SUPERMAN: #701 - Grounded, Part One

Stink. Stank!  STUNK!!!

There, I said it!

The issue was written by J. Michael Straczynski and is the launch of his highly anticipated (by who, I'm not really sure, but that's one of the ways its being promoted) run on SUPERMAN.  I haven't read much by him, only a handful of issues of THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD and those issues were quite good, so I didn't really have any expectations (high, low, good, bad) for the issue and the arc. 

There's a whole lot of back story that took place over the last two years that have (so we're told) lead Superman to the current arc, which is titled GROUNDED. 

This opening chapter of the story is set in My City.  I don't usually get irked when real-world cities depicted in comic books differ in geography or "characterization," but this issue irked me.  

WE don't refer to cheesesteaks as "cheesesteak sandwiches."  They are just cheesesteaks and the fact that so many writers use the cliché of the "cheesesteak" when setting a story in the City of Brotherly Love irks me to no end.   Philadelphia is NOT about cheesesteaks and the cheesesteak joints that people from outside the city flock to (Pat's and Geno's) aren't even the good cheesesteaks!!!

Philadelphia doesn't have a "south side."  No one from Philly refers to any section of the city as the "south side."  There's South Philly, which is where I live and there's Southwest Philly.  I'd like to think that even the citizens of the DCU's Philly would know better than to refer to ANY section of the city as the "south side." 

As for the rest of the story....

....well....

....it was HELLA boring. 

I've read comments where a lot of people are comparing the "walkabout" to to Forrest Gump's run across the country in the film of the same name. I believe that is a fair and accurate comparison to make.

Superman, the greatest super-hero of all time, goes on a walkabout.  Really?  That's the best you got?

Supes helps some citizens fix a car; he's chased by reporters; he gives one reporter a lil' trip he'll never forget; he organizes the storeroom of a diner in exchange for a meal (was the meal at Mendy's?); he faces down some stereotypical drug dealers and burns their "stashes" up and down the block; he stops some kids from running a light; he gives a lil' ol' man some medical advice; he stops a suicidal chick from jumping; he preaches to a man walking his giant poodle. 

Two things stuck out about the exchange with the drug dealers:

(1) Yes, they were the stereotype of the inner city drug dealer, but would even they really be that disrespectful to Superman?  They go as far as mocking his costume and telling him he can't do anything to them, since he can't go outside the bounds of the law.

(2) In response to that, Supes burns their "stashes" up and down the block.  For me, this is interesting and troubling.  I'm all for a proactive super-hero taking it to the streets, but this goes beyond the main purview of the character and brings him into dangerous territory that I don't think the character should step foot in within the main continuity. 

This goes a bit further; later in the story, Supes tells one man to get his heart checked and stops some kids from running a light.  

To me, this is taking Supes into territory that may be interesting to explore, Supes playing god, in an Elseworlds.  Being a proactive super-hero is fine, but getting involved in the lives of the individuals the way he did in this story is another thing entirely and it bothers me a bit.  I don't know if that is going to be the ultimate point of the story, although the title GROUNDED may be a huge hint that it is.

This is only chapter one, so it's too soon to discount the story in toto, but for this lil' black duck, it's off to an awful start.

Either this just going to be an ego trip for JMS, who could be veering toward self-important Bendis-like hack territory with this story or this could be the defining story for Superman for the 2010s.