Reviewer: Mathan “Sen-El†Erhardt
Story Title: N/A
Written by: Mark Waid
Penciled by: Leinil Francis Yu
Inked by: Gerry Alanguilan
Colored by: Dave McCaig
Lettered by: Comicraft
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Publisher: DC Comics
I will admit to not digging this series in the beginning. To me it was blasphemy. It spit in the face of John Byrne and James Hudnall. It went against the “Man of Steel,†“The World of Krypton†and “The Unauthorized Biography of Lex Luthorâ€(and also what James Robinson put forth in “Starmanâ€). But then I realized that Waid was a great writer and Yu drew real purty like. Plus I figured that when I became an editor at DC I would just put things back to how Byrne had them.
This issue begins with Pa Kent and Clark examining where the old Luthor house used to stand in Smallville. Clark recounts some of the uphill battle that Lex had to endure while going to Smallville High. Not only was he older than his peers, but also he was smarter than the faculty. Lex tried to fit in but his complete lack of social graces made that impossible.
After the school declines Lex’s offer to build a new stadium, Lex engineers a devastating home game loss to their instate rivals. Of course Clark using his super peeps witnesses the entire thing. Clark calls him on it. But they remain friends.
Later Lex invents a device that can detect extraterrestrial matter. But when it registers Clark as extraterrestrial matter, Lex loses his temper and throws a tantrum because he believes the device is faulty. As a result of the exclusion from his peers and his perceived creative failure, Lex secludes himself to his lab for a couple weeks.
Clark attempts to make peace with his friend but finds that Lex is on the edge of insanity. Lex is really excited and wants to show Clark his latest creation. He has invented a device that can create a wormhole that would allow Lex to communicate with life across the galaxy provided that he has a piece of extraterrestrial matter to calibrate the device. And of course Lex has just the thing.
Lex has a piece of Krypton. Clark reacts the usual way, which Lex interprets as rejection. Lex loses his grasp on reality, and tosses Clark out. Oddly enough Smallville’s power grid can’t handle a wormhole (who’d have thunk that?) and disaster strikes. We finally find out how Lex could be in Smallville and leave no trace. Clark returns to Metropolis to find that an alien invasion from Krypton is imminent. “What?â€
Waid is having a blast writing this book. Supes has been around forever, and Waid is picking and choosing from the rich history to make a nice modern telling of Superman’s beginning. Lex actually sounds insane, but you can understand where he is coming from, and there is Waid’s talent. He can make the unbelievable sound rational. So when I say “I’m enjoying this book†it makes sense.
Yu and Alanguilan are a great tandem. The look is very stylized and detail oriented. Again Lex’s insanity really shines through, as does the full range of Clark’s emotions. His anger and fear is shown very dramatically. And man, does that burned Lex look horrific. Great job!
