|  In It’s Superman! novelist Tom DeHaven takes what is now a familiar story to just about everyone -- the origin of Superman -- and gives it just enough of a twist to make an extremely readable and fun book. As a comic book reader and huge Superman fan, I was very surprised when I first saw this book at my local bookstore. It somehow slipped under my radar, and if I didn’t know about it, it can be a safe bet more casual Superman fans didn’t either, which is a shame.
In DeHaven’s version of Superman’s origin, Clark Kent is a decent fella raised on a farm in rural Kansas circa the 1930s. While most adaptations and stories of Superman take place in the era they were written, DeHaven’s choice to have this book placed in the time period Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster actually created the character is a wise one. It could be argued that Superman is a creation of Great Depression and WWII America and that that is where he works best. DeHaven also takes full advantage of this time period in well-researched details and mannerisms that make it feel authentic.
Another terrific move by the author is to make Clark (and eventually Superman) really act like a Midwestern fella raised on a farm. He’s not the pretty catalogue model from TV’s Smallville or the supremely confident guy “acting” cartoonishly bumbling like Christopher Reeve’s portrayal of the character. In the book, Superman is really Clark Kent, not the other way around. He’s not “pretending” to be mild mannered or occasionally nervous or shy. That’s how he really is; "Superman" becomes the act. And his journey from confused Kansas boy with slowly developing powers that make him feel like an outsider to the tights wearing superhero/big New York City reporter (the more familiar fictional city of Metropolis isn’t used) is only part of this story.
Running parallel to Clark’s story for much of the book is that of Lex Luthor, prominent city official with ties to the mob and shady business dealings. As is often the case with the best Superman stories, Lex’s role is just as interesting as the hero’s. Here we get glimpses into his past and how he built himself up, his only downfalls being overconfidence and complete lack of conscience. Not a mad scientist as often portrayed in the comics, Lex is a very shrewd man who surrounds himself with the best people to carry out his schemes, including a scientific genius dismissed by other who just so happens to have plans to build robots. Lex gives him the means, believing every rich household in America will want one. Of course, it’s not all about making money, as Lex’s ulterior plans for the robots are more sinister.
We’re also introduced to upstart reporter Lois Lane. DeHaven portrays her as tough and a little rough around the edges, hungry to get to the top. She’s very progressive female in the man’s world of 1930s America, where she definitely has an uphill battle. One of the bigger changes to the oft-told tale is a new character named Willi Berg, a troubled, street-smart photographer who actually brings Clark and Lois together in a roundabout way as the story progresses.
Starting out as Lois’s soon-to-be ex-boyfriend, he’s framed for a murder committed by Lex’s thugs. On the lam with help from Lois, he eventually meets Clark in Kansas. He takes a liking to the young, naïve Clark, who is getting restless in Kansas after the death of his mom, helping his dad on the farm but knowing he doesn’t belong. The two start a cross-country trek, ending up in California where Clark, being particularly sturdy, gets a job as a B-Movie stuntman. There, though a series of events all tying to Luthor in New York, he ends up surviving an explosion (though it takes its toll, as this Superman isn’t impervious to everything like some incarnations) and needing a new set of clothes. He just so happens to befriend a costume designer who has an outfit for an aborted sci-fi serial called Saucer-Man from Saturn, explaining that “S” on his chest and flamboyant style in a new and clever way.
In a fast-paced yet character driven series of adventures, Clark and Willi end up in New York, where it’s love at first sight for Clark as soon as he meets Lois. She’s not nearly as impressed, pegging him for the hayseed that he is. Luthor does the same when he meets this mysterious new “Superman,” guessing he’s a dumb, corn fed type, probably from Nebraska or somewhere around there. The cool part is, though, that while Lois of course falls for Superman and not Clark, Lex is also excited when he sees what Superman can do, even though it means his defeat. Of course Superman fights the robots and foils Luthor’s plot—that’s secondary, as Lex figures that if he can’t convince this Superman to be a part of his payroll, at least now he has a real challenge. It’s a terrific start to their brains versus brawn arch rivalry.
The characterizations are the best part of this book. The way Lex and Lois both dismiss Clark, thinking they’re smarter than him, rings true. And, the thing is, Clark agrees with them. That doubt, that wish that he’d rather be smarter, that he’d give up all those powers to be more clever, is a better weakness than Kryptonite in its own way.
Packaged by Chronicle Books, the novel features a fun wrap around cover with a tiny Superman in the distance, leaping a tall building in a single bound, that was designed by indie comics creator Chris Ware. The nice-looking book is not deep literature, nor is it a quickie trash novel. DeHaven deviates from the story familiar to Superman and comic book fans, but all writers who have worked on the character, especially different formats, have done that in one way or another. His take is unique, though, which makes a familiar story seem new again. And while his prose is fast but, because it’s a novel, he’s sometimes able to get a little deeper into characterization that most Superman comics, though on the flip side, it’s lighter on the adventure and earth shattering action.
Fun throughout all of its 425 pages, Tom DeHaven’s It’s Superman! actually gets better as it goes along and ends on a high note, as “our story merges with all the others” and Clark, a mild mannered reporter for the Daily Planet, looks on at Lois Lane, completely in love, though she only has eyes for Superman. It’s the classic and perfect interpretation of these iconic characters.
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