Customer Reviews
Proper faulty and no mistake Guv! - By: Mr. G. Lee, 15 Oct 2007 
I can live with the cliché's, I can live with the patronising ex pat, 'ollywood cockernee type characterisation's, I can even forgive John Byrne (once a legendin this business), but what I cannot forgive is that this is very poor & worst of all NOT FUNNY! It is simply short of the mark & way off target & desperately tries to capture a long dead zeitgeist that probably only ever existedin the minds of Americans watching "The Avengers" re-runs on TV as kids &in the long since dried up comedy brain of John Cleese who clearly spends way to much timein La La Land & out of England to recognise this for the poor excuse of a parody that it fails to be...shame
Superman: True Brilliance! - By: D. Smith, 21 Sep 2005 
This book was fantastic!, The humourin it was very british & i enjoyed it greatly. The appearance of Batmanin it wasn't the best idea & i thought even though it was slightly funny how he became Batman, it was a rubbish character. The costume was brilliant & the joke about the british tabloids was very funny too.
'British' in an Austin Powers sort of way - By: , 21 Sep 2005 First, the good points: It's got lovely artwork. 1980's fan favourite (and the man entrusted with the late 80's reboot of the Superman mythos) John Byrne inked over by long-time Alan Davis collaborator Mark Farmer, famed for his 'clean' style. It looks great.
The story is good as well - an opportunity to parody the S** & the rest of the British tabloid press, with Colin (Superman) Clark's newspaper editor boss clearly modelled on a certain fictional Torquay hotelier. There are some lovely twists on the long-familiar Superman stories, including some lovely cartoony moments (how does a teenage Clark stop himself from lookingin the girls' changing rooms with X Ray vision?; what if young Clark switched on heat vision whilst looking at a 'hot' girl? etc) Indeed, Clark's parents are more caricatures than 'real' people to keepin with the 'just for laughs' style.
Where I have an issue is with the use of John Cleese as a co-author of the book. I suspect that he's had very little to do with this. True, there are numerous in-jokes hidden away for the fans covering both Python & Fawlty Towers, but would Cleese really have allowed a conversation between Clark & his earthly dad to have allowed the use of the term 'sidewalk' instead of 'pavement'? (Just how British is the writing team?) This has all the hallmarks of one of those Chris Claremont X-Men stories where Britain consists of the Houses of Parliament, Beefeaters, & little else. Austin Powers would feel at home here.
Overall, disposable fun, but I'm glad I borrowed this from the library - it's written as much with one eye on pandering to the preconceptions of the US market as it is on giving us Brits 'our own' Superman story. For a quality alternativein a non-comedy vein, I'd recommend Batman: The Scottish Connection by the all-Scots team of Grant & Quitely. They'd even included Rosslyn Chapel years before the Da Vinci code got there...
And Now for Something Completely Different!! - By: , 04 Mar 2005 
This is a refreshing change to the Man of Steel! With the combined talents of Messrs. Johnson, Cleese, Byrne & Farmer, it answers the seemingly bizarre question, "What if??".
Kal-El grows upin the English countryside suburb of Weston-Super-Mare, adopted by the kindly Clarks. They christen him Colin & his powers soon become more of a hindrance than anything else. While his alter-egoin Metropolis had the almost stereotypical, All-American, story-book upbringing, Colin doesn't have it so good, even working for the Daily Smear under the anarchic Perry Whyte-Badger.
I won't give too much away, only to say that it's a hilarious send-up of the Superman legend, that takes a swipe at the notorious image of the British press. It's the first superhero story that had me giggling at the misfortunes of Colin Clark, as he comes to terms with his new-found image. The humour is satirical, very English, & if you're a fan of the off-the-wall Pythonesque humour, you'll enjoy this different take on Superman. The artwork by Alex Bleyaert, displaying all things that are typically British, is bright & outstandingly funny, from the dreary weather to bad teeth....and fish slapping! This book is set to be a comedy classic & would make the perfect gift for any comic-book fan.
