What’s got your cape in a bunch, Kal-El? Who says you were ever an American citizen in the first place? Natural born or otherwise.

Goyer’s installment, with tense art from Miguel Sepulveda, steals the spotlight in Action Comics No. 900. When Superman drops in on an Iranian protest to stand with demonstrators in an act of nonviolent civil disobedience, the U.S. government takes him to task for acting as an instrument of national policy. Superman responds by renouncing his American citizenship and proclaiming himself a citizen of the universe.

Superhero comic books have become so boring, fringe and lame that every year or two their writers come up with ever more offensive silliness to screw up their characters and generate headlines in a desperate bid to juice up sales. Superman, he of “Truth, Justice and the American Way” renouncing his American citizenship to become a “citizen of the universe” is just another in a long line of this stuff. Whatever. Superman was always the least interesting of the superheroes anyway.

Real creativity and real storytelling in the graphic style are miles away from these tired tropes. Check out Doug TenNapel’s work, like the ongoing online graphic novel Ratfist, and other graphic novelists who mock superheroes and deliver content that’s actually original and interesting.