Written by Alan Moore. Art by Dave Gibbons.
(I recently re-read this story, and liked it better, largely because of the old idea of how, the first time you read something you notice what's missing, and all the ways it fails to meet your expectations. The second time through, knowing what to expect, you can accept it for what it is, and better appreciate its good points. Therefore, even though I enjoyed it more, nothing in my second reading especially contradicted the following review. Just thought you'd like to know.)
Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman arrive at the
Fortress of Solitude for Superman's birthday, only to find Supes
in a catatonic state brought on by an alien plant attached to him.
The villainous alien, Mongul, explains that it induces a person to live
his/her dream-fantasy, and, as such, is the perfect trap -- a prison
the victim is unaware of...and wouldn't want to leave. While Mongul
trashes Wonder Woman, Batman tries to revive Superman. Meanwhile,
Superman is living out another life on Krypton, which didn't explode.
He has a wife and kids...but Krypton is turning into a dystopia, with race
riots, and his own father heading a right-wing political movement.
Like just about everything else Alan Moore
has written, "For the Man Who Has Everything" is wildly hailed as one of
the greatest comic book stories ever written. And like everything
else by Alan Moore, it falls rather short of that claim.
Firstly, I've never much cared for Alan Moore's
writing, nor Dave Gibbons art, so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself
actually enjoying this story. Moore's dialogue was better than usual,
and the story kept me reading -- which turned out to be the problem.
It was sufficiently good that, in the end, it was ultimately disappointing.
I was interested in the Krypton scenes, and
I wanted to see where they were headed. You know, would the quiet,
everyman, Kal-El be forced to adopt a heroic persona to save his
beloved Krypton, and in so doing, remind himself of his real life,
thus breaking the trance? But, ultimately, the Krypton stuff
turns out to be a shaggy-dog story, all build-up to...nothing. And
once Supes awakens, the story just degenerates into a lengthy fight
scene -- yawn.
Like a lot of Alan Moore's stuff, it seems
a lot deeper than it is. In essence, the story is this: Supes'
is living a fantasy life on Krypton, but, subconsciously recognizing the
danger, he infuses it with political turmoil, riots, and chaos. The
gritty Krypton is not meant to be a revisionist take on that traditionally
Utopic planet (as some reviewers seemed to think), since it's just a part
of Superman's subconscious rebelling against the trance. The only
thing that remains unsullied in his dream is his family...and this "loss"
when he awakens, throws him into a rage.
Firstly, this is nothing new; Superman's affection
for the planet he never knew had long been a part of the character (in
fact, the story's more than a little reminiscent of "Superman's Other Life",
a 1950s story where Batman & Robin give Superman a gift of seeing what
his life would have been like if Krypton hadn't exploded).
What's awkward is Alan Moore's emphasis on the idylic family life -- something
Superman could have on earth (and eventually would when he married Lois
Lane), and therefore, hardly an unattainable dream -- while having
Krypton, and his relationship with his father, disintegrate into nightmare
-- when those are unattainable. The story is fatally flawed: the
dream has to be nice enough that there is a sense of pathos when
Superman awakens, but nightmarish enough that Superman would awake.
It's in this juggling the two needs that Moore stumbles.
This still doesn't make the story bad, just
a little thin, and shallow. Better suited to a regular issue
than a forty page annual that promises more than it delivers. Though
that's not Alan Moore (and Dave Gibbons) fault. Perhaps they intended
it as no more than a simple adventure that fandom has, subsequently,
blown all out of proportion. There are some cute bits, too (like
the end gag involving Wonder Woman's gift).
There are the usual Alan Moore weaknesses:
connecting one scene to another by having a line or image anticipate the
next scene, a trick that should add layer and meaning, but in Moore's hands
tends to be more cloying than insightful; a penchant for the brutalization
of women, and the overall dismissal of the "fairer sex" (his mom,
Lara, is dead, and so doesn't even figure in the story, while Supes' is
married, with a son and daughter, but when the final, heartwrenching moment
comes and the dream dissolves, it is his son who represents his loss --
his wife and daughter are nowhere to be seen); little character development
and, as noted in the body of this review, thin plotting (Alan Moore is
good at making things convoluted, as in The Watchmen, but the actual meat
and potatoes of what's going on can be a bit lean); and an overall amorality
-- Wonder Woman using a lazer gun against Mongul and, in true Arnold Schwarzenegger
fashion, sneers "Go to hell"; and Supeman is enraged by this plant-trap,
feeling almost violated, so how do the boys defeat Mongul? (Just
one guess now).
Perhaps Moore understands the values of the
modern world better than I do -- or would ever want to. When Wizard
Magazine compiled a list of great comic book moments, Superman heat-visioning
Mongul and sneering, "Burn!", made number 13.
In the end, "For the Man Who Has Everything"
is O.K., but doesn't live up to the hype.