3 out of 5

Bob Rozakis was always a comics anachronist. The majority of his works seemed to yearn for a different age, and, in various ways – sometimes clever; sometimes in your face – would purposefully pair that against a contemporary style. Fittingly coming before the big Crisis wash, Rozakis teamed up with classic Supes artist Curt Swan and classic Superboy artist Kurt Schaeffenberger (here on inks) to fill in some missing links bringing Kal-El from ‘boy’ to ‘man,’ expanding on backups he’d started in other books; the anachronism here is of the more clever variety, as the issues pluck from classic, goofy lore (like mermaid Lori Lemaris) and harmless Lex Luthorisms – a spring-heeled, rocket booted prison escape! – and smushes it with a very 80s sense of tragedy and trauma, evolving the issues Supes deals with from Silver Age pseudo-science to Bronze Age concerns, and Lex buddying up with the Russians. The issues are mostly self-contained, but there are background threads concerning Kent’s college roommates, and recurring dreams about those he couldn’t save, which then tie in to that book’s bit of action. The self-contained nature is in itself a callback, but the split between an ongoing series and individual hijinks feel uneven, with Bob flip-flopping between narrative styles (diary narrations; different narrators) and page transitions a mixed bag of non-existent and underwhelming. But his love for the character is strong, and his grasp of the book’s classic ethos is clear; you can feel the editorial mandate chopping this down to four issues from a proposed twelve: it’s rushed to get Supes from emotionally struggling college lad to Daily Planet-joining adult, and zoomed out, that rush can be pretty clunky. Zoomed in, if you’re expecting something more directly impactful, the Silver Age poppiness to the dialogue can be misleading, but a reread clears up Rozakis’ agenda.

Here’s where I should be praising such a landmark art team, but it’s unfortunately rather standard fare. Clark mostly looks like Superman – not ‘Boy – throughout, and Schaeffenberger’s inks look stiff on swan. And the team just can’t really nail the timing of Bob’s juggling the growing pains drama with the wildness of, like, Supes traveling into the Bermuda Triangle parallel dimension. Additionally, Frank Miller’s covers are just weird; his take on a celebratory Supes, flying with jet planes and eagles, and rather garishly colored with thick-ass inks look rather janky to me; rushed instead of stylized. Not all of them – the cover where Supes stops a train is effective – but the first and last issues unfortunately made me chuckle; likely not the desired effect.

An interesting minor note in Supes’ miniseries, but more interesting as a beat in Rozakis’ bibliography.