Joe Casey Jay Faerber's Adventures of Superman #607: "Alienation"

"Alienation"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #607 (Oct. 2002)

Guest Writer: Jay Faerber
Guest Penciller: Brandon Badeaux
Guest Inker: Mark Morales
Colorists: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Assistant Editor: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Here we come to this marathon's first installment with no actual Joe Casey content. This issue, in the gap between Super title crossovers Return to Krypton II and Ending Battle, is a fill-in by Jay Faerber. Faerber had just come off a three-year run on The Titans when this was released, and indeed, the issue focuses on a Titan I'd never heard of, Argent, coming to Superman for advice.

I was expecting it to be terrible. A fill-in by a writer I'd never heard of featuring a character I'd never heard of-- and with an awful-looking cover, with a gross looking Alienesque creature. The tagline "Inner Demon!" implied someone battling an anger within, one of my least favorite comic book tropes.

Surprisingly and thankfully, it wasn't. It's not a complex story, but it is a decent one. Argent (whose superpower seems to be how her costume doesn't reveal all at any moment) was recently outed as half-alien, and she feels like people view her differently now. More distantly, more as an object. So she's come to Superman for advice on how to be an alien among humanity.

They have their conversation while Superman is only patrol around Metropolis, and it's the touches that Faerber weaves into this that makes the story come to life. I always like it when Superman is the upstanding moral exemplar, and this story gives us that in spades: he just goes about his business, but keeps reassuring Argent the entire time. At one point he swoops in to save people from a car crash, but tells Argent to keep talking, listening to her with his super-hearing while he casually saves lives.

That's basically it. They talk while they save lives together; of course, she resolves her issues pretty patly when they encounter a situation that mirrors it. It's a simple story, and it's not a great story, but it is an enjoyable little slice of life in the day-to-day of Superman. Faerber gets the character, and tonally it fits with Casey's approach on his own standalone issues, being more about character and the impact of Superman's ideals than fights or action, like #599 and 600 especially.

Brandon Badeaux's artwork is occasionally a little awkward (too many lines), but fundamentally solid, and Mark Morales is one of those consistent inkers of the 2000s I'm always happy to see more of.

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