A Very Short Review of a Superman Book

Reading a good book is like sex. Afterwards you feel like crowing about it. But books are better in some ways. Because crowing about a good book is socially acceptable and the other is not. I just read Superman: Secret Identity (written in 2004 and in print as far as I can tell). In a nutshell it is a Superman story set in a world where the comics came first and the superpowers came after that. And it also is realistic in its way that it presents the use of superpowers to improve the world without being too deadly logical. Too much logic is death to fine fantasy.

It is a self-contained story about the life of a boy named Clark Kent by his parents as a joke who ends up with real superpowers. It is amazing in its balance of hope and cynicism and all the rest. No enemy named Lex Luthor, no superdog, no super villains, and a very real reason to dress up as superman. I salute Kurt Busiek and Stuart Immonen, this is a very fine story indeed. Go buy it, borrow it, check it out from the library, it is well worth your time and money. I doubt this dog would perform the trick nearly as well again, but I wish there was more of it. The sign of a good story for me is it leaves me wanting more of it and not giving it to me. The story knows when to stop.

And now I have to resist getting the rest of my 'chocolate bonbons' out and reading them right this minute. I hope they'll be half as good.