Some thoughts about Superman: Red & Blue #1

How does Superman influence the world?

Over the years, the Man of Steel has tried to help people in his own way but sometimes even him is not able to save everyone.

A new anthology about the Man of Tomorrow is here and is reuniting some of the newest voices in DC Comics, writers who just were introduced during Future State and I must say that thankfully a lot of them have what it takes to write about the most famous superhero.

The style of the series is also pretty unique because, as the title suggests, is based on colours and how that depict the tone of each segment.

John Ridley who impressed with his story about The Next Batman tells a little tale about the time where Superman shortly lost his powers around the time of the Cold War and was tortured by people who wanted to use him a propaganda weapon. Is an extremely political story in the best way possible and Ridley creates solid character moments that feel appropriate for Clark. Clayton Henry's expressive and clean pencils depict the plot as precisely as possible.

Brandon Easton follows with a more personal story about a man who lost his mother and wanted to seek help on Superman. Speaking as someone who is currently on a similar situation, this segment really hit hard despite that our mothers couldn't be more different since the heart of the script is in the right place and reflects perfectly on Clark's kindness. Steve Lieber's expressive characters fits the tale perfectly.

Then a shorter segment arrives about a boy who saved Superman written and drawn by Wes Craig which is yet another character-oriented part that showcases how much Superman means to people and what they're willing to do to help him and the people around even a little. Craig's storytelling is really detailed and elevates the script to another level.

Then we get into a mostly black and white story handled by Dan Watters about how different colours reflect the nature of humanity, this is no doubt the story that exploits the premise of the series the most and there are interesting ideas going on here despite that the way how it is told can be a little pretentious at times. Eh, at least it was better than Watters' Superman/Wonder Woman. Dani's artwork reminds me of Frank Miller's work at its best and is really fitting considering it evokes Sin City's style at times.

Finally, there's a flashback to Clark's childhood done by Marguerite Bennett about how much parents can influence their children in their personalities until the latter decide not to... which this is a bit weird considering how little Clark is in this story and thus such dilemmas shouldn't be that present. Then again, it wouldn't be a Bennett story if she didn't botch a few ideas, still a decent enough section. Jill Thompson's art is pretty expressive and detailed.

Overall, a pretty satisfying first entry. Hope things continue this way.