Scan barcode
A review by sandeeisreading
Superman: American Alien by Max Landis
4.0
This was recommended to me by a friend who absolutely love Superman. I was a bit iffy in reading it because of the title. Yeah. I'm one of those people that judge books not only by the cover, sometimes, by title too. Sue me. But whatever. I absolutely loved this. I'm glad I picked it up.
One of the things I loved about SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN was how each story is self-contained. You can read just one of the issues inside this volume and you'll be fine. You don't have to read the entire thing to understand what was going on because each issue has it's own story. It each focuses on a certain part of Clark's life, which I really liked.
On the first issue, we see Clark as a kid just discovering his powers. The second issue was Clark as a angsty teenager. Yes. He had his angsty moments too. Clark, his friends, and some people in Smallville, knows what he can do. And when a certain incident happened, he was conflicted as to whether to do something or not, just because he can.
Out of all the issues, my favorite would have to be the issue where his friends from Smallville visited him in Metropolis. He and one of his friend had a very emotional and heated argument about what the hell was he really doing. Clark was already saving people, but he wasn't called Superman, yet. He was just this person flying around Metropolis and saving people in situations normal people can't. Clark was still unsure of what he was really trying to do. He was a bit short-sighted at this point. He wasn't exactly sure what his priorities were. Does having the ability to help other people give someone the right to interfere? By doing that, would they really be helping, or just making this worse? I liked the fact that Clark even had friends Haha. I mean, let's be real, in the movies, and in some of the comic books, the only people Clark talks to were his parents and Lois Lane, that's basically it. At least here, I got to see him with his friends, the people he grew up with. The people who understand him the most.
There were quite a few Batman scenes here too. It's interesting how they got to know about each other here. Because of stupid misunderstanding that I bought no matter how ridiculous it was. And Dick Grayson was here too, a younger version of him. I'm not sure if he was already Robin here, but he was already living with Bruce.
Lex Luthor is one of those villains who strongly thinks that he was doing something good for society. I felt that I got to know him a bit more in this, even though he was only there for a short time, it was enough for me to understand what his motivations were.
Each issues were illustrated by a different illustrator. There was some that I liked more than others.
I haven't read a lot of Superman stories. I think I've only read three all in all: Superman Unchained, Superman: Earth One, Superman Red Son, and this. Out of all of them, I would recommend reading this for those who want to start reading about Superman. It's not cannon (I think), but you do like Max Landis' take on Clark's struggles, balancing himself between being himself and being the superhero everyone wants him to be. I liked how the stories were not really to show us how powerful Superman is. It showed us how human Clark is, despite having all the cool super powers he have.
Highly recommended.
One of the things I loved about SUPERMAN: AMERICAN ALIEN was how each story is self-contained. You can read just one of the issues inside this volume and you'll be fine. You don't have to read the entire thing to understand what was going on because each issue has it's own story. It each focuses on a certain part of Clark's life, which I really liked.
On the first issue, we see Clark as a kid just discovering his powers. The second issue was Clark as a angsty teenager. Yes. He had his angsty moments too. Clark, his friends, and some people in Smallville, knows what he can do. And when a certain incident happened, he was conflicted as to whether to do something or not, just because he can.
Out of all the issues, my favorite would have to be the issue where his friends from Smallville visited him in Metropolis. He and one of his friend had a very emotional and heated argument about what the hell was he really doing. Clark was already saving people, but he wasn't called Superman, yet. He was just this person flying around Metropolis and saving people in situations normal people can't. Clark was still unsure of what he was really trying to do. He was a bit short-sighted at this point. He wasn't exactly sure what his priorities were. Does having the ability to help other people give someone the right to interfere? By doing that, would they really be helping, or just making this worse? I liked the fact that Clark even had friends Haha. I mean, let's be real, in the movies, and in some of the comic books, the only people Clark talks to were his parents and Lois Lane, that's basically it. At least here, I got to see him with his friends, the people he grew up with. The people who understand him the most.
There were quite a few Batman scenes here too. It's interesting how they got to know about each other here. Because of stupid misunderstanding that I bought no matter how ridiculous it was. And Dick Grayson was here too, a younger version of him. I'm not sure if he was already Robin here, but he was already living with Bruce.
Lex Luthor is one of those villains who strongly thinks that he was doing something good for society. I felt that I got to know him a bit more in this, even though he was only there for a short time, it was enough for me to understand what his motivations were.
Each issues were illustrated by a different illustrator. There was some that I liked more than others.
I haven't read a lot of Superman stories. I think I've only read three all in all: Superman Unchained, Superman: Earth One, Superman Red Son, and this. Out of all of them, I would recommend reading this for those who want to start reading about Superman. It's not cannon (I think), but you do like Max Landis' take on Clark's struggles, balancing himself between being himself and being the superhero everyone wants him to be. I liked how the stories were not really to show us how powerful Superman is. It showed us how human Clark is, despite having all the cool super powers he have.
Highly recommended.