It’s Superman!: A Novel
Coming of age in rural 1930s America with X-ray vision, the power to stop bullets, and the ability to fly isn’t exactly every boy’s story. So just how did Clark Kent, a shy farmer’s son, grow up to be the Man of Steel? Follow young Clark’s whirlwind journey from Kansas to New York City’s Daily Planet–by way Hollywood. This ace reporter is not the only person leading a double life in a teeming metropolis, just the only one able to leap tall buildings in a single bound–a skill that comes in handy when battling powerful criminal masterminds like scheming Lex Luthor and fascist robots. But can Clark’s Midwestern charm save the day and win the heart of stunning, seen-it-all newspaperwoman Lois Lane? Or is it a job for Superman? Look deep into the soul of a pop-culture legend brilliantly reimagined in this novel, which is as inventive and thrilling as it is touching and wise.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The “Batman Begins” of Superman stories
First, to echo the majority of reviews - this is an amazing, “realistic”/gritty take on Superman’s mythology.
I am a big comics fan from the 70s and love the older, 30s/Golden Age treatment of many heroes. This book, by giving Clark a real-world late-1930s America in which to roam, gives a fairly plausible (as plausible as a “superbaby from outer space” story can be) and well-thought out realistic grounding for Clark’s evolution from scared, unsure teenager to morally just and responsible Superman.
Also, the humor is believably naturalistic, with a running gag about Clark always getting a fact or two wrong in his reporting. Lex is smooth and vicious like the best 1930s-movie racketeers. And fleshing out characters like Lex, with his foibles, idiosyncrasies, and traits given a *reason* for being there…really gives everyone some depth and three-dimensionality.
If you love Superman in all his incarnations, and would like to see a different more “realistic” take, read this book immediately.
5 Stars Fantastic!! (I didn’t want to say Super!)
This was a great read! I’m not a huge fan of Superman stories, and have always found the character (as portrayed in movies and recent comics) to be quite one-dimensional and boring. This book definitely added life to the character and helped me understand where he came from.
Written as if Smallville (the television show) had continued past Clark’s high school years and taken place in the 1930s, this book establishes the relationships of Clark, Lois and Lex in the setting of a murder mystery or crime novel. Lex is the manipulative politician and businessman who begins to show signs of his mad scientist phase. The characters (including those who did not appear in the comics) were interesting and likeable. I actually cared what happened to these people.
I would highly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys sci-fi/fantasy/superhero tales, as well as to anyone who loves the feeling of 30s noir and pulp stories. It really made me feel as if I was in the 30s, watching as a superhero developed.
4 Stars “…THE LAST SATURDAY OF MAY 1935…”
For everyone who has ever read a comic book here’s a story you must hear. Tom De Haven’s brilliant imagining of the early years of the iconic man of steel begins with “Our version of the story opens on the last Saturday of May 1935 with the arrival of Sheriff Bill Dutcher at the police station in Smallville, Kansas.”
For most that year, 1935, brings to mind the Depression and the attendant gloom, hopelessness that settled over our country. Times were especially tough in Kansas where a young farm boy, Clark Kent, watched as the once fertile earth turned dry. Oh, they can still make a living but it’s a meager one.
However, like maMy high school boys Clark is swept up in personal problems - maintaining his grade average and wondering about himself, the things that make him different.
Life is almost the opposite in New York for Columbia student Lois Lane. She has a boyfriend, photographer Will Berg who soon finds himself accused of murdering his pawnbroker. He’s innocent, of course, but has been framed by villainous politico Lex Luthor. Innocent or not Will is forced to run and who should he meet as he skedaddles across the country? Of course, Clark. What a pair they are as they crisscross the U.S.
Clark learns a lot from his more sophisticated pal but not quite enough to prepare him for New York City, the tempting Lois Lane, and the challenges of leading a double life.
Author De Haven mirrors a Depression ravaged America with painterly accuracy and engenders smiles as Clark comes to terms with who he is and what he might accomplish.
Highly recommended.
- Gail Cooke
3 Stars A not entirely successful take on Superman
Tom De Haven returns Superman to his roots with this interesting, but deeply flawed novel. Superman, a creation of Siegel and Shuster in the late 30’s, was a comic phenomenon when he arrived in the late 30’s. An amalgam of a variety of concepts this raw idea gradually transformed into an American icon. De Haven revisits the story and transforms it into a combination of pulp fiction and The Grapes of Wraith. Clark Kent, as portrayed by here, is a callow youth lacking the stolid support of the Kents, who found the orphan from Krypton. They are here, but through a variety of circumstances do not set the foundation for Clark as they do in the various other incarnations of the character. Instead Clark becomes a fugitive traveling through Depression Era America and sees first hand the injustices that were heaped on people. The mechanism for this journey is far-fetched interaction between Clark and a photographer on the run from City Boss, Lex Luthor.From this he gains the will to combat evil, not as satisfying as the hero reflecting the values he learned as a child.
Luthor is the interesting character here. Portrayed as a visionary criminal instead of the scientific genius he later became, Luthor’s machinations and brutality are truly where the novel takes off. Lois Lane’s here as well, seen as a take off on the hard boiled, soft at heart reporter that has been done better in other media. But it is with Luthor’s evil and callous disregard for others that IT’S SUPERMAN gets its energy. When the final meeting occurs, the energy of the novel builds up well and finishes with a satisfying action sequence that captures the energy of the early comics. The problem lies with the journey; where Clark filled with self-doubt and so much self-pity, becomes an unlikable character. Superman should never be unlikable, confused and sad, perhaps but never someone we don’t want around. De Haven’s Clark just is not the Superman the world needs. By the end of the novel he’s getting there, but reading about his voyage of self discovery is just too much of a slog through the mind of a young man who is far from “super.”
4 Stars Not your mother’s Superman. Actually, it’s your grandmother’s Superman
As someone who has enjoyed the various incarnations of the Superman legend on TV and in the movies over the years (as well as dipping into the comic books now and then), I liked Tom’s De Haven’s fresh-by-being-retro take on the character in his novel, “It’s Superman!” Superman, after all, was originally created in the 1930’s and dozens of his initial comic book and newspaper strip adventures took place at that time, so why not do a contemporary novel set during the time of the Man of Steel’s initial introduction to the world, the time when our grandparents and their contemporaries were first dazzled by the character?
Just be prepared for a more methodical and literary approach than you might expect, with pacing and excitement taking a definite back seat to mood, introspection, and characterization. Am I saying “It’s Superman!” is dull? Not at all. After all, it eventually has Lex Luthor building an army of robots to take over the world (a development that Mr. De Haven skillfully fits alongside the novel’s many realistic elements and makes work). Just don’t expect a lightning pace and endless wham-bang action, and you’ll have no problem enjoying this fine book.
Mr. De Haven should consider making “It’s Superman!” the first installment of a possible trilogy. The way he skillfully and effectively uses many literary techniques (like introspective internal dialogues), as well as the way he’s good at placing those elements comfortably alongside fantastic sci-fi style developments, makes it a good bet that he could tell quite a unique Krypton-oriented story, as the author’s gritty, down-to-earth, and often moody Clark Kent discovers the true nature of his other-worldly origins. Talk about the realistic meeting the fantastic! But, for now at least, we have this moving and stirring book.
Filed under: Top Superman Comics