The rest of book 1, if you try to forget my previous comments, is the most bearable of the three. It shows young Clark in the high school environment, facing real heavy bullies. But what’s wrong here is that the other great change versus other origin stories is in how Miller depicts Clark’s way of seeing things.
Contrary to what happened in Man of Steel by John Byrne (yeah, read that one if you want to check the REAL Superman story), where Superman is a very human guy that happens to be an alien, in Superman: Year One we find a very alien Superman. He’s always detached from humanity, talking about ´how fragile they are´ and so on. Really, this kind of depicting him makes you root for Lex Luthor…
Book one end when Clark leaves Smallville to go to… yeah, I know you thought Metropolis. No. In this silly book, he enlists in the Navy. Yeah… that´s the best place to remain inconspicuous in an environment where nobody could try to use you as their weapon. Really nice move, Clark, you got your brains from your kryptonian daddy or your puny earthling one?