Review – Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen’s Boss Perry White #1: Da Chief

Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen’s Boss Perry White #1 – Matt Fraction, Elliot S! Maggin, Neil Kleid, Brian Michael Bendis, Writers; Steve Lieber, Curt Swan, Dean Haspiel, Ivan Reis/Joe Prado, Artists; Nathan Fairbairn, Joe Infurnari, Alex Sinclair, Colorist

Ray – 8.5/10

Ray: Perry White has been one of the great unsung heroes of Superman comics for eighty years, keeping Clark Kent employed and tolerating Jimmy Olsen’s antics. So it’s about time he got his spotlight—with some of his classic stories being reprinted and an original tale from the crack creative team of Fraction and Lieber.

That’s where we kick off, with an eight-page story of Perry White reflecting on his long time in newspaper publishing, starting out as a young man who became fascinated with the printed word and thought it would never get old. Except for one thing—virtually every headline in the Daily Planet seems to be “Superman Saves Metropolis” as summed up by a brilliant two-page spread. But sometimes things are different, and this story unfolds through a tale of Superman being needed outside the city, and Luthor managing to get the city to fund his own personal anti-alien squad to help Superman fight off an invasion—only for him to turn it on Superman. I saw the “punchline” coming a mile away, but it still hit perfectly and delivered a perfect short story that reminds me why the original Jimmy Olsen mini by these two was so good.

The rest of this issue is reprints, but some of them are well worth reading. First up is a short excerpt from Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen by the same creative team. This is the segment where Jimmy’s various exploits are summed up by Perry, leading to him being sent abroad to avoid causing any more damage. This is followed by a pair of classic stories by the iconic creative team of Maggin and Swan, one in which Perry shares his origin with his grandkids and one where he gets superpowers from his cigars. These both hold up nicely, as does Neil Kleid and Dean Haspiel’s Perry/Wildcat team-up from a 2011 80-page giant. It’s fun to see these two old cranks bond amid an adventure, and there’s a very short Bendis/Reis segment from the story where Superman revealed his secret identity.

Overall, this is a solid one-shot. I wish there was more original content, but there’s no real weak links here.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.