Superman: Action Comics: Superstars Volume 1 by Jason Aaron, John Timms Review

Superman: Action Comics: Superstars: Volume 1: Jesus Can We Can We Get Another Fucking Subtitle In Here Already is a collection of three short stories that I guess filled up space in between the main storylines written by whoever drew the short straw to write this title. “Superstars” is a bit of a misnomer. Jason Aaron, sure, but Gail Simone and Rainbow Rowell? Definitely not - especially with the quality of their contributions to this book.

I, Bizarro by Aaron and John Timms is the only worthwhile story here. Besides the big K, Superman’s biggest weakness is magic, so if Bizarro is Superman’s opposite, then his strength would be magic. Here, Bizarro is a master sorcerer who enacts vengeance upon Superman’s world, transforming everyone into a Bizarro.

I’m surprised magic and Bizarro haven’t been combined before (and maybe they have - I haven’t read every Bizarro comic out there) and felt like a clever take by Aaron. In Aaron’s hands, Bizarro is given a surprising amount of dignity and depth that you rarely see with this joke character.

Still, even at three issues long, this felt stretched out and not that interesting to read. Timms’ art is great and I liked the twist involving one of Batman’s villains but this read more like a good idea in draft than a compelling story in the end.

Gail Simone/Eddy Barrows’ Challenge from the Stars is about aliens making Superman fight other aliens gladiator-style, while Rainbow Rowell/Cian Tormey’s Lois and Clark: In Love. At Work is about new editor of the Daily Planet Lois Lane taking Clark off the Superman stuff due to a conflict of interest.

These are two of the worst Superman comics I’ve ever read. Both read like amateurish fanfic by idiots, for idiots. No imagination, nothing original, nothing remotely exciting happening. Simone’s story is just Superman punching aliens while Rowell’s story is watered-down romance flimflam. Both stories are a waste of space and time - utterly pointless garbage.

I read this one purely for the Jason Aaron contribution and it’s a shame he didn’t write the whole book as he’d have done better than the other two hacks included here. Still, even his story wasn’t that great and, from what I’ve seen of his Absolute Superman, I’m not sure Superman is the character for him.

Superfarts is an easy miss for pretty much everyone - you’re really not missing much with this weak Superman collection.