It's a Bird

[xadrian]

You are a writer of some renown. You have done a few books in your time. You are not entirely stable emotionally. You have things in your past that have given you a slanted view on the world.

You are given the chance to write Superman.

Steven T. Seagle is given this chance and the story unfolds in a way you’ll never see coming. The story is unlike anything I’ve read thus far in the realm of comic books. It’s full of turmoil and regret and anxiety on a level that make you long for a Jon Favreau movie. The entire 124 pages makes you want to take a shower from the amount of confusion and blithe apathy. It’s like having a head cold that doesn’t allow you to think straight or perform normally only to feel complete relief in the end, not because it’s over but because you survived.

The story starts out like a fan boy’s dream come true. Our hero is given the chance to write for Superman. His journey then falls into a downward spiral of self-doubt and resurgent personal skeletons. He takes the icon of The Man of Steel apart and analyzes every aspect of Clark Kent and Kal El and Krypton in a way that would make a comic buff run screaming from a convention. He over thinks everything, over works it until each thought is left in a quivering unresolved mass.

He then applies this to his life.

He makes the mistake, in the story, of tying his past to the legend of the S and the stigma behind the man. Your only reason to continue reading is to see the resolution of this journey. There is no excitement, there is no suspense, there is only internal pathos keeping the pages turning.

Teddy Kristiansen’s brushed art compliments the struggle perfectly. There’s a level of decay in the art that’s simple and haunting. It’s so primitive that the skill is almost lost at the cost of such a bleak story.

In the end you feel less like our hero has accomplished something and more that he’s reached a baseline. It would be akin to coming out of detox. No personal demons were vanquished, but perhaps he now knows how to control them, use them to increase his potential for something just shy of perfection, something right around normal.

It’s a Bird
Written by Steven T. Seagle
Art by Teddy Kristiansen
© 2004 DC Comics
Hardback
$24.95
reviewed by Ben Rollman

[Popninja]

Very insightful review, Xadrian.

Kristiansen's art really isn't my cup o' tea, but I am a fan of Seagle's writing. I hope the art isn't too distracting, because I would really like to check this out.

[Crestmere]

Excellent story.

One of the best Superman stories out there.

HOnestly, I even liked Seagle's run on the regular Superman book even though it did kind of fall apart at the end.