Superman: Earth One

2011-03-06T20:20:00.000-08:00

This is easily the best graphic novel I have read in the last few years, I love the fresh new look and feel of Clark Kent, here is a brief synopsis.
On a train to Metropolis; Clark Kent thinks back on his and his mother's conversation about how he had years to think about "this", and yet Clark needs more time. Arriving in Metropolis, and renting a room at a hotel (as well as taking care of a gunman meant for himself); Clark goes out the next morning and tries out several jobs: pro football, a major scientific research company, financial, and major league baseball: Clark realizes he can do anything as each job wants him. He calls Martha Kent and tells her what has happened, to which his mother points out that she'll be happy with whatever he wants to be, but urges him to do what he thinks is right for himself; in the end, its Clark's decision to make. His last job stop is at the Daily Planet, where he meets Perry White, James "Jim" Olsen, and finally Lois Lane. But upon hearing the Planet, like the newspaper industry, is declining, Clark decides not to pursue a job at the Daily Planet, drops the application paper into a garbage bin, and flies away into space as he thinks back to when Martha and Jonathan Kent told him how he was found: hiking through the woods, the Kents saw a sonic booming ship flying pass them before it crashed. Checking for survivors, they found a baby boy instead and left before the ship finally exploded. Then, the Kents decided to keep the child, just after the US government and its military started arriving at the crash site. They only kept a small fragment of debris from the ship where they'd learned it wasn't from this Earth; meaning Clark is an alien. This only connected to Clark being considered a freak growing up, thus at the present, he talks to his late father's grave and says that he can't do it: he now has already "fit in" and that he'll be on the run if he exposes himself. Instead, finding a perfect job or career instead; he wants his dad to accept.
The next day; Major Sandra Lee, working at a US Military base on advanced technology, goes and sees again the crashed spaceship from twenty years ago: the same ship that brought Kal-El to Earth. So far, the ship has managed to regenerate its damaged and lost parts, and the scientists working there have found symbols inside the very atoms of the ship. Just as this is being done; Clark finds out his apartment is on fire, and superspeeds in and out, grabbing the fragment and a red and blue outfit his mother made for him from the kryptonian cloth he was wrapped in as an infant. Alone, Clark checks the fragment with his vision, where he is hit with energy and becomes unconscious; falling from the sky. The fragment talks and connects itself back to the ship in order to download more information. Just as this is happening; an invading alien force suddenly arrives and attacks Earth's major cities. The military quickly jumps in to fight back, but the alien attack ships defeat Earth's fighter jets. Jim and Lois decide to be where the story is, and are almost killed because of Jim wanting the best photos from the invasion possible. Clark, still unconscious, is fed information he couldn't remember before: the last moments of the planet Krypton, his home. He, named Kal-El, is the son of Jor-El and Lara, who waited til the last minute to send him off as the shockwaves would hide his escape. Lara refers to someone who would follow him, however her words are left incomplete as Kal-El's ship ejects into the sky just as the city falls. Just then, the planet is attacked, and suddenly, Clark wakes up. The alien leader reveals himself throughout the entire world; Tyrell. He decides not to talk about who or what he is, and cuts to the chase by revealing the ultimatium: the Earth will be destroyed, and millions will die, if a certain someone he's been looking for doesn't reveal himself and surrender to him. Lee and scientists agree that the person Tyrell is looking was in the ship, just as Clark goes at invisible speeds to grab a piece of the alien attackers by not revealing himself, but it doesn't work as Jim catches a human shaped red and blue blur. Clark goes for help at the same research company he was going to get hired for, but he ends up seeing how corrupted they are during the invasion. He thinks back when his father told him how there are times when we can do something even though we didn't want to, and brings up the outfit Martha was making as something Clark probably won't need, but he should have it just in case. Tyrell notices Jim taking pictures while others are running and he almost kills him until Clark, who can't stand and watch anymore, goes and destroys a robot before superspeeding back. Tyrell now knows he is on the planet and prepares a full force; Clark looks at the outfit, and remembers his first reaction: wondering why there wasn't a mask, and his mother wondering if Clark wants to hide for the rest of his life. And the "S", because Jonathan coining the name "Superman." Clark finally decides to wear the outfit and reveal himself to the world and stop the invasion as Superman.
Superman lands on the ground and starts destroying the robots and the ships just as Tyrell reveals himself to him. Proving himself to be stronger and deadly; he brings up that Krypton's destruction wasn't an accident but was in fact an "assassination." Coming from the planet Dheron; his homeworld and Krypton were bitter enemies who fought in several wars that finally ended with a Dheron war machine, designed to destroy Krypton's core, provided by an unknown alien race. But one failure to this was the escape of one survivor; a scientist's son that Tyrell had been charged with a mission to find, and kill: the Last Son of Krypton, Kal-El. Tyrell proceeds with the activation of several war machines to do to Earth what it did to Krypton and hits Superman hard wth a red solar energy field that pins him down, preventing him from stopping Tyrell. Tyrell explains the nature of their powers and leaves to make final preparations, and because of the invasion happening because of him, no one in Metropolis wants to help Superman. Remembering his father teaching him that once he realizes who he is once he's tested, that those will come to his side because of it; Lois and Jim get Superman out of the field using a truck; they succeed, and Superman stands back up in full power. Superman and Tyrell fight again, this time with Superman winning because he's fighting dirty. Superman's ship becomes fully regenerated and takes off to where he is, knocking Tyrell from behind. Superman knows he came in that ship, and remembers Tyrell mentioning that his spacecraft is only nearly as impervious as Kryptonian metal, which Superman's ship is made out of. Jumping to the controls Superman enters Tyrell's now not strong spacecraft and destroys it from the inside. Tyrell tries to stop him but is ultimately defeated. He warns Superman that others like him to come to finish what he's done and Superman knows they will when he jumps off the ship. Tyrell laughs because Superman still doesn't know about....but the ship explodes and he dies before he finishes his sentence. The invasion is over, the day is saved, as Superman smiles as he flies away. At a government base; Lee wonders who Superman is and what he wants, just as much as she wonders if him on Earth means more trouble to the planet. The general puts her in charge of learning all that can be learned about Superman and his origin. He also tells her one other thing: he wants Superman found.
Clark, after the ordeal, walks home when the boss of the research company finds him and finally offers him the job; he declines. Meanwhile, one of the Dheronian battleships crashlands in an indoor football field. He does some clothes shopping and comes up with a "Clark Kent disguise" and heads back to more enthusiastic and successful Daily Planet because of how they covered and captured the invasion and Superman than their other rival news groups did. Perry doesn't know how to name their new sensation until Clark comes in with the name "Superman," along with his interview he claims he did with Superman; Clark is hired. Jim and Lois ask him afterwards why he chose being a reporter, and Clark answers that he saw them and while others ran for their safety, they didn't and others would've died if they did. Lois wonders why she didn't see him, and puts that aside and gives him good luck while Jim welcomes Clark "to the Asylum." In the days that followed, the opinion of Superman is mixed: some like him and see him as a hero, others don't trust him because he is the source of the invasion, his powers, etc. In the arctic, Superman is in a secret cave where he has hidden his ship, and its sentience activates and tells him his mission: to survive, use his powers well and wisely, and to avenge the murder of his homeworld. In the end, Lois and Jim are on the Daily Planet rooftop and discussing how Superman has changed the world just as Jim grabs a shot of Superman flying into the sky.

The Planet Krypton

Superman: Earth One