Superman: Birthright

darkspider

Formerly known as 'darkspider16'
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Has anyone read this?

I mentioned it in the Social Thread, but due to prompting from Baxter, made a thread of its own.

Mark Waid wrote it, and Leinil Yu did pencils. I liked the art; there were only a few spots that seemed off, but those were miniscule compared to the rest.

The whole story was well done. I liked the whole thing, even the alien invasion. The plan to discredit Superman is the thing I'd like Lex to do. Basically, if Lex was less of a crazy scientistand more of a sinister businessman, I'd be extremely pleased. Overall, I liked it, and wish that DC would have Waid write a series continued from this.
 
Has anyone read this?

I mentioned it in the Social Thread, but due to prompting from Baxter, made a thread of its own.

Mark Waid wrote it, and Leinil Yu did pencils. I liked the art; there were only a few spots that seemed off, but those were miniscule compared to the rest.

The whole story was well done. I liked the whole thing, even the alien invasion. The plan to discredit Superman is the thing I'd like Lex to do. Basically, if Lex was less of a crazy scientistand more of a sinister businessman, I'd be extremely pleased. Overall, I liked it, and wish that DC would have Waid write a series continued from this.

Have you read Lex Luthor: Man of Steel? It a good look into Luthor's mindset and has him running a hell of a plot against superman.
 
Although I do like Superman Returns, I read this for the first time last year and one of my first thoughts on finishing it was "Wow.... Bryan Singer can go **** himself for not making this the new Superman movie".

Definitely my favourite solo Superman story(except for Superman: Peace on Earth).
 
I read it and enjoyed it too. This is kind of like the first All-Star Superman in a way. It's okay.
 
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It was alright. My main criticism is the whole Superman is a vegetarian because he can see auras thing. Superman doesn't have to be a vegetarian and he doesn't need an aura-seeing power. It's only logical for him to eat meat: he was raised on a farm, for crying out loud
 
I read it and liked it. Yu's art seemed off in a lot of places though. The colors were great, however.
 
You know, this would be perfect for The All ABout Comics Thread. A book that can't really sustain its own thread.

I'm all about the streamlining, yo.
 
It was alright. My main criticism is the whole Superman is a vegetarian because he can see auras thing. Superman doesn't have to be a vegetarian and he doesn't need an aura-seeing power. It's only logical for him to eat meat: he was raised on a farm, for crying out loud

Your main criticism with the whole thing was a minor lifestyle choice that's mentioned maybe once in the whole book(possibly just in Waid's character profiles at the end) and had nothing to do with the actualy story?:?

Personally, I thought that was a great decision, because it makes him more accessable to more people. There are a lot of vegetarians who would argue that Superman eating animals solely for pleasure(since he doesn't actually have to eat at all) is very hypocritical of him. By making him a vegetarian, the vegetarians are appeased, and the omnivores can't really complain because his not eating meat isn't harming anything they care about.

The aura-seeing power was just an easy way to explain it away without going into all that detail, and it tied in beautifully with the rest of the story(like the scene where
Kobe dies
).

And "there's no way he'd be a vegetarian because he was raised on a farm"? One of my best friends was taken to Church every week his entire life. By the time he was 16, he was an atheist. Me, on the other hand, have never been to Church, and I'm a firm believer in God and heaven and all that.

You really need to step out of all the black-and-whites. Not all psychopaths are indifferent to their appearance, and not all barnfolk are omnivorus.:wink:
 
You know, this would be perfect for The All ABout Comics Thread. A book that can't really sustain its own thread.

I'm all about the streamlining, yo.

Dude.... seriously, give it a rest. Your thread's doing fine. This is a comics discussion board. We're not going to merge everything north of the Lounge into that thread.

This is one of the most popular Superman stories ever. Of course it deserves its own thread.
 
Dude.... seriously, give it a rest. Your thread's doing fine. This is a comics discussion board. We're not going to merge everything north of the Lounge into that thread.

This is one of the most popular Superman stories ever. Of course it deserves its own thread.

Bah!

I say again, bah!
 
Your main criticism with the whole thing was a minor lifestyle choice that's mentioned maybe once in the whole book(possibly just in Waid's character profiles at the end) and had nothing to do with the actualy story?:?

Personally, I thought that was a great decision, because it makes him more accessable to more people. There are a lot of vegetarians who would argue that Superman eating animals solely for pleasure(since he doesn't actually have to eat at all) is very hypocritical of him. By making him a vegetarian, the vegetarians are appeased, and the omnivores can't really complain because his not eating meat isn't harming anything they care about.

The aura-seeing power was just an easy way to explain it away without going into all that detail, and it tied in beautifully with the rest of the story(like the scene where
Kobe dies
).

And "there's no way he'd be a vegetarian because he was raised on a farm"? One of my best friends was taken to Church every week his entire life. By the time he was 16, he was an atheist. Me, on the other hand, have never been to Church, and I'm a firm believer in God and heaven and all that.

You really need to step out of all the black-and-whites. Not all psychopaths are indifferent to their appearance, and not all barnfolk are omnivorus.:wink:


I think that's a crappy way tp put it. You're friend probably went atheist for a number f reasons. Most people do it out of being pressured by family or because of music interests and growing interests of your surroundings and how your opinions change as you get older. Also, to discredit that, I've never ever in my life heard of someone who lived on a farm growing up to be a vegetarian. I realize it's probable, but so is smashing a watch and waiting through time to see if it puts itself back together. It's just not likely. The vegetarian thing seems kind of needless and useless. It feels like it was just thrown there just to say, "hey, I'm the first guy to write a veggie loving Superman." Sounds kinda dumb.
 
You're friend probably went atheist for a number f reasons. Most people do it out of being pressured by family or because of music interests and growing interests of your surroundings and how your opinions change as you get older.

That's exactly, entirely, 100% the point I'm trying to make, Hibiki.

He was raised Christian, and due to a number of reasons over the years, he eventually became and atheist, because that's how life works.
 
That's exactly, entirely, 100% the point I'm trying to make, Hibiki.

He was raised Christian, and due to a number of reasons over the years, he eventually became and atheist, because that's how life works.

you didn't explain it that way. Also, was there any believable reason for him to be a vegetarian or was it just said or implied with no real explanation?
 
you didn't explain it that way. Also, was there any believable reason for him to be a vegetarian or was it just said or implied with no real explanation?
He could see bio-auras, indicating whether organisms have a higher form of sentience. Because animals are as "capable of life" as humans are, he chooses to be veg. Or something like that.

And this did have an effect on the overall plot, as other people here mentioned. It didn't feel like just a throwaway characteristic.

I didn't think it was a bad decision -- but then again, I've always regarded Supes as a character who is *precisely* fundamentally alien/extra-terrestrial, and thus his nature transcends any human upbringing that he might have (which is precisely why it's so interesting to write Elseworlds stories where he grows up in a different era or culture; he's basically the same character, responding to radically different situations or circumstances).
 
Personally, I thought that was a great decision, because it makes him more accessable to more people. There are a lot of vegetarians who would argue that Superman eating animals solely for pleasure(since he doesn't actually have to eat at all) is very hypocritical of him. By making him a vegetarian, the vegetarians are appeased, and the omnivores can't really complain because his not eating meat isn't harming anything they care about.

Since when does Superman not need to eat? I mean he's not Apollo...
 
Your main criticism with the whole thing was a minor lifestyle choice that's mentioned maybe once in the whole book(possibly just in Waid's character profiles at the end) and had nothing to do with the actualy story?:?

Personally, I thought that was a great decision, because it makes him more accessable to more people. There are a lot of vegetarians who would argue that Superman eating animals solely for pleasure(since he doesn't actually have to eat at all) is very hypocritical of him. By making him a vegetarian, the vegetarians are appeased, and the omnivores can't really complain because his not eating meat isn't harming anything they care about.

The aura-seeing power was just an easy way to explain it away without going into all that detail, and it tied in beautifully with the rest of the story(like the scene where
Kobe dies
).

And "there's no way he'd be a vegetarian because he was raised on a farm"? One of my best friends was taken to Church every week his entire life. By the time he was 16, he was an atheist. Me, on the other hand, have never been to Church, and I'm a firm believer in God and heaven and all that.

You really need to step out of all the black-and-whites. Not all psychopaths are indifferent to their appearance, and not all barnfolk are omnivorus.:wink:

tl;dr
 
you didn't explain it that way.

I apologize. I thought I did.

Also, was there any believable reason for him to be a vegetarian or was it just said or implied with no real explanation?

They further fleshed out his super-vision in Birthright, making it clear that he can see all sorts of light frequencies, like ultra-violet and infra-red light.

One of the things he could see was a bio-electric aura that appearently all living things glow with.

And this did have an effect on the overall plot, as other people here mentioned. It didn't feel like just a throwaway characteristic.

The aura-seeing thing had an effect, but like I said I don't think his vegetarianism(which is what Doc was talking about) was even mentioned in the story. It was in Waid's character profiles at the end.

Since when does Superman not need to eat? I mean he's not Apollo...

It's been mentioned in a bunch of different continuities that he doesn't actually need to eat because all his energy and nourishment come from the Sun. He just eats because he likes to, and I'm assuming he didn't know he didn't have to until his teens, at least.

The examples that spring to mind are from S:TAS, Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, and Superman: Peace on Earth.

In fact, in Peace on Earth, it's an especially big deal because he's trying to aid the battle against World Hunger and he muses on the fact that he's never actually felt what it means to be hungry.


:roll:

Here's the short version: Making Superman a vegetarian makes him more accessable(and less hypocritical) to a wider fanbase. The aura-seeing was just used to quickly and simply explain why someone raised on a farm wouldn't eat meat. Okay?
 
Just read issues 1 and 2. I'll most likely read more later today or tomorrow. I'm liking it I really I am. Also I thought the part with him holding up the car with the African guy looking on was genius. Also love the fact they seem to have mixed the best elements so far into one Origin while expanding on it in a "Batman begins" sort of self discovery way.

Plus I was happy as hell to see Clark knew Lex before been Superman I loved that in smallville . Hopefully they'll go into that later as it was unclear from the mention in issue two if the were friends at one point or not, Hopefully they were.

The only reason I'm not reading too much in one go like I did with others is I want to watch a film in a second. but still LOVE this and after only 2 issues. I don't usually enjoy superman stories but I know there are some good ones out there to find. This is one of those. Thank you to Project for recommending this and for others mentioning it too.
 

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