"Small Perceptions"
The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #610 (Jan. 2003)
Writer: Joe Casey
Art: Derec Aucoin
Colors: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert
Associate Editor: Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Here we are in the last-ever one-issue gap between Super titles crossovers of Joe Casey's run, because we're almost to the
last Super titles crossover of his run. Between
Ending Battle and
Lost Hearts, we get "Small Perceptions," a story about what Superman means to the common man, foregrounding a theme that's run throughout Casey's run.
Lex Luthor has created a "Cosmic Defense Initiative," an alliance with other nations against space (to prevent something like another Imperiex War from happening); Clark has been laid off from the
Daily Planet, I guess because of something that happened in one of the other Super titles; Perry has hired him anyway to go undercover in a mine to find proof that there's illegal mining going, mining that can be linked back to Luthor.
The story focuses on the day-to-day of Clark's time undercover at the mine. Superman comes up though; one of Clark's co-workers says of Luthor's CDI, "at least
he's lookin' out for
regular Americans... [...] ...you know a guy like
Superman ain't here to look after guys like
us. He's too busy fightin' giant
robots and other freaks in
dumb outfits to come around dives like
this... guess he thinks he's
got his priorities." There are obvious parallels between Luthor and President Trump; one of the less obvious and more prescient ones is how Luthor is seen as being more in touch with the needs of ordinary Americans than the "coastal elites" despite that Luthor himself is one of those elites! The man goes on to complain that Superman's violence probably hurts as many ordinary people as it protects. It's not explicitly referenced, but in the wake of
Ending Battle, this critique stings. Superman didn't prevent anything in that story; all that violence wouldn't have happened without him. It causes some clearly genuine soul-searching on Clark/Superman's part.
The cover means that you won't be surprised when there's a cave-in. Clark saves his co-worker, the same one from before-- but that co-worker saves most of the miners himself. This then inspires Superman to look at some of his outstanding mail; he flies to Guatemala to comfort a kid who wrote him about his mother dying, and who has just died when he arrives: "
<Did you know... I'm an orphan, too? But I'm not alone... I was never alone... the entire human planet took me in as her own. The human race became my family.>" He comforts the kid, but as Superman flies away, it's the superhero who thanks the orphan.
Derec Aucoin pencils and inks; I think as his collaboration with Casey has gone on (he first worked on
#590, and became the title's regular artist with
#608), the styles of the writing and the art have increasingly converged. In
#599, I felt Aucoin was a little too dark, but I didn't feel that here, I think because Aucoin has lightened and Casey's standalone issues have gotten weightier. Aucoin works on all but three remaining issues of
Adventures.
It's a quiet issue; the espionage stuff is beside the point and never resolved. If Clark busts open a conspiracy, we don't see it here. Instead, we can see that something is changing inside him. In issue #616, we'll learn he's made a big decision; I think in retrospect, this is the moment where he actually makes it. I enjoyed it when I originally read it, but felt like it kind of fizzled out; on rereading it to write out this review, having finished out Casey's run, I can see better how it plays its role in the whole trajectory of Superman's changing ethos, and it's much more enjoyable as a result.
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