Superman: Space Age

How would you live your life if you knew that it was all going to end at a certain point?  That’s the question which hangs over this miniseries from writer Mark Russell and artist Mike Allred, and the person who has to ponder it is the Man of Steel himself.  Not right away, though, as he’s busy grappling with the best way to utilize his in service of his adopted homeworld and under the guidance of Ma and Pa Kent.  It isn’t until he moves to Metropolis, gets a job at the Daily Planet, and encounters Lois Lane that he meets the mysterious Pariah who tells him that the world is going to end in twenty years due to the Anti-Monitor.  While Superman doesn’t take him seriously at first, events conspire to show this man to be correct, leaving the fate of Earth in the Man of Steel’s hands.

The aforementioned question may be what drives “Space Age,” but it doesn’t become the story’s main focus until its final third.  Before that, we get a perfectly agreeable revisit of Superman’s formative years, starting in the mid-60’s and continuing up to the culmination of the Anti-Monitor’s plans in the md-80’s.  Russell doesn’t offer any major revisions to the character’s mythos in this out-of-continuity story, but he makes good use of the Man of Steel’s upstanding moral character and capacity for self-doubt to effectively grapple with his responsibilities and some timeless social issues as well.

Naturally, all this looks amazing thanks to Allred’s impeccable artwork.  It’s a big part of the reason why the familiarity of the storytelling from the first two thirds of this volume didn’t breed contempt within me.  That said, “Space Age’s” final third is its strongest as Superman has to try to figure out how to save the world, Luthor’s relevance to the plot (and its thesis) increases, and the Batman stuff – of which there’s a lot of in this story, and not all of it is relevant – becomes genuinely interesting.  Then you get to the ending and… while nothing about this story was bad before it, that finale really does show how a good wrap-up really can elevate anything.

…along with Allred’s ever-stylish art, which gives every era the swingin’ look it deserves.  But you didn’t need me to tell you that, right?