If you can remember back a full seven days to my previous Geek Punditry column (#194: Can We Just Let Bad Guys Be Bad?), you may recall that the discussion was spurred by the announcement of a new Netflix miniseries adapting John Steinbeck’s novel East of Eden. The book lovers among you will not be surprised to learn, then, that as I spent some time pondering the changes being made between the book and the show, I got a hair up my nose to give the book another read. This was a little difficult, however, when it came to my attention that I suffered from a chronic condition shared by over 7 billion people on this green planet of ours: I don’t actually own a copy of East of Eden.
And I feel like it’s judging me for that.
I own books, of course. I own a LOT of books. And the recent shenanigans by people like the bastards at Anthropic have made me more adamant than ever that owning as many books as possible is a good thing. That said, I DO have a limited amount of storage, and I’ve drifted more towards eBooks for most of my casual reading. I still love physical books, but unless it’s a keepsake (like a signed edition or something written by a friend of mine), something that’s unavailable in eBook format, or a book I need to complete a collection, I’m usually satisfied with the electronic version. So I decided to look into how much the eBook of East of Eden costs.
$12.99. And I looked at that $12.99 with the same sort of distrust that you look at the current prices at whatever gas pump is nearest to your house.
Look, I am a writer, and I believe wholeheartedly in paying writers what they’re worth. That said, I also believe that anyone charging more than ten bucks for an eBook is gouging you, because there are virtually none of the production, shipping, or storage costs involved with creating a print book. And when it’s a book that’s nearly 75 years old, the incredulity just rises.
That afternoon, I happened to be taking my son on our biweekly trip to the local library. While we were there, I thought, I should just check the book out. That’s what libraries are FOR, after all. They are a vital part of our community, and by NOT checking out books, I am doing them a disservice. It was such an obvious solution. So after convincing Edward that he actually had to follow ME through the stacks for a change, instead of me racing after him on a frantic search for the kitty pictures hidden around the children’s room as part of the library’s monthly scavenger hunt, I tracked the Steinbeck book down and looked at it.
I reeeeeally looked at it.
East of Eden is Steinbeck’s longest novel. And by “longest,” I mean it clocks in at about the same page count as Stephen King can turn out on a typical Sunday in October – it’s hefty. Let’s be clear about this: I do not mind a long book. I am by no means intimidated at the idea of reading a doorstopper. But I am also realistic, and I had serious doubts about my ability to finish the book and return it to the library in a timely manner. And even though the good people who work at the St. Charles Parish Public Library (Destrehan Branch) are uniformly kind, friendly, and helpful, I also reread Stephen King’s The Library Policeman a couple of months ago and I didn’t want to risk it.
Yeah, yeah, “it’s just a book” — SOME OF US CAN’T TAKE THAT CHANCE.
Anyway, I told myself, I’m an English teacher. I really should OWN a copy of such a seminal work in the canon of American literature. I should just get a paperback instead. So I looked it up: $20.
Then I went back outside to stare at the gas station again.
I remember a time – a time not all that long ago – when most paperback books fell in the $5.99 to $7.99 range. And sure, East of Eden is a huge book, clocking in at over 600 pages. But I started to look around at the NEW release paperbacks as well, many of which would take a full three or four whacks to kill a mouse, as opposed to the one thump that East of Eden would require, and I saw that $20 was about the average price these days. Part of that is because American publishing has all but abandoned the mass market paperback: the smaller sized and more affordable book that was ubiquitous for decades, small enough to fit into a largeish pocket, the glorious format upon which most people born before the turn of the century learned how to love books. Sadly, after making books accessible to the masses for nearly 100 years, this format has become almost nonexistent. If you ask publishers and distributors why that is, a lot of them will tell you that “the market” was no longer purchasing them, was no longer interested in them. As a member of “the market,” however, I can tell you that I was never surveyed about this decision. I never reached a point where I thought, “You know, I’m going to buy this larger version of the book that costs twice as much.” I just noticed that the smaller, less expensive versions were no longer being published for some reason.
Although I have no statistics, quotes, or data, I firmly believe that the push away from mass market was spurred almost entirely by a publishing industry that wanted an excuse to increase its prices. And again, writers deserve to be paid. But I don’t believe for a second that, in the vast majority of cases, the inflated price tag on these books has equaled an increased cut for the person who actually created the book. Almost universally, the added revenue being collected is going into the coffers of the publisher, which of course provides the invaluable service of deciding which books they want you to spend money on.
I also believe – without statistics or data – that this format shift is also at least partially responsible for the decline in literacy in America. Look, there are a lot of reasons that people might not want to read books: social media, video games, other media drawing their attention, being afraid of being labelled a “nerd,” difficulty finding books that match their interests, their mother read Danielle Steele that one time she got hit by an ice cream truck and there’s no WAY they’re taking THAT risk, and so forth. But I think the fact that books are no longer cheap enough to be an impulse purchase makes every single one of those problems even worse than it already is.
The funny thing is that while traditional publishing is doing everything it can to make it harder for people to become a part of their audience, comic book publishers are doing the OPPOSITE. I’ve written at length about DC Comics and their “Compact Comics” line, (In GP #119, GP #124, GP #164, and GP #178, but who’s counting?) so I’ll just do a quick recap here. DC now has a line of paperback editions of some of their most popular stories and graphic novels in a smaller format – ironically, about the same size as most of the paperback novels that have shoved mass market paperbacks into their grave. These Compact Comics collect the same stories that are published in traditionally-sized graphic novels, which usually have a price point ranging anywhere from $20 to $40, depending on the length. DC’s Compact Comics, however, have a uniform price tag of $9.99. And this format has proven to be a MASSIVE hit, selling out printing after printing not only in comic book stores, but in big box bookstores and other places that people buy books, like Walmart and Target. The line is so successful that nearly every other major comic book publisher has responded with their own line of smaller-sized bargain-priced paperbacks, and the result is an easily-accessible, affordable series of books that is appealing to both old and new readers alike.
Size-wise, these two books are everything you could want. Content-wise…well, one of them is.
Compact Comics also blow the argument for a $20 paperback out of the water. While a traditional book may have to pay a designer, a cover artist, and a few other people besides the author, a comic book has many, many more hands than that: multiple writers and artists, colorists, letterers, editors, and so forth. And while each of their pieces of the pie may be smaller than those of a single author who has written a single novel, the color pages and the paper that holds those images is also of a better stock than your usual paperback. The production cost for a Compact Comic is inarguably higher than that of a novel, and yet DC can afford to sell them for half the price.
To put it another way, if I have $20 in my pocket, I can buy Steinbeck’s East of Eden, or I can buy a copy of Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s exquisite graphic novel Kingdom Come AND have enough money left over for compact anthology of comics from Oni Press’s Rick and Morty series. And I’m sorry, but Steinbeck never ONCE included a plumbus in any of his novels, so this isn’t even really a contest.
If you look hard enough, though, you can probably find one in Shakespeare.
As a teacher, a writer, and a reader, I hear the phrase “literacy crisis” thrown around on a daily basis. Authors are desperately hustling to try to get readers. Readers are finding themselves in a cultural wasteland as it becomes more difficult to find people in your daily life that you can share your love of books with. Teachers are crawling behind students on hands and knees BEGGING them to read just a chapter or two of The Great Gatsby, because there’s a scene where a woman gets hit by a car, maybe because she’d read a Danielle Steele novel, I dare you to prove that she HADN’T. In fact, EVERYBODY seems to be doing anything they can to try to get people reading again.
Everybody, that is, except for the companies that have established themselves as the de facto gatekeepers of the entire world of literature: the publishers. Rather than making books available and attractive to as many people as possible, they seem to be on a quest to identify micro-cohorts of potential readers and squeeze every drop of cash out of THEM, rather than make reading appealing to the masses.
It’s an insane practice, but that’s the world we live in.
I broke down and got the Kindle version of the Steinbeck book, by the way. At $12.99, it would take me almost three years of late fines at the library to offset the cost, but by then I should be almost finished reading it.
The conclusion of Kingdom of Zod drops today (assuming you read this on Sept. 30), but I won’t have time to get to the comic shop and write a review before my admittedly self-imposed deadline on this column, so it’s going to join the overall September wrapup you guys can expect next week. Today, I wanted to go back a couple of years to 2024, and the eight-issue Kneel Before Zod series written by Joe Casey with art by Dan McDaid.
The series was touted as Zod’s first starring series, although it’s kind of unclear whether it was intended to be a miniseries or if it, like so many comic books in the modern marketplace, was structured in such a way that it could keep going if the sales permitted. Regardless, it’s one of the darkest stories in the main Superman continuity you’ll find. As the series begins, Zod has founded a “New Kandor,” a planet where he intends to restore the glory of Krypton with his wife Ursa and their son, Lor-Zod. But things fall apart almost immediately, as Zod finds himself forced to exile his child (who went off to share the Sinister Sons miniseries with Sinestro’s boy) and his new planet targeted by an alien invasion.
The first half of this series places Zod in the unusual role of defender, trying to protect his world from the invading aliens. But Casey does it in an effective way, maintaining the general brutality and evil nature of the character. I’ve written recently (in Geek Punditry #194) about how modern media has a disturbing tendency to try to excuse villainy, something that I think is somewhat damaging to the culture as a whole. Casey doesn’t do that. Zod may be the protagonist here, but that doesn’t make him a hero. While the flashback scenes that showcase Zod’s past may help to explain the way he is today, these scenes are presented for the purpose of illumination, not justification, and that makes all the difference.
The reason I think this was probably intended to be an ongoing series is that it takes a drastic turn about halfway through, starting an entirely different storyline with Zod in space, alone, until he finds and takes command of an army of villains. It goes from a story of a man protecting his home to the origin of a sort of cosmic pirate clan, a drastically different story that feels as though it was intended to be the next stage in a longer arc that got cut short. As such, this second half of the series isn’t quite as engaging as the first, feeling less complete and more unfinished.
Dan McDaid’s artwork comes from the Keith Giffen school in many respects. The linework is detailed when need be, sparse when appropriate, and he usually incorporates the nine-panel grid that Giffed so often used. It helps with the pacing, and somehow (despite the fact that Giffen would use these techniques in silly books like Ambush Bug), McDaid’s use of it adds to the sense of menace.
I wish Casey had been given just one more arc on this book to try to tie things up more neatly. As it is, it just kind of ends, dangling Zod in space, where he remained until his reemergence following Absolute Power took him on a slow march to the story that’s happening in the Superman comics right now. There’s connective tissue here, but I feel like there was supposed to be more, and it’s a shame we didn’t get to see it all.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
With the whole “Kingdom of Zod” storyline in high gear over in the main Superman comics, I thought it might be interesting to take a look back at some of the more classic General Zod storylines over the years. This proved to be troublesome, though, when I realized that most of Zod’s characterization is actually based on the movies, specifically Terrence Stamp’s portrayal of the character in the first two Christopher Reeve films. Prior to the movies, Zod was a rather generic “evil” Kryptonian from the Phantom Zone. Since the movies, he’s gained much more depth, but that depth is all based on the cinematic portrayal. What’s more, I already covered some of the best Zod storylines back in the original “Year of Superman” project.
So I turned to the New 52 era, and that month about two years in when the regular titles were given over to “decimal” issues featuring not the heroes, but rather one of their traditional foes. Essentially, they were one-shots that weren’t TECHNICALLY one-shots. So let’s take a look at that era’s version of Zod from Action Comics (Vol. 2)
Action Comics (Vol. 2) #23.2, because integers know what they did. Title: DC Comics Unleashes Zod Writer: Greg Pak Art: Ken Lashley Main Cover: Gene Ha
This quick read is less a story and more of a series of snapshots from the life of Dru-Zod, beginning in his childhood and ending with his expulsion into the Phantom Zone. There’s interesting stuff here, showing young Zod with his parents, scientists, and how a cataclysm leaves him to fend for himself. A year later, a semi-feral Zod is found by Jor-El and Zor-El and reintegrated into society, but the damage, it seems, has been done.
From there we get to what I think is this issue’s primary failure: the biggest timeskip of out of several. We go straight from lil’ Zod playing Tarzan to a fully grown adult Zod already commanding an army. The rest of the book – the bulk of the issue, in fact – is made up of exploring Zod’s rise to power as a military leader on Krypton. Pak’s story is fine and Lashley’s art is great, but this is an era of Zod that has been covered extensively over the years. There are lots of different stories about “General” Zod, both before and after Krypton’s destruction. And look, I get it, the point of this issue was specifically to detail the history of the New 52 version of Zod. Technically speaking, it was uncharted territory. But is it really uncharted if you’re following a course set by people who just got there in a different way? What I’m getting at is that I wish Pak had spent more time in those in-between years, because the first two scenes of the book are some of the most interesting. We’re very used to seeing Zod as a fascist, a sociopath, and all of the other things that make him one of Superman’s most memorable villains. This is one of the few glimpses of him BEFORE that.
That said, the glimpse is pretty good. Those few scenes at the beginning are bookended with a flashback at the climax of the book, showing us the fate of Zod’s father that had previously been skipped over, and it’s a harrowing moment. It’s more demonstrative of who and what Zod is than any of the military stuff in the rest of the book. I don’t think this particular version of Zod is in continuity anymore (much of the New 52 stuff is of dubious canonicity at best), but either way I think there’s room to explore here.
Alas, explore they did not.
I think there’s room to pick at Zod a little more, though. In 2024, Joe Casey came in with an eight-issue series called Kneel Before Zod, which is far more relevant to what’s happening in the Superman books right now. I haven’t read that one since it first came out, and it feels like maybe next week would be a good time to go back and do that again.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
In this day and age, if you collect anything related to pop culture, it’s almost inevitable that you’re going to wind up with some Funko Pops in your collection. Some people like to be derisive about them, others call them “Millennial Beanie Babies,” but the simple truth is that if it’s not something that hurts anybody, then whining about it says more about the person doing the whining than anything else. What I like about Funko is the fact that they cover such an incredibly diverse array of properties and characters all in the same line. When I was a kid, I was the sort who liked to mix and mash his action figures and make my own crossovers, and it always kinda bugged me that so many of them were in such vastly different scales from one another. Sure, G.I. Joe could interact with the Star Wars characters easily enough, but having them meet He-Man made it seem like the “Power of Grayskull” was nothing more than a massive overdose of steroids. Super Friends was a little better, although it always bugged me that Robin was taller than Snake-Eyes. And working in the Thundercats? The stuff of nightmares.
With Funko, though, any character from any universe is in the same scale as any other, and I admit, that’s what made me a fan. In recent years I’ve pulled back on collecting them just because of the sheer volume, but I still try to get my hands on any Superman or Superman-related characters I can find. It’s going to take a few posts to get through them all, so I’m going to start today with some of the more standard Superman figures in my collection.These are just the Funko Pops I’ve got of your basic Superman. You wouldn’t think one would need too many of those. You would be wrong.
On this first row, we’re going to start with a sort of archetypical Superman. This was one of the first Superman Funkos ever produced, and I actually wound up with several of these in my possession when the TV show Krypton debuted. Prior to the beginning of the show there was a week-long trivia competition similar to the defunct HQ Trivia app with a cash prize each night and several runner-up prizes. I never won the top prize, but I got runner up multiple times, and each time I got the same package including a World of Krypton graphic novel, t-shirt that didn’t fit me, charging bank that looked like a Kryptonian crystal, and one of these Funko pops. I gave a couple to friends, one is in Eddie’s toys, and I kept one at home and one at work. Anyway, next to him is a figure labelled “Classic” Superman in our favorite “hands on hips” pose, and to the right is a “First Appearance” Superman, based on how the character was designed in Action Comics #1.
Speaking of Action Comics #1, that was also the subject of this Funko Pop Comic Cover figure. The s-shield is slightly different, as aficionados would be quick to point out. While I’m on the subject of oversized figures, there’s also this Clark Kent popping out of a phone booth, and the jumbo 12-inch Funko next to him. I believe there’s a variant of the jumbo figure with red eyes, like he’s using his heat vision, but I don’t have that one.
Here we have figures based on specific comics or scenes, starting with another Clark Kent in mid-transformation. That “Superman Pose” with the shirt being pulled open to reveal the S-shield is a classic for a reason. Next to him is a Superman based on Frank Miller’s Batman: The Dark Knight Returns. You can tell by the grimace. It’s not my favorite depiction of Superman, to be honest, but I do love having him on the shelf. I’m more enamored of the next one, Superman bursting chains in a tribute to the classic Neal Adams cover to Superman #233.
Some more story-specific figures here. We’ve got a Superman based on Mark Waid and Alex Ross’s Kingdom Come, which of course is one of the greatest Superman stories of all time. Next to him is the bearded, black suit Superman from the 2015 Lois and Clark miniseries by Dan Jurgens and Lee Weeks. I love this design, possibly because it’s just from such a great story, but I also think that the black suit and beard combo work well. And next I’ve got two versions of the holiday Superman: a full-size Funko and a miniature version that came from a DC Advent Calendar a few years back.
I call this next row the 90s Trilogy. In the middle we’ve got long-hair Superman, based on his appearance after the Death and Return of Superman. I’ve got him flanked by the versions of Superman from the story that came right after he finally got a haircut: Superman-Blue and Superman-Red. I just feel like these three all belong together, they’re so “of an era,” y’know?
I’ll close off this part of the tour with a few color variations. First up there’s a nice little Black and White Superman. This is not the only Black and White figure in the collection, but some of the others will appear best in other sets. Pink Superman was part of a line of figures released for breast cancer awareness, and on the other side is the Blackest Night version of Superman from that classic scene in which he, and other heroes who had died and been resurrected over the years, were transformed into Black Lanterns. If you’ve never read that series, why not? It’s great.
As I said, this is just the first of several Funko shelves. In future installments we’ll look at alternate versions of Superman, versions from other media, and of course, his friends and foes.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
Back in June, just before the Supergirl movie dropped, I devoted a column to the first few issues of the longest-running series the girl of steel has had to date: Peter David’s 80-issue run from 1996 through 2003. At the time, I talked about the first five issues of the series, as well as the prologue short story from Showcase ‘96. Since then, I’ve been working issues of the series in my regular rotation of re-reads, and this week I wanted to check in on the series so far.
At this point, I’ve gotten through the first 24 issues of the series, along with its two annuals and the two issues of Resurrection Man that the title crossed over with in 1998. This is the first time I’ve read most of these issues since they first came out nearly 30 years ago, which is an appalling number that whoever is in charge of time should be immediately apologizing to me for. I find that, while I remember most of the broad strokes, it’s the little things that I’m really getting into this time around.
For example, the broad strokes in question include the fact that Peter David’s Supergirl is what’s called an “Earth-Bound Angel,” a sort of heavenly being that is created when someone who is utterly unselfish sacrifices themself to save the life of someone beyond redemption. In this case, the former is Supergirl (the Matrix version) and the latter is Leesburg resident Linda Danvers. The Earth-Bound Angel is created by fusing the two of them into a single being. Much of the story comes from Linda, whose past is far dirtier than you usually expect from a member of the Superman family, trying to navigate the fact that she’s now cast into the role of a hero, and attempting to reconcile two sets of memories that have become one.
This much I remember. The stuff I didn’t remember is where the book really shines: the conflict between Linda and her parents, particularly her mother, who struggles with the knowledge that her child has been irrevocably transformed, for example. Or the surprisingly large presence that Jonathan and Martha Kent have in these issues – surprising inasmuch as I didn’t remember them being in it quite so often, not surprising that they would want to take care of “Mae,” whom they raised as a daughter.
I’d forgotten a lot of the supporting cast as well. I remembered the demonic Buzz and the bizarre reboot of Comet (the Silver Age “Superhorse”), but I had forgotten characters like Linda’s struggling journalist pal Cutter, his ex-wife Andrea (who winds up with a crush on Linda), Linda’s best friend Mattie Harcourt, and the odd little boy named Wally who claims to be God and who, frankly, you struggle trying to argue with. Peter David had an uncanny knack for bringing in societal concepts and big ideas, concepts that were hot button topics at the time (and in some cases, still are today), and approaching them in a way that treats them as components of a story rather than an effort to make any sort of statement on the writer’s part. While one can probably figure out David’s political and spiritual beliefs with a deep enough reading of his work, that’s always subtext, and he never comes across as though he’s standing on a soapbox.
What’s more, David does all of this while dodging and navigating one DC “event” intruding into his story after another. Issue #3 was part of the Final Night crossover, then issue #14 was interrupted for Genesis (and believe me, that’s the kindest word to use for Genesis), and in issue #20 Supergirl had to leave town to help Superman deal with the Millennium Giants in his own titles. Some writers allow their book to be derailed entirely, while others give a crossover only the cursory acknowledgement and then ignore the fact that the sky has turned red. David is one of the few who really succeeded in striking a balance. In all of these issues, while Supergirl is dealing with the larger threats that are encompassing the DC Universe, we see the excellent supporting cast handling the trauma on their own, with lasting repercussions for the ongoing storyline that make these issues feel relevant and not just a bump in the road.
It’s also worth noting that original artist Gary Frank left the book less than a year into his run, making way for the man who partnered with David for most of the series, Leonard Kirk. And with all due respect to Frank, I think it was a change for the better. Gary Frank comes from a very highly detailed school of art, which is all well and good, but David uses a softer line and a more classic school of character design, without ever giving up the ability of the characters to emote or “act” on the page.
A little more than a quarter of the way through David’s run, and I’m enjoying it thoroughly. With the news that Sophie Campbell intends to bring back the Matrix Supergirl in the current run of the series, I can only hope she’s studied these issues intently, because there’s a lot of gold to be mined here. I’ll check in again later, maybe once I round issue #50.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
It’s time once again for a healthy helpin’ of reviews. Here are most (if not all) of the Superman-related comics that hit the stands in August, including the first half of the epic crossover event Kingdom of Zod!
Absolute Superman #22 Title: Get Brainiac Part One: Metallo Writer: Jason Aaron Art: Juan Ferreyra Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval & Ulises Arreola
Don’t you just love how DC stamps “A New Story Stars Here!” on the cover any time a new story is starting in an Absolute book? It’s a grand practice and I wish they’d implement it across the line. And with a book like this one, it’s almost a necessity. Even someone who reads the book each month like me might be a tad confused without that label there, because the story leaps right into the action feet-first. As the story begins, Superman is in Argentina facing off against a brutal, powerful cyborg that we soon learn (in case you didn’t guess it from the title of this issue) is the Absolute Universe version of Metallo. But as befits the Absolute line, although Metallo is familiar in many ways, when Superman gets a peek beneath the helmet, the face underneath turns out to be a very unexpected one.
The Absolute books, in my opinion, always are at their most interesting when they take the formula of the regular DC Universe and give it a twist, rather than those parts where they go off and do their own thing entirely, kind of like how Ra’s Al Ghul has been an arch-foe for Superman instead of Batman. Metallo is somewhat similar in that respect. Although the basic concept of a man rebuilt into a cyborg and sent off to fight Superman is intact, the man beneath the mask is a surprise and puts a very different spin on the dynamic between him and our hero.
Jason Aaron and artist Juan Ferreyra give us other twists as well. The flashback scene where we see Brainiac breathing life into this Metallo, for example, plays less like a scene from a superhero comic book and more like a segment of a horror movie. The darkness in certain corners of this world is so severe that it makes Superman stand apart all the more whenever he lets his light shine through.
I like some of the ways Ferreyra plays with the layout in this issue as well. There’s a two-page spread, for instance, of Superman and Metallo clashing with one another in outline, the panels appearing in the shapes of their bodies to tell the story. It helps not only make the pages stand out, but improves the pacing as Superman tries (in true Superman fashion) to attempt a dialogue with Metallo before either of them winds up beating the other to death. The last couple of pages are a nice emotional capper on the episode, and leave you with all the questions you need about where the rest of this storyline is going to take us.
Adventures of Superman: Book of El #11 Title: The Garden of the Promethean Giants Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art & Main Cover: Scott Godlewski
As we spiral into the final battle between the forces of Kryx-Ul and the heroes of the House of El, Superman finds a new ally, and in the way only Superman can, he tries to reach out to his enemy before it’s too late.
The frustrating thing here is that, after 10 issues that I’ve felt were somewhat lackluster, this penultimate chapter is the first one that I’ve actually found engaging. Maybe it’s a Lord of the Rings thing, but I’ve always had an affinity for scenes of our heroes girding for the “final battle” (as is promised on the cover), getting ready to fight for their lives, preparing to face impossible odds. When it’s done well, I often find it to be the most inspiring part of the whole story, and it’s the kind of thing that really stirs up the emotions just when you want them stirred up the most.
I also like how Johnson brought the story back around to Otho and Osul-Ra, although I’m more worried than ever that if there’s to be any lasting repercussions from this series, it’s going to be to shunt those two off to comic book limbo. It would be a shame to take them off the table, but as Johnson is the one who brought them into the mythos in the first place, it seems like he’s being the one that’s gearing up to put them off to the side.
I do feel like I’ve been harsh on this series, and although I do my best to be fair in these reviews, I don’t know if I’ve entirely succeeded here. This is a series that almost certainly will read better in its collected form than it has one chapter at a time (not unlike Kennedy’s original run on Action Comics, with the Warworld story that preceded this one). After it’s all said and done, I do intend to take a little time off then come back and read it as a whole to see if that improves my attitude towards the series. And if it does, I promise I’ll tell you all about it.
If it doesn’t, I’ll just keep my mouth shut.
Supergirl: Survive #3 Writers: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan Art &Main Cover: Rod Reis
Having escaped the destruction of Krypton, Kara and little Kal-El have been recovered by representatives of the Lantern Corps, a peacekeeping organization made up (in this universe) of agents of all the different colors of the emotional spectrum. When Kara learns that the Lanterns plan to take the two of them to a place called Oa, she and Kal-El escape again, taking with them the means to recreate their home.
There’s a lot of good in this issue. Kara’s attempt at protecting Kal-El is pretty clever, and very much in keeping with the sort of solution a teenage girl would come up with in these circumstances. That said, there are limitations inherent in her plan, and Parker and Sheridan do a nice job of addressing them. We also get introduced to a new player in this issue, a different take on a classic Superman character that seems primed to play a larger part in this story. The Guardians’ interest in the Els is also intriguing. There seems to be an obvious logic behind what they’ve got in mind, particularly considering that the Lanterns were ordered to keep them away from yellow suns, but there’s definitely room for the story to throw us a curve ball.
The timeline is slightly confusing here. There are a few pages of time skips and the narration doesn’t help with keeping track of it, despite there being captions telling us how much time has progressed since “K-Day.” To be fair, the problem isn’t that it’s hard to figure out what order things are happening in, but things clearly happen within those time skips that I feel should have been addressed more directly. I’m not the kind of reader who demands that every single detail be spelled out, and a little mystery could be fun, but the combination of the elements here makes this a bit more perplexing than they need to be.
Rod Reis’ artwork is really sublime. If you look at that cover there, of a Blue Lantern Kara surrounded by…well, you can read what she’s surrounded by yourself. But it looks phenomenal, and with a huge chunk of the issue taking place in this environment, it’s really impressive that the all-blue world feels dynamic and engaging rather than monotonous. Overall, this book has been highly enjoyable.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow #4 Title: Vexed Writer: Kenny Porter Art &Main Cover: Danny Earls & Nick Filardi
After an encounter with Batman and Robin in Gotham City, Superman (Jor-El in this continuity, remember) finds himself facing unexpected adversaries in the American government. Lex Luthor, meanwhile, continues to pillage this universe’s magic users, bringing him into conflict with John Constantine.
I continue to have a complicated relationship with this story. On the one hand, I really like the world-building. Kenny Porter has done an incredible job extrapolating an Earth that has access to Kryptonian technology, and the differences and variations on the familiar DC characters is well-done. I particularly like his characterization of Lex Luthor, drawing on magic in this world to fuel his battle against Superman. Considering that magic is one of Superman’s few recognized weaknesses, it’s actually pretty surprising that the mainstream Lex hasn’t tried this sort of thing.
The motivations still lack authenticity, though. It’s a little better this issue than last, where the world seemed to turn against Superman for no reason. Here, we at least see that Batman is skeptical of Jor-El’s “gifts” because he doesn’t believe that humankind is ready for the responsibility that having such advanced technology will bring to them, an idea that is punctuated by a clever tie-in to his origin. The villains, though – Sam Lane in particular – seem to fall into the old stale “Villain doesn’t trust aliens” plot, up to and including doctoring footage to make the hero seem like the bad guy. It’s a cliche that we’ve seen far too often, and without an interesting twist on it, I don’t really need to see it again. It doesn’t help that the narrative still doesn’t seem to have decided if we, the reader, are supposed to be on Jor-El’s side or not. Hopefully we’ll have an answer to that before this Elseworlds wraps up.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #54 Writer: Mark Waid Art: Bruno Frenda Main Cover: Dan Mora
It’s the kind of wild, wooly tale that only Mark Waid can tell, and of course, it begins with the threat of nuclear war. The two countries of Qurac and Bialya stand poised to annihilate one another, and the cries of the damned have grown so powerful that the demon Neron is empowered to act. Abducting a squad of DC’s finest heroes – including, of course, Superman, Batman, and Robin – Neron puts together perdition’s first ever game of baseball. It’s heroes versus demons, and if the heroes lose, the war will be allowed to grow and take over the entire world.
It’s an insane kind of story with a very silver age sort of flavor to it. But Mark Waid being Mark Waid, he takes this ludicrous premise and uses it to tell a nice little character story. Superman is dismayed to find a baseball player he’d idolized in his youth is among the denizens of hell, and he reaches out the way that only Superman can. Hell may be a nasty place, but Waid convincingly makes us believe that Superman can make it better, even there.
I do have some continuity questions, which I know is kind of silly all things considered, but it’s the kind of thing that makes me wonder just how much DC’s history has been juggled around. Neron’s first appearance was in the Underworld Unleashed miniseries, also written by Mark Waid. In that series, it was clearly Neron’s first encounter with DC’s heroes. In this story, which is clearly set before that crossover (as evidenced by the fact that Dick Grayson isn’t Nightwing yet), they’ve obviously encountered them before. Normally I’d be questioning why nobody is paying attention to that sort of little continuity snarl, but it’s Mark Waid. He literally rewrote DC’s history last year. If he’s decided that their first meeting with Neron was earlier than Underworld Unleashed, who am I to judge?
Supergirl #16 Title: Kingdom of Zod Part One Writer: Sophie Campbell Art: Joe Quinones & Paulo Villanelli Main Cover: Guillem March
Kingdom of Zod, the two-month Superman family crossover event, begins here. Picking up immediately from the prologue in last month’s Action Comics #1100, Lois has summoned the Superman family together to investigate the new regime that has taken over the Kryptonite-rich country of El Caldero. Things are off to a rough start, though: although Superboy-Prime has been going through a redemption arc (and succeeding quite well, I have to say), Conner Kent hasn’t forgotten the fact that Prime killed him once, and the two young Superboys butt heads at the worst possible time. The team to investigate El Caldero is assembled, and since some non-Kryptonian operatives are going to come in handy when it comes to infiltrating a country whose riches are based on a literal mountain of Kryptonite, Supergirl summons her pals in the Super Force to lend a hand.
Incorporating an ongoing series into any sort of crossover always requires something of a balancing act, and Campbell’s story deftly walks that tightrope. The story advances the various plots that have been percolating in the assorted Superman titles for months now, primarily the El Caldero storyline from Superman Unlimited, but Campbell hasn’t abandoned the stuff that has made Supergirl fun to read on its own. Incorporating the Super Force doesn’t feel tacked-on or superfluous here, but rather like Supergirl is bringing in her friends because they serve a legitimate purpose in the story. I also quite like the direction Kara’s character is taking. Although the readers know that the missing Superman was found in the aforementioned Action #1100, the Superman Family does NOT, and Kara feels the weight of having to step into her cousin’s boots as leader of this informal team. It’s a good look for her, and Campbell gives it the appropriate amount of emotional weight without tipping into angst the way some writers would take it.
I can’t say as many good things about the artwork, however. Joe Quinones, whose work I quite enjoy, splits the art chores with Paulo Villanelli, whose work I’m sorry to say I find somewhat lacking. Not only Villanelli’s pages not as sharp as Quinones’, but the styles clash in an unpleasant way. I’m sure that a lot of extra hands jumped in to complete this storyline sandwiched between the giant Action #1100 and the one-shot Kingdom of Zod Special from next month that will serve as the bookends for this storyline, but I wish the artwork in this opening salvo had been a bit more consistent.
Action Comics #1101 Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Two Writer: Mark Waid Art: Montos Main Cover: Guillem March
In part two of the big event, the time-tossed Justice League team of J’onn J’onzz, Mary Marvel, and Booster Gold have recovered Superman from the timestream with the help of a Superboy plucked from Clark Kent’s youth. They don’t even have time to catch their breath, though, before they return to a present-day where the Superman family is invading an El Caldero controlled by Zod. As Supergirl’s friends take to the fight, Zod tries to interrogate a captive Lois Lane, but her sheer determination proves that even without the powers she inadvertently took from him, she’s still got a lot of Superwoman in her.
The Zod/Lois scenes are hands-down the crown jewel of this issue. He’s flailing around in rage as she – even while bound and technically at his mercy – expertly prods and antagonizes him into spewing his whole supervillain plan without it coming across as an Incredibles-style monologue cliche. Honestly, how has there never been a story about Lois becoming a Green Lantern yet? Even an Elseworlds?
I would have thought that the mystery of Superman’s time traveling had ended with his return and last month’s exploration of where he’s been in this year’s Superman Annual, but it turns out there’s still more to consider here: namely, why doesn’t he remember this adventure from when HE was Superboy? Waid doesn’t answer the question, but shines enough of a light on it for the reader to be confident that we’re going to come back around to this, and it’s going to be important.
Like the Supergirl issue, the artwork here is the weak point. It’s a darker, less clean look than we’re used to with the Superman titles, and it’s a style that doesn’t particularly suit these characters. Looking ahead, it doesn’t appear as though the regular Superman art teams are playing a big part in this crossover, and that’s a disappointment, because the writing deserves better.
Superman Unlimited #16 Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Three Writer: Dan Slott Art: Rachael Stott Main Cover: Guillem March
Part Three finally gives me what I’ve been waiting for: Superman for real back in the game. Even as El Caldero is exploding with Kryptonite, and even while the Kryptonite Plague is beginning to affect his non-Kryptonian allies, Superman does what Superman does best and finds a way to fight back against Zod’s regime.
This issue isn’t entirely about Superman, though, showing that this is a conflict that’s grown to a global scale. Dan Slott allows us to check in on all of our heroes across the planet as we see what’s going on, including the first meeting between our time-lost Superboy Clark and his cousin Kara. It’s a lovely moment that really ratchets up the emotion here, as we see a teen Clark’s reaction to learning he ISN’T the last Kryptonian. Similarly, Superman’s reunion with Lois and Jon is a fantastic moment. It’s quick, and it’s funny, and it plays perfectly into the personalities of all three of them. Rather than wring it out for emotion the way we’ve seen (for example) when Superman came back from the dead, there’s a quick acknowledgement from each of them that they’re together again, with the underlying message being that not a one of the Kent family ever doubted that this moment was going to come.
I make have spoken too soon about the artwork in this crossover. Rachael Stott isn’t the regular artist on this title, but she’s good enough to be. This is the kind of clean, energetic artwork that the last two issues were lacking, with some wonderful “acting” on the faces of our characters that help to build on the foundation of the script, the way good artwork is supposed to do. Just fantastic. I look forward to seeing more from her.
Superman #41 Title: Kingdom of Zod Part Four Writer: Joshua Williamson Art: Eddy Barrows Main Cover: Guillem March
Superman #41 is the last chapter of the crossover for this month, and holy CRAP, does Joshua Williamson throw us some curveballs as we go into halftime! The first half of the issue is concerned with the fight between a depowered Superman and a fully-charged Zod, and it’s as rough and brutal a fight between the two of them. The back half returns to the B-plot about Zod trying to use the Krypytonian technology to resurrect his wife, Ursa, and…well, I don’t want to go any further, but there are at minimum three moments in this issue that made me go, “WHAT?” This chapter takes things into an entirely different and unexpected direction, and once more the pieces on the board have been tossed all over the place.
Eddy Barrows, who HAS worked on this title in the past, is back on board for the artwork, and it’s just as good as Stott’s was on Part Three. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the problems I had with the first two chapters are resolved when we loop back around to Supergirl and Action Comics in September.
What I really am enjoying about this crossover in general is that, even though it’s a Superman story, it’s more of an ensemble piece. Kara, Conner, Prime, Lois, Jon – every one of them is playing a major role here. Secondary characters like Steel, Lana Lang, and the time travelling Justice League trio may not be showing up on every page, but their contributions are significant. This is a remarkably well-balanced storyline, keeping everybody in play and giving everybody something important to do. I’m enjoying the hell out of it.
Fingers crossed I’ll be saying the same thing in next month’s recap.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
An intriguing side-effect of having children is that your sick days at work are more likely to be used to take care of the kid when HE’S sick than saved for yourself. Such was the case earlier this week when my son came down with a nasty stomach bug that sidelined him and had me calling in to take care of him. But on the plus side, in his illness all he wanted to do was lie around watching MeTV Toons, including Super Friends, which is how I happened to rewatch, for the first time in decades, the 1985 final-season episode “The Death of Superman.”
You have to admit, he’s looked better.
The final season of the show was titled The Super Power Team: Galactic Guardians, as a tie-in to the then-running Super Powers toy line, and as such most of the characters were characters who had action figures in the line, including the then-new DC hero Firestorm, who is actually the focal character of this episode. It begins in medias res (just like all great children’s entertainment), with the world mourning the shocking death of the Man of Steel. There was a massive funeral procession, ceremonies at the United Nations, and people wearing black armbands just as they would when DC Comics would kill him “for real” seven years later. In fact, I’m wondering now if they were deliberately invoking this episode when the comic book storyline was planned.
Everyone is naturally distraught over Superman’s death, but no one more so than the Super Powers Team’s newest member, Firestorm, who considers himself personally responsible. Firestorm is captured by Darkseid (the Big Bad for the final two seasons) who purges the young hero’s memory of Superman’s death. The two of them were on a mission in space where Superman was seeking minerals to cure Kryptonite poisoning, but Firestorm was distracted and, upon returning to his partner, found Superman dead of exposure to a Kryptonite meteor that Firestorm could have saved him from had he listened to Superman and stayed where he was supposed to be. As Darkseid plans an assault on the heroes, Batman and some of the others go to the Fortress of Solitude, where a Superman robot reveals that Superman had the ability to place himself into a trance to stay alive while being afflicted by Kryptonite poisoning. Hawkman recognizes the posture of the trance as being the same way he was found lying by Firestorm, meaning that he placed himself in the trance and there’s still a chance to save him. The Super Friends recover Superman’s body and revive him just in time to return and save the team from Darkseid, who goes fleeing back to Apokalips.
I have this same reaction any time the McRib goes away again.
This final season episode suffered from the same limited animation as most Hanna-Barbera cartoons (especially of the 80s). Not all of the voice acting is great either, with Darkseid sounding more like Toast from Histeria! than an actual menace. On the plus side, this was the era where they had Adam West voicing Batman, which was kind of cool, and Deep Space Nine’s Rene Auberjonois as Desaad was a treat. But the real surprise of the episode was the way they told the story. The world was legitimately mourning. Firestorm was an absolute WRECK. I watched this show faithfully as a child, and I have vague memories of this episode from back then, but I was surprised at just how DARK it was.
For all the silliness and camp that the Super Friends shows had, I’m actually impressed that with this episode (the second-to-last of the entire series, it should be noted) they told a real story with real emotional stakes. The ending is still a little pat, a little too easy to come by, but they did more with this than they did with 99 percent of the preceding Super Friends episodes, and that is greatly appreciated.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
Once again, we’re returning to the Superman Shelves for a peek at just a few of the many, many items filling my collection. One of my favorite subcategories of collectibles is fast food toys. There have been so many different fast food collections over the years, and some of them are far more random than you get in a typical action figure line. You don’t just see action figures, but other sorts of oddities as well. It makes for really weird, different things. (The same thing goes for cereal box toys, it should be noted, but I don’t currently have any Superman-related cereal toys. I’m not even sure if there have been any. If you know of any, let me know.)
I should point out here that none of the Fast Food Friends I’m about to share with you are things that I got firsthand, pulling them out of a Happy Meal Box, although the last one is an eBay replacement for one that I pulled as a child. Most of these came through eBay, from a secondary seller like at a convention, or as a gift. But the fact that they got their start in a cardboard box nestled between a cheeseburger and a sleeve of french fries makes them a little special to me. I’m going to go in reverse order of the most recent toy to be released to the oldest.
“What does God…need…with a starship?” –William Shatner, upon seeing these toys
We’re starting with these two, Superman and Supergirl from Wendy’s “DC Rides” line from earlier this year. (You’ve seen the Supergirl before when I shared “Supergirl Stuff” right before the movie came out, but this is the proper category, so let’s look at her again.) The DC Rides were a cool little line, with figures for five heroes and a “mirror” villain, each with some sort of vehicle or power suit. The line included Green Lantern/Sinestro, Batman/Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, Flash and Reverse Flash, and Superman and Supergirl with their respective Bizarro counterparts. At some point I’d like to add the Bizarros to my collection as well, but one thing at a time.
This next set also came from Wendy’s, this time last year. They’ve twice done these lines of DC Comics miniature figures, which come in packs of three. The three-packs include related characters (usually two heroes and a villain) and mini trading cards as well, and the different figures are also available in multiple colors, which means that collecting the entire set gets particularly difficult if you’re trying to get all the variants. I was satisfied with just the “red” set of Superman, Supergirl, and Lex Luthor. I really like this series, though – the size of the figures and the solid color blocks remind me of the M.U.S.C.L.E. Things toys of my youth, which was a series I had seemingly hundreds of.
The last of the “recent” toys in my collection are this Superman and Supergirl from a Burger King series of DC Heroes that came out two or three years ago. I didn’t know that these even existed until my family stopped at Burger King on a vacation and my son pulled out a Superman figure from his kids’ meal bag. (My son, I should note, is a godsend when it comes to learning about these things. He’s got a very diverse palette – he will eat the chicken nuggets and french fries from virtually any restaurant you can name.) I want to note that I did NOT abscond with Eddie’s Superman figure and put it on my shelf. I am not the kind of father who would ever do such a thing. No, I got these two figures the same way I got the Wendy’s figures I’ve already showed you: eBay.
Moving WAY back in time, we’re going all the way to my college years and this hanger based (I THINK) on Superman from the Justice League cartoon. I know it originally came from Subway, because a friend of mine who had a much smaller appetite than I did and always got the kids’ meals with the small, round sandwiches pulled this toy and gave it to me, aware of my appreciation of Superman. The original hanger dangled from the rearview mirror in my car for many, many years until the colors were completely warped and the S-shield sticker was bleached to the point of almost being blank. Years later at a convention, I happened to come across a seller with a whole bin full of the things that he was selling for just a few dollars, so I bought a pristine replacement. This guy now stays inside, out of the sun.
From Superman: The Animated Series, this Daily Planet figure is probably the Fast Food item that’s been in my collection the longest. It’s two pieces: the building, and the flying Superman figure, which balances on the top of the building via a precarious pin-shape in his chin. You can spin him around and when it wiggles, it creates a sort of “hovering” illusion. I like this one.
Finally, many years ago McDonald’s did a series of Looney Tunes figures with snap-on superhero costumes. The set included Daffy Duck as Batman, the Tasmanian Devil as the Flash, Petunia Pig as Wonder Woman (I assume because she was the most prominent female Looney Tunes character at the time except perhaps for Granny, and nobody wants to see her in a Wonder Woman bathing suit – were this series to be remade today Petunia would absolutely be replaced by Lola Bunny), and of course, Bugs Bunny as Superman. I had some of these toys as a kid, and a couple of years ago in a fit of nostalgia I got a set of the four of them pretty cheap on…say it with me now…eBay.
Of all the categories of my Superman collections, this is the one I most frequently feel the need to expand upon. Supergirl had a series of KFC figures that coincided with the movie, and I haven’t gotten my hands on any of those yet. And that Daily Planet figure was part of an entire line of Superman: TAS toys, of which I don’t have any of the others. I feel periodically that I should try to amend that, and see what else is out there. There are more, I am 100 percent certain of that, that I could hunt down if the urge took me. Fortunately, we live in a time period where doing such things are easier than they used to be…even if the expense sometimes shuts us out of getting all of the things we’d want.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
This weekend was the annual Nola Comic-Con, a small, local show that I enjoy going to whenever I can. It doesn’t always land at the right time in the schedule, but this year my wife happened to have the day off, so we headed out together. And naturally, I grabbed a few Superman family books from the bargain bins. Coincidentally, these two are both from 1971. It’s like it was fate or something.
Superboy #173 Title: The Super-Clark of Smallville Writer: Leo Dorfman Art: Bob Brown & Dick Giordano Cover: Neal Adams
The story begins with Clark helping Lana Lang and her archaeologist father open up an ancient jar that is rumored to constrain a small amount of ambrosia, the food of the gods of ancient Greece. Professor Lang’s experiments somehow cause an explosion, knocking him out. Clark leaps to save him, but in his haste, neglects to switch to his Superboy costume. When Lana sees him using his powers with her own eyes, she immediately realizes she’s been right all this time – Clark IS Superboy!
Then, even FASTER, she jumps to a totally DIFFERENT conclusion: that Clark ate some of the ambrosia, and it gave him the powers of the gods!
Lana, I love you, but come on.
Clark plays along with Lana’s absurd assumption in order to protect his secret, so she whips up the ugliest costume in superhero history and starts parading him around Smallville. Within seconds, the citizenry have embraced Clark as their new hero, having him do any menial task they can find for him and trash-talking Superboy. When an actual emergency happens, Clark relishes the chance to slip away and do some REAL Superboy stuff, but as he’s out of town, Lex Luthor comes striding back in. Lex shows up just in time to see the Smallvillians tear down their statue of Superboy and replace it with one of Super-Clark (this is the most fickle town in the history of history), and Lex vows to vanquish Clark as well…but Superboy first.
As Superboy returns to town he confronts Luthor, who hits him with a ray that steals his powers! It’s all over, right? Nah, because as luck would have it, Superboy happens to stumble upon a bit of REAL Greek ambrosia! He eats it and uses his new godlike powers to beat Lex. Then, once his magic powers are gone and his Kryptonian might restored, Clark tells the townspeople the ambrosia wore off and Lana goes right back to telling him how lame he is.
There are a lot of screwy Superman stories from this time period, but I gotta tell ya, this one is next-level. That the people of Smallville with toss Superboy out so quickly feels utterly ridiculous and frankly makes the entire town look bad. Lana comes across even worse. She plants a big kiss on Super-Clark, leads the whole “Who needs Superboy?” movement, but she’s STILL the first to say “Thank Heavens we still have Superboy” when “Clark’s powers” go away. What did she expect, he could just keep magic ambrosia powers through sheer force of manliness?
The only person in this story who’s even remotely effective is Lex Luthor, who does in fact invent a device that takes Superboy’s powers, but doesn’t even realize it – in fact, when Superboy starts doing things like throwing around the lightning of Zeus, Lex thinks he somehow gave Superboy EXTRA powers.
Everybody in this story is the stupidest person in Smallville, is my point.
Superboy comes across looking a lot better in this issue’s back-up story, “Trust Me Or Kill Me” by Cary Bates, with art by George Tuska. In this Legion of Super-Heroes story, most of the Legion is on their way to a medico-asteroid (that’s a thing, kids) to get vaccinated against a virus that’s contaminating Earth. Cosmic Boy, having had the disease as a child, is the only immune Legionnaire and is left holding down the fort alone, until a mirror duplicate of himself pops out and starts a fight. Cos summons Superboy from the past, hoping that he can determine which of the two is the real Cosmic Boy, and they learn the whole thing is a scheme from the Legion’s old foe, the sorcerer Mordru. Superboy has only until the rest of the Legion returns to determine which of the two is the real Cosmic Boy, or the fake will destroy the Legion.
That Mordru is pretty confident, isn’t he? In fact, he’s SO confident that he promises to leave (for now) is Superboy can figure out which one is the bona fide Legionnaire. Fortunately for the people of the 30th Century, Cary Bates writes Superboy as much more intelligent than Leo Dorfman: after a few tests fail to prove which of them is the genuine article, Superboy comes up with a quick test, hurling iron boulders at them to see who has the magnetic powers to repel them. When one of them fails, Superboy declares HIM the true Cosmic Boy, as the “iron” boulders are really plastic, unaffected by the real hero, but repelled by the fake’s magic powers.
If only Superboy was always the smart one, huh?
Adventure Comics #408 Title: The Face at the Window Writer, Pencils, and Cover: Mike Sekowsky Inks: Henry Scarpelli
In the 70s, Linda Danvers bounced from city and city and job to job pretty frequently, as the writers didn’t seem to really know what to do with her. This issue is set during a brief time when she was working as a journalist. As she and her team film some old homes for a documentary, they wind up being run off a spooky old property by an old man with a shotgun. Before they flee, though, Linda spies a little girl in the window of the house. That night Supergirl returns – as does her rival reporter Nasthalthia Luthor. That’s right, Lex’s niece, who they actually called “Nasty.” The little girl appears to Supergirl, telling her that her parents are inside the house as well.
If you’ve ever told stories around a campfire you can probably figure out where this is going. Supergirl uncovers the old man’s dark secret and the literal skeletons in his closet, and in the end, finds that the girl who summoned her in the first place isn’t with us anymore either.
It’s spoooooky.
Supergirl gets a second story in this issue, “Invasion of the Mer-Men.” Linda and her co-worker, Johnny, are enjoying a day at the beach when they’re suddenly attacked by aliens wearing bubble helmets full of water. Linda dashes off to change into Supergirl (she couldn’t very well wear her costume under her bikini), but when she returns she finds that Johnny has been taken by the aliens. What’s worse, for a few issues now her powers had been cutting out at inopportune times, and when she tries to make chase, they die on her again. As her co-workers begin diving in a search for Johnny (feels like this should be a job for the Coast Guard, but whatever), Supergirl goes to Kandor to get some implants to allow her to breathe underwater. The aliens, meanwhile, show up at a conclave of scientists and announce that they’re stealing Earth’s water, because they need it more than we do. And with that announcement from what I assume are primitive AI bros, the story ends on a cliffhanger.
It was a glorious time, the 70s.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
It’s time once again for a healthy helpin’ of reviews. Here are most (if not all) of the Superman-related comics that hit the stands in July, beginning with an anniversary special.
Action Comics #1100 Title: Mission Failure/Superman Meets Superboy (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in) Writers: Mark Waid & Joshua Williamson Art: Skylar Patridge, Ryan Sook, & Daniel Sampere Main Cover: Ryan Sook
Action Comics turns the big 1-1-0-0, and it doesn’t look a day over 872. But the Reign of the Superboys continues here with Clark “Superboy” Kent facing the time-travelling villain Epoch, powerless, with his time-tossed allies from the Justice League missing. Even without powers, though, he proves his mettle, and he’s soon reunited with the Leaguers to finish the mission that started all this – finding the Superman who’s been missing since the end of DC KO. I guess this is technically two stories, but the creators put them together so seamlessly that you don’t even realize it until you get to the credits on the last page. It’s a great little tribute to the character, though, showing Superboy glimpses of his future and culminating in a grand reunion. It does, however, raise a few questions, including a glimpse of a Legion of Super-Heroes that doesn’t quite seem to gel with the reboot that Joshua Williamson is writing in a few months. Curiouser and curiouser.
The other creative teams of the current Superman comics are also in on the fun, contributing a few more back-up stories.
Title: Game Night Writer: Sophie Campbell Art: Dan Mora
The regular Supergirl writer and Superman team up for this story, in which we check in on Lois Lane and the rest of the family during Superman’s absence. The first thing I noticed about this story is that I probably should have read the other Reign of the Superboys finales before this one, because it seems to spoil certain things. Ah well. The important thing here is that we finally get a confrontation between Conner Kent and Superboy-Prime, whom you may remember KILLING Conner back in Infinite Crisis, way before his current redemption arc. It’s a confrontation I’ve been waiting for, honestly, and although it was a little abrupt, I was very amused that Campbell managed to sneak in a little self-deprecating humor via Prime’s fourth wall awareness. I do like jokes like that.
Title: End of Reign Writer: Dan Slott Art: Lucas Meyer
The final story in this issue is a neat little adjunct to the El Caldero story that’s happening over in Superman Unlimited. We get a little history of the country that’s building on the riches of its Kryptonite deposits, as well as a couple of chilling revelations.
Overall, the issue works fairly well in advancing and tying together the storylines that have been happening in all of the assorted Superman titles, and the upcoming Kingdom of Zod crossover looming between the four titles (a real one this time, not a thematic one like Reign of the Superboys), it feels perfectly timed.
Superman #40 Title: Prime Time: The End (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in) Writer: Joshua Williamson Art: Dan Mora Main Cover: Dan Mora
Superboy-Prime vs. Manchester Black is not what I expected to be the faceoff of the year, but this arc has been fantastic. With Prime trying his hardest to redeem himself, Manchester Black is hoping to use Prime’s unique status and awareness of his existence in comic books to give himself an upgrade and make the whole DC Universe as nasty and edgy as him.
This. Issue. Rocked.
It’s not just the fight, as good as it was. It’s the heart of the story behind it. Those of us who remember Prime’s first appearances back in the original Crisis on Infinite Earths have probably always felt a pang of regret that a character who seemed to have such potential would fall as far as he did. Williamson has done the impossible – he’s done the hard work to take a character who seemed indelibly tarnished and bring him back from the brink, making him sympathetic, even likable again. The Superboy-Prime in this issue may not truly be worthy of the S-shield that he wears, but he’s trying again. He wants to be. And that’s important.
What’s more, the battle between the two of them hinges on a meta-commentary about the state of comic books and comic book fandom as it exists today. It has something to say, and even the page where Prime gives us a speech doesn’t feel preachy or unearned. It’s a magnificent thing.
We also get a catchup with the rest of what Prime is now calling his own supporting cast, including Witchfire, and I can’t believe how much I hope we get to see these two together again. Prime even hints that it’s coming, but not before Supergirl swings by to pick him up for the upcoming crossover. Ah, a Kryptonian’s work is never done.
If you had told me a year ago that the Superboy-Prime redemption arc would be one of the best things to happen to comics in 2026, I would have thought you were crazy. But even without Superman appearing in this arc, Williamson has made it about Superman and who he is and what he means, and I love that so, so much.
Supergirl #15 Title: Hero of Kandor Finale (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in) Writer, Art, & Main Cover: Sophie Campbell
It’s the final battle for the fate of Kandor. Supergirl and Luminary face off against the Black Flame and – although I don’t want to spoil anything – I WILL say that, once again, Conner Kent’s presence here was completely superfluous. More than ever, I’m convinced that Campbell was asked to shoehorn him into a story that he didn’t belong in so that they could market this book as part of the “Reign of the Superboys.”
That said, once you get over that little hiccup, it’s a great finale. The ending comes naturally, playing off the character work that Campbell has been putting into this series since issue one. And while Luminary does something here that feels hopelessly naive, I can’t argue that it doesn’t feel appropriate to the character and the path that she’s been taking, so I have to respect that.
This issue also seems to set up a new status quo for the character and the title, although whether it’s going to be a long-term arrangement or something that’s done away with after an arc or two remains to be seen. I hope it sticks around at least for a little while, because there’s an interesting dynamic that I would like to see played with here. Although I worry that the whole thing might be derailed right off the bat since next issue is going to kick off the whole Kingdom of Zod crossover with the other books, so just how much Campbell is allowed to explore this new dynamic remains to be seen.
Superman Unlimited #15 Title: Save Yourself (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in) Writer: Dan Slott Art: Lucas Meyer Main Cover: Taurin Clarke
At the end of last issue, the truth about the time-tossed “Superboy” was revealed – he’s actually Ultraboy, son of Ultraman of the Crime Syndicate, who was trapped in the same volcano as Jon and tortured the same way. This issue, as Kryptonite threatens to overrun Smallville, the rest of Team Superman (namely Steel, Superwoman, Krypto, and Lois) try to save the day, while Batman and Robin join Tomorrow Man to face an Ultraboy who’s going out of control.
Lots to like here. Again, without giving away how the story ends, Slott pulls a very Superman-like play here, demonstrating that Jon – like his father – has the ability to see the inherent good in anybody, and will fight to bring that good out whenever possible. The confrontation between Damian and Ultraboy works well too. True, the Bat-family in no way suffers from a lack of exposure, but having Damian as part of this story actually makes sense. It doesn’t feel shoehorned in like some Bat-appearances. Jon is his best friend, and he’s taking this whole thing very personally.
One spoiler I WILL let through – I’m surprised but happy that Jon seems to be holding on to the Tomorrow Man name, at least for the time being. I never liked it when they took to calling him “Superman,” not because of the character himself, but because I really hate the modern practice of having multiple people running around using the same code name. I can accept it for the Green Lanterns, as that’s really more of a job description than an actual code name. And I’ll let it slide for the Flash, because how to do you tell any of those guys that they need to step down? Everybody else? Get yer own name, sparky. Anyway, “Tomorrow Man” works just fine.
Dark Knights of Steel II #1 Writer: Tom Taylor Art: Otto Schmidt Main Cover: Yasmine Putri
The original Dark Knights of Steel is one of the series that convinced DC it was time to bring back the Elseworlds imprint in the first place, so it’s nice to see that this sequel brings that universe into Elseworlds proper. This isn’t purely a Superman story, mind you, but the main thrust of this universe hinges on the Superman family: Jor-El and a pregnant Lara came to a medieval Earth together. Then…stuff happened. Look, just read the book, okay? There’s a nice little recap page here that tells you the high points of the original series and lets us jump to the main story: the three kingdoms of the League (Metropolis, Amazonia, and the Kingdom of Storms) are planning to defend themselves from an imminent threat by the shape-shifting creatures from Mars. A day of happiness for the three kingdoms turns to tragedy when a treacherous attack from beneath the seas reveals yet another kingdom – and leads them all potentially to war.
Tom Taylor does a great job of bringing new readers up to speed here. I’ve mentioned before that I wish DC Comics would include “previously” pages the way Marvel typically does, but it was really helpful here (I haven’t read the original series since it concluded in 2023 and, frankly, I needed the refresher). There’s a bit of expansion of the world here, but mostly what we get is a reminder of where the major players were at the end of the previous series (specifically Kal-El, Diana, Bruce, and Arthur), with their stories being reestablished and pushed forward incrementally, until the scene at the end changes everything. It’s a great way to begin a sequel, and while I would still recommend anybody interested in this series read the original first, if for some reason you can’t, this book will give you everything you need to know to jump in.
Absolute Superman #21 Title: Moon Fall (Reign of the Superman Finale) Writer: Jason Aaron Art & Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval
The epic battle between Superman and King Shazam comes to a conclusion this issue. With Superman and Hawkman facing the former Teth-Adam on the surface of the moon, their allies back on Earth are taking care of other business, particularly seeking retribution against Talia Al Ghul.
With a serialized story like this one – like most modern superhero comics, really – the end of an arc needs to accomplish two things. It needs to tie up the story that was told over the course of the previous however many issues in the arc, and it needs to lay the seeds for future storylines. Aaron really handles them both well here. The battles against King Shazam and Talia both come to very satisfying conclusions here, and while conclusions are indeed had, they’re the kind of the conclusions that open more doors than they close. A new threat looms on the last page, and Jimmy and Lois both experience shifts in their personal status that lays the framework for more stories in the future.
Superman himself, meanwhile, ends this issue in something of a darker place. Although Kal-El continues to be the bright spot in this Absolute world, as this issue reminds us quite adroitly, most of the people he’s surrounded with are darker than the versions we’re used to seeing in the main DC Universe. By the end of it, it feels as though that’s taken its toll on Superman, and that’s a logical place to bring this arc to a close.
Adventures of Superman: Book of El #10 Title: So Say the Dead Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art & Main Cover: Scott Godliewski
The members of the House of El face off against Kryl-Ux. Tamarind lies in the balance, and I can’t lie, I couldn’t care less. Ten issues now, we’ve been drifting through a future that has failed to engage me. It’s the same ol’ problem – the reset button is looming, and the idea that this will ultimately be a story of consequence will not take hold.
In an Elseworlds story, you think about the fate of the alternate reality that you’re dealing with. Here we’re dealing with a world that feels like it’s going to vanish as soon as Superman returns to his proper time. If that DOESN’T happen, then this whole thing will be invariably relegated to an alternate timeline, in which case it STILL will have no consequence. It would be different if I was interested in these characters, if I cared about them, if I felt like they mattered but…I just don’t.
I honestly feel bad being so negative about this book. I know other people are enjoying it, and I would never want to take that away from them, but I simply can’t see it. I don’t get what – if anything – I’m supposed to care about here. Maybe once it’s over, maybe once the final issue hits and the story can be viewed as a whole, I’ll feel differently. I sincerely hope so. But for the time being, all I can really bring myself to do is wait for the end.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #53 Title: Warlords Conclusion Writer: Mark Waid Art: Adrian Gutierrez Main Cover: Dan Mora
Our heroes’ epic journey to Skartaris comes to a conclusion this month. Tyrant Rex has not only ensorcelled Batman and Superman’s minds, but he has stolen Superman’s powers and distributed them among his minions, leaving Robin and Warlord to take them on. This whole story really has been sort of a Robin spotlight. He’s the one who has worked hardest to forge bonds with the people of Skartaris, he’s the one who has to step up with his mentors stolen and pulled to the other side of the chessboard. The story is a nice look at the young man who will eventually be the Nightwing we know today. There isn’t much action going on with either Superman or Batman here, but I don’t mind that. Seeing him get the spotlight is a nice change of pace that still fits well into the framework of this series.
Superman: Father of Tomorrow #3 Title: Machinations Writer: Kenny Porter Art & Main Cover: Danny Earls
Having spent years sharing Kryptonian technology to improve life on Earth, Jor-El is beginning to feel pushback from people who feel like he’s going too far. Lex Luthor, as usual, being the most fervent adversary to the House of El, decides to seek magical help from the Tower of Fate. And General Sam Lane is putting together his own team to deal with the problem.
Such as it is.
I feel like the wheels are starting to come off this story a bit. The basic premise is fine – Jor-El is the one who comes to Earth rather than Kal-El. Traumatized from watching one world die, he decides to make his adopted home better by sharing the technology of his planet of birth. The idea that doing so somehow stifles humanity is the core of the conflict. The problem is that nothing in the story actually sells the idea that Jor-El’s shared technology is doing any damage. As presented, the world seems to be a demonstrably better place. Maybe I’m missing something, but the worst thing I can find anyone saying about this altered world is that despite the fact that Jor-El has improved medical technology, hospitals still aren’t free. And as much as it may enrage some people to hear this, that ain’t enough for me to accept that a fascist regime is taking over.
At one point, Martha Kent suggests that Jor-El is behaving like a parent who is doing everything FOR a child rather than teaching the child HOW to do it. Is that actually true? The Kryptonian technology is everywhere, and presumably SOMEBODY out there is manufacturing and maintaining it. Even Superman Jor-El can’t possibly be doing it all HIMSELF, so logically we have to assume that humans HAVE learned how to do it. The message of this book is collapsing rapidly, and barring some sinister secret that Jor-El is keeping that will be revealed in a later issue, I’m not sure how to reconcile the point the author is trying to make with the world that he’s presented us with.
Supergirl: Survive #2 Writers: Ethan S. Parker & Griffin Sheridan Art & Main Cover: Rod Reis
After the destruction of their homeworld, Kara and Kal-El are found by a new Corps made of Lanterns of every color. Their safety is short-lived, though, as Lobo and a squad of Czarnians are out for the baby, thirsty for the bounty of a survivor of Krypton.
I mean, with Lobo as the big guest-star in the Supergirl movie, it’s not surprising that they would bring him in here as an antagonist for this series. And the way he’s being used is pretty logical, making sense for what would happen in a world of this nature, where there are two known survivors of their planet’s destruction. What I’m really interested in, though, is what’s up with the Lanterns. The first issue gave us hints that there was more to the death of Krypton in this world than we were being presented with, and this issue’s conversation with the Guardians of the Universe pushes that narrative forward, spooling out a little more of this mystery as we go along and making me all the more curious as to what the real story is here. This story may be labelled as a Supergirl story, but like some of the best of the modern Elseworlds, it feels like there’s an entire universe here worth exploring, and lots of other characters and corners that are going to be worth looking into and playing with.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 2026 Annual Title: The Hero Trap Writer: Mark Russell Art: Clayton Henry Main Cover: Dan Mora
It’s Father’s Day, and Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne are having lunch with their respective adoptive fathers when a Justice League alert summons them away, leaving Jonathan Kent and Alfred Pennyworth to bond without them.
As a writer, Mark Russell is hit or miss with me. Sometimes I feel like he’s indulging in soapbox writing that starts to get tiresome, but on a story like this one, he knocks it out of the park. The story drifts between the heroes trying to solve the supervillain plot du jour and the conversation between the fathers, and it’s obvious to everyone that the second part is the most important. This is an emotional issue, it’s a story about fatherhood and what exactly that means, especially for fathers of particularly extraordinary sons. But while stories like this one often neglect the other half of the narrative, Russell has a clever trap laid for our heroes and some really entertaining moments as they struggle to puzzle a way out of it. Neither the superhero side nor the fatherhood side of the story is neglected or damaged by the other, giving us a story that’s an absolute joy to read.
Title: Date Night Writers: Mark Waid & Tyrone Finch Art: Pat Boutin
Regular World’s Finest writer Mark Waid teams up with Tyrone Finch for this issue’s back-up story, “Date Night.” A spat between Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptylk leads to Bruce Wayne taking Lois Lane on a date to the state fair while a disgruntled Superman is forced to watch from afar. This one is…okay. It’s a silly, lighthearted story with no real stakes, as we all know that Lois will ultimately wind up with Clark Kent and that any flirtation with Bruce by necessity won’t go anywhere. There’s nothing wrong with a strange little story like this one once in a while, but it kind of pales in comparison to the main story in this book.
Superman 2026 Annual: Year One Thousand Title: The Return of Superman & Legion Found Writer: Joshua Williamson Art: Eddy Barrows & Yasmine Putri Main Cover: Eddy Barrows
As we all know by now, Superman went missing after taking on the mantle of King Omega at the end of DC KO. In Action Comics #1100, he was found by his Justice League teammates and his own younger self, because time travel. This annual tells us the story of what happened in-between, which means it’s that rarest of animals in this day an age: an annual that’s actually relevant to the ongoing story.
Shortly after the end of the tournament, Superman discovers that the death of the Time Trapper (whose powers have been added to his own) has left the timestream in turmoil, and something is using that chaos to feed on the destruction being created in its wake. In his attempt to repair the damage to the timeline, Superman finds himself once again encountering Darkseid’s Legion, but a very different Legion than he’s met before.
A few weeks ago, it was announced that the Legion was coming back in their own title, written by Joshua Williamson. As great as he’s been as the Superman writer, I was a bit put off when the description of the book made it seem like the Legion was being rebooted YET AGAIN. (This would be at least Legion Version Six, depending on how you want to count.) But I do have faith in Williamson, and this issue makes me feel like that faith is justified. Without getting into spoilers, it feels as though this newest reboot is part of the story, and that the previous iterations of one of my favorite teams are not being shunted into Comic Book Limbo after all, but may indeed have a part to play. I hope that’s right. I guess we’ll find out when Legion of Super-Heroes #1 hits in a few weeks.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure seriesOther People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in theYear of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
