CBR: JMS Enlists America For "Superman: Grounded"

[CBR News]

As part of his new arc on DC's eponymous Superman title, all-star writer J. Michael Straczynski told us his plan for fans to write in and see their town included in the story where Superman walks across America.


Full article here.

[NickFury90]

Superman come to texas pleeeeeeeease

[froinlaven]

Flash would be able to see whatever he wanted when he's running. JMS, you are losing me.

[Jerry Smith]

Not to be a hater, but my 350+ issue run of Superman stops with #700. After JMS' Marvel run, I can't see the man understands heroes or heroic behavior. I don't want to see Lois pregnant with Luthor's baby, I don't want to see Superman and Lois divorced because of Satan worship.

It's not clear, but I suspect the "people who don't like the idea of Superman succeeding" in his cross-country walk are either businessmen, Republicans, religious folks or all three. Another writer who can't keep their politics out of their stories.

I'm not a huge JMS fan, so I'll just vote with my wallet. No more Superman for me. I'll miss him and what's left of the supporting cast, but that's better than the misguided and wrongheaded characterization that is to come.

[Danvh3]

Ok bye.

I'll buy 2 copies to make up for your loss.

[keilthetarheel]

Superman pulls a Forrest Gump. JMS might officially be out of ideas

[Karl O'Neill]

Sounds like a cool idea.

This could be another success like 52 or Wednesday comics under Dan Didio's reign at DC.

[crossword]

A clever idea to get readers involved, unless of course you're not American. Way to exclude a huge chunk of the market DC.
Nothing against America, but haven't we seen the "hero (re)discovering America" schtick enough? If Superman protects the world, then why not have him travel to countries we haven't seen yet it the comics? We know why he protects the US, but how about exploring why he bothers to protect other nations, especially ones at odds with the American Way?
Granted you can't do the "Grounded" thing this way, but if DC (or Marvel) wants to break new ground then they should try moving beyond their borders.

[ArthurPDragon]

Ok bye.

I'll buy 2 copies to make up for your loss.

Better make it three, because this is losing me too. Superman just spent a full year being human and he's doing this? Similarly, Themisycria has been destroyed half a dozen times and the Amazons scattered and that'st he first thing he's doing there too? At least now I know where I'll find the money to buy the two new Steve Rogers books from Brubaker.

[Weakly Roll]

So, Superman is going to be the Littlest Hobo?

[Danvh3]

Better make it three, because this is losing me too. Superman just spent a full year being human and he's doing this? Similarly, Themisycria has been destroyed half a dozen times and the Amazons scattered and that'st he first thing he's doing there too? At least now I know where I'll find the money to buy the two new Steve Rogers books from Brubaker.

Well, that will actually balance things. I used to be nothing but a Marvel buyer, now I read 2 titles and the rest are DC.

JMS hasn't let me down yet and I'll be purchasing Wonder Woman for the first time in my life because of that.

[I_Captain Blanco]

So I said, "I think I have a solution, but it's totally counter-intuitive, so it'll take cojones the size of Stonehenge for any publisher to go along with this, because the odds of failure are freaking immense."

In other words, Straczynski thinks his own ideas are so big...so bold...so controversial...that only the bravest and boldest would dare take them on. What a bloated ego.

We discover that while Superman was out doing his New Krypton thing, her husband died of a tumor that he could have fixed with ease...but he didn’t, because he wasn’t here, he was out there somewhere.

As opposed to all the lives he's been unable to save if he was, say on the other side of the planet Earth, rescuing people from an erupting volcano? Superman already knows he can't be everywhere, and he already knows he can't save everyone. This is new?

On the other hand:

I would like to revive the perception of Superman as the hero of the average guy, and a symbol of hope, because that’s how he started out in the aftermath of the Great Depression: a force of infinite power who was there on the side of people who had no other recourse, no hope. Superman stands for what is best in us, in what we hope we are when push comes to shove. He shouldn’t be this guy on a distant mountaintop...he should be the court of last resort for the guy on the street, who can turn a corner and find the most powerful man on the planet standing there, saying "How can I help?" For the lost, the dispossessed, the runaway, the thrown-away, and for those who just need an image to associate with hope, I think this is a profoundly powerful image.

Okay, that sounds like Superman to me. I just think it'd be much more powerful if we could see stories about that take on Superman but still in his own milieu, in his accustomed setting; wouldn't the contrast be more fully-realized that way?

And one last thing: if Superman doesn't visit Cleveland (home of Siegel & Shuster and his metafictional "birthplace") during this storyline, it's a crying shame.

[ArthurPDragon]

"You will believe a man can walk." - Mark Waid.

[Fool]

Okay, here's my problem. I have to agree with some of what Jerry is getting at here.

Look at the course Superman will be walking...all mostly liberal states.

So JMS is really saying, "Yeah, Superman's a man of the people, but of the people I say he's a man of."

So he won't be coming to my neck of the woods here in south Louisiana, where he could help out with the oil spill. So much for a timely story. Nor will he be helping out with the flooding in Oklahoma...I guess helping suffering "inbreds" or "hicks" is beneath JMSuperman.

And crossword is right: this story does alienate the rest of the world.

Here's how this story, which has a good concept at its core, might have been better approached:

Superman returns from the New Krypton saga and he's feeling failed by both sides of his heritage. He's seen the best and worst of Krypton for a year, but really only the worst of Earth.

So Superman holds a press conference addressing the world. He asks people to write/email/create videos inviting him to come to their town. He will stay in each locale for two days. Since he's Superman, the entire world is available to him in no time.

The next year (or two) sees Superman encountering the problems of the everyman and everywoman, BUT throughout the world.

That would've been a lot more open-minded AND a lot bolder.

Looks like this'll be a title I occasionally follow from the LCS, though I won't be paying for it.

[mastadge]

So he won't be coming to my neck of the woods here in south Louisiana, where he could help out with the oil spill. So much for a timely story. Nor will he be helping out with the flooding in Oklahoma...I guess helping suffering "inbreds" or "hicks" is beneath JMSuperman.

While I haven't looked at the map yet, I'm grateful he's steering clear of the oil spill. Remember all the embarrassing comics that tied in to 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina? It's probably best not to tie these comics in to real world disasters until sometime after the fact. Create an analogous situation in the comics world if you have to, but let's keep JMS's insane ego and blatant polemic away from current hot topics, eh?