As a child of the 90s, I grew up with a healthy X-Men obsession. My favorite character was Gambit, whose slick jacket, way with the ladies and cool look made him a hero to many preteen boys.

Even though I knew who he was, my obsession with Superman came later, when I became an adult (although my wife still has her doubts).

It was in Gambit’s 1993 miniseries that I first encountered the artist who for me has become best known for his work with Superman.

Lee Weeks began his career with notable fill-in issues on Batman and a decent run on Daredevil. Early on, there was a heavy dose of influence from David Mazzucchelli, with poses and facial expressions seemingly lifted straight out of Year One. It was because of this that Weeks seemed to be hired for dark, moody stories for a long time. Yet I was always a fan of his photorealistic style, great backgrounds, and ability to tell a story, and found his work to be solid wherever I saw it.

Although always working, it seems as though Lee’s ultra-detailed style would take a long time to complete, and thus he’s never had a long, sustained run on one book. This isn’t bad of course, as many artists over the years have picked quality over quantity and made a career out of it (Neal Adams, Jim Lee, Frank Quitely, etc). He did a smattering of issues for pretty much all the major comic companies throughout the 90s and into the 2000s, most of which was the aforementioned moody stuff.

By the time Lois and Clark came out in 2015, Weeks’ art had just reached another level. His stuff was never bad, but his figure work, shading, storytelling, faces, and absolutely everything else had improved exponentially since the last time I had seen it. His rise as an artist, whose range had now gone far beyond moody, happened to coincide with the positive changes happening in the Superman books during DC Rebirth, and his terrific art was a big reason that I enjoyed Lois and Clark so much.

That miniseries set the tone for every Rebirth story that followed, kicking off a great run for the Superman books. Since that time, Weeks has admittedly done stellar artwork on Batman, but has stuck with Superman’s world as well, drawing covers for several series, including Superman Lost, Superman ‘78, and a bunch of others. Weeks recently returned to pencil the interiors of the Lois and Clark sequel which was just collected, and the work was just as good as anything else he has ever done with the characters.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but because these are more grounded stories focusing on the Kents, something about Weeks’ photorealistic approach just lends itself here perfectly. Clark, Lois and Jon really have never looked better. There were many great artists who worked on Superman Rebirth, but Lee Weeks for me has become the most iconic for that period, which is saying something.

I really hope he and Dan Jurgens get the chance to do more work together on the characters, but if not, any Superman from him would be most welcome, just the same. I purchased a signed, virgin cover he did for Superman ‘78 directly from his website a few years ago (see above, a treasured piece of my collection) and illustrates (see what I did there?) that point well.

I would have no problem if he decided to draw Superman for the rest of his career. I hope we get to see a lot more!