Absolute All Star Superman Book

When All-Star Superman first appeared some years ago, I almost didn't pick up the first issue. Despite the obvious talents of writer Grant Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, I couldn't get past the preconceptions I had about the character. I had always found the concept of Superman to be dull, overly straightforward and dated, a character who was now more important for his iconic and historical qualities than because he was actually interesting for modern audiences to read about.

Many writers have tried to make Superman more relevant and appealing over the years, whether by rehashing his origin story to fit modern tastes, depowering him, or putting him in situations where he's forced to interact with more 'grounded', real-world problems. Some of these reinventions have been more successful than others, but none of them have quite managed to hit upon the simple notion that seems to have been Morrison's guiding principle in setting the tone of the All-Star series: You don't take Superman and make him fit the world. You take the world and make it fit Superman.

To whit, the book embarks upon a ground-up reinvention of the world of Superman, along with a complete overhaul of the hero as a character and a concept, throwing him into all manner of outlandish and fantastical stories whilst at the same time presenting unique, original versions all of the members of his supporting cast. Crucially, however, the title does all this without ever feeling as though it has to jettison anything that's gone before, incorporating many different ideas from Superman stories of the past into a single, definitive take on the character.

On some levels, the book feels like a mass of contradictions. There's a strong sci-fi vibe to many of the stories, with complex ideas and plot points that often take multiple reads to fully appreciate--yet they all deal with universal human emotions that can't fail to resonate on a very basic level from the first time you look at them.

The book boasts an aesthetic that feels at once retro and futuristic, with 1950s automobiles and architecture rubbing shoulders with 21st-century scientific ideas and cutting-edge technology, whilst garish Silver Age superhero costumes clash against more contemporary fashions. Most of the story ideas feel familiar and old-fashioned, but the book pushes Superman to places that have never been explored in his long publishing history. And the series manages to imbue Superman with a wholly relatable and sympathetic human quality whilst also emphasising his godlike powers and superhuman status.

Yet somehow, Morrison manages to pull all of these elements into an elegant, deceptively simple depiction of Superman as the ultimate force for good, embodying everything that's positive and admirable about the human spirit, even in the face of the most dire threats.

However, I won't spend too much time here picking out my favourite moments from the book (which, frankly, I could happily do at some length). If you haven't read it, I'd recommend you do so immediately--and if you have, then you already know how good the title is. Instead, I'll try and explain what makes this Absolute edition a particularly fine presentation of the title.

For starters, there's the increased size of the stories themselves. This might not sound like much--after all, they're the same comics, just bigger--but in the case of All-Star Superman, the larger pages make it possible to spot tiny details of Frank Quitely's peerless artwork that might have escaped you in the regular-sized issues.

Many seemingly straightforward scenes contain secondary mini-dramas that are conveyed entirely through Quitely's art, often featuring Superman secretly helping to save people from danger whilst he's disguised as Clark Kent and pretending to do something completely different--and the subtle background details that hint at these (or are simply entertaining in their own right) are a lot easier to make out in the Absolute edition. Elsewhere, it's subtle texturing effects or barely-perceptible facial expressions that benefit from the larger format. And sometimes, it's the delicate colouring work of Jamie Grant that shines on the glossy deluxe paper stock.

It's also a real benefit to have all twelve issues of the series collected in a single volume. That might sound like a minor reason to favour the Absolute edition when the same stories are available far more cheaply in two smaller six-issue volumes, but there's something very pleasing about seeing how various plot points from the separate issues connect (for example, the malfunctioning robot from issue #2 that becomes an important plot point of the final couple of issues) in a way that might not be so apparent when reading the stories in separate volumes or as single issues. Although it might not have seemed so when it was first released, All-Star Superman is a single 12-part story as much as it is a collection of linked one-shot adventures. And, of course, the Absolute volume also satisfies those completists who love to have definitive collected collections of their favourite comics.

Finally, and most significantly, the Absolute edition contains many pages of extras that help to add extra depth to the stories, whilst also serving as interesting glimpses behind-the-scenes in their own right.

Sketches from both Quitely and Morrison show how some of the book's ideas were born, with Morrison's notes dating all the way back to his pitch for the aborted "Superman Now" relaunch of 1999. There are discarded ideas for a reinvention of the iconic S-shield, a couple of intriguing character sketches from Quitely that demonstrate how the artist uses body language to enable Clark Kent and Superman to look completely different despite sharing an identical physique, and pages of copious notes from Morrison on how he views the characters that appear in the series, both pre-existing and newly-created.

There are also cover sketches, alternate versions of the book's logo, snippets of commentary on individual plot points, an enumerated list of Superman's "12 labors", a brand new cover from Quitely, and even a lengthy script extract that shows you just how detailed Morrison's vision for the book was: in this case, we can read his thoughts on Kandor and Kryptonian society, but I can only assume that every other aspect of the book received the same careful attention, too (especially the faultlessly-constructed issue #10, which still stands out as the series' high point).

In short, this is everything that you'd expect from an Absolute edition--and given that All-Star Superman is to my mind the best superhero comic of the century so far, I heartily recommend this book as one of the few recent deluxe oversized hardcover editions to really warrant the extra expense.