After traveling down such a well traversed path in the first issue of Secret Origin, Geoff Johns and Gary Frank take a slight but welcomed detour onto new ground with their second issue. Clark Kent and his Smallville troubles are still very much the way we've seen them in past stories - unable to fit in, play football, have a girlfriend, and just generally be normal - but for the first time since Crisis on Infinite Earths and John Byrne's Man of Steel retconned a young Clark Kent as Superboy out of existence, he has made his full fledged return to continuity, along with some other Silver Age concepts that were previously muddied in excessive reimaginings towards the beginning of this decade. Most importantly, issue #2 lets the reader spy in on Clark's first encounter with the Legion of Super-Heroes, a teenage band of superpowered vigilantes from the 30th century inspired by Superman. 

In the Silver Age, Superboy had many adventures with the Legion in their future, and Johns, who has never made any secrets about his undying love for the Legion characters, brings that back in full force as Clark travels with them for the first time into 30th century Smallville. Interestingly though, this issue results in something much bigger than nostalgia: through some very simple lines of dialog when discussing how Clark shouldn't know too much about his own future, Cosmic Boy reveals some troubling food for thought when he mentions some things that have occurred throughout Superman's tenure of existence, like Doomsday and the current New Krypton story, but also some things that haven't yet come to pass. Forboding to be sure, but also brings to light what the "point" of this mini-series could be, an issue that many readers voiced concern over after the first installment came out last month.

As much fun as the Superboy/Legion stuff is in this issue, the real surprise lies in what Johns is doing with Lex Luthor circa Clark's teen years. It's certainly remniscient of the mad scientist Lex of old as opposed to the conniving business man that the 1980's Superman revamp created, but the biggest changes come into play involving his family. To my knowledge, nothing concrete has ever been made of Lex's family, aside from in Superman: Birthright, 2004's retelling of the Superman origin, which is now defunct. Here, Lex's father is portrayed as a drunken farmer as opposed to the wealthy tycoon he has been portrayed as in both Birthright and Smallville. I loved this idea, as it makes the modern Luthor all the more reprehensible as he pretends to behave as something he's not, or come from a place other than Smallville. 

Gary Frank is, as always, amazing to look at it. Geoff Johns has said it before, and I have to agree: Frank should draw Superman for the rest of time. Alright, so Superman isn't actually in this issue at all, but Frank's Superboy is a spitting image of what a young Christopher Reeve probably looked like, and his body language is iconic while he makes his characters emote exactly as they are intended to. It's true that many of his character's facial features are similar, but still, you'd be hard pressed to find an artist with talent like Gary Frank. And is it just me, or does Saturn Girl look just a teency little bit like Tricia Helfer?

Superman: Secret Origin #2 surpasses the debut issue in nearly every way as it becomes clearer just what it is Geoff Johns, Gary Frank and DC is planning for this series. If this issue is any indication - and let's face it, the past few years of DC comic books - then the Silver Age is making a come back.