Years later, JMS was selected to be the lead writer for Superman and Wonder Woman. With Wonder Woman, he decided to have a storyline where her origin has been retconned and the princess of Themyscira must solve the mystery of who was behind traveling back in time to retcon her origin - and much of the DC universe. On Superman, JMS is telling the story of Superman's return to Earth after the events of New Krypton, a storyline that was widely panned as being incredibly stupid and taking too long to reach a resolution. In his return, Superman decides to walk across the United States for reasons known only to himself and remind himself of everything he missed while on New Krypton.
In the meantime, DC Comics decided to re-launch the idea of competing with Marvel's Ultimate Comics line with their new DC Comics Earth One series, starting with Superman: Earth One by JMS and then Batman: Earth One by Geoff Johns a few months later. There's been some controversy about the whole idea since All-Star Batman & Robin, the Boy Wonder was such a spectacular failure. Just to add fuel to the fire, Shane Davis' image of the new Superman became controversial for apparently looking too much like a Twilight character, which in my opinion, is utter bullshit and ignorance. Well, I have read the "grand controversy" and you know what? I thought Secret Origin kicked ass. If only we had known JMS would give us Superman: Earth One!
So what did JMS change this time about Superman? Well... to put it simply, this origin story is actually more in line to what most of us believe Superman to be. He is the son of a dead world, raised by parents on Earth who lied about his identity, and received a costume made of materials from inside his spaceship that were indestructible by any Earthly known means. The "S" on Superman's logo no longer (or is it once again?) has Kryptonian origins; the S stands for many things: Son, for being the son of the Kents, Survivor, for apparently being the survivor of a terrible tragedy, and of course, Super, for representing exactly what he is - not just a man, but a super-man. The only major departure is Clark Kent's age, roughly 20 years old. This really doesn't affect anything other than being more in line to the action heroes we have been seeing in movies lately, people roughly in their early 20s. Lex Luthor is thankfully absent from Superman's origin story, to be included as a character that Superman meets as an adult.
If you have heard this story before, it's because you have; other than Superman's age, this is almost exactly like the Superman: The Animated Series' origin story. There's even a reason given for Krypton's explosion, making a lot of sense when before, Krypton was incapable of calculating centuries in advance that their planet was on its way to destruction. This time, an actual race of aliens is responsible for Krypton's destruction: the residents of Krypton's neighboring planet.
JMS's writing is just out of this world. As much as I have been enjoying "Grounded," it's like he saved his very best for his re-imagining of Superman. Just to make things even better, Shane Davis is an out-of-this-world artist. Comic book artists need to take a cue for Davis, because his art style is exactly what comic books need. Shane Davis may be the next Jim Lee. The only problem I had with this new story is the uncreative design of the new villain.
Final Score: 5 Superman hoodies out of 5
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