Superman for All Seasons

I'm not a big Superman fan. There's just so little that can actually affect him. It doesn't feel like he really needs to work for what he's got, it's all been given to him. The hard part about writing Superman is making him human. Even though he's an alien, Superman has always come across as someone who was doing his best to be human. This volume examines who he is through the eyes of others.

Superman's Smallville is the quintessential small town America. With Tim Sale's art that comes through. He's put this volume together with a clear nod to Norman Rockwell. Even the color pattern is evocative of that era. Spring and Winter bookend the volume and they're appropriately narrated by his Smallville connections because Superman is really defined by his small town roots. Why else would someone who could do all that he can do choose to help people and expect nothing in return?

Summer and Fall are his Metropolis connections. The people that only know him as Superman and see him only as the hero; be that for good or ill. These sections weren't as strong. It felt like Loeb was just moving the story in a direction to send Clark back to Smallville. Lois was written as an actual reporter and not just a love sick colleague but Lex was just a one-dimensional villain. There can be more to his hatred of Superman and his tactics than Loeb chose to highlight. I find Luthor can be one of the most interesting villains because his sphere of power is so much different than his nemesis. That Superman's main villain is essentially a business man is interesting to me.

I did like how Loeb worked that catch phrases into the work. "More powerful than a locomotive", "faster than a speeding bullet", "able to leap tall buildings in a single bound", even the "it's a bird, it's a plane" reference. They're not all in the same story, but they are all there.