differences

Clark Kent's "bumbling" demeanor is seen in this series, a throw-back to his early characterization, seen in particular prior to the retcon of the character in John Byrne's miniseries The Man of Steel, done after DC Comics' profound changes to its continuity in the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths. As well, the specific manner in which Clark Kent reveals his dual identity to Lois Lane differs from the same occurrence (in 1993) in the regular DC Comics continuity, which took place only after Clark and Lois were romantically involved. Another notable difference is that Lois refuses to believe that Clark and Superman are the same man, since Superman has been so convincing in his past efforts to make it appear the two are different people. (References are made to Bruce Wayne impersonating Clark, a ruse that was used numerous times during the Silver Age era of Superman.) Morrison, in a recent interview, describes the series as "the re-emergence of the original, pre-Crisis Superman but with 20 years of history we haven't seen."

The continuity of this series and that of All Star Batman and Robin do not appear to be one and the same. As of issues 3 and 4 of that series, Superman has appeared and does not seem to intertwine with the Morrison story. Also in Morrison's story, Superman appears to know who Batman is. As of issue 4 of Batman and Robin, Batman gloats that he knows who Clark Kent is, but Kent is unaware of who Batman is. However, it is also possible that the two titles do exist in the same continuity, but merely at different points in the timeline.

External links

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