DC Comics has just launched a new Superman comic book series as part of their year-long “Dawn of DC” initiative. It is written by Joshua Williamson with art by Jamal Campbell. You get 32 pages of story for the higher-than-usual retail price of $4.99. (I don’t know if this price point is just for the first issue or not.) The story’s title is “Chapter One: Voices in Your Head” and the good news is Superman #1 is a great opening issue. It’s a bright, hopeful and optimistic comic book, a refreshing change from some of the more recent fare from DC Comics.
Thankfully there is only a brief nod to Superman’s origin story and we jump straight into the action. The man of steel is fighting Livewire–a villain first introduced in the Superman: The Animated Series episode “Livewire” back in 1997. During the fight, he can hear Lex Luthor’s voice advising him on how to defeat Livewire. I wasn’t quite sure how Luthor was able to see the fight from prison, probably on the Live News. But what is revealed is that Clark can listen to any voice he chooses to. As you can probably guess, Luthor’s advice is brutal and lacks any kind of compassion. Superman ignores him and the fight is quickly over.
We then switch scenes to the Daily Planet where Jimmy Olsen is trying to tell Clark about his latest girlfriend. In walks the new editor-in-chief, Lois Lane. I don’t know the full story, but I believe Perry White is in hospital following events in the latest issue of Action Comics. Lois doesn’t appear to be too happy about her new role. She is hungry to chase down a story. Up on the roof of the Daily Planet, Clark tells Lois that Lex Luthor wants to join forces with Superman, to team up with him. Unsuprisingly, Clark is suspicious. OK, I will end my story summary here.
Avoiding any spoilers, I will just say that this issue ends on a cliffhanger and we are promised action, thrills and even some horror in the upcoming issues. I’m in, and am looking forward to the next issue. Let me share some of the pages from this opening issue.
SCORE: 9 out of 10
Thanks so much for reading!
-Wakizashi, *disappointed that despite the “truth” and “justice”, there was no mention of “the American way” in this relaunch of one of America’s most famous comics.*
Wakizashi's Reviews 
I’m glad you mentioned the Animated Series because the artwork you showcase reminds me totally of that show.
Is DC getting another system wide reboot with this dawn of dc?
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Now I need to watch the Superman Animated show. It sounds very good. I was a BIG fan of the Batman Animated Series.
Dawn of DC is being touted as a “year long initiative” and some of the titles coming out include Superboy, Man of Tomorrow; Unstoppable Doom Patrol; Green Lantern: Hal Jordan; Green Lantern: John Stewart; Batman: The Brave and the Bold; and Green Arrow. Do any of these new titles interest you?
As far as I know they aren’t rebooting everything. Batman & Detective are both continuing as before. Also Wonder Woman, Nightwing, The Flash and other “smaller” titles.
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So dawn is more about introducing new titles or retooling old one than a system wide reboot. I’m glad to hear that.
nah, at the moment I’m pretty much burnt out on super heroes in any form…
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Yeah mate, I hear you. I’ve got Superhero Movie burnout! And I never thought I’d hear myself say that.
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If you had told me this when the first Spiderman movie came out, I would have laughed in your face. Now, all I can think of is “please, let it just eeeeeeeeeend”…
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Superhero movie burnout; ah, yes, I remember it well. I’m not rushing to Ant Man 3 for exactly that reason…keep the pages coming, they look awesome!
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Same here. I haven’t been to watch a Marvel flick at the cinema since DSATMOM. Who can forget DSATMOM? (What a great acronym!) It was disappointing, more so because Sam Raimi was involved.
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Yep, superhero burnout is a thing, comic and movie for me. The problem IMO mostly revolves around the issue of the script. They shower the productions with money, but the scripts remain underdeveloped, the underfed runts of the litter which are first to die. I’ve watched Wakanda Forever recently. So much money packed into the sets. The plot? Would be laughable if it wasn’t so sad. That comic looks bright, though!
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Like Bookstooge mentioned in his comment, if you’d told 16-year-old Me that I would be bored of comic book movies in the future, I would’ve laughed. I was ecstatic that Batman 1989 was coming out when I was 16. Now it’s going to take something very very special to get me back in the cinema.
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