SUPERMAN: SECRET IDENTITY - "Strange visitor from another planet. . .I can so relate."

Secret Identity by Kurt Busiek & Stuart Immonen

Set in the real world, SECRET IDENTITY examines the life of a young Kansas man with the unfortunate name of Clark Kent. All Clark wants is to be a writer, but his daily life is filled with the taunts and jibes of his peers, comparing him to that other Clark Kent — the one with super-powers. Until one day when Clark awakens to discover that he can fly...that he does in fact have super-strength! But where did these powers come from? And what's he going to do about it? - Amazon.com

For all of my comic nerd credentials, I've always been, at best, a casual Superman fan. I'm a Marvel guy at heart, and Superman was the epitome of the DC superhero - iconic and bland. That's not an assessment of the actual comics (for the most part). It was my perception of the character of Superman, and I rarely came across anything that changed that. Then I read Superman: Secret Identity, and suddenly I got it. Got what made Superman such a special character. I got the idea of Superman. And I got it from a comic that isn't even about the "real" Superman.

This was Superman stripped of all the traditional trappings. Gone were the supervillains, Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, the seemingly impenetrable crossovers and continuity. What remained was, in many ways, the original theme of the character. Clark Kent, in this story, is an average guy. He's not necessarily a nerd, but he's saddled with a name that carries some ridicule with it, and it makes him feel like an outsider. 

When he discovers he has powers, he revels in them. They're an escape, literally and figuratively. He's also a good kid, so he follows the example of the comic book Superman and uses his powers to help people where and when he can.  In terms of the story, he's both a very real and developed character, and a meta-commentary on Superman and his appeal.

One of the many smart choices Busiek makes is to keep this "Superman" mostly hidden. It's not Clark Kent that's the secret identity, it's Superman. He wears the costume, not to draw attention to himself, but to make it so that no one would believe he really exists. In this way, Clark remains the focus of the story, and can be the viewpoint character on who "Superman" is and what he stands for.

As well as all of that works (and it works better than I'm explaining it), it's artist Stuart Immonen's incredible visuals that manage to ground the story without losing any of the impact needed to sell just how amazing the advent of Clark's powers are. He balances the mundane and the fantastic better than any other artist I could imagine.

Each chapter of the book covers a different period in this Clark's life, and the development of his career as Superman. In this way it also manages something we can't really get with the mainstream Superman - a progression and development that only works because of the finite nature of the story. It's a level of reality to the character and his world that appealed to me, and made this a Clark and Superman whose story I didn't want to see end.