Superman: Redemption

January 28, 2008 | Trades

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Superman: Redemption
Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, Walter Simonson, Peter Vale, Allan Goldman
DC Comics
$15.99/$12.99 US (Paperback)
*** 1/2 (out of five)

If you saw a man who flew without aid of an airplane, saved hundreds of people on an average day (and the world on the good ones) and gave selflessly of himself for the benefit of the world, would you think he was a super-hero or an angel?
Barbara Johnson, resident of Suicide Slum, one of the worst neighbourhoods in Metropolis is sure than the Man of Steel isn’t the former, but the latter and that she can actually call him down from “heaven” to help in her efforts to clean up her crime-ridden area.
This leaves Superman in the very uncomfortable position of not impugning anyone’s faith, but also not accepting any role as an agent of a higher power.
The religious overtones are an area of the Superman mythos that has been sadly neglected and must, no doubt, be written about very cautiously (as to not offend those who might not like comparisons between the “Last Son Of Krypton” and the Son of God).
The tales in Superman: Redemption deftly capture the hero’s awareness of this resemblance between deity and do-gooder and writers Kurt Busiek and Fabian Nicieza do a fine job of delving into the hero’s own faith and how easily such power can corrupt.

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