A fond farewell to the man in red and blue.

With issue twelve, Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly's All Star Superman has come to an end.  The comic book world is a little smaller without it.

It's funny, because I am not normally a big fan of Superman.  I tend to prefer my superheroes to be a little more down to earth.  I think most writers do too.  It seems like a lot of them have issues finding decent challenges for a hero who, at least in his heyday, couldn literally move planets.

This wasn't a problem for Grant Morrison.  Freed from the constraints of working within mainstream DC Universe, Grant was able to resurrect all of the joyful madness of the silver age that made Superman fun, yet somehow infused them with a modern sensibility.

He allowed Lois to become a "Superwoman for a day".  He gave Superman a mad scientist friend.  He allowed Jimmy Olsen to add to his plethora of odd superpowers by temporarily transforming himself into a "Doomsday".  Nothing that hadn't been done before, but somehow he made it seem brand new.

If that was all he had done, it would have been a great comic book run.  But Morrison went further than that.  When you read issue twelve it becomes obvious that he is telling his version of the last Superman story.  The reason he gave us the tour through the silver age is not just nostalgia.  It was to remind us about everything that was good about Superman before bringing us to the end.

Damn I will miss this comic.