Tim Sale passed away recently. Tim was one of the most talented and beloved artists in the
comics industry. He drew several of the icons of superhero comics in some of their best stories of
the last thirty years: Spider-Man, Daredevil, the Hulk, Catwoman, and most famously of all, Batman.
Obviously, I’m going to make a video in my Best Batman Ever series
about Tim Sale’s work on that character, which is legendary and quite properly so. But, right now
it’s time for me to do another installment of the Best Superman Ever series.
Tim Sale didn’t draw Superman nearly as often as he drew Batman,
but it just so happens his most well known Superman story is also one of my very favorites.
So, I can hardly think of a better way to remember and celebrate the genius of Tim Sale
than by spending a few minutes talking about a four-issue mini-series he drew back in 1998,
written by his frequent collaborator Jeph Loeb, titled Superman For All Seasons.
The title can be interpreted quite literally — each of the four parts takes place during a
different season of the year, beginning with spring, followed in sequence by summer, fall,
and winter. Each issue is also narrated by a different person in Superman’s life:
part one by Pa Kent, part two by Lois Lane, three by Lex Luthor,
and four by Lana Lang. Each narrator offers their own unique perspective on Superman, as the story
follows him from his adolescence in Smallville through the early years of his superhero career.
Part one, “Spring,” takes place mostly during Clark Kent’s last year of high school.
His powers are beginning to manifest, he’s only recently been told by his parents
about the whole “we found you in a crashed rocket in a field” thing, and he’s going through a lot.
When a tornado strikes Smallville, Clark uses his powers to help out, even saves someone’s life by
flying him away from an exploding gas station in the nick of time. But afterwards, looking at the
devastated town, and his family’s wrecked farm, he feels guilty that he didn’t do more.
Clark decides that he has to use his powers to help people, and in order to do that,
he also has to leave Smallville. But, before he goes, he shares his secret with one other person:
his childhood best friend/kinda-sorta sweetheart, Lana Lang.
He says good-bye to Lana and his parents, and moves to Metropolis, where we quickly see
the familiar Superman status quo take shape: the Daily Planet, mild mannered reporter Clark Kent,
Lois and Jimmy and Mr. White, and Lex Luthor — whose hair is still clinging vainly to his scalp.
In part two, “Summer,” we see Superman save Metropolis from a nuclear missile launched by
terrorists who may or may not have been bankrolled by Lex Luthor. Then,
Clark returns home to Smallville for a visit and is disturbed to find it the same, yet different.
It’s been a few years now since he left, and most of the same faces are there — though,
significantly, not Lana, who Clark learns left town shortly after he did and has been
traveling the world. It’s mostly Clark who is different. He feels out of place
in Smallville. He confides to his mom that he also feels out of place in Metropolis. Ma reassures him
that this is all part of growing up, and that he’ll figure things out for himself eventually.
Returning to Metropolis, Superman puts out a fire at a chemical plant, rescuing a chemist named
Jenny Vaughn who was left to die by Lex Luthor’s Guardian drones — Lex’s attempt to position
himself, not Superman, as the rightful protector of Metropolis. At the conclusion of part two,
Luthor pays a visit to Jenny Vaughn, who now has a shrine to “her angel” Superman in her home,
and offers her the opportunity to work with him to help Superman “in ways she’s only dreamed of.”
Part three, “Fall,” opens with Lex being released from jail after an arrest on an unspecified
charge. We soon learn that Lex has been subjecting Jenny Vaughn to some sort of
brainwashing, exposing her to Superman-related imagery Clockwork Orange style, and receiving
her help in developing a virus which, he promises, will create a situation where Superman,
her idol, will need her help. Sure enough, Luthor releases the virus, which causes most of
the citizens of Metropolis to fall unconscious. At the suggestion of a scientist at Star Labs,
Supes goes to consult Luthor, who casts suspicion on Superman for causing the pandemic,
speculating that maybe the virus, whatever it is, is alien in origin and that the
people of Metropolis have been exposed through contact with Superman himself.
However! It’s Superman’s lucky day, because it just so happens Lex, with help from Jenny Vaughn,
has developed an antidote. He re-introduces Superman to Vaughn, who has now adopted a costumed
identity and calls herself Toxin. With Superman’s help, Toxin seeds the clouds over Metropolis,
causing the antidote to the virus to rain down over the city, saving everyone. But,
just as the job is finished, Toxin suddenly dies of heart failure. Lex speculates that it’s due
to overexposure to the virus, and again places part of the blame on Superman, telling him that
he doesn’t understand how fragile human life is, and ordering him to leave Metropolis before he
fails its people again. Shaken by his apparent failure, Clark again returns to Smallville,
telling his parents when he arrives at the farmhouse that he needs to stay there for a while.
In the fourth and final part, “Winter,” Superman has left Metropolis, leaving Lex Luthor and his
Guardian drones to watch over the city. Meanwhile, Clark is still in Smallville, reconnecting
with Lana, who has returned from her travels abroad. Clark’s crisis of confidence becomes
a matter of immediate concern when Smallville is threatened by a flood. After a pair of pep talks,
one from Pa Kent, one from Lana, Superman flies into action, saves the town, and also saves his
family when their truck is caught in the flood on the way to take shelter at their church.
In the end, Clark bids another farewell to his parents, and to Lana,
and returns to his life in Metropolis, as reporter Clark Kent and as Superman.
For the most part, Superman For All Seasons is a retelling of Superman’s origin story. We’ve
had more than enough of those over the years. But, despite covering a lot of familiar ground,
For All Seasons feels fresh rather than coming across as yet another retread. While many of
the other retellings of Superman’s origins and early years seem preoccupied with arranging the
expected pieces on the board — showing the Kents discovering the crashed rocket, or the
discovery/construction of the Fortress of Solitude, or how Clark gets his job at the Daily
Planet and meets Lois and the rest of the classic supporting cast, For All Seasons pays only token
attention to most of those elements. Instead, it’s interested in characters, particularly Superman,
and how he is seen and shaped by the people in his life.
The four characters chosen to narrate the individual issues of the series are divided
evenly between those who know Superman’s secret identity, and those who don’t. The middle parts
are told from the perspective of Lois and Lex, respectively, who see Superman from the outside.
Lois wonders how anyone with that much power could possibly be that good, that selfless, while Lex
fumes and schemes to destroy him. The series opens and closes in the voices of characters
who have a more insider’s view. And, for both Pa Kent and Lana, their knowledge of Clark
serves as the key to the mystery of Superman. While Lois is attracted to but also somewhat
flummoxed by his goodness, Lana comes to understand that, as she herself puts it,
“to understand the man in the cape who could fly, all I needed to know was Clark.”
The Superman created here by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale is pure, uncomplicated, mythic, but also
poignantly human. From the outside, to characters like Lois, Lex, or those he flies in to rescue,
he’s enigmatic, incredible, too-good-to-be-true. To those close to him, and to us as the readers,
he’s not difficult to understand: someone who cares about other people, who has been
gifted with amazing abilities he doesn’t quite understand, who wants to use those abilities to
help people. When he experiences insecurity and questions his purpose, it’s because he worries
he isn’t capable of doing all the good he thinks he should be doing.
This Superman’s formative experience, the moment that sets him on his path to becoming a superhero,
is when he uses his powers for the first time to help people during a tornado, and comes away from
that feeling bad because he thinks he should have done more. Empathy. Compassion. Humanity. Simple,
widely shared qualities that lie at the heart of who Superman is and why he does what he does.
But just because he’s built of basic materials, that doesn’t mean he’s
a flat, uninteresting character. Writer Jeph Loeb understands that goodness and decency
aren’t qualities of Superman’s that need to be apologized for, or excused, or over-explained, or
roughed-up at the edges. A good and decent character can be a compelling character
if presented in a compelling way, if placed in situations where those attributes are tested,
if confronted with adversaries who are determined to turn those positive traits against him.
The Lex Luthor of For All Seasons doesn’t know Superman’s secret identity,
yet he intuitively understands how best to hurt Superman. He reasons — egotistically, but not
incorrectly — that Superman’s weak spot is in the same place as his own. They both fear
falling short, not being good enough. Lex — too narcissistic to entertain the idea that he could
actually fail at something — seeks to avoid being perceived as inadequate. Superman, unlike Lex,
sincerely cares about other people, and worries that he will be unable to help those who need him.
Villain and hero are both tormented by insecurity,
but Lex’s is rooted in pride and vanity, while Superman’s is founded in selflessness.
Lex defeats Superman — albeit temporarily — not by attacking him with kryptonite
(the story takes place before Superman knows anything about Krypton),
or by using robotics or genetic engineering to counter his strength,
but by making him feel like he has failed, by convincing Superman that he’s not good enough.
As important as Loeb’s script is to this story — and, an obtrusive and contrived over-use of
phrases lifted from the opening narration of the Adventures of Superman TV series aside, it’s a
very well-written story — it would not be the classic that it is without the art of Tim Sale.
Drawn by Sale’s hand, this Superman is a gentle giant. He towers over every other character,
but his unassuming body language and calm, kind face — so small in the middle of that
enormous head — ensure that, powerful though he is, he never seems intimidating. Even when he’s
confronting Lex Luthor, he seems more protective than threatening. His outsized proportions and
overall style give the impression not of a modern superhero with impossible muscle definition,
but of someone out of a tall tale. This is a Superman who would look just as at-home in the
company of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox as he could with the members of the Justice League.
The tall tale aesthetic extends to the rest of the story, as well.
Sale renders Smallville as a kind of eternal Mayberry. The cop cars have 1950s-style tail fins,
the clothes all look very mid-twentieth-century. There’s a general store — where we get this Norman
Rockwell-inspired composition — a covered bridge, and a little church high on a hill.
Metropolis also has a decidedly retro look, with its art deco skyscrapers
topped with flying pennants, connected by stone skybridges that zig-zag between them.
Throughout the four issues, Sale uses double-page spreads to emphasize the
vastness of the Kansas prairie, or the immensity of the Metropolis skyline,
lending an epic quality to a story that is a fairly down-to-earth character piece.
Sale’s artwork and Loeb’s script work hand-in-hand in seamlessly,
in ways that seem obvious upon examination, but are subtle enough to pass unnoticed in
a first reading. For example, in issue two, when Lois, through her narration,
is pondering the mystery of Superman — who he is, where he comes from,
how he can do what he does, why he chooses to use his powers the way he uses them — we
get this shot of Clark lying alone on his bed in his apartment. It’s a beautiful panel on its own,
juxtaposing the miraculous and inexplicable image of Superman being described by Lois with
the image of an apparently ordinary man relaxing at home like millions of other ordinary people.
But, this panel in issue two is also a repeat of the same composition seen
in this panel from issue one, where young Clark is listening as his parents sit on
the front porch and ask themselves questions similar to the ones Lois asks in issue two:
why does he have these powers, and what’s he going to do with them?
This composition is repeated once more in issue four,
when Clark is back home in Smallville following the death of Jenny Vaughn. Only this time,
Clark is not alone — he’s talking to his father — and he’s the one who’s uncertain — about himself.
These three panels reinforce visually one of the most important themes of the story — a theme so
important, it’s even reflected in the title — that for all the changes that the passage of
time brings, and for as much as he might sometimes feel doubtful or out-of-place,
Clark himself is the constant — his character, his values, his compassion, his undeniable
impulse to help. It’s not the powers that make Superman extraordinary — it’s Clark,
who chooses to use those powers in the service of others.
Also, it had been quite a few years since I read Superman For All Seasons when I read it
to prepare for this video, and you can imagine my surprise when I discovered
that one of my favorite scenes from what is currently the best live-action version
of Superman, the CW’s Superman and Lois, was inspired by a scene from this book.
Remember that wonderful scene in the first episode, during the introductory montage,
when Superman whooshes by a kid to catch a falling car, knocking the kid’s hat off in
the process? And then, once everyone is safe, he picks up the kid’s hat and hands it back to him,
the kid says “Cool costume,” and Supes replies, “Thanks! My mom made it for me!”?
Check out the last two pages of issue one:
If the creators of Superman and Lois are taking cues from Superman For All Seasons,
that explains a lot about why that show has been so damn good.
Fittingly enough for a story with its title, Superman For All Seasons has a timeless quality.
It stands alone, without obvious connections to the mainline DC Comics continuity, or indeed any
larger continuity. There are traces of Silver Age inspiration — Ma and Pa Kent being depicted as
elderly rather than middle aged, Lois Lane being Clark Kent’s rival at the Daily Planet rather
than his partner and love interest. But, there are also details clearly drawn from more modern takes
on the character, such as Lex Luthor being an evil business tycoon rather than a mad scientist — his
head of receding red hair specifically evokes Lex as seen in John Byrne’s Man of Steel mini-series,
which relaunched the character of Superman following Crisis on Infinite Earths.
It takes these building blocks of Superman’s world — familiar characters and locations,
drawn from multiple eras — and uses them to tell a story that
reveals important truths about its version of Superman, and all versions of Superman.
It demonstrates the versatility, and enduring appeal of the character like few stories
ever have. There’s nothing wrong with depicting Superman as a shredded Mr. Universe contestant
whose costume looks like it’s been painted on — that’s mostly how he’s been drawn for
the last several decades, by some of the most extraordinary artists in the history of the comics
industry. But, he doesn’t have to be seen that way. It’s just as valid, and just as effective,
to show him as Tim Sale does in For All Seasons, with help from colorist Bjarne Hansen.
This Superman isn’t so much a power fantasy as a fantasy about power — about power being
given to someone who isn’t sure why they have it or if they deserve it,
but who knows they want to use it to save those who need saving, to right wrongs, to make the
world a better place. This is a Superman defined just as much by his sense of responsibility for
others as by his strength. This is a Superman who projects not only power, but kindness.
You can see it in his face. One look at that humble, comforting smile, and
you know you’ve just been introduced to — maybe — the best Superman ever.