Superman: Birthright by Mark Waid

I became a fan of comic book writer Mark Waid after reading his recent run on Daredevil and the 1996 graphic novel Kingdom Come. In the latter, Waid creates a future version of the Justice League and with Superman: Birthright he was given the opportunity to rewrite the origin story of the last son of Krypton to make it more relevant to the 21st Century.

Waid doesn't reinvent the wheel, but he does attempt to explain and streamline elements of Superman's personality and costume in ways that hadn't been explored before. The story in Birthright moves quickly; after the baby-containing spaceship is sent from the dying planet, we skip over Clark Kent's childhood and catch up to him as a 25-year-old trying to figure out his place on his adopted world.

There are a few elements of this story that were borrowed for Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, ranging from the aforementioned time-jump, to the distrust that Superman encounters about his motivation, to the idea that the S-shield emblem Supes wears is a Kryptonian symbol for hope. However, Waid is much better at expressing that sense of hope and responsibility than Snyder's careless version of the character. Waid's Superman is compassionate toward the human race and constantly gets to prove that he is not their enemy.

Birthright shares the idea with the "Smallville" TV series that Lex Luthor grew up in the rural Kansas town alongside Clark Kent, which had never been part of Luthor's character in past comics. However, when Superman notices Luthor thriving as a scientist in Metropolis, Luthor denies having any knowledge of Smallville or the Kent family who he spent time with in his youth. Lex has become an astrobiologist and yearns to attain more technological secrets from extraterrestrial worlds. When he discovers a wormhole that shows glimpses of Krypton before its destruction, he carries out a plan to discredit the strange visitor in the red cape while gaining the alien tech for himself.

I enjoyed this book a lot, and although it has been written out of DC comics canon a few times over, I think it stands out as a distinguished, accessible version of Superman's origin story. It certainly does better justice to the character than anything depicted in Man of Steel or Batman v. Superman.

Check out the writer's website at markwaid.com, and if you're in the Washington, DC area June 3-5, he'll be appearing at Awesome Con.

Daredevil Vol. 1 by Mark Waid

Like a lot of people, I was pleased with the quality of Marvel's Daredevil series on Netflix. It was a gritty and violent entry into the usually bright and sunny Marvel Cinematic Universe. If you still haven't gotten around to it, don't worry, I won't be spoiling the show here. Instead I'm taking a look at some recent comics featuring everyone's favorite blind lawyer/vigilante.

This Volume 1 of Daredevil, written by Mark Waid, contains Daredevil issues  #1-10 and #10.1, and in the middle there's Amazing Spider-Man #677 because Matt Murdock teamed up with Spidey for a bit, which I'll come back to. Jumping right in, this run has almost nothing in common with the Netflix series. It was Waid's intention to move away from the dark and gritty tone started by Frank Miller, and this Murdock is so cheerful that it gets on the nerves of his longtime friend Foggy Nelson.

Here Daredevil battles less realistic foes than he had in decades, like one who can create portals for himself, one made out of sound waves, and Mole Man (the first enemy the Fantastic Four ever faced). Though despite the supernatural turn that the world has taken, there remains a dark underbelly to the adventure; The Spot breaks someone's neck after appearing from his chest, and the Mole Man's self-imposed mission is to steal caskets until he finds his deceased lover.

The main story arc involves an "Omegadrive" that is coveted by five different crime organizations, including AIM, Hydra, and Black Spectre. Murdock gets his hands on it and has all the leverage as the criminals fight amongst themselves. Black Spectre hires Black Cat to steal the Omegadrive from Murdock which is how Spider-Man gets involved. I appreciated that there was a continuing story element throughout this volume, except a harrowing sidestory in which Daredevil has to save schoolchildren after a bus crash.

This was not what I expected from Daredevil comics after experiencing some of Frank Miller's 80s run, but I enjoyed it and I look forward to checking out Volume 2.