SUPERMAN, No. 214 (Azzarello / Lee; DC, 2005)

Every Wednesday morning, I make a blind pull from Siri's (randomized) choice of one of the 20 alphabetically-organized shortboxes that constitute my comics collection, (re-) read it, write about it, and publish the resultant review/memory/whatever. Earlier installments live here.

(Box17): While my (re-)entry here into the Azzarello/Lee "For Tomorrow" run was the penultimate "Superman gets his ass handed to him until he does something the bad guy (Zod, right?) never conceived of stay tuned for the conclusion" issue and my memory of the storyline – which I recall rather enjoying, contrary to (IIRC) the general reception of the time – was foggy at best, my revisit was nonetheless quite enjoyable.

I've long appreciated DC's – back then, at least; I don't know if it holds true today – anti-"Previously" page edict: I love the feeling of being hurled headfirst into the deep end of the minds of two masters of the medium working their magic on the archetype of the medium itself. Azzarello is a strange fit for Superman, but that strange fit is, I think, why it works: one of those instances of a writer being outside their normal wheelhouse and making it work rather well; that Lee and Williams were along for the ride no doubt made that dance into the unknown far more fluid.

Lee was born to draw Superman, full stop: this was the artistic follow-up / spiritual successor to "Hush," yes? I prefer his Superman to his Batman, by far. Though I've had the trade for awhile, his team-up with Scott Snyder (whose writing, with some exceptions – OWLS, BLACK MIRROR, and LAST KNIGHT ON EARTH – I’ve yet to fully embrace), SUPERMAN UNCHAINED, remains unread. Might have to dig into that one if only to see more Lee Superman.

Questions with no answer, yet: The OMAC here - harnessing cancer to create super-soldiers was an intriguing solution to the super-soldier quandry – was different than the one in INFINITE CRISIS, right? Did Orr ever show up again? Was FOR TOMORROW re-collected recently? Might need to pick it up – revisiting just this one issue, headfirst into the deep end, intrigued enough to re-read the whole thing.