This week,
Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's All Star Superman became the latest DC Comics storyline to be made into an animated feature, and for many fans, myself included, this felt like something that was going a step beyond the stories they've adapted in the past.
All Star Superman isn't just a story that has that great hook -- Superman's last adventure before he dies -- it's also
one of the best Superman stories of all time,
When you get right down to it, most of DC's previous animated releases,
Crisis on Two Earths,
Under the Red Hood, Public Enemies and
Apocalypse, have all fallen into the same broad category. They're stories with great hooks -- the Justice League fights their evil opposites, Batman's sidekick comes back from the dead with a chip on his shoulder, Superman and Batman punch some dudes, Superman and Batman punch some other dudes and also Supergirl's there -- but they're also stories that, for obvious reasons, felt like they were the easiest to pitch to the mass market, but not necessarily the
best.
As a comic, All-Star Superman is an incredible testament to the craft of comic book storytelling, and also something that synthesizes itself out of decades of comics in a way that's still fairly accessible to unfamiliar readers. Tthat simultaneously makes it an obvious choice to see adapted, and also something that's incredibly difficult to pull off without losing what makes it special. And now, having seen ...
