Amazon // Mile High Comics

Set in an all-new continuity re-imagining DC's top heroes, EARTH ONE is a new wave of original, stand-alone graphic novels produced by the top writers and artists in the industry. The groundbreaking new line rockets into effect right here with the Super Hero who started it all – Superman!What would happen if the origin of The Man of Tomorrow were introduced today for the very first time? Return to Smallville and experience the journey of Earth's favorite adopted son as he grows from boy to Superman like you've never seen before!

I don't, by in large, read the 'Big Three' comics of the DC Universe because I don't often care about Superman, Batman or Wonder Woman.  I'm more often interested in their sidekicks or enemies so I only touch upon their books when it involves them.

SUPERMAN: EARTH ONE is a different fish because J. Michael Straczynski is involved and I loved (and I do mean loved) his comic series RISING STARS from the early new millennium (back when I was so into comic books I spending hundreds of dollars a month on them).  I trusted him not to give me squeaky-clean, 'gosh golly', do-gooder Clark Kent.  And he didn't.  He gave me a Clark who didn't know his place in the world, who wanted to succeed because he wanted to take care of his mother, who basically became a superhero because it gave him an opportunity to land the job he wanted at the Daily Planet.

Shane Davis, who does the art and was born in NJ (but I won't hold that against him), does a phenomenal job on the artwork in my opinion.  Its striking, detailed when it needs to be and appropriately realistic enough to not make me wonder if everyone is made of elastic.  There is a certain kind of 'pretty' to everything, but I'll forgive that (I read shoujo manga after all).

Since I had so little invested in the Superman mythos the more emo, less self-assured and confident Clark Kent didn't bother me as much as other fans.  He wanted to feel bad for himself?  Let him.  He has every right to in this world--a world where he doesn't fit in, is under threat of being hunted, is possibly the only one of his kind (aka: alien) on the planet.  And at least he's being emo over whether or not he should do as his parents want him to do (be happy, find a job he will enjoy) or to take the relatively easy street of doing something extraordinary (athlete, scientist, whatever) so he can take care of his family.

And then things go to hell in a hand basket and the choice is taken away from him.

Honestly I wish they'd gone with this as the reboot and not the...whatever it is they're publishing right now for him (I don't know, the uniform is...different).  I'm looking forward to the second volume, as well as the Batman: Earth One book coming out later this year.