By Michael Jan Friedman & Dean Motter (Scholastic)
ISBN: 978-0-43909-550-1
We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but characters such as Batman, Spider-Man, the X-Men and Superman long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, platforms and age ranges.
Another captivating case in point is this beguilingly enthralling retelling of the Man of Steel’s formative journey to self-discovery retold for the very young as part of the Hello Reader early-learning program devised by Children’s publisher Scholastic.
Categorised as Level 3 (school years 1 and 2, with Level 2 being kindergarten and 1 as pre-schoolers) the story crosses that crucial divide wherein parents still read to their kids, but the little tykes are also beginning that wonderful, magical journey into literacy by themselves…
This clever, sensitive and age-appropriate retelling by Michael Jan Friedman encapsulates and addresses every maturing child’s growing feelings of potential alienation, sense of growth, self-discovery and independence by focussing on High School kid Clark Kent on the day that the solitary teen discovered why he had always felt somehow different from his classmates.
When Clark suddenly, impossibly, heard and saw a car crash from miles away, without thinking he found himself running and jumping over buildings. Arriving on the scene he tore metal doors off burning cars and outraced an explosion to save a trapped driver…
Terrified that he might be a monster he confided in his parents, who promptly shared a secret they’d been harbouring all Clark’s life. In the barn they showed the lad a tiny one-man spaceship which had crashed to Earth years ago, carrying an alien baby…
As Clark approached the capsule a hologram activated and the boy saw his birth-parents Jor-El and Lara who explained why he could perform feats no one else could…
Shocked and distraught, Clark ran away as fast as he could and before he knew it was flying high above the world. The glorious shock at last made him realise that different didn’t mean bad…
And soon the world was daily made better by a visitor from afar known as Superman…
This enthralling little adventure is a cleverly weighed introduction into the Man of Tomorrow’s past, magnificently complemented by 31 painted illustrations by gifted design guru and illustrator Dean Motter that will amaze kids and astound even their jaded, seen-it-all-before elders.
No Supermaniac could consider their collection complete without a copy of this wonderful little gem and Superman’s First Flight is the ideal introduction for youngsters to their – surely – life-long love affair with reading…
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