The Superman series Superman Confidential was designed to showcase stories from the early years in Superman’s Metropolis career. The first story in that series (which didn’t actually finish until issue 11) was Darwyn Cooke writing about Superman’s first experience with Kryptonite. This was interesting to me, since there are a lot of questions about Kryptonite. For instance, how does everyone know it’s from Krypton? How does everyone know it’s harmful to Superman? Cooke and Sale take on the challenge and create an interesting story about it. So, how does Superman find Kryptonite?

One of the mythos I hate in the Superman universe (and Spiderman as well), is the idea that the Newspaper Writer is the voice for all that is good in the universe. It’s a worn stereotype that really should be retired. Clark Kent went to work on TV in the 70s/80s and that would be more believable than the newspaper thing again. Having said that, the newspaper starts the plot with Perry White asking Clark, Lois and Jimmy to investigate a Las Vegas big shot who has created the first gambling resort in Metropolis. Perry White plays the moralizing mama and wants our heroic trio to investigate the suave chairman and find out that he is an evil bad guy.

Along the way, a problematic volcano has Clark/Superman doubting his mortality. Ma and Pa are the fountains of wisdom who try to help him through this. But, while flying, he temporarily loses his power and get beaten up. He also sees a vision of an alien world and an alien couple. Our stories collide with an alien historian, Lex Luthor and Clark realizing that Superman’s relationship with Lois can’t work, but maybe Clark can have one.

But the story itself is kind of bland. Luthor serves almost no purpose except to be menacing and hate everyone. The main bad guy is almost a caricature and the alien historian just seems kind of random. Jimmy does pretty much nothing and most of the story resolves itself without any of our heroes doing anything. 

Cooke (NewFrontier, Spirit) does a great job writing a mediocre story. The confusion and doubt that a youngish man has is addressed well and the story is written nicely. Tim Sale does a great job on the art. His characters are memorable and he emphasizes the youth of our characters nicely.

The layouts are well done and the characters look good. Overall it’s a great package of a mediocre story. I do recommend this for fans of Superman and fans of Sale’s art. Mildly recommended.