REVIEW: My Adventures With Superman #1

It’s not a true piece of DC media until it gets a comic book prequel in the form of a limited series. As it would happen, the new My Adventures With Superman #1 acts as a mid-season bridge to the series and is a rousing start and expansion of the new Superman take fans have come to ask more for.

The regular cover comes from Carli Squiteri. It’s like a snapshot of the show’s intro set miles high above Metropolis with Superman. Main cast members Lois and Jimmy are also included. Since the show began, I personally always thought that the “My” in the title referred to either Lois’ or Jimmy’s point of view as friends of our hero. This cover seems to confirm that in the show’s unique Eastern animation-inspired style.

Riley Rossmo’s variant cover includes an appearance from Mr. Mxyzptlk for a wild fifth-dimensional piece. Mxyzptlk puts Clark through the ringer with a total warping of reality, even one his legs are being liquified. It almost seems like he was transported by the imp from the regular cover to this one with the inclusion of birds and their stray feathers. It almost seems too coincidental.

Gavin Guidry does an important artistic service with his variant cover. There are several Superman and Lois covers –across the different comic book ages, different media takes, and more. Guidry gives us our cover of the show’s Superman and Lois in all their “Can You Read My Mind?” glory. This was one of the first covers revealed when the series was announced.

Another variant cover is from the source itself, Warner Bros. Animation, which is actually the character design sheet for Clark Kent as we’ve seen him in the show.

Clark sets the scene in December during the holiday season and when snow begins falling in Metropolis –so, it has not been too long since season one’s finale set during Thanksgiving the previous month. While Parasite Dr. Ivo has been stopped and Checkmate kept at bay, Superman hopes the city can catch a break. In his personal life, Clark is having his first Christmas away from home in Metropolis.

Lois and Jimmy are on it as his girlfriend and best friend to cheer him up (Jimmy also mentions an extra surprise), but The Daily Planet comes under attack by what appears to be a crazed android capable of absorbing the properties of things living and nonliving. Sounds really familiar, does it not? The three follow its trail and a confrontation breaks out between Superman and what very well is Amazo. Based on what happens, this is going to be a great story for fans who enjoyed Amazo in Justice League Unlimited and Crisis on Infinite Earths Part 1.

Showrunner Josie Campbell begins this story as a “where are they are now?” piece for what Clark, Lois, and Jimmy are getting up to between the seasons and it has great potential to become what could be a pivotal adventure for the show. The Daily Planet cast makes an appearance and some panels recap events from previous episodes – truly bringing the show to life on the pages. The appearance of Amazo and what that could mean for the series as a whole would make any reader curious and want more which means Campbell did a good job as a writer.

The interior art is done by Pablo Collar and whilst he does use the show as a reference, but there are subtle details in his illustrations that make the art uniquely his. He also does a great job of emulating the style of Ivo’s purple and green technology we’ve seen on the show with him as Parasite and applied to the design of Amazo. Another thing about this Superman is that he moves a lot, so naturally, there are a lot of shots of him as a red streak and plenty of action shots to match his momentum. Nick Filardi brings the bright palette of the show to comics with colors.

(8/10) One of the biggest questions when season one came out was if there was Dr. Ivo, then where was his most famous creation? His debut is right here in My Adventures With Superman #1, at the same time, how will this tie into the new season? There are plenty of reasons to get on this limited series.