#Superman reviews

[bisexualwolverines]

i was reading a book about space to my baby sister and it mentioned how yellow stars are hotter than red stars and it had me thinking about the impact that has on kryptonians

earth in general is so much warmer than krypton, yes the yellow sun gives them powers and makes them almost invulnerable but it's so hot and they're so sweaty all the time

maybe someone like clark who has lived his whole life here has acclimated to the weather, but as much as he can do that the heat still doesn't feel natural to him which is why his fortress is in the coldest climate you can get on this planet, where he feels most physically comfortable

for someone like kara though, who grew up on krypton, the earth's heat would be absolutely unbearable, and would it increasingly more difficult for her to adapt to earth life, an unfamiliar culture, new unfamiliar powers she has to control and the heat just makes matters entirely worse. heat is uncomfortable, it's a stressor, it can lead to irritability and anger and aggression. all of that to deal with on top of the death of her family and her home

[pansexualnoodle5]

I’m never gonna shut up about these guys

[embracedbythesea]

"F*ck this s*it. Go find your boyfriend and bring him home, son."

[ladyloveandjustice]

My Favorite New Manga and Graphic Novels I Read in 2023

It's time to take a look at the comics and manga I read this year! I read  a whopping 78 manga and graphic novels in all. Here's a link to my Goodreads year in books (the manga is at the beginning, the novels start with Siren Queen) and my storygraph wrap up.

I also read 36 novels! If you want to see my favorites, check out my reviews here!

And finally, I've got the continuing manga series I've enjoyed this year here, so check that post out too!

The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen

This is a tale about a first-generation Vietnamese-American boy struggling with coming out to his mother. He connects with his mother through fairytales-- she uses them to express her journey as an immigrant, and he uses them to explore his queerness and identity as a Vietnamese kid growing up in America. It's an absolutely gorgeous book full of Trung Le Nguyen's signature stunning art. The fantastical, ethereal fairy tales are weaved beautifully into the lives of the characters. The book explores how fairy tales can form connection, can express culture, can tap deeply into something real and true, and can offer tragedy and catharsis. The protagonist uses fairy tales to write his own story, and the ending is lovely and moving.

Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles by Mark Russell and Mike Feehan

You may know Mark Russell from his darker, socially aware re-imagining of the Flintstones, which made quite a splash on Tumblr with this post. Well, I had pleasure of meeting him at a local convention, and I finally got his comic re-imagining of Snagglepuss, also of Hanna-Barbera. He re-imagines the titular pink puma as a closeted gay playwright in the 50's dealing with McCarthyism. It's as wild as it sounds,but also really digs into the politics of the time, the struggle of standing against oppression and how art fights through suppression and censorship. It's tragic, hopeful, poignant and full of historical references. I enjoyed it ! Definitely be cautious if you're deeply disturbed by homophobia and suicide.

The Summer Hikaru Died by Mokumokuren

A story about a teenage boy, Yoshiki, who realizes that his best friend and crush Hikaru has died and been replaced by a strange eldritch being who is imitating him. But, missing his loved one and desperate to cling to any piece of him, Yoshiki decides to keep on having a relationship with this mysterious entity. This book's horror is visceral and sublime, especially the bizarre, creepy, beautiful body horror involving the being who replaced Hikaru. It's an exploration of anxieties involving grief, relationships, and sexuality that hits just right, and the atmosphere layered with dread is top notch. I love me some messed up relationships and unknowable queer monsters, and this book delivers.

Chainsaw Man, Look Back and Goodbye Eri by Tatsuki Fujimoto

Chainsaw Man needs no introduction, but I did end up really enjoying the story of the doggy-devil boy hunting other devils. It got so tragic and intense at the end, with lots of great surreal horror imagery and darkly funny moments. I'm impressed it went so hard, though the random powers that kept piling up made what was happening hard to follow at times, especially in fights. I'm also enjoying the current weird arc starring a class-A disaster girl and the demon sharing her body.

Look Back

I really do enjoy how Fuijimoto writes messy pre-teen/teenage girls. They ring so true. The manga follows the fraught friendship between two girls as they create manga, exploring the struggle of art mixing with real relationships, and how someone keeps creating after tragedy. It's a little hard to follow at times (especially since I have to differentiate the leads based on hairstyle), but it's a good read.

Goodbye Eri

Probably my least favorite of the three, but it's a fun read- a weird ride that examines the thin line between fiction and reality in art and makes good use of Fujimoto's cinephile background and signature gaslight gatekeep girlboss characters.

Is Love the Answer? by Uta Isaki

The story follows a teenage girl, Chika, who has always struggled with not being attracted to anyone. When Chika enters college, she meets queer people all across the spectrum of asexuality, and starts exploring her own identity. As an ace, this is the best story about asexuality that I've read. It was a nuanced look at asexuality and queerness and all the variations. Chika's journey and how she found her community was moving and poignant. It's a honest, moving look at relationships and identity, and how complicated and hard to define both of those things can be. I loved the moments of Chika imagining herself as an alien to explore and cope, and how she bonded with people through magical girl shows and other geekery. My favorite new manga of the year, it really connected with me!

The Girl that Can’t Get a Girlfriend by Mieri Hiranishi

Oh girl, I've been there. This is a fun autobiographical comic about a butch4butch lesbian's struggles finding a partner in a word that favors butch/femme, and it's just an honest look at the messiness of loneliness and relationships. I also appreciate that crushing on Haruka in Sailor Moon and becoming a HaruMichi stan was the beginning the author's queer awakening because uh...same! She has taste, and is truly relatable.

Qualia the Purple: The Complete Manga Collection by Hisamitsu Ueo and Shirou Tsunashima

See my review of the light novel here for my general thoughts on the story, since it's adapted pretty faithfully. I do think the manga is overall the best experience though, because the illustrations break up the detailed explanations of quantum mechanics a bit, and it includes a bit of extra content that fleshes things out, especially withthe ending.

The Single Life: 60 year old lesbian who is single and living alone by Akiko Morishima

Just like it says on the tin, this focuses on a 60-year-old single lesbian. And definitely the shortest thing on here, since only one 30 page chapter is out.  It's a grounded story about a woman looking back on her journey to finding her identity, touching on sexism in the workplace and other challenges. It paints a portrait of a proudly gay elder who's still perfectly content being single and feels fulfilled by the life she had rather than regretting past relationships. I definitely want to see more.

Daemons of the Shadow Realm by Hiromu Arakawa

Arakawa's latest, the story is about a boy who lives in a small village with his little sister is imprisoned and has to carry out a mysterious duty...but then the village is attacked, supernatural daemons awaken, and everything he knows might be wrong. I'm enjoying this fun romp so far! It delivers an really nice plot twist right out the gate (and an excellent subversion of the usual shonen "must-protect-my-saintly-sister" narratives). It boasts Arakawa's usual fun cast and interesting world (and cool ladies). There's some slight tone and pacing issues in the first part- there's so much time spent explaining mechanics the lead doesn't really get to react to his life turning upside down. But it starts smoothing out by the second volume. I'm excited to see what's next!

Superman: Space Age by Mark Russell and Michael Allred

This is a retelling of Superman set throughout the late fifties to early eighties that has Superman interact with the political and social upheaval of the time and question his own role in things. It explored the Superman mythos through a lot of cool new angles, and has a good Lois (why yes she would break Watergate) which is how I always measure a Superman adaptation. My one complaint is, while I liked some of the things it did with Batman, the ending with the Joker was pretty weak. The ending of the overall comic will also be bizarre for anyone not uses to how weird comics can get, but I think I dug it.

#DRCL by Shin'ichi Sakamoto

A manga retelling of Dracula that focuses on Mina as the protagonist and imagines the characters at an English prep school. It adds a lot of  diversity to the characters  and has exquisite, evocative art. I'm curious where it will go and what it  intends to do with all it's changes (especially Lucy), because right now it's mostly vibes and creepiness and the direction isn't clear.

[thefloatingstone]

oh crap I forgot to promote myself again

PART 1 OF WATCHING AND REVIEWING EVERY "MY ADVENTURES WITH SUPERMAN" EPISODE IS NOW LIVE!!!

[sinnermannn]

This movie is incredibly bad and at most bland as hell. Unfortunately even with the amount of characters they have that are so interesting they do nothing with it. What are your thoughts on the movie if you seen it? Thanks for all the support guys!

[jwilliams051197]

I just watched the season finale of My Adventures With Superman, and this finale was so good. The reveal of the General being Lois' father was such an effective reveal, and explains why they held off naming his character up until this point. I love how this episode has conflicts with two fathers. The one Lois has with her father, and the one Clark has with his biological father, and the way the episode frames both is perfect. The action in this episode near the end was also superb, using Superman's powers to the fullest. That final scene with Jor-El was great, and I really hope we get to see more of him next season. The reveal of next seasons villain was good too, opening up many possible future storylines. I'm excited where this show might go in the future! It's so great we got two great Superman seasons of television this year!

[pinkiemachine]

Check out the latest on the YT channel!

[come-see-our-show]

Holy Musical B@man! (2012) + letterboxd reviews

[ankle-beez]

[nerdygirlreviews]

SURPRISE! I'm covering something I never would've thought I would, the first two episodes of Adult Swim's My Adventures with Superman. In short, it was f*cking GREAT. I am so looking forward to watching more of Clark Kent's origin story play out, how his relationship with Lois Lane will unfold, and how he and Jimmy Olsen will be put to the test in their new internship at the Daily Planet, all while contending with a shocking villain.

[thecomicsnexus]

SUPERMAN #21-22 / THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #444

September/October 1988

By John Byrne, Jerry Ordway John Beatty, Dennis Janke, Petra Scotese, John Costanza, and Albert De Guzman.

Superman meets the new Supergirl and quickly realizes she comes from the Time Trapper's pocket universe. After arriving there, he discovers their version of Lex Luthor freed three kryptonian criminals from the Phantom Zone (not knowing they were criminals) and this pretty much doomed the entire planet.

Faced with the reality that these three criminals could make their way into the new Earth, Superman will be faced with a tough decision that will change his life forever.

SCORE: 10

This is the final story from Byrne's run. Why? Unclear.

Some sources say that Byrne wasn't happy with the lack of control he had over Superman's status. Others say that he didn't like the dark direction the books were taking... but whatever the case was... writers continued working on his plots for years (with almost everything closing between 1990 and 1991, and influencing the "Reign of the Supermen" saga).

This final story is really dark, with Superman being forces to execute the Phantom Zone criminals. You can tell that the saga probably influenced the "Man of Steel" movie in more ways than just the death of Zod at Superman's hands (although technically, Zod ended up being killed by Quex-Ul).

Now, when it comes to format, this feels like a cinematic experience... now. But it was a bit of a pain to read in physical form. It's like this story was created in a way that couldn't be fully enjoyed until digital comics arrived. All three issues use two pages for panel layouts, resulting in panoramic views that make everything way bigger and more beautiful.

There is something about the idea that Byrne wasn't happy with the darkness of the book that makes sense in the context of a story that ultimately reintroduced Supergirl (although that would take a few years to be fulfilled). This Supergirl was created by Luthor, and it is made of Protomatter. This interesting plot device would return with a vengeance a year later.

It's unclear if the Kryptonians were resourceful enough to escape this dimension. Leaving them powerless in a barren Earth could have been a life sentence. Then again, they were going to die anyway without an atmosphere. So yes, taking to New Earth could have been very risky. Of course, Zod and co would much later make their debut into the new DC multiverse, but for a very long time, this was the only version of them that existed.

I am not sure how to feel about Luthor not using the Gold Kryptonite earlier, nor how he kept it away from them. I feel like, with many other things in these three issues, that was a last minute creative decision. This story should have lasted at least one more issue. As it is, many characters were introduced that died off panel or barely did anything.

Still, the story works well enough for me, and the artistic choices makes it a classic.

So... without Byrne... will the Superbooks survive?

Yes, in fact, another classic saga is starting right away that will lead to yet another classic saga known as the "exile in space."

Very interesting times for Superman.

[the-metropolis-marvel]

...when I tell you that this might be my favorite superman story of all time

I'm not joking, as someone who came from a mixed family much like the Lees, I saw discrimination first hand. It was primarily directed towards my mother and though I never delt with the KKK first hand, back in 2016 when...he got elected I saw that she faced a lot of that. As we enter 2024 and another election cycle which means we either get stuck with one group of assholes or an even bigger group of assholes, I think the world needs to remember that characters like superman exists, hell even outside of fiction there are people who will fight tooth and nail for what's right. I read this book wanting an adaptation more similar to my adventures with Superman and not the edgy Christ figure government stooge of the usual ones, and boy this delivered on so many fronts.

It tackled stuff like how symbols of heroes are used by the completely wrong people

(a big example is the punisher skull being used in a lot of back the blue, police brutality imagery[double ironic considering Frank Castle fucking hates the police])

They treat superman's arc as an immigrant which I think is a fantastic choice and one I also use for man of tomorrow

AND GOD FUCKING DAMN IT DO I JUST LOVE THE PEOPLE'S HERO, MAN OF TOMORROW SUPERMAN

This book isn't just good, it's fucking fantastic. It gets the character right so well and I'm here for it.

[kbkirtley]

Nightwing - Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo

My favorite stories of 2023 in any format, not just graphic novels. I adore the way Tom Taylor writes both Dick Grayson and Nightwing. The first hero I wanted to read about when I started reading Graphic Novels for the first time last fall was Nightwing. I have loved the character in different formats previously and I knew that’s the character I wanted to start with. I was disappointed with what I found to start. The character didn’t come alive in the comics I was reading in the way I was used to.

Everything changed when I got to Taylor’s run. The fun loving, optimistic, hopeful character I had fallen in love with was there on the pages. Over and over again, Dick puts the target on his back to save others from it. Over and over again, Dick acts as a safety net for those around him, the privileged and vulnerable alike. Over and over again, Dick displays the hope and light that superhero stories should be about.

Dick Grayson/Nightwing is the heart and soul of DC. He’s the best of them all. You can tell that Tom Taylor gets that and really takes it seriously. You can see it in what Dick prioritizes when he sets about revitalizing Bludhaven. You can see it in the relationships Dick has with Clark and Jon Kent, with Bruce and Damian, with Barbara, with Wally, with the Titans, new and old. You can see it everywhere you look, because Taylor is so consistent in writing Dick. In every scenario, Dick Grayson is going to do what’s right and lead with hope. He’s going to leap into the light every chance he gets.

Superhero stories /should/ be about characters who inspire hope. So much of the superhero stories in media right now are trying to flip the idea of superheroes upside down and have them be the villains or at least be dark, edgy, and violent versions of themselves. In that landscape, stories like Nightwing or the excellent My Adventures with Superman are such a breath of fresh air.

I know Tom Taylor is a polarizing person on the internet with both Nightwing and Superman , but his Nightwing run specifically is so important to me because it’s the kind of stories I want to write. I’m writing traditional novels instead of graphic novels, but at the heart of it, this is what I believe superhero stories are about. No character has inspired my view of superheroes as much as Nightwing and I find Taylor’s depiction of him so true to character. I can’t wait for my copy of the fourth volume to show up on release day next week so I can dove back into Dick Grayson’s story.

[arainmorn-art]

Just binged the whole thing

Omigosh. "My Adventures with Superman" was super ADORABLE.

Never understood the apeal of a 100% Lawful Good overpowered invincible protagonist before, but now I do. I haven't even watched anything Superman-related before. Clark is such a good boy. A gentle giant struggling with his non-human strength, he went to the chess club to minimize any chances he would hurt anyone by accident. A shy polite clumsy and nerdy good boy from a good loving family wanting to protect other people and a nice girl he loves. Oh gosh, can I keep him?

The way he's animated, the detailes of his whole body language, gosh, animators did wonders with Clark's character. I adore the first part of the show before the drama, because cheeses, I haven't seen such a cute romance progression in a long time, when they both obviously like each other and they also can see it in each other. Loved it! Giggled through their romance like a schoolgirl.

I liked Lois, how both tomboyish and very feminine she is. This was so friggin' refreshing to see an energetic independant girl who is also sweet, soft, vulnerable and contradicting herself, not girlbossing relatability and feelings the hell out of any interaction these characters might have. In one moment I was displeased with her decisions, when she was hurt that Clark didn't tell her he was a Superman and told him there won't be any relationship between them because of that, it was a big "COME ON" for me, but I liked that actualy it was a product of a very girly tangled way of thinking, "You lied to me! Does it mean you were pretending to have feelings for me too?!" while crying. Yes. Yes, thank you, it was a very brief moment, but as a regular girl I felt itXD I love when emotional girls are depicted rightly: saying one thing, implying another, thinking the third, crying inside and outside how hurt she is on several levels over an idiot who hasn't thought about her feelings properly. Great stuff, approve wholeheartedly. Maybe the battle against brick-faced toxic masculinity in a female wig, oh, excuse me, Holliwood feminist never-wrong-doing girlbosses will be won someday with smart writing and kind-hearted life observations. We have a great soldier here. She also reminded me a lot of Roxana from Megamind, and I loved that girl a lot.

I'm also surprised how there were little to no of Twitter SJW-ness. Very nice. I also joked on the phone with my friend, that it felt very ironic, how there are more female villains (haven't count, but it seems like that), than male, and those angry bitches are fighting against the sweetest himbo on Earth, who is saving kittens, infants and grannies all day long. I don't think it was intentional, but in a current climate of English-speaking media - very nice.

Pacing wise, hm, with a purely comedic first part a really fast pacing was great, but on the second half with drama... eh. It felt very rushed. Also, well, as I don't know the lore behind Superman deeper than it is dispersed in the current pop-culture, I was confused with his alien origin, as it felt a lot like Invincible. I thought the whole schtick of Invincible was about, you know, the main twist, buuuuuuuuuut what's about Superman? I know it's kinda backwards to first watch Invincible then watch anything about Superman, but I had a big deja vu. Maybe I'll read some wiki about Clark, I was hella confused.

Overall great show, loved it. The strange, um, mad genius gay couple was something I wasn't expecting to laugh at so much today. And admiring anime Superman. Wow.

[thefloatingstone]

Part 2 of my "My Adventures with Superman" Breakdown is now live!

This is the one where Lois does the thing.

Part 1