Set for release this November, Superman: Earth One is an original graphic novel by writer J. Michael Straczynski and artist Shane Davis. It hasn’t had that much said about it, but at the Baltimore Comic-Con Shane and and editor Ian Sattler had a few things to say on the matter.
Like that it’s 136 pages, 125 of which are story, and that Shane has been working on it for a while now, which could easily explain why he’s seemingly been on cover duty for the past year.
He describes the story as 21 year old Clark Kent trying to decide what to do with his powers, as well as why he should be doing that. This tells me that it’s going to be a coming of age storyline with Superman cast in the role of someone on the brink of adulthood, but without much direction in his life. Which….is pretty standard for most that age, and I can’t remember the last time Superman tackled that. I mean, I haven’t read Birthright, but most Superman stories I’ve read have him either as Superboy by the time he’s a teenager, or not doing anything until his mid 20’s. Seeing him as a 21 year old and coming to terms with who he is intrigues the hell out of me.
He also talks about recreated Metropolis for the story, and trying to create a unique version of the iconic city that readers had not seen before. Near as I can tell he said that he designed it by taking bits and pieces from all over the world, and that the end result winds up putting some of the science fiction back into Metropolis.
Apparently the book is already finished as well, as Sattler talks about advanced copies floating around the office and how he feels that they accomplished exactly what they set out to. He also notes that Richard Donner had great things to say about it.
