Review — Superman: The Harvests of Youth — A Modern Man of Steel
Superman: The Harvests of Youth cover, via DC Comics.
Superman: The Harvests of Youth — Sina Grace, Writer/Artist; Cris Peter, Colorist
Ray — 9/10
Ray: We’ve seen the origin of Superman from many perspectives in DC’s Young Readers line. Baltazar and Franco’s Superman of Smallville focused on a thirteen-year-old Clark coming into his powers, told through the creators’ trademark cartoony style. The recent Clark & Lex gave us a more mercurial, rebellious Clark interning in Metropolis. But both of these were geared towards kids. That’s where Sina Grace’s Superman: The Harvests of Youth comes in, casting Clark’s teen years very firmly in the present day — with a focus on youthful anxieties, trauma, and dangers that grounds this far more in mature issues than any we’ve seen before.
The first thing that stands out is that Grace’s take on Smallville is very heavily inspired by the TV show Smallville. Its Pete Ross is both physically reminiscent of the show’s version AND is Clark’s first secret-keeper besides his parents. More surprisingly, Chloe Sullivan is present — something I never expected to see, given the actress’ activities since the show. However, this version bears little physical or character resemblance to the original, instead being the school’s resident popular girl and fashionista. Lana Lang is pretty close to the classic version, although Lex and Lionel’s dynamic is very reminiscent of the show as well.
However, these characters all sort of take the backseat to some originals Grace uses to fill out the cast of Smallville High. Gilbert Stockwell, a sarcastic nerd who works at a bookstore, at first seems like the jokester of the group, but an injury and growing alienation from his friends starts to send the character down a dark path. Already in a dark place is Amy Buenaventura, an original character who recently lost her brother Alvin to suicide. Alvin, a casual friend of Clark’s, was driven to despair by a disturbing online subculture that Clark starts investigating. This leads him to befriend Amy, who never quite fit in in Smallville, and she surprisingly becomes Clark’s first love interest instead of Lana.
If it’s not clear already, this is a take on Superman that we’ve never really seen before. Subjects like suicide and online radicalization are not usually present in Smallville, and this is definitely the first Superman origin I’ve seen with occasional swearing. But that all nicely fits in a world that casts the entire crew, including the Kents, as very human. Clark wants to be a hero, but he barely knows how to protect himself from emotional pain. The Kents want to help him find his way, but they’re out of their depths. Smallville is a nice small town, but it’s beset by poverty and industrialization — especially once LexCorp moves in. Lex is not a villain yet, but his contempt for those he views as beneath him will clearly curdle his heart as time goes on. Grace writes and draws this book, and his models for the characters are pretty spot-on — his Clark is perfect, although his Lex looks oddly Tintin-esque.
This is a slow-paced story, almost 200 pages, in a way that reminds me of great slice-of-life ennui stories like Craig Thompson’s Blankets and Sean McKeever’s The Waiting Place. But Grace never forgets which franchise he’s working with, as he slow-builds a tense thriller of a plot involving a radical group targeting Smallville, a callback to an iconic and chaotic Superman villain, and a sense of danger that really doesn’t belong in a small town. All faced down by a Superman dealing with an intense level of anxiety. There are no easy answers here, as some heavy issues are dropped with no resolution only pages for the end.
I don’t know if this is a perfect Superman origin, because it’s rough around the edges in a way that we’ve never really seen before. I do know that it’s a version of Superman that many kids might see themselves in, and that in and of itself is a massive win.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
