Up, Up, and Away!

I've been reading Tom De Haven's It's Superman! over the last couple of days. I don't believe I've ever read any fan fiction before, and I never watched the television show Smallville, so I don't know how it compares. But I'm finding the book to be quite endearing. Picking up the Superman story in rural Kansas during the 1930s, De Haven explains just how Superman became Superman.

The Boston Globe said, "With cheeky aplomb, luscious period details, and a generous affection for his characters, De Haven accomplishes his own kind of superhuman feat--[he] fashions a stylish, rollicking good yarn from the legend of the Man of Steel."

There are slight deviations from the Superman I remember. In the film versions, Christopher Reeve always played Clark Kent as pretty bumbling, and De Haven continues that character trait. But the Man of Steel I remember from the comic books was pretty darn smart. However, De Haven's Clark Kent is a B student who "wishes he were smarter, lots smarter, that his polish was as marvelous as his body's capacity to perform. He's no dope, he knows that, but neighter is he anything special in the brains department. He wishes he were smarter, had a better vocabulary, didn't mispronounce words and use bad grammar, and he wishes above all else that he knew how to be in the world, that it came as easily as running."

This little bit of humanity and vulnerability make De Haven's Superman intriguing and more realistic. Overall, the little details like this help make It's Superman! an enjoyable and intriguing read.