I sort of like the Man of Steel one, honestly. The concept of "rocketed as a baby from the doomed planet Krypton to earth; found by the farming couple" is pretty much the same for all of those origins. The idea Byrne hit upon, of having the Kents snowed in and convincing people they'd had a child (vs the orphanage or "no explanation" of other origins) appealed to me.

Jeff, BTW -- if you like Superman For All Seasons, I really think you'd like Superman: Kryptonite --



It really feels like a sequel to that particular Superman origin, and not just because Tim Sales drew it -- Cooke really captures the writing style and characterizations established by Loeb in the original miniseries. Check it out -- on AmazWAN in HC for about $3 or so used.

Having read and liked "Secret Origin" lately, I went with that.

Tough call, though. I like aspects of all of them -- or at least, all the ones I'm familiar with.

I have read that, Hanzo. It's pretty good. I started reading it in monthlies but then there was a delay or two and I ended up forgetting about it (it was around when I quit the weekly trek). Finally read the whole thing in the TPB from our library just last year.

Doomed Planet.

Desperate Scientists.

Last Hope.

Kindly Couple.

That's all you need.

But I've got a soft spot for Birthright. It's the only Superman origin so far that even attempts to ask "Why?". I'd like it a lot of better if it weren't for Yu's horrible art.

I loved the telling from the animated series. It combined all the best elements that are out there.

Birthright wasn't bad, no. I didn't care for the art either, nor the "living aura" he saw that made him be a vegetarian. Seemed like stupid hippie shit.

Man of Steel. I also happen to like Byrne's Krypton.

Yeah, but we could nitpick every modern retelling and find faults like that, while the older ones are too simple for me to be considered.

I've said this before, I have yet to be completely satisfied with a Superman origin. It's not like Batman where Year One is ABSOLUTE.

I really liked it as well. I thought it was the best telling of the Jor-El aspect of the origin and tying Brainiac into it was a brilliant move.

+1

The Superman movie origin is my pick. I liked the grandiose, epic feel of the telling... could use a nice, tight editing but overall, from the beginning to the helicopter scene, it was all good.

I just peeked at Secret Origin at Borders. I'll probably get it. I like Supes drawn as Christopher Reeve. Better than the last two movies he was in, that's for sure.

I wonder if Reeve's son has seen these comics.

I wish I had seen the animated version... the idea of tying Brainiac into (I presume) the destruction of Krypton is an intriguing idea.

The origin (and Reeve as Superman) was the best part of the first movie IMO.

Tying the origin of the hero with a villain always sucks, but somehow Timm made this one work. He's a genius.

Yeah, I don't like the Joker killing the Waynes, but Krypton's destruction just begs for something more. Plus, I like Brainiac. He seriously needs to be used in film.

Yeah, with too many others there's the level of coincidence that's just ridiculous -- the Joker was the random mugger who killed the Waynes' deaths and the Sandman was involved in Uncle Ben's death. All these random people who aren't really tied together all having separate and accidental ways of gaining superpowers just stretches credibility too far.

Brainiac was always involved in Superman's past as the alien who shrunk Kandor -- having him there from the beginning just makes sense and turning him into a supercomputer than collects information instead of shrunken cities was a smar tmove as well.

Well, the other thing is Brainiac didn't cause the destruction of Krypton -- he just lied to the council about it. It was happening regardless.

Gotcha. Like I said, I hadn't seen it. What if Brainiac did cause the destruction? I think that could be cool, especially in the movies. Kinda plays up the threat to Earth when he inevitably arrives.