It's Superman!

infobox Book |
name = It's Superman!
title_orig =
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image_caption = Cover of paperback
author = Tom De Haven
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Chronicle Books & Ballantine Books
release_date = September 15th, 2005 (hardcover)August 29th, 2006 (paperback)
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardcover & Paperback)
pages = 384 (hardcover) 432 (paperback) pp
isbn =
preceded_by =
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"It's Superman!" is a novel by Tom De Haven based on the comic book superhero Superman. It was released on September 15, 2005 in hardcover and August 29, 2006 in paperback.

"It's Superman!" tells the story of Clark Kent becoming Superman in the thirties, the decade of the character's creation. It has been noted that even though the Golden Age Superman came from this period, the Superman in the novel is not that version as Perry White, the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor's position and the powers he has were not present during that time.

Response

"The New York Times" described the novel as "Delightful…with energy and imagination".cn|date=November 2007 "Entertainment Weekly" said "its textured with authentic faces, places, and attitudes."cn|date=November 2007

Trivia

*Tom De Haven was chosen by DC Comics after his novel sequel to his 1984 novel "Funny Papers" called "Derby Dugan's Depression Funnies", which dealt with 1930s. That led to a meeting where it was discussed how long it has been since Superman was written in his original period of 1938.

*A sort of "director's cut" exists on this book. When De Haven finished his first draft of the novel, it came out 1,000 pages in length. The things that were cut from the first draft into the final book were: other characters that were going to be introduced in the story, more about Lex Luthor (his family life, his rise to power, his manias), an interwoven storyline about a Russian spy trying to get her hands on Lex’s robot blueprints, more on Clark’s girlfriend in Hollywood; Diana Dewey, more on Alger Lee and Jonathan Kent, and finally parallels between Lex Luthor and Clark Kent. Ultimately, the "director's cut" and the final version are somewhat different from each other overall. De Haven prefers the final version to the original as he says it is a "fast read". [http://thethunderchild.com/Interviews/Books/TomDe]

*Originally, in his pitch, De Haven had Willi go on the alias of Jimmy Olsen, the name of the well known photographer to Clark Kent and Lois Lane of the Daily Planet, when he was on the run. It was rejected by DC Comics. [http://media.libsyn.com/media/comicgeekspeak/cgs-episode086.mp3]

*Elements in the novel were from the classic Fleischer Superman cartoons. The costume Clark is given that becomes the Superman costume is the same one from the cartoons, and Luthor's robots came from The Mechanical Monsters short.

*In the final chapter, early Superman stories like the main Superman story in Action Comics #1, the first appearance of Superman, are referenced. Originally, the book was going to end in June 1938, the cover date to Action Comics #1. But De Haven stopped short and decided to end it with the play "Our Town", and have it connect with the story.

*Tom De Haven has said that if he did a sequel, he would want it to be set when Clark Kent was somewhere of 40 years of age.

References

External links

* [http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=5149&store=books "It's Superman!" from Chronicle Books]
* [http://media.libsyn.com/media/comicgeekspeak/cgs-episode086.mp3 "Comic Geek Speak" interview with Tom De Haven on "It's Superman!"] Right click to download
* [http://thethunderchild.com/Interviews/Books/TomDeHaven.html "The Thunder Child" interview with Tom De Haven]