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Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt de la Pena (Review #176)

"When the dawn breaks, a hero rises.

His power is beyond imagining.

Clark Kent has always been faster, stronger--better--than everyone around him. But he wasn't raised to show off, and drawing attention to himself could be dangerous. Plus, it's not like he's earned his powers . . . yet.

But power comes with a price.

Lately it's difficult to hold back and keep his heroics in the shadows. When Clark follows the sound of a girl crying, he comes across Gloria Alvarez and discovers a dark secret lurking in Smallville. Turns out, Clark's not the only one hiding something. Teaming up with his best friend, Lana Lang, he throws himself into the pursuit of the truth. What evil lies below the surface of his small town? And what will it cost Clark to learn about his past as he steps into the light to become the future Man of Steel? Because before he can save the world, he must save Smallville."

Review:
Alright, let's just get into it, this was probably my least favorite Icons book. To me this series has been new stories about characters we already know and love. While there were elements we all were familiar with, its hard not to with such iconic characters, but so far these authors have been able to tell a new story and show a side of these characters we hadn't seen before. Until now,

We spend SO. MUCH. TIME. So much time on Clark learning he's an alien. It was so unbelievably infuriating to pretend like we don't know what's going on. It was infuriating that the AUTHOR wrote this like the world doesn't already know Clark is an alien. Every scene where Clark looks ominously at the barn next to the crater on his farm, I wanted to scream, "WE ALL KNOW WHATS IN THE BARN CAN WE PLEASE MOVE ON TO A NEW STORYLINE??" 

To top it all off, was the other storyline. The "new" and original plot was... something else. I understand I understand and appreciated the message that this book was going for and the tone of addressing racism, drawing comparisons to the treatment of "illegal aliens" and an actual alien who is actually a white guy. HOWEVER. For me, it felt very much like a minimization of the issue. I don't really know what else to say about it other than, would it have been such a big deal to make Superman a Mexican immigrant as well? I think it would've made a better and more meaningful impact.

Anyways, I was sorely disappointed by this story and unfortunately call it a skip in the series. Thanks so much for reading, please leave your own thoughts and feels down below in the comments!


Want more of the DC Icons Series? Check out Wonder Woman: Warbringer, Batman: Nightwalker, or Catwoman: Soulstealer!


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