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. The premise tells the tale of Clark Kent's beginnings into becoming Superman, set in the 1930s, where Clark befriends a wrongly convicted photographer named Willi Berg, and is then taken from Kansas to Hollywood and finally in New York where he meets Lois Lane, fights Lex Luthor, as he debuts in his superhero persona. Despite the setting, this is not about the Golden Age Superman also known as the Superman of Earth-2; as Perry White, the Daily Planet, Lex Luthor's position and his trademark powers (including flight) are not part of that alternate Earth. Rather, it's a Superman period piece set in the 1930s.
The Smallville years of Superman, told in a period style that evokes the work of F. Scott Fitzgerald. An excellent read, all around. Kind of makes me wish this author would write a continuing series of period Superman novels, but I suppose the conceit works best if it ends with the full emergence of Superman, as it does here.
