All-Star Superman - The Return of Your Father's Superman

In 2000, Marvel started the "Ultimate" comics line, a series of comics taking place in its own separate continuity from the mainstream comics, somewhat similar to what DC did with the Earth-One and Earth-Two comics during the 60s and 70s, except it would be restricted to a few series, like Ultimate Spider-Man and Ultimate X-Men, and targeted towards teenagers who would not normally buy comic books. Originally intended to be just a few limited series, the popularity of these comics (most significantly Ultimate Spider-Man) caused Marvel to extend these series into monthly titles and start more titles in this new, Ultimate Marvel Universe. The Ultimate comics also led to a rise in readership among the mainstream titles, saving Marvel from bankruptcy.

Seeing the success of the Ultimate comics, in 2005 DC commissioned Grant Morrison to write All-Star Superman and Frank Miller to write All-Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder. These All-Star comics would not be like Marvel's Ultimate comics, rather, they would be "idealized" versions of popular characters where the authors were given free reign and could basically write anything they wanted to. Like the Ultimate comics, these stories would ignore previous continuity and allow new readers to experience Superman and Batman in a new, refreshed look. All-Star Batman has been more or less a failure as it took 3 years to publish 10 issues, only one issue was published in the entirety of 2006, and the series is still considered "on-going" even though issue 10 was published in August 2008.

All-Star Superman, on the other hand, has been a major success. While it did take a period of 2 years (2006-2008) for 12 issues to be published, they were all timely and all of them were FANTASTIC. Grant Morrison's All-Star Superman is based heavily on the Silver Age Superman and described it himself as being "the re-emergence of the original, Pre-Crisis Superman but with 20 years of history we haven't seen." This can be seen with Clark Kent being a mild-mannered bumbling oaf, Lex Luthor being primarily a scientist, Jimmy Olsen being granted superpowers in one issue and it not being a big deal, and Lois Lane having tried to prove Clark Kent was Superman, but failing every time.

The premise behind All-Star Superman is that Lex Luthor has devised an ingenious plan to cause Superman's death by overexposing his body to solar radiation, causing Superman to gain god-like powers and intelligence, but also causing his cells to slowly convert to pure energy, one by one. Superman decides to keep this a secret from the public and spend as much of his last days as possible with Lois Lane. There is also an underlying subplot revolving around Superman completing twelve challenges before his death, but Superman (and the reader) is only told what four of them are. At the very end of the series, Superman dies while saving the entire solar system.

I'm trying to be as vague as possible about All-Star Superman's plot because it is something that must be experienced on your own; it is very difficult to express in words just how beautifully written and drawn this comic is. With the combination of Morrison's writing and Frank Quitely's art, they create a world where it is completely plausible for people to think that Clark Kent and Superman are two separate people.

Why are you still reading this? Go buy All-Star Superman and read it right now! You will not be disappointed!

Final Score:     5/5