Superman: The Stranger #1
"Chapter One"
Writer/Artist: Wes Craig
Colorist: Jason Wordie
Publisher: DC Comics, Black Label imprint
If you’ve read the original Superman appearances in Action Comics from 1938, then you’ll have a good idea what to expect from Superman: the Stranger.
If you haven’t, then prepare yourself for a very different Superman story than what you’ve read before.
Faster Than a Speeding Bullet
Clark Kent is interviewing with Perry White, the editor of the Daily Planet. Clark is hoping for a writing job, but the paper was just sold and so the best he can get is a janitor’s assistant. Not even remotely close, but he’s hungry and down to his last eighteen dollars, so he’ll take it.
As he moves through the rest of his day, we learn that Clark is alone. He has nothing and no one beyond his tiny apartment. But at night, after dark, he puts on a red-and-blue costume and goes out to stop crimes and fight injustice.
Stopping a mugging, the would-be hero finds himself on what feels like the wrong side of the equation. The attacker? A young foreign boy who doesn’t even speak English. The victim? A rich white couple who want all of the people like the boy to leave “their” America.
Clark starts to think maybe he should be doing more with his powers—maybe there are bigger evils he should be facing…
More Powerful Than a Locomotive
I need to start with a brief history lesson. When Superman was first created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster the better part of a hundred years ago, he was a very different character than he is today. We knew he was from an alien world, but it wasn't called Krypton yet. He was an orphan in the truest sense of the word, having been raised in an actual orphanage. And his powers were much smaller-scale than they are now. He couldn't fly, just leap great distances. He was extraordinarily fast, but it wasn't true super-speed. He was stronger and tougher than an ordinary man, but again not at the levels of today. And he didn't fight supervillains; instead, he stood up against injustice and inequality.
Superman: The Stranger takes us back to this time, showing us that the original take on the character is just as relevant today.
Here we have a Clark Kent who has no one. The issue is framed by entries being written in a journal, which seem to be addressed to an unnamed friend. But whoever the person is, they're not around anymore. Clark mentions more than once that he is on his own. He has no idea where he comes from; the word alien has never even entered his mind. He has these powers that started showing up out of the blue and seem to be continually evolving.
It's no wonder he feels so small and alone. Reading this issue, my heart broke for him.
An interesting touch is how Clark keeps mentioning—almost fixating, really—being hungry. He's always hungry. Is that supposed to be because he burns so many calories using his powers, or is it a nod to living part of his life on the streets? I don't know. Either way, it's a simple but very humanizing thing for this character that we've always known as larger than life.
One of the things that makes Superman even more relevant today than it did when he was created is that he's an immigrant. That means something different in today's world than it did back then. And even though this series is set in the 1930s, you can see some of our modern world sneaking into the story. Superman wasn't born here, he came here in the hopes of a better life. He just happened to have the extra benefit of looking like a white male, which gave him some advantages that other immigrants don't have.
Lex Luthor is here as well, and he is also presented as an immigrant himself. He's shown here as a wealthy businessman who is very isolationist, wanting to make sure that only the "right" people remain in the country and prosper. He's even gone so far as to purchase the loyalty of a senator to make sure that his agenda is completed. Good thing we don't have things like that today, right?
One thing to note: this is published as a Black Label title, but it's still a Superman story, albeit a very old-style one. There is no strong language, excessive gore, or other adult content to be found here. The subject matter is clearly a bit more politically charged, which fits the version of the character being presented and the time period. To be honest, I’m not sure why it is a Black Label title and not just an Elseworlds one.
This being Chapter One of a larger story, there is very little action. There is a lot of setup that needs to be done, in terms of introducing us to our hero (Clark, of course) and our villain (Lex, naturally). By the end of the issue, we know what both men are all about—and that a collision is all but inevitable.
Able to Leap Tall Buildings in a Single Bound
I wasn’t too familiar with Wes Craig beyond his work as the artist on Rick Remender’s Deadly Class, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from his pulling double duty as writer and artist here. To say I was pleasantly surprised would be an understatement.
His writing absolutely nails the feeling of the 1930s take on the character, with a few tweaks of his own. The pacing is slower than a modern Superman story, but it’s presented as Chapter One of a larger story so I tried to look at it through that lens. His take on Clark Kent is fascinating—even though he doesn’t know he’s an actual alien yet, he is presented as almost feeling like one. He lives in isolation, with no friends or family, and even doesn’t stick with a job for very long. But when he puts on the costume, he becomes bolder, more assertive—almost a different person entirely.
The artwork here is incredible. The 1930s look is all over everything, and it actually reminds me in some ways of the old Fleischer cartoons. Clark should be a larger-than-life figure, but he’s so lost and alone that he goes through life hunched over. His loneliness is pressing down on him, and you can see it just by how he stands. There is a splash page of him walking through the city, and he is so small against the rest of the page that you almost lose sight of him. When he puts on the costume, he stands taller, puffs his chest out more, and even moves differently. And the one instance here where we do see him use his powers, he doesn’t do it through kid gloves like his modern counterpart. When he backhands an assailant, they go flying.
Jason Wordie’s colors take Craig’s already fantastic images to another level. There is a lot of blue and purple mixed into everything, giving the world and characters an almost melancholy glow. It’s yet another way that Clark’s frame of mind can be made apparent without hitting us over the head with “he’s so sad.” When the final scenes switch to Lex’s office, we lose those melancholy blues, and everything becomes much more solid and the colors bolder. But then, Lex Luthor is a man who knows very well what he wants and how he’ll get it, no soul-searching needed there.
It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane
Superman: The Stranger #1 is an absolutely fantastic comic that takes the character as he was first presented and inserts him into a 1930s world that has a bit of our own mixed in. It’s a sadder and lonelier take on Clark Kent than I have seen in a long time, if ever, with even the color choices hitting you with just how alone he is. If you’re looking for a Superman story that has a bit more to say and is backed up by amazing artwork and colors, this is one to watch.