It's Superman!

by Tom De Haven

Coming of age in rural 1930s America with X-ray vision, the power to stop bullets, and the ability to fly isn't exactly every boy's story. So just how did Clark Kent, a shy farmer's son, grow up to be the Man of Steel? Follow young Clark's whirlwind journey from Kansas to New York City's Daily Planet-by way Hollywood. This ace reporter is not the only person leading a double life in a teeming metropolis, just the only one able to leap tall buildings in a single bound-a skill that comes in handy when battling powerful criminal masterminds like scheming Lex Luthor and fascist robots. But can Clark's Midwestern charm save the day and win the heart of stunning, seen-it-all newspaperwoman Lois Lane? Or is it a job for Superman? Look deep into the soul of a pop-culture legend brilliantly reimagined in this novel, which is as inventive and thrilling as it is touching and wise.

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Superheroes, Comics, Superman, Science Fiction, Dc Comics

417 pages, Paperback

First published September 15, 2005

About the author

Tom De Haven is the author of five novels: Freaks' Amour, Jersey Luck, Funny Papers, Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies, and Dugan Under Ground; a collection of three related novellas, Sunburn Lake; and a three-novel series, Chronicle of the King's Tramp, which includes Walker of Worlds, The End-of-Everything Man, and The Last Human. His latest novel for young adults, The Orphan's Tent, was published in 1996, and his latest graphic novel, Green Candles, in 1997. He has previously published two young adult novels, two graphic novels, and various other innovative fiction projects.

De Haven has a richly varied experience as a writer, having worked as a freelance journalist, an editor, and a film and television scriptwriter. His book reviews appear regularly in Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times Book Review. His awards include a fellowship from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and he has twice won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. Before joining VCU's faculty, De Haven taught at Rutgers and Hofstra University.

Reviews

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 4 out of 5]

I re-read this for review purposes because, let's face it, my memory sucks and there's no way I can remember enough details to review it years later. It's also just a good book and worth that re-read.

What Works -

Clark - I have a soft spot for stories that focus on the Clark Kent persona over the Superman one. Of course without the alien part we'd never look twice, but I dig the confused double-identity awkwardness.

Clark shows up for the book after taking a girl out on an unsuccessful date, discovering some of his powers during a botched rescue that ends with a guy dead. Ricochet isn't something to mess around with. He likes to write stories that are all rejected - pulpy sci-fi stuff - and instead of crying over his father's death, he's despaired at his mother's demise from cancer.

We don't get the fortress of solitude yet, but we do get a small-town farmboy who is unsure of the world and himself. The book takes a long time to get him out of Smallville - there's his father, a great man who refuses to attend church because of hypocrisy of the local Methodist congregation and who turns some of the town against him because of taking in a black man as an assistant. Their bond is close but realistic. He does some small time reporting in that town and finally meets up with an escapee from Metropolis, Willie.

Clark/Lex enemies - When he finally gets into the Superman role, he's great as a bumbling hero. His meeting with Lex is priceless as Lex is quick to point out the lack of brains apparent. The meeting isn't a hatred for the villain, but rather an excitement Lex was craving. I loved the showdown and their relationship in this book, although sadly they're scenes aren't until the end. Lex even is responsible for a certain costume...

Lex - Lex is perfect in this book for this alternate reality type. I loved his character. He's a mob boss who acts as the cities alderman (not sure what that is, neither are some of the characters...) while blackmailing scientists to help him make robots and busily coming up with other schemes. There's of course the serious darkness and villainry from him, but there's also that quirky humor that makes the book work. He's obviously the brightest man in book and he knows it. He's sleek, powerful, suave, sarcastic, his character was one of the best things the book offered, if not the top thing.

The ending - I fangirl how the ending ties together the story - not so far fetched that it's an alternate universe, but a different telling on the detailed start, something other books haven't done to my satisfaction before. There's so many made up details but most of them are interesting and it plays like a noirish 30's story. But in the end it wraps it up by then saying, let's allow the general fandom and canon to take over now..."And here, at last, is the point where our version of the story merges with all the others, the point at which Lois Lane (with one shoe on and one shoe off) peers up at Clark Kent (whose glasses are once again back on his face) with a dawning but already deep suspicion that feels strangely gleeful, almost like affection."

Not shying away from realism - The story has accidental deaths on the part of Clark, swearing from other characters, funny bumbling - bravo.

Lois - Lois works pretty well, even if I got bored sometimes with her POV. She's written with strong backbone and backstory, showing her go from one man to another, putting aside conscience for story.

What Doesn't Work -

Povs for people we don't care about - There's several side stories thrown in that grew stale and drug the book down. The plot was detailed (win), imaginative (bigger win), but it veered off too often into made-up character's heads for the invented story. An example is Willie; he works for meeting Clark and getting stuff rolling but he was another I grew bored with eventually. If the writer had reduced some of his viewpoint a bit, it would have helped

Clark/Willie journey - Sure, the journey helps show them explore the world before deciding what to do eventually, but it drags on much too long and, while having some fascinating adventures, holds boring ones as well.

Overall it's a great book for fans, it's different and fresh, and the major characters shine as stars. On the negative side sometimes the book just gets dull in between the worthy stuff. Because of some dullish sections I couldn't give this book a five star, but I loved it enough for it too stay a favorite.

[Jim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book looked appealing, because it promised a literary and intelligent look at a cultural icon, and that sort of thing has always appealed to me. It was literary, and literate. It's a well-written book. And it was intelligent. And it didn't insult the intelligence of the reader.

What it wasn't was very interesting. I feel like this was a huge opportunity for something as dynamic as the title character, yet De Haven seemed intent on avoiding the big scenes and the big themes that could well have suited this subject. Everything he writes is interesting and very well researched, insofar as authenticity to its time, it seems to me. But if you're going to write a book about Superman and how he got to be who he is, I would hope you wouldn't save all your extraordinary action and conflict until the final quarter. I enjoyed reading along, but kept thinking, "When's it going to start?" Right after it finally did start, it stopped.

A serious novel on Superman, as well-written as this one is, should leave the reader deeply moved, intensely affected in some way. This one left me remembering how I'd cried over the death of Superman story back in one of the 1960s comic books, and wondering why I felt so much more moved then.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

this was a pretty good audiobook and different take on the Superman Origin story set in the 1930's. If you enjoy Superman, definitely check this out at your local library and wherever books are sold.

[Printable Tire · Rating 1 out of 5]

I grew up pretty uninterested in Superman (a dumb invincible jock? Who cares?), but lately I've put my bias aside and done some research into the Superman mythos. For starters, I watched all the Superman movies, and even Supergirl (my recaps can be found here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094074/b...)

So when I heard about this book, I thought it would be a good introduction to the origin of Superman. I was wrong.

Who is the audience for this book? Is there some percentage of the Superman-loving public that really demanded a post-modern, anti-majestic, neo-realistic, cynical black-humor retelling of the Man of Steel's origins, with Clark Kent almost a minor character, morally ambiguous and agnostic, even atheistic?

The author had so little to do to please me and he screwed it up: Clark Kent leaves Smallville, goes to Metropolis (annoyingly renamed New York City here), meet Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen (replaced here by a Jewish cameraman on the lam with Kent) and battle Lex Luthor, and maybe even a Nazi or robot or two. Such a story would be entertaining, uplifting, even if it probably wouldn't pass as Big Thinkin' Literature.

But De Haven here flucks it up. Kent leaves Smallville, sure, but then he goes hoboing around and off to Hollywood to become a stuntman. Which could be interesting, sure, but, well, it's not. I know Superman has a long history of being a dick (see superdickery if you don't believe me), and in the movies sometimes he's handled as an adult baby having a temper tantrum, but De Haven doesn't bother to portray him as anything but a shiftless, drifting ripoff of Spider-Man. Clark Kent is a drip, and he's boring.

Which could be fine, too, if the action picked up and he was actually doing something. But De Haven apparently thinks it's too cliché to make action scenes, you know, exciting, so he sort of thumbs over them with the barest of detail. And what's worse is that Clark Kent is nothing more than wallpaper for half the novel, swallowed up in the minutia of a thousand cast of characters whose heads we enter for NO REASON WHATSOEVER. At worst, to me, entering a thousand pointless heads instead of two or three protagonists is a sign of bad writing; at best, it's an attempt to make their often grisly deaths as jarring and meaningful as a snuff film. Which brings up another point: there was far too much death and black comedy in this book for it to ever seem like the story of Superman.

Another bad habit this author has is wearing his homework on his sleeve:

“They met on a rainy weekday afternoon. Lex deliberately arrived early and sat at the bar with his briefcase on the floor leaning against his right leg. As he waited for Colluzo to appear he sipped a whiskey and watched in the back bar mirror as the fat English movie director Alfred Hitchcock entertained a table full of reporters. Hitchcock was waving an ice cream cone, his wife and small daughter sitting there with him at the table with tight smiles on their faces. With orotund delivery he was singing the praises of American ice cream, which he wouldn't trade for a steak-and-kidney pie, he said, or a broiled silversmith with carrots and dumplings, or even Kentish chicken pudding. It sounded rehearsed to Lex. Hitchcock was doing publicity for his new picture. The review that Led had read in the Times made it sound good- but he just hadn't gotten around to seeing it. He hadn't gotten around to a lot of things.” (203)

Not only is that passage an obnoxious show-off piece, it is fluff and illustrates nothing. What's the payoff to that paragraph? We learn Lex Luthor is wishywashy about Hitchcock films. Great. Now imagine 400 pages of in-your-face 1930's references, and everybody from the hot dog guy to a doorman in Los Angeles' opinion on jazz music.

On the plus side, It's Superman! was a quick read: 400 pages in three days is crazy for me, so I must have liked reading it at least 25% of the time. But I wouldn't even give De Haven that much credit: this book has an inherent hook, the origin of Superman, and half the time I was probably wondering when Superman was actually going to appear. But it only takes about 350 pages before De Haven starts to get the ball rolling.

Maybe only a genius like Dostoevsky can write a story about a genuinely and fundamentally good person, an optimist and an idiot who believes in truth, justice, and the American way, and has the power to force this cheerful will on everybody. But to me at least I wish this author would have tried and failed to write a story like that, instead of handing in this first-draft mush of drab, cheerless shit.

[Michael Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's a scene early on in the "Jimmy Corrigan" graphic novel where Jimmy, sitting near the window where he works spies a man in a brightly colored cape and costume standing on the roof of the building across the street from his. He seems to spot Jimmy and waves enthusiastically, a gesture that Jimmy shyly begins to return just as the man takes a flying leap off the building and immediately lands face down in the street, where he presumably dies. It’s a darkly funny moment in a book that will never features anything close to a superhero after that little tease. Its also drawn by the same person who designed and illustrated the hardcover edition of this novel, Chris Ware, who comes up with something that's almost the opposite of that scene . . . instead of plummeting here a tiny colorful man is seen soaring through the air in a parabolic curve that suggests he's going to hit another building or land in the ocean. But looking closer he doesn't seem to be flying as much as flung heedlessly into space, helpless to forces to same way "Jimmy Corrigan"'s nameless costumed person was. Its an interesting choice (Ware's one of my favorite currently working comic artists, which is why I spent a whole paragraph on this).

Alas, nothing here is quite so subversive, although I doubt that was the point. Superman seems like one of those things that's existed forever but two people had to actually invent him, which is what Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster did in 1938, turning a fairly simple concept into what became one of the most iconic characters that America has ever produced. Along the way he's been written and illustrated by just about every major comics creator to come down the pike, appeared on a startling variety of merchandise, starred in numerous serials and movies and probably has his own interpretative dance somewhere out there. He also became a sort of cautionary tale for comic creators out there as they learned the difference between ownership of a concept and simply being valued employees as DC Comics proceeded to treat them pretty poorly when they wanted better compensation for gifting DC with a giant cash cow, eventually removing their creator credits and firing them when they felt they got too uppity. It wasn't until the mid-seventies that artist Neal Adams led a campaign to at least get them pensions from DC, although the company had to basically be shamed into it before they were even willing to do that. Both creators have since passed away (in the 1990s) and DC has vigorously defended copyright claims from the heirs ever since and probably will until the court cases turn into that monster case from "Bleak House" that outlived everyone.

I don't know how many novels Superman has appeared in but with his wide variety of superpowers he's a tricky character to write since you want to balance the human side with the superhero side but when you're writing someone who can punch planets its hard to not want to just go for the wall to wall action. I remember a novelized form of the "Death of Superman" storyline that came out when I was a teenager but I don't think I've ever read an original novel featuring the character. Tom De Haven's background in writing stories that featured comic strip/comic book aspects apparently got DC's eye and they offered him a remit to write a Superman prose novel. The task took him several years with a manuscript that reportedly had to be cut down from around a thousand pages, so you can perhaps suspect he was enthusiastic about the project. His big idea was to take Superman back to his "roots" and set the story in the 1930s, charting Clark Kent's progress from farmboy in Smallville to reporter in the big city (NYC in this case, instead of the fictional Metropolis) and depicting how he met the regulars we all come to know and love in the stories, namely Lois Lane and Lex Luthor.

Its not a totally out there concept . . . for a while DC had a separate line called "Elseworlds" where they would depict various characters in "what if?" type settings, some fantastical and some more realistic but none of them having any bearing on the current continuity, it was just a fun way to explore different ideas, like what if Batman was a pirate or Superman was made of delicious jelly or whatever. Here De Haven tries to write an authentic "what if Superman actually took place in the thirties" story but with a more modern sensibility, giving us gangsters and politicians and chorus girls and institutionalized racism, but unfortunately not enough people saying things like "23-skidoo" (I know, its from the 1920s, but still!). He also gives us characters that act more like young adults, with both Clark and Lois dating different people over the period of time the book takes place. It’s a different take on things without being too drastically radical.

What it isn't is especially compelling, to be honest. While there's some novelty in the beginning seeing a Clark Kent getting used to his abilities, we also spend a lot of time in a framed murder plot with an ex-boyfriend of Lois', a photographer named Willi Berg (who's clearly supposed to stand in for Jimmy Olsen, although the book never quite goes there) while Alderman Lex Luthor attempts to corrupt everything in sight while also formulating a ridiculous comic book plan. De Haven smartly keeps Clark around the levels of the powers he had in the 30s (although heat vision didn't appear until the late forties) otherwise in a lot of cases the book would be ten pages long, however without many opportunities for him to even use the powers he has as the book goes along you start to wonder why you even need Superman in this book instead of just making it a straightforward noir novel.

It definitely starts to lean that way after a while anyway, with Luthor and his henchmen murdering their way through the novel, not even buying people off as much as just shooting them in the head to get it over with. There's a surprising amount of fairly graphic violence in the book, which makes it feel tonally off in contrast to a lack of violence from someone who can run through brick walls. With everyone scrambling around to either not get killed/blackmailed/killed anyway by Luthor or investigating where all the trails are leading, Clark almost becomes an afterthought, with the book less about a superhero discovering his abilities and confidence and more about people getting right folder of incriminating files to the police and/or reporters.

What's worse eventually the setting starts to feel like a straitjacket more than a way to open up the concept for a fresh look at it. Early Superman stories often featured him crusading against social injustices (tackling an abusive husband in one instance by throwing him against the wall and saying "You're not fighting a woman now!"), reflecting more how his creators saw the world. We gets nods to it here and there but it surprisingly never becomes any kind of focus, even during a trip through the South as Clark and Berg make their way to NYC that touches upon lynchings. I get that treating the concept absolutely realistically would mean that a morally outraged superhero might do to entire sections of the country roughly what Kid Miracleman did to England in that one notorious issue during Alan Moore's run but it seemed weird to even go halfway there and not really make it have an impact on the rest of the novel. Even worse, there's barely any attention paid to the notion of Clark Kent being an immigrant from another world and attitudes toward immigrants in general in that time period (the Johnson-Reed Act was only in 1924), which seems like it should come up at least once.

For those reasons and more, it never feels lived in the way a historical novel might. There are numerous, numerous moments where it seems like De Haven is hellbent on proving that he researched the absolute crap out of the pop culture of the era, as nearly every character and every scene namedrops some song, actor, movie, and so on . . . I mean, I've read actual novels from the 1930s that don't reference their own era as much so after a while it feels like he's trying too hard to give us that "authentic flavor".

Meanwhile, it all just swirls around. The short scenes and compact chapters make it go down easy but there are times where its easy to see what got left on the cutting room floor. A girlfriend of Clark's just vanishes without any real explanation and he spends the rest of the novel mooning over Lois anyway. Luthor's plan just kind of . . . stops and it seems like De Haven is trying to pitch him somewhere between the businessman of the post-1986 portrayals and the brilliant mad scientists who made giant Kryptonite rayguns or candy or whatever every month. But the goofiness of the mad scientist stuff never quite gibes with the more cynical violence and political maneuvering of the other scenes. However, he does write a handful of impressive Luthor/Superman scenes, which made me wish the book had focused more on their struggles for the upper hand.

By the end, in grand comic book style, it feels like nothing has been resolved and by the time the cast collectively realizes just how unbearably depressing "Our Town" can be we're left feeling like the novel could be just starting when instead its over. No one's had much of an arc, merely ambling along until the principals are in their familiar places and while the promise of further adventures is in the air, De Haven's sort of offscreen insertion of comic book sensibilities is telling. He wants to have his supercake and eat it too, giving us a gritty tale of reporters fighting to get the story against crooked politicians while indulging in the colorful wonder of Golden Age comics. But they don't occupy the stage easily together and De Haven barely tries, instead giving us a mishmash of concepts that feels like a comic page left out too long in the rain. His delight at writing the book is palpable and the story is charming in parts but it never goes for the depths that a good novel that delve into and its not inventively zany or fun enough to invoke those tales of yesteryear. It winds up settling somewhere around "okay" and out of all the many, many things that a Superman story can possibly be, that's the one you'd least want to see.

[Zedsdead · Rating 4 out of 5]

A (relatively) mature, text-only version of the Superman origin story. I dislike superheroes and was surprised at how much I enjoyed this.

De Haven attempts to bring the canonical characters into the real world. Teen Clark Kent is wholly different and doesn't know why, and as a result is tragically, acutely lonely. I mean how could he NOT be? He gets laid a couple times and then wallows in old-timey Protestant guilt for the rest of the book. I can't imagine a better take on a character as ridiculous as Superman.

Instead of a mad scientist, Lex Luthor is a rabidly ambitious politician, industrialist, and gangster with a knack for finding talent and inspiring loyalty.

Lois Lane (man, I never realized how prevalent alliteration is in superhero comics) is...a pretty big douche actually. But maybe she'd HAVE to be to succeed as a woman reporter in the 1930s.

It struck me that Kent and Luthor were both depicted as unusually egalitarian, but for different reasons. The former had a good heart, of course, but Luthor was relentlessly practical and sensible enough to see through the social horseshit. He had no problem using anyone with talent regardless of race, sex, sexual orientation, etc--and also no problem murdering them when expedient.

The book suffers from the constraints of the iconic personas, but the characters are updated wonderfully, the plot is weighty without getting bogged down, and the setting is marvelous...it reads like the author came of age in the 1930s.

(Note: Not a fan of that cover though. Or the title.)

[Trin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't really know what to expect with this novel; I'm not particularly interested in Superman and I'm actually rather suspicious of novels based on others' works (which is rather bizarre for a fanfic writer, I must say). I guess I was sucked in by the fantastic Chris Ware cover. And hey, for once judging a book by its cover turned out to be a good thing: It's Superman! is immensely enjoyable, sweeping, and highly visual even without the aid of comic illustrations. De Haven reexamines Superman's origin story, bringing the setting back to the era of the character's creation, the 1930s and the Great Depression. Clark Kent, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor are all compellingly presented, and seem like real people—Clark's self-doubt does a lot to make Superman more interesting, and more human. (No offense to the people of Krypton intended.) De Haven's OCs (oh, and now watch me slip into fanfic parlance) are fun and interesting too. The book is a good 425 pages long and when I reached the end all I wanted was for it to keep going.

[Brenda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give up.
I cannot physically finish this book, on account of it being as boring as paste.
Normally, I'm pretty good at finishing even the most atrocious books–I've reviewed a couple before–but this one wasn't just awful, it was boring.

It started off very strong, establishing Clark Kent as a bumbling kid from Kansas confused about his powers, and struggling to find his place in the world. He decides to travel around the country a bit, getting a job as a movie stunt-man, which was a very clever plot point, in my opinion. His Superman suit, in this version, is actually an unused costume from a science fiction thriller. Neat.

And then, he's just not in the book much anymore.

The second half of the book centers around Lex Luthor being an awful human being, and killing people. He's joined by Lois Lane and a guy who's not Jimmy Olson, and they do some stuff, but, I really can't recall what. It wasn't very exciting. Luthor has a bunch of thugs who also kill people. There's a subplot about robots...
This is the point I really stopped caring.

Like I said, this novel started off very strong, but it strayed towards the end when it became less about Superman, and more about Lex Luthor. The author was trying to keep a realistic feel to the entire tale, but I feel as though he strayed a bit, and really lost sight of what the book's original intent was: to tell the story of Superman's origin.
It should really be titled "It's Superman and then Lex Luthor and some Robots".

(I really have no idea what was up with the robots. There were only about 20 pages left. I don't think they were ever going to be relevant).

[Snotchocheez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometimes random library picks yield wonderful surprise reads; this was not one of them. Occasionally, "it's Superman!" delivered the goods: a tense, action-packed and faithful-to-the-comicbook retelling of Clark Kent's odyssey from Smallville, KS to meeting (and falling in love with) Lois Lane in NYC. More often than not, however, I found myself questioning the title of the book (shouldn't it be called "Where's Superman?" instead?) whenever it lapsed into over-lengthy character analyses of minor players or turned into a moody thought-piece trying to dissect Clark's psyche. Author Tom De Haven is a gifted writer, but sometimes his machinations waxed bombastic in favor of stylistic flourish, in lieu of meaty substance his protagonist(s) necessitated.

[Marc-Antoine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great story, very well written, intelligent and inspiring.

[Johnny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've always hated those fan-boys who go to a motion pictures based on a popular media phenomenon (in this case, comic books) and deliberately watched for all the areas where the film differed from the "canonical" comics so that they could immediately trash the film and pretend that they were the savior-archivists of the comic book's tradition. I always wished that they would get over it because the film medium is so different from the comic book medium and it would be either difficult, boring, or both to force the conceits of one medium upon the other.

So, it is with some trepidation that I admit that I didn't care a lot for this novel. Oh, it had its moments: Clark's encounter with the notorious armed robber, Pa Kent showing the wreckage of Clark's spaceship to him, Superman's first appearance in the Superman suit, and Lex Luthor's unveiling of his real intention with the Lexbot. However, the new origin of the super suit, the new unintelligent Superman, the long delayed discoveries of Clark's super powers (or, "peculiar talents" as they are described in the book), the cynical view of life espoused by Pa Kent, Willi, and Clark at various times, and the amoral ethical egoism of Superman and many of the other characters all combined for something more than I could bear.

As a result, I finished the book, but I'm not proud of myself for doing so. For a longer explanation of my difficulties with the book, please check out my literary blog on this site. [

[Jeff · Rating 2 out of 5]

My cousin, who is a librarian, gave me an advanced readers edition of this book. See, years and years ago, this guy who lived across the street from me showed me his comic book collection. He showed me Iron Man. I thought Iron Man was the bomb. A dude in armor, he can fly and shoot lasers out of his hands... what's not to love about comics? 15 years later, I gave up on the medium, cause hell, who wants to pay $4 for a 22 page book? Still my family associates me with comics. I wasn't enthused when I got this book in the mail... but there was something on the back of the book, a blurb from Comic World News saying, "For those of you who share [a] love for books like Carter Beats the Devil or The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, [It's Superman! is] so up your alley that it should be renamed The Book That's Very Up Your Alley, Starring Superman."
Now, I loved both Kavalier & Clay and Carter Beats the Devil, so I thought, "Maybe this isn't going to be so bad!"
And you know... it wasn't horrible. But comparing Tom De Haven's book to Michael Chabon's book, and Glen David Gold's book is sort of like compairing a Thomas Kinkaide painting to a work of de Kooning. Sure Willem de Kooning isn't the painter of light, nor has he yelled, "Codpiece! Codpiece!" at a Siegfried and Roy show, but homeboy's got artistic game that Kinkaide will never see.
That's sort of how I felt while reading this book. It's nice. It has words. Superman fights robots, which sounds cool, but I wanted so much more after reading that blurb.
"Hey readers, if you liked To Kill a Mockingbird, then you'll love Garfield Blots Out the Sun... it's his 43rd book. Yeah, that's right. 43 books of the same damn joke."
Just not worth all the work up.
Plus Clark Kent is a damn whiney baby. You can fly (well, at the very least jump high), deflect bullets, shoot lasers out of your eyes, and you have freeze breath, now how about you see if you can grow yourself some super balls then we'll talk.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeHaven's vision of Superman's formative years meanders a bit too much during Clark's cross-country wandering (though I guess you can argue that we all meander a bit at that age), but overall, it's an engaging, breezy, fun read. I enjoyed it.

[Josh C · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kind of gets bungled in the third act because nothing really ends up coming together, except for the origin of Superman. Greater than the sum of its parts by the ending.

[Dustin Reade · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eh. Not bad. Kind of a slog and it never REALLY felt like a Superman story, oddly enough. More just a book about the 30s. Clark Kent seems like a bit of a jerk. I dunno. It was fine, I guess. Just left me wanting more than I got.

[Cody · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Superman story has been re-invented for every generation, every few years. Same origin, baby Kal-El just landed in a different decade. If Superman is the ultimate hero, he needs to represent our contemporary values, so this all makes sense. Tom de Haven has gone back to the original era of the character - the 1920s and '30s, and created a back-story which works as a prequel to the Man of Steel, and a period novel as visceral, gritty and real as any document to come out of that time. Prequel stories exploring the origins of characters we've only known as adults are everywhere over the past few years - from "Smallville" to "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles" to the "Star Wars" prequels, there is a definite interest in seeing where people come from, how they got to be who they are.

Reading this novel is akin to reading "A Clockwork Orange" or Shakespeare; all of the characters speak in (what I assume to be) authentic lingo of the time. It's not too difficult to gleen the meaning from context, and I found it actually helped slow me down a bit, made me pay more attention to the details. This is definitely a character-and-setting novel, about the environment, the details, the interactions and connections between people. You'll meet a few of the usual suspects, Lois Lane, and of course Lex Luthor. The Luthor robot plot is probably the book's Kryptonite, to borrow a local metaphor. Lex' machinations are devious, and several scenes with him are shocking, very well written, and some downright creepy, but it all amounts to a lot of build-up for a fight that is over almost before it's begun. The sole interaction between Lex and Clark is fantastic, setting up the rivalry that is a staple of the Superman mythos, but it comes too late, and is too brief, to fully satisfy.

[Mitch · Rating 1 out of 5]

No, I didn't finish this book. I started out irked and kept getting more irked the further I went into it. I maybe made it through 25% before I decided I was wasting my time and bailed; ugh.

What were my problems with it? First, how do you take a story that everyone's known for over 80 years and turn it into this kind of junk? Second, why is Clark Kent such a plodding bore? Third, why is Lois such a... I'm not sure what word to use? Fourth, what's with all the meaningless dialogue? Fifth, why are all the guys who work for Luthor from the Bronx, and why did this author finally decide that Metropolis is really NYC (which we've always suspected was the catalyst but it's never been in New York state before)? Sixth... forget sixth because I could keep going on talking about what I hated, which includes Mr. Kent and his... nah!

So disappointed in this book. If the first Star Trek book I ever read was like this I'd have hated every TV show and other book that ever came out!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

"It's Superman!" was a surprising book. It was more of a mob story than a Superman story, with Lex Luthor as the complicated mob boss. I heard a podcast interview with the author, and he alluded to the fact that he saw the story in this book as a prequel to Action Comics #1. This book features the Golden Age Superman, so anytime I felt like I remembered the story differently, I had to remind myself that I'm not very familiar with the Golden Age Superman's backstory.

Set mostly in the 1930's, this book takes us on a journey showcasing Superman, Lois Lane, and Lex Luthor's early days. All three of their stories are entangled midway through the book, and things take off from there.

A part of me feels like this story takes place in an alternate universe (a more realistic universe) because the action takes place in New York instead of Metropolis, but other than that it is possible that this would line up with Superman's early days in comics.

[Roger · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's Superman! was a fun read. The action takes place in the midst of the Great Depression, and a young Clark Kent does a lot of stuff (smoking, drinking, etc) that you never picture Superman as doing. He is a child of his era, and in a way that era is another character in this book-it looms over everything. This retelling of the origin of Superman is a nice coming of age story-Clark Kent is portrayed as having feet of clay, and a wide variety of flaws, including the fact that (bluntly) he is not very smart. He gets to the place you expect him to (becoming Superman) but it happens in a roundabout and unexpected way. Yes the same characters you are looking for are present-Ma and Pa Kent, Perry White, Lois Lane, Lex Luthor-but they are transmogrified from their four color beginnings into three dimensional souls, plus there are variety of other interesting characters we meet for the first time. The important question to ask is: does this novel add anything to the Superman story? The answer is yes, as it is much more than a rehash of the tale we already know.

[Fil · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an awesome book.

Making it here on my stack of books waiting to be read (I probably buy too many books), I wasn't sure how good it was going to be (though the same could likely be said about a lot of books and movies), but I've always enjoyed Superman as a character so I dove in.

Twenty or so pages along, and I realized this was going to be fun. This took me back to being a kid and my granddad letting me pick out some comics at the new stand. It made me think of watching George Reeves smashing through walls and Christopher Reeve catching a helicopter with one hand while holding Lois Lane with the other. I remembered that feeling while reading Elliot S. Maggins novel, Superman Last Son of Krypton. I could see those old Max Fleischer cartoons in my minds eye (actually the cover really reminds me of that).

Halfway through, I was feeling a little sad that this book was going to end.

And now it has. And I am a little sad. But it sure was a fun ride. I'm sure I will read it again sometime. And I think that's a good compliment to the author and makes for a good recommendation for others.

[Katherine]

I started this book so long ago that I just had no idea what was going on when I picked it back up again. Honestly, even if I stuck with this book, I might've DNF'ed it anyways because it was so boringggggggg
so yeah.

[Cameron Ritter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really neat portrayal of Superman’s origin in novel form.

[James Laird · Rating 5 out of 5]

Man. One of the great books.

[Alex Gherzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had been wanting to read It's Superman! for years, ever since it was first released to rave reviews, but it kind of slipped through the cracks of my memory (which seem to get steeper and steeper as time goes on) until a few weeks ago when I saw the paperback on the Barnes and Noble staff recommendations table. I bought it and was told by the cashier that it's out of print now and this was one of the last copies in the store; a nice, heroic save for a Superman novel. It wasn't long before I started to read it (after Zack Snyder's latest death-fest, I wanted a Superman story where Superman resembled Superman), and now that I'm finished, I'm... kinda meh on it. It's not bad, and some of it is great, but Tom De Haven makes some really strange choices that keep it grounded when it should be soaring.

Spoilers...

It's Superman! is yet another retelling of Superman's origin, tracing his early days in Smallville, his travels around the country and his eventual settling in the big city of Metro... I mean, New York. One of the many bizarre things De Haven does is change Metropolis to the Big Apple, and while it's neat to see things set in places I know (there's a shootout that takes place in Moravian Cemetery, right near my house!), it just feels wrong.

The change in cities isn't the only thing that drags down It's Superman! For large parts of the book, De Haven focuses on original characters that have nothing to do with Superman, and it always feels like a waste of time. The biggest example is the Willi Berg character. Why have a photographer who befriends Clark and make him someone other than Jimmy Olsen? And why make him an unlikeable jerk, especially if so much of the plot is going to revolve around him? Also, little time is spent with the Kents, which is strange as this is supposed to be taking place in the years where Clark decided to become Superman. There are moments where his parents seem important (and I like the shorthand of Jonathan befriending and helping out a black kid in Smallville to show how he did the right thing no matter the consequences, which of course is something Clark learned from him) but Willi seems to have a bigger impact on Clark.

The novel is also pretty uneventful. Lex Luthor's evil plan is a great one, but nothing really comes of it outside of Superman fighting one robot, and rather unspectacularly at that. There's also an interesting subplot about Luthor battling the Mafia for control of New York's criminal underworld, with him going up against Lucky Luciano and the Commission (Meyer Lansky and Bugsy Siegel even show up!), but after a quick skirmish where they try to assassinate Luthor, it just kind of goes away and Luthor muses about how he drove them out of town. I'm not saying the book needed to be an action-fest -- in fact, it's better that it isn't, because it's more about Clark's emotional journey to becoming Superman -- but if you set up something like killer robots or a mob war, pay it off a little.

The things I really liked, though, were the characterizations of the big three: Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Lex Luthor. Clark is portrayed as a simple-minded country boy who wants to do the right thing but is confused as to how. Every choice he makes seems to just make things worse, and he struggles with how to use his powers to really help people. He also longs to fit in, but is constantly reminded of how he's not human and never will be, and it's sort of sad to see him lamenting that he's doomed to be an outsider looking in. Lois is absolutely note perfect, with all of her better qualities (her intelligence, her tenacity, her wit, her beauty -- damn skippy I pictured Teri Hatcher! -- her belief in reporting as a means of helping people) and her faults (her arrogance, her dismissal of Clark because of his decency, her willingness to do underhanded things to get a story). I love how, in the end, when Clark is doubting his very existence, it's Lois who gives him hope once again and makes him believe in himself, even without her knowing it; he's human, was all along, and the way he knows is because he loves her. Lex Luthor worried me, because he starts off as a politician, specifically an alderman running for mayor, but that proves to be just a means to an end before he uses his wealth to be become a criminal entrepreneur and the developer of a robot army that will bring every powerful person on Earth under his thumb. He's evil and a touch psychotic, and the ending wonderfully sets him up as the only man in the world who truly understands Superman, despite being his polar opposite.

It's Superman! is a worthwhile read for Superman fans, and it has some great aspects, but it's not a great Superman story, or a great story in itself.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tom De Haven performs his very own super-powered feat with this book; he’s made Superman enjoyable again in a way that’s different than just about any other retelling in the last century. Mr. De Haven has taken the world’s most famous tale about a strange visitor from another planet and made it human. He strips away the mythological glut that’s accumulated over the decades; there’s no killer kryptonite, no Fortress of Solitude, no super-powered dog. Hell, there’s not even a Krypton! This kid doesn’t know where he’s from. What he does know is that he got shot in the head and it left nothing more than an angry red mark and it is absolutely freaking him out!
This is the Superman that began it all, because Mr. De Haven has placed the strange visitor from another planet squarely in the 1930s, right about the time Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster were trying to talk a comics publisher into purchasing their story so that company could blossom into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment conglomerate by the next century on the back of their work while paying them next to nothing. Mr. De Haven makes sure we know how much Clark has in common with America in the 1930s: both are just trying to survive another day during the Great Depression. Both are just beginning to discover the great powers at their disposal, powers strong enough to conquer the world. Both of them are terrified of using those powers. This story takes the reader clear across the U.S.A. from a booze-and-jazz fueled New York City (sorry, Metropolis) to the Hollywood sets of the “B” Westerns where Clark Kent gets a job as a stuntman! No better guy for the task than someone who can’t get hurt! Just as human as Clark is, the villains are more than comic-book characters. There's headline-making murderers in the mold of the Pretty Boy Floyds and Bonnie and Clydes that infested the Central Plains at the time to an absolutely psychopathic Lex Luthor.
Superman is tired. And why wouldn’t he be? His centennial is just around the corner. There are very few fictional characters that pass that milestone. Sherlock Holmes comes to mind. While there have been plenty of great post-Conan Doyle Holmes stories published (I highly recommend The List of Seven), they weren’t publishing a whole handful every single month for the last 80 years. In an average month when I was an avid fan, Supes was in Action Comics, Superman, World’s Finest for his monthly team-up with Batman and he was a featured member of the Justice League. Oh, and there was Superboy and I’m probably forgetting another half-dozen. That’s not even counting so, so many movies and TV shows. Mr. De Haven’s amazing accomplishment is that he manages to rev the engine on a vehicle that’s been wheezing and sputtering along for quite a few decades. As someone with a more-than-passing familiarity with Supes’ oeuvre, this is the freshest and most fantastic take on the character since his first issue. This book shows that the “man” can be put front and center without letting us forget about the “super” part and still be a fun and fascinating read.

[Darik · Rating 5 out of 5]

A deeply human and affecting take on a classic myth. Framing his version of the story as a period piece set during the Great Depression (in the years before its title character's 1938 debut), author Tom De Haven reimagines Superman, Lex Luthor, Lois Lane, and the world they inhabit through the unflinching, often ugly lens of the realities of 1930s America-- and then organically develops these human and flawed interpretations of the characters into the figures we're familiar with from pop culture myth.

This is particularly striking in how the book depicts Clark Kent: a shy, not-particularly-bright farmer's son who has deep insecurities about his place in the world and his educational shortcomings. (In possibly the most incisive character decision of the novel, Clark adopts his signature eyeglasses, not as a method of disguise, but as way to make himself look smarter.) Lex Luthor, meanwhile, is a sociopathic alderman in New York City with a number of bizarre tics and behaviors (his incessant humming being the most oft-repeated) who gradually grows tired of underground gambling rackets and blackmail and whose megalomaniacal ambitions are only allowed to escalate because he's so difficult to catch amidst the corrupt mire of city politics. Clark is driven by a desperate need to fit in with humanity; Lex ultimately believes himself to be ABOVE it.

But they aren't the only players in this particular drama-- far from it. The rest of the story is filled with an ensemble of colorful and dynamic characters whose presence in the world, at first glance, feels small, almost insignificant... but who contribute to the tapestry of the narrative in unexpectedly momentous ways. From photographer Willi Berg, framed for murder and on the lam; to Lieutenant Dick Sandgrass, who tries to be the hero of the story, but somehow doesn't quite manage it; nurse "Skinny" Simon, who ends up getting Willi arrested and Clark blown up; and of course, aspiring journalist Lois Lane, whose faltering romantic pursuits push her farther and farther towards embracing the career that will steer her towards an unassuming farm boy (whose guts she initially hates).

In the end, the pieces fall into place and the cape is eventually donned, but De Haven gives us greater insight into the vulnerabilities and nuances of the characters than you'd ever have gotten from sticking to their four-color adventures. It's a riveting read, and quite possibly my favorite novel.

[Osvaldo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had never heard of this book before I picked it up for a dime at a library sale. I had low expectations, but for ten cents? Hey, I like superheroes! Why not? This book was good. Surprisingly good. I am actually tempted to give it 5-stars. It'd be four-and-a-half if I could do that.

This novel would be a social realist work, if it were not for the fact that it is about the last son of Krypton (and has some heat-ray wielding robots at the end). Set in the Depression-era from which Action Comics emerged, it develops (pre-)Golden Age Superman into a believable character, enmeshing him in a social context that does not shy away from political and corporate corruption and the exacerbation of racial inequity caused by economic depression. Furthermore, since the novel does not focus on Clark Kent alone, we see the world through a variety of characters. For example, Lois Lane becomes a proto-feminist, dealing with being dismissed as a serious journalist because of her gender, while the weight of social pressure to conform to women's roles and desires influences her inner-dialogue. Lex Luthor is a corrupt Alderman in the tradition of New York''s Tammany Hall, and everything is set against the backdrop of historical figures like Fiorello La Guardia and FDR, who appear as characters.

While slow to start, the book is increasingly compelling and is not really a "superhero" novel at all, more of an extended origin story that explains the context for the rougher anti-corruption pro-worker Superman of the late 1930s (before he became the big blue Boy Scout representative of American hegemony). By the end, I could not put it down, loving how it comes together and does not concern itself with over the top superhero battles, but rather with the very realistic depiction of an individual struggling with the implications of his unusual power while also dealing with the insecurities of being a farmer's son entering into a wider more cosmopolitan world of big city national journalism and politics.

De Haven's excellent, mostly straightforward, but occasionally playfully modernist prose, certainly makes this novel sing. He strikes the right balance between homage to those early Superman comics (I went back to check out my reprints after finishing the book and loved the echoes I retroactively noticed) and developing his story into something more. I highly recommend it.

P.S. I'd LOVE a comic version of this version.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have definitely never been a Superman fan (even as a kid). So I really do have no idea why this title appealed to me enough to pick it up last year. But I did. And finally got around to reading it now. And it was (a bit surprisingly) really fun! I flew through it in 2 days, so I guess it must've been.

De Haven's writing style is warm and engaging - and oddly, in the present tense. His characters are all dependably colorful and easily likable. (Despite or perhaps because he is the villian, Lex Luthor is probably the most multifaceted and interesting.) His narrative pacing is sharp and he keeps the entertaining plot humming right along. But do not expect much in the way of psychological depth or insights from characters. Or any broader meaning. This is a comic book in all print form after all. It reads as if you're watching it as a movie actually. Very fun. And therefore entertainingly easy to plow through.

I'd give 3.5 to almost 4 stars, except for the following:

- Sometimes he gets a little too hokey/sentimental. (Perhaps he's just catering to the 1930s smalltown Kansas locale but...)

- The egregious overuse of italics to equate a character's thoughts or emotions to the reader. It actually reads fine enough and isn't obtrusive per se. But I still think it's 'typing with a sledgehammer' sensibility.

- The climactic scene, disappointingly, isn't very. So any feelings of resolution are a bit muted. But this book is intended as just 'the early years' and an introduction to Lex Luthor as Superman's prime nemesis. So perhaps that's why.

Still, a total beach read for the winter. (And Lois Lane is one sassy, brassy hoot!)

[Mike Bockoven · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am in the strange position of being in awe of author Tom DeHaven’s research, expertise and writing (he’s very good) while at the same time not enjoying almost all of the decisions he made regarding the character of Superman.

“It’s Superman” puts Clark Kent in a plausible and lived in 1930s complete with racism, hobo adventures, pop culture icons of the time and tons and tons of detail. As Clark finds his way into the tights, we are treated to a variety of wonderfully fleshed out characters, none of whom can fly, bend steel or be as remotely interesting as FREAKIN’ SUPERMAN! That’s not to say there aren’t pleasures here, but “It’s Superman” revels in asides and side characters, details and context, almost as if it’s trying to avoid the big blue Boy Scout in the middle of the room. Also, he’s not really a Boy Scout. He’s wracked with doubt, unsure of himself and doesn’t really like being Superman.

In a world eager to deconstruct a hero, I guess I was in the market fo are bit more heroism. That being said, I really do admire what Tom DeHaven did here, even if I didn’t enjoy it. Given the right story without so much baggage, I could easily see becoming an advocate for the type of thing he does and I’ll pick up another book by him if I come across it. But Superman comes weighed down with baggage and expectation and while DeHaven does subvert those expectations, a little bit of heroism and hope would have been nice.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Graphic Audio production really knocked it out of the park. Superman made his comic book debut in 1938, but with comics being what they are, the "present" moves with the times. It's Superman tells an origin story that begins in May 1935 and ends in December 1938, if I heard correctly. We get the moments where Clark reacts to the powers that come from him and the discovery of his alien origin. I'm so used to Jonathan Kent being the parent who dies, but it turns out to be Martha in this case, which was an interesting way of subverting expectations. Both parents have valuable things to tell Clark, and I've always loved the family dynamic that he has with them. We also get to see Lois Lane rise as a reporter, even brushing with the scummy nature of a former professor. There were constant reminders of the time period, and I thought it was a nice touch having Lex Luthor's fascination with robots stem from the Fritz Lang film Metropolis. I really felt for Clark's personal struggles, and the music really conveys that sense of heroism that you want from a good Superman story. The ending in particular was very heartwarming. Needless to say, I highly recommend giving It's Superman a listen.