John Cleese's Superman (Superman: True Brit - John Cleese)

Member Name: daemonicragnorak

Product:	Superman: True Brit - John Cleese
Date:	22/04/09 (33 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funniest graphic novel that I know of

Disadvantages: Story is bit shallow

Quite a few people would have read Superman: Red Son, where the baby Superman lands in the USSR and the story goes on from there; in this book he lands somewhere quiet different, Weston-super-Mare.

Whereas Red Son was a serious what-if storyline, this is more tongue in cheek, a comedy of a graphic novel. With John Cleese (THE John Cleese) co-writing this it seemed that this was going to be a book that shouldn't be taken seriously at all, however that isn't the case at all.

Sure the humor may be a bit dated, but John Cleese's comedy was designed so that it didn't offend the target market, hence the old British stereotypes being used here rather than attacking the modern day British public.

Superman is called Colin in this story, as it's a proper English name unlike Clark. Along with the English name comes the fear of "What will the neighbors think?" that causes Colin to suppress his powers when he first discovers them. This results in him being far more clumsy when he takes on the role of Superman, causing him to make just as many problems as he solves, and it ends with a confrontation with the Batman.

Unlike in the normal stories the Batman doesn't attack by fighting he attacks through the British tabloids, using the story of how Colin threw a cricket bat into him (by accident) as a kid and he has never been able to get it out. This is how he became the BAT-man (get it?); this is an example of how much the comedy dictates the storyline in this book, at times.

My girlfriend just read this and she said she enjoyed it throughly but stated that she didn't want to read any normal Superman titles for a while as she wouldn't be able to take them that seriously.

This book may not be a strong storyline or one that you will want to read too often; although it is very refreshing to see a storyline which doesn't take itself too seriously while still being a good read.

Summary: A light-hearted look on a British version of Superman