Superman: True Brit

    (DC, 2004)
™ and © 2004 DC Comics

Written by Kim Johnson (Monty Python: The First 280 Years) and some chap named John Cleese, this Elseworlds tale diverges from the canon by landing Kal–El’s rocket outside the minuscule English hamlet of Weston–Super–Mare (“Twinned Wth Paris, Venice and St. Petersburg”). There, the infant Kryptonian is taken in by a kindly middle–aged couple and raised as a typical Somerset country lad. After a series of rural mishaps involving stump–pulling and cow–milking, young Colin Clark's parents tell him never to reveal his powers but when he leaves home for journalism school and a job with London’s sleaziest tabloid, his true nature inevitably emerges.

The book includes jabs at British life recognizable to anyone familiar with the UK, and is peppered with references to Monty Python, Fawlty Towers and other Britcoms. The art from veterans John Byrne and Mark Farmer (both British) alternates between silly and serious, but as Superman tries to court haughty Louisa Layne-Ferret while fixing the National Health Service and dodging the paparazzi, there’s a lot of silly to be drawn.

— Joe Trela
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#1 (Hardcover Edition by John Byrne)

21-Oct-2004
Cover Price: $24.95
1 copy available for $19.00 		Kim Howard Johnson, John CleeseJohn Byrne