No doubt fans of the Man of Steel will be offended by such an assessment, but, damn, if the author doesn't offer up some compelling evidence.
"I used to enjoy reading Superman comics," he writes. "...I loved Byrne’s revamping of the Post-Crisis Man of Steel. But Superman has been struggling for quite some time now and I’m just going along for the ride. And the really bad thing is that even DC knows that Superman’s lost his luster and they don’t appear to have any interest in fixing things. Don’t believe me? Just look at the evidence. Look at the line up for the Super-books last year.
"Sure on the surface you’ve got three titles; Action Comics, Superman and World of New Krypton. But Kal was only appearing in World of New Krypton. Superman focused on Mon-El while Action Comics showcased Nightwing and Flamebird in a story that was so unpleasant that I didn’t really shed any tears when Greg Rucka ended his association with DC Comics. So, for an entire year you’ve got Superman’s two titles featuring characters that aren’t Superman. That’s twelve issues of Superman-free comics in Superman and Action Comics. Sort of setting an odd precedent don’t you think?
"This year we have Superman appearing in his own title, while Action Comics has been ceded over to Lex Luthor. Yeah, Superman is so boring that Lex Luthor has taken over on of his titles and people are actually enjoying it more, I know I am.
"What it basically boils down to is that for at least two years, including the year celebrating the 70th anniversary of his first appearance, Superman was relegated to a single monthly title. Just like Jonah Hex. Superman is supposed to be the marquee character for the company and he’s demoted to starring in a single monthly title for two years? It doesn’t seem like DC has all that much confidence in the character does it?
"... And then to make matters worse you’ve got JMS abandoning his monthly writing gig on Superman to focus on developing more Superman Earth One graphic novels. So the only positive buzz the Man of Steel’s had in years ends in a fumble. Good going DC. And again, I get it; Superman’s a difficult character to write, making him starring in multiple comics a month an incredible headache. And if you don’t have enough stories to fill two monthly titles give one away. It makes sense. I just wish that they’d make a formal announcement that Action Comics would be handed over to characters that, y’know, writers felt like coming up with stories for.... Basically I think that DC needs to sort out it’s problem with Superman or else I won’t have a problem dropping the book he’s in. I mean it’s only one title, but still…"
What do you think? Any validity to these observations?