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Meet Cyrus Q. Hornbill The Naked Rhino. He was a teacher at Charles Darwin Middle School and he's home from work. Until, he can go to sleep in the bed naked and dreams of going to The Millennium Island, where he can make some new naked animals.

Let me just start by saying, I loved this book! It's another Superman origin story, we already have seven of those yet none of them are canon anymore and this one wasn't even part of the mainstream continuity so this did put me off initially but the theme and the time period this book takes place in piqued my interest.

The story is set in the 60's during the cold war, I can't go into any details without going into spoiler territory but it's more than just a superman origin, it's the origin of this world's batman and green lantern as well but during an age of tense international relations and threat of nuclear conflict. A certain character from the first crisis already visited this world even before clark actually became Superman. Batman's motivation for donning the cowl are entirely different and hal isn't the human with the strongest will power but he still gets the ring. Other justice league characters don't even makes an appearance till the very end of the book. Although other characters are present here most of the story focuses on clark himself and his struggles; his struggles with having all this power and not knowing what to do with it, his struggle with not feeling good enough and his struggle with trying to do what he thinks is the right thing but the possibility that it might not be true. Many events from the history of the real world and the history of the DCU also take place here albeit a little differently. The main antagonist of course is lex, it's a superman book after all but neither of them are aware of each other in the story.

There are many words of wisdom given to superman and us throughout the book by Jonathan, jor-el and many other characters but in the the end the message that I feel is the singular draw from the story is delivered by superman himself. "The people who do the most good in the world aren't the strongest, the smartest or even the most prepared but simply those who show up." I personally believe that this has the potential to be another iconic story on par with kingdom come and new frontier, really looking forward to reading book two when it comes out.

Why is there no article for "Superman Theme", the John Williams tune from Superman: The Movie? I'd write one myself, but it seems bizarre that such an iconic element of the Superman realm doesn't already have an article on here, enough to make me suspect there's some special reason behind it.

What are your favourite superman stories from during the holidays ?