Superman Stuff #16: Superman Family Adventures #1-6

April 22, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Art Baltazar, DC Comics, Franco Aurelani, superman, Superman Family Adventures

Something I always wanted to get around to during the Year of Superman but never quite managed to fit in was Art Baltazar and Franco Aurelani’s Superman Family Adventures. The creators of Tiny Titans brought that delightful, charming, all-ages aesthetic to this series back in 2013, and I remember really enjoying it at the time. This week, in search of a little delight, I decided to revisit the first collected edition, which includes issues #1 through 6 of the 12-issue series.

Issue #1, showing the kind of world that Art and Franco always do so well, begins with “Meanwhile,” then goes straight into a page of Superman saving Metropolis from a meteor falling to Earth. It seems like a small thing, but it’s really very indicative of the kind of storytelling they excel at: they thrust us straight into a fully-realized world that is accessible and easy to understand whether you’re a hardcore fan or a small child just learning how to read. It starts with “Meanwhile” because no matter what angle you’re approaching this story from, you already have everything you need to pick it up and enjoy the issue. In typical fashion, though, this turns out to set up one of the series’ many running gags – EVERY subsequent issue begins with “Meanwhile” and something falling to Earth from outer space.

In the first issue, the main story is about Superman and his family (specifically Krypto, Supergirl, and the Conner Kent Superboy) fighting a trio of giant robots adorned with the letters X, E, and L. They may have been standing in the wrong order. We get a classic Silver Age style battle against a bunch of Luthorbots, with Lex himself hatching a scheme to steal Superman’s powers. Of course, this being an Art and Franco story, things don’t go as expected. The story gives each character an introduction and establishes the main dynamics between the various characters, including a scene where Lois demonstrates her incredible investigative skills by finding Lex’s address clearly printed on one of the robot arms. It’s that kind of goofy sensibility that made Tiny Titans so much fun, and the creators carried that kind of storytelling here.

Subsequent issues build up this world considerably, each of them introducing new heroes, villains, and supporting cast members, including Bizarro (issue #2), the Super-Pets (#3), Titano (#4), Parasite (#5), and Metallo (#6). And as dastardly as many of the villains can be in the real DCU, this book lightens them up considerably. Lex is still a manipulative jerk, but Parasite and Metallo are far less intense than they usually are, while at the same time, still demonstrating that they’re a legitimate threat to the Superman family. While still being family-friendly, they DO pose a danger…which of course makes it all the funnier when Solomon Grundy gets his comeuppance from Martha Kent.

Although the book is about the Superman Family, Art and Franco make it clear that it exists in the Tiny Titans version of the DC Universe. The Titans themselves make a few cameos, and by the sixth issue the world is starting to expand. Steel is introduced, with a very different origin than any other version of the character (which, fortunately for the tiny audience, does not require Superman to die first), and there’s room for the rest of the DC heroes to pop in as desired.

As much as the series is geared towards children, the creators love to drop in Easter Eggs for longtime fans as well, such as frequent references to the 1978 Superman movie. (If you, too, like pink very much, Lois, then this comic book is for you.) They also employ assorted running gags that may go past younger readers, like making Perry White a coffee addict and torturing poor Jimmy Olsen with his frequent quests to…well…get the chief his coffee. Kids may read that and think it’s silly, while adults will see a slightly different subtext that’s still perfectly family-friendly, but more relatable to an older reader.

Most of the issues contain lots of short stories, including little snippets of the different members of the family having their own adventures or the pets attempting to train Fuzzy the Super-Mouse (a new creation for this title). It makes for quick reading, and gives perfect bite-sized nuggets for the title’s intended audience.

I loved this comic – loved this whole universe, really. And while I’m happy that Art and Franco are mostly doing their own thing these days with their Aw Yeah Comics brand, I do wish they would pop back over to the DC office once in a while and revisit it. It’s been some time since we peeked in on the Tiny Titans Universe, and there’s plenty of new toys in the main DCU that they could play around and have some fun with.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!

Superman Stuff #14: Super-Reviews from March 25-April 8!

April 8, 2026April 8, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Absolute Superman, Action Comics, Adrian Gutierrez, Batgirl, Batman, Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Bizarro, Blade, Booster Gold, Chip Zdarsky, Colleen Coover, Colleen Doran, CRC Payne, Dan Mora, Dan Panosian, DC Comics, Doctor Destiny, Epoch, Eric Carrasco, Gail Simone, Gerry Duggan, Hugo Petrus, Jason Aaron, Jimmy Olsen, Joshua Williamson, Kandor, Kevin Smith, Lena Luthor, Lois Lane, Mad Magazine, Mark Waid, Martian Manhunter, Mary Marvel, Mikel Janin, Mojo, Nick Pitarra, Osul-Ra, Otho-Ra, Perry White, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Rafa Sandoval, Reign of the Superboys, Robin, Ryan Sook, Scott Godlewski, Skylar Partridge, Sophie Campbell, Superboy, Superboy-Prime, Supergirl, superman, Tini Howard, Tony Moore, World's Finest, Zatanna

The final Reign of the Superboys story kicks off, and much more. Let’s see what’s been going on in the Superman comics over the last few weeks.

Superman #36
Title: Prime Time Part One (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Dan Mora
Main Cover: Dan Mora

I am not surprised that this was my favorite of the four Reign of the Superboys launch issues. Not that the other there weren’t good, but this is the one that feels the most immediate and important to the larger story of the DC Universe, and I’m just so dang excited about what they’re doing overall right now that it gives this issue some extra cred in my book.

Superman, of course, has been missing since the end of DC KO, but that doesn’t mean that Earth is defenseless. Superboy-Prime, his and Lois’s unlikely partner over the last several issues, is planning to stick around with the intention of proving to the heroes of the DC Universe that he’s reformed. Of course, it isn’t quite as simple as all that.

Joshua Williamson is doing some really clever stuff with the character here. It would be so easy to sweep his past under the rug and just reset him as an anti-hero. It’s been done in the past with characters like Harley Quinn, whose history of (y’know) murdering people with the Joker is rarely, if ever, referenced anymore. Williamson, however, is not only acknowledging the things that Prime did in stories like Infinite Crisis, but using that as fuel for his story. The heroes of the Justice League remember the things he did, and what’s more, they’re aware of the fact that he’s from a universe in which they’re all fictional characters, and he’s READ their comic books, and THEREFORE KNOWS ALL THEIR SECRETS. And understandably, they’re uncomfortable having him around.

The solution seems to be to have Lois take him under her wing, and the dynamic they’re structuring between these two characters is really fascinating. One might expect Williamson to have her take on a motherly role, but Prime is probably about college age here, and is intent on proving himself to be a responsible adult. (The way he does it, by the way, is perfectly in keeping both with his character and with the role he’s in, of someone in his early 20s who isn’t nearly as grown up as he thinks he is.) Lois, then, is moved into a role that feels more like a big sister. She’s looking out for him, she’s taking care of him to the best of her ability, but she recognizes the fact that he’s old enough to make his own choices and all she can really do is give him advice.

Since he brought Prime back into this book, Williamson has been leaning on Prime’s fourth wall-breaking abilities. I like the direction we’re going in here as well. Rather than just having him directly address the reader like Deadpool or She-Hulk (back in the glorious John Byrne run), he seems to be taking the approach that Prime is simply AWARE of the fact that he’s in a comic book, and he uses that knowledge of the medium and history of the DC Universe as a guidepost. It’s not like he can look into a camera as if he were on The Office, after all, although there are a couple of panels where it feels like he’s getting close.

Like every other Reign of the Superboys issue, this one ends with a last-page reveal of a character who presumably will be instrumental to the story. Unlike the other three, though, this one was actually KEPT A SECRET! Is that even POSSIBLE? The character in question didn’t appear on the cover – not even a variant – and to the best of my knowledge their presence wasn’t even leaked to the comic book media ahead of time. I didn’t think we lived in a universe where such a thing was possible anymore, but there ya go. The last page not only surprised me, but satisfied me. I’m excited to see where it goes next.

It’s gotten hard to talk about Dan Mora’s artwork, because I feel like I just kind of repeat myself every time. But in my defense, there are only so many ways to say, “Damn, this guy is REALLY good.” The book looks fantastic, and I love the way that Prime looks very much like a younger version of our Clark Kent, something he even points out to Lois as a bit of an obstacle when it comes to establishing his own secret identity.

Now that all four of the Reign storylines have begun, I feel very good about this direction. Each of the four titles has a very clear identity and is telling a different story. And if they remain separate stories, each staying in their own lane and unified only by the fact that the star is someone who uses (or once used) the Superboy moniker, there’s nothing wrong with that. It’ll be a nice little change of pace.

At least until Big Blue himself comes back.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #50
Titles: Dream Team (Story #1), Sturm Und Drang (Story #2)
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Dan Mora (Story #1), Adrian Gutierrez (Story #2)
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Isn’t it odd how rare it is for a comic book to make it to issue #50 these days? Seems like the Big Two are out to reboot every series any time there’s a new writer. Of course, this book has ALSO held on to Mark Waid for 50 issues, which is ALSO a feat in this day and age. And look – his original partner Dan Mora is back for the main story in this issue, after spending time with the Justice League, Superman’s solo title, and an unexpected trip to Cybertron. Ah, it’s a grand time to be a fan of World’s Finest.

In “Dream Team,” Dr. Destiny has placed the entire world into a dreamstate – everyone except for Superman, Batman, and Zatanna, who were off-Earth at the time. Zatanna sends the World’s Finest team into Destiny’s Dreamstone to track him down.

As a one-off story, it’s pretty solid. The thrust of the issue is Superman and Batman bouncing around in one another’s subconscious, getting glimpses of the sort of things that they dream about. Batman, for instance, learns that Superman is a little envious of his car, whereas Clark gently chastises Bruce for his infatuation with a certain feline femme fatale. Ultimately, the story is just sort of an excuse for the two characters to examine one another, who they are, and the nature of their friendship. After such a long time where the characters were NOT friends (thanks, Frank Miller), followed by a long period where they vacillated between being uneasy allies and people who trust one another but don’t necessarily LIKE each other, the way this title has made their friendship a vital part of their respective characters again is a beautiful thing.

Adrian Gutierrez is back for this issue’s second story, “Sturm Und Drang.” A little boasting pits the World’s…second finest teams against one another, when Robin and Jimmy Olsen set out to prove that they’re more competent than Supergirl and Batgirl in a race to find a lost Egyptian artifact.

As glorious as it was to have Mora back on the title, this is actually the better of the two stories. The dive into the subconscious is fine, and it’s executed very well, but there’s just so much joy to be had in the petty rivalry between the guys and girls in this issue. As Jimmy and Robin are curtailed by their own overconfidence, we watch the more “mature” girls conflict as they realize their differing opinions of Jimmy and Robin. But despite how silly the story can be, we do get to see these characters in action in a positive way. Jimmy, despite all his bravado, proves that he actually DOES have reporting skills, whereas Batgirl reminds us that Barbara Gordon is a librarian first, and librarians are the most powerful magic creatures in the world.

If you’re looking for a big, world-shattering anniversary issue, you may be a little disappointed. The two stories in this issue are both self-contained and neither of them seem to be laying out any sequel hooks. But they’re both a joy to read and do what they do exceptionally well.

Bizarro: Year None #1
Title: The Planet
Writers: Eric Carrasco & Kevin Smith
Art: Nick Pitarra
Main Cover: Nick Pitarra

Kevin Smith’s return to the DC Universe begins here, with co-writer Eric Carrasco hopefully keeping him from falling too far behind schedule, with the most unique take on Bizarro I’ve ever seen. Set at a point in the past where Jimmy is the Daily Planet coffee boy, straining to get Perry White to take a chance on him as an actual journalist, the two of them get swept up in something beyond their comprehension. An experiment with a duplication ray has spawned a whole different universe, and the entity in charge of that world is bringing Jimmy and Perry in to help him get some things off the ground.

Smith and Carrasco have cherry-picked pieces of Bizarro lore such as the “duplicator ray” and the square Bizarroworld, but for the most part this could almost feel like an “Absolute” version of the character. It’s a total departure from the Bizarro that we’re used to, and although there are glimpses of classic Bizarro, it’s almost impossible to tell where this is going. I very much like the fact that Jimmy and Perry are the real protagonists of this story, each of them approaching the situation – and reporting in general, really – from the opposite ends of the spectrum. There’s something to be said in here about the state of journalism in the modern day, and Smith and Carrasco say it in an amusing way.

Nick Pitarra is an interesting choice. His lines and anatomy are somewhat evocative of Frank Quitely, which helps to give this whole story a feeling as if they’re trying to be a Bizarro counterpart to All Star Superman. If that is, in fact, the intention, it’s a pretty bold move. But I’m definitely along for the ride.

Absolute Superman #18
Title: Reign of the Superman Part One: King of the Black Land
Writers: Jason Aaron
Art: Rafa Sandoval
Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval

The Absolute Universe expands yet again, as this issue gives us the first seeds of not one, not two, but THREE new versions of DCU characters, not the least of which is the guy whose emblem is teased on the cover.

No, not that one. The other one.

This new story arc begins with a flashback to ancient Egypt, when a young boy seeks a way to deliver his people from slavery. A visit from a mysterious stranger promises a change at hand, but it’s the strange visitor he encounters in the desert who leads to his transformation.

After the epilogue, in the present day Lois Lane (who is unable to stay out of trouble in any universe) has a lead on the whereabouts of Ra’s Al Ghul. As it turns out, though, she’s not the only one investigating him, and her search leads Superman into conflict with a most intriguing opponent.

The Absolute comics take such an interesting path. Sometimes the characters are superficially the same as the heroes and villains we know. Other times they seem to share little more than a name. The big character the cover teases here seems to be somewhere in between. Although we’re looking at one of the most famous magic users in the DCU, and although the existence of magic in this world has been quite thoroughly documented over in Absolute Wonder Woman, it seems as though Jason Aaron is giving the character more of a science fiction hook this time around. It’s an intriguing, unexpected choice, but I’m curious to see how it’s going to play out.

The main characters aren’t neglected, though. There’s a nice sequence of Kal-El on the Kent farm, with an unusually adorable look at the Parasite that really helps hammer home the point that Kal is this universe’s hope-bringer. Lois is…well, she’s Lois. And a brief check in with Jimmy Olsen at the Daily Planet gives Aaron a chance to take a quick shot at AI-generated journalism, which is something we all need to be willing to stand up and decry.

Perhaps my favorite thing about this title is that I really never know where it’s going to go next.

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #7
Title: Death Race
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art: Scott Godlewski
Main Cover: Scott Godlewski

This issue we catch up with Otho-Ra, who undergoes a sort of unexpected transformation. And honestly, the transformation makes this series feel more and more inconsequential. From the beginning, the main problem with this book has been the sense that it’s not anchored to the Superman that we’re reading elsewhere, even though it’s ostensibly in continuity. But having a Superman in a future that believes he’s gone is already a red flag – it virtually guarantees that there’s going to be a reset button before the end. That’s especially true since the main books are currently dealing with the fact that Superman is missing in the wake of DC KO. That was a more engaging disappearance, and we’re following it everywhere, not just in this one little corner of the world. Furthermore, the change made to Otho in this book makes it feel even MORE clear that either it’s going to be dialed back entirely or (and I suspect this is going to be the case in the end) both Otho and Osul-Ra are going to be out of the picture once this is all over.

When I decided to do “Superman Stuff” here in the blog I intended to use it, at least partially, to drop my thoughts on the new Superman books as they come out. I don’t know if I’ve got it in me to keep covering the back end of this series, though – I feel like I just keep trotting out the same incomplete feelings issue after issue, and I’m sure that’s no more fun for you guys to read than it is for me to write.

Mad About DC #1
Main Cover: Dan Panosian

When I trotted out “Parody Week” last summer, I was saddened to discover that most of the old Mad magazine parodies of Superman just…don’t hold up. They aren’t all that funny anymore. But despite that, I decided to pick up this one-shot full of short parodies primarily because it is NOT by – as they usually credit the writers and artists – the “usual gang of idiots,” but rather actual DC creators like Chip Zdarksy, Mark Waid, Gail Simone, Colleen Doran, and a host of others. The question, then, is whether the people who actually make this stuff do a better job of making fun of it than those who don’t?

I’m glad to report that, for the most part, the answer is “yes.” Early on get some good stuff, like Tini Howard’s “Five People You Meet at a Convention” and Mark Waid’s legitimately hilarious “First Meeting of Harley Quinn and Ambush Bug.” The Superman-specific stuff is a mixed bag. Gerry Duggan and Tony Moore’s “Humanity is the REAL Kryptonite” is three pages of recycled jokes (which I guess is appropriate for a Mad special). Colleen Coover has a much fresher (and funnier) take on the characters with a one-pager devoted to Lana Lang’s dating life after breaking up with the former Superboy, and Chip Zdarsky himself contributes the amusing “Know Your Kryptonite.”

In general, I find that the same stuff I discovered when reading the old Mad magazines last year holds true here as well. The parody is best when it’s a bit more generalized, poking fun at character tropes or the comic book culture. When they try to get more topical – there are several gags that are there to mock the tech industry, for example – it starts to feel a bit more like the creator is climbing a soapbox and it reduces the impact of the humor in a way that will be even more profound if somebody comes back and reads it a few years from now. This stuff always works best when it comes from a place of affection. When it gets vitriolic, that’s when I lose interest.

Fortunately, most of this book seems to focus more on the former than the latter.

Supergirl #12
Title: Hero of Kandor Part Two (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer, Artist, & Main Cover: Sophie Campbell

Supergirl awakens from the injuries she received last issue only to find that one of Kandor’s scientists has taken rather…extreme measure to see to her survival. I mean, you can see the cover, I don’t know why I’m dancing around it. He cyborgs her. And she is, understandably, not happy about it.

Interestingly, though, that’s not the main thrust of this issue. As scientist Kim-Da tries to explain the struggles Kandor has been undergoing – specifically the fact that any organism born in Kandor in the last three decades has found itself unable to survive outside of the bottle – Kara also learns the measures that have been taken to defend the bottled city. I’m actually kind of glad to see the reveal here that one of last issue’s revelations was something of a fake-out. It’s a big deal, but a different big deal than we were led to believe, and it opens the issue up to some of the sort of social commentary that good science fiction can pull off. The things that Kim-Da has done are questionable, to be certain, but it invites a parallel to certain real-world scientific issues without beating the reader over the head with them, which is the way that such things should be done. There’s action here, but it’s almost an afterthought, with most of the book taken up with heated conversation.

“But wait, Blake,” you’re saying, “the cover says this is a Reign of the Superboys tie-in.” Well, technically, I guess. Conner Kent appears, but only on the first few pages, and he and Lena Luthor go looking for Kara only to find that Kandor is rather disgustingly cut off from them both. I’m almost starting to suspect that editorial told Sophie Campbell that Conner needed to be in this story arc so she just found anywhere to slot him in that she could, since his contributions to the story thus far have been negligible. The scene with him and Lena is interesting, though. We’re reminded that one of Connor’s DNA donor “fathers” is, in fact, Lena Luthor’s father Lex, and although they never use the words, there’s a casual bickering between the two of them that feels very much like a brother and sister. I quite like that.

Campbell’s artwork has shifted slightly for this story arc. Although the early issues had very light lines that were almost cartoonish in their appeal, the Kandor story has taken on slightly harsher angles and more detail to fit the science fiction-ish tech of Kandor. Complete with darker colors by Tamara Bonvillain, someone who hadn’t looked at this book since the first issue might even suspect it had a different artist entirely at first. But the art shift is justified by the story, and I’m okay with it.

Action Comics #1097
Title: Future Shock (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Skylar Partridge
Main Cover: Ryan Sook

Another glorious issue by Mark Waid and Skylar Partridge. Superboy is greeted by a most unexpected trio: J’onn J’onzz, Mary Marvel, and Booster Gold. The reader (but not Clark) knows that these three are searching for Clark’s own future self, missing since the events of DC KO, but they have to strive to keep Clark from learning too much about his own future while, at the same time, helping to protect him from a threat he’s not quite ready for: Epoch, the Lord of Time.

I’m pretty sure that Waid is patterning this as Clark’s first encounter with other superheroes, save for Captain Comet (who appeared in a few earlier issues of this run). It’s certainly his first encounter with visitors from the future, but there’s a moment that is no doubt intended to invoke another time travelling trio that Clark has been associated with.

It rubs me just a teeny bit the wrong way that Waid makes a running gag out of Mary and J’onn trying to prevent Booster from blowing secrets about the future. He’s the most seasoned time traveller out of all of them, and he’s undergone so much character development over the years that it feels a little cheap to dial that back. He buys it back just a little, however, by implying that his carelessness might be a reversion spurred by his recent torture at the hands of Darkseid, which makes it easier to swallow.

The best stuff in this issue, though, comes between Clark and Mary. It’s the first time he’s ever met someone so young with powers of her own. I’m pretty sure that Mary is, canonically, college-age these days, which makes her only a few years older than Clark in this issue, something which in no way goes unnoticed by the young man. The character relationships being built here are very unusual, but in no way forced or unnatural. It all feels like the pieces are falling into place as they should.

DC/Marvel: Supergirl/Blade #1
Writer: CRC Payne
Layouts: Mikel Janin
Finishes: Hugo Petrus

Wrapping up this week we have a surprise drop, the DC Universe Infinite exclusive digital comic DC/Marvel: Supergirl/Blade #1. As they did last fall with a pair of unannounced team-ups between Thor and Shazam, then the Flash and the Fantastic Four, Marvel and DC once again dropped a pair of digital-first crossovers on us. I’m only going over the Supergirl/Blade issue, but if you’ve got the Marvel app as I do, by all means, go enjoy It’s Jeff/Aquaman.

The X-Men’s old foe Mojo is putting together a new series, and the algorithm gives him a can’t-miss formula that leads him to abducting Supergirl and Blade to be the stars of his new vampire romance series. It’s great – while this pairing doesn’t make nearly as much sense as any of the others that we’ve seen in this recent spate of crossovers, the fact that it’s so bizarre is actually a plot point here, and a pretty funny one at that.

Mojo hits Supergirl with a Kryptonite infection to bring her powers a bit more down to Earth, and she and Blade quickly find themselves coming face-to-face with some of Mojo’s Nosferatu. The story itself isn’t really groundbreaking or anything, but the odd couple dynamic works way better than expected. The only thing these two really have in common with one another is determination, but when it’s just the two of you against a legion of vampires, that’s enough to fuel the plot. From there it’s just a matter of giving us character interaction, which comes across as sincere and entertaining. It’s always nice to get a surprise gem like this one, so if you’ve got the DC Universe Infinity app, go check this one out right now.

Superman Stuff #13: DC/Marvel: Superman/Spider-Man #1

April 1, 2026April 8, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Belen Ortega, Ben Parker, Brainiac, Carnage, Christopher Priest, Daniel Sampere, DC Comics, Doctor Octopus, Gail Simone, Greg Rucka, Jeff Lemire, Jim Lee, Jimmy Olsen, Jonah Jameson, Jonathan Kent, Jorge Jimenez, Lois Lane, Mark Waid, Marvel Comics, Mary Jane Watson, Matt Fraction, Nicola Scott, Power Girl, Punisher, Rafa Sandoval, Sean Murphy, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Steve Lieber, Superboy, Superboy Prime, superman, Tom King

At last, the time has come! After months of waiting, DC Comics blessed us this week with the first of the two crossover books featuring Superman and Spider-Man, and as promised, there’s a bounty of back-up stories as well. As with any anthology, some of the stories are better than others, so this time out I’m going to give you my thoughts on each of them.

DC/Marvel: Superman/Spider-Man #1
Main Cover: Jorge Jimenez, although it should be noted that there are – at current count – FORTY-ONE different covers to this book, and while I’m absolutely NOT gonna shell out $8 a copy for all of them, if DC and Marvel put out a special that collected all of the various covers from this book and the Marvel book coming out in a couple of months, I would 100 percent purchase it.

Title: Truth, Justice, and Great Responsibility
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Jorge Jimenez

In our main story this issue, Dr. Octopus is messing around with an AI assistant that turns out to be Superman’s old foe Brainiac, which just goes to show you that using ChatGPT is just bad news. Clark Kent and Peter Parker, meanwhile, are working together on a story about the theft of some radioactive materials…including Kryptonite.

Mark Waid does something truly unique with this story. In the universe he’s created here, he presupposes that Superman and Spider-Man – and more specifically, Clark and Peter, have a history together. And I don’t just mean the previous crossovers between the two that have happened in the past (all of which are decades old). No, reading this book you get a clear feeling that this is an incarnation of DC and Marvel’s respective flagship characters that have had a great number of adventures together that we, the reader, have not been privy to. Most crossovers start with the characters meeting each other for the first time. If we’re lucky, they’re at least aware of the others’ existence, but they’ve never encountered each other before. This book instead implies a whole shared existence between the two that feels so fresh and so RIGHT, and makes me wish there were more stories coming beyond just the Marvel book.

Like seriously. DC. Marvel. Get Waid working on a 12-issue maxiseries showing the entire history of this Multiple World’s Finest duo, like YESTERDAY.

Jorge Jimenez on the art is the icing on the cake. He’s got a great take on each of our heroes and both of our villains. The story looks as good as it reads. The lead story is a home run.

Title: Lois & Mary Jane in “The World’s Finest”
Writer: Tom King
Pencils: Jim Lee
Inks: Scott Williams

Tom King’s Lois and Mary Jane story is next, and this is an interesting one. As Superman and Spider-Man duke it out with a rogue Sentinel (is there any other kind?), Lois and MJ go about a sort of casual conversation amongst the chaos about what it means to be them, the women in the lives of two of the world’s greatest heroes. It’s a really interesting way to frame these two, using their unique shared perspective in a way that wouldn’t really work with any other two women in comics. Using the backdrop of the Sentinel fight instead of just having them meet for lunch or something (as they do on the Terry Dodson variant cover) gives it a different flavor that makes it feel more unique. I feel like this one is intended to be in continuity with Waid’s story, and if that means this shared universe is one where Pete and Mary Jane are still together, I want more stories set in this universe even MORE.

Title: Superboy-Prime and Spider-Man in “Pages”
Writer: Christopher Priest
Art: Daniel Sampere

I really wasn’t sure what to expect out of this pairing. We’ve often seen Superboy-Prime using his knowledge of DC Comics (coming from a universe where those are all fictional) to navigate his world on more than one occasion. Christopher Priest here supposes that if DC Comics are fictional to Prime, it stands to reason that Marvel is too. (And I suppose every other publisher, by extension, but let’s just stick to Marvel now.) Prime uses his ability to travel the Multiverse to move back in time to a point in Marvel’s history shortly after Peter Parker got rid of his symbiote costume, when he was wearing a black suit made out of traditional fabric, and the confrontation between the two of them seems to unlock something in the boy.

Prime has been on something of a redemption arc in the comics as of late. This story actually feels like it could be the beginning of that, as if it logically should take place prior to his appearance in recent issues of DC KO. I have to admit, for a kid who modeled himself on Superman and stumbled so badly, I kind of like the idea of an encounter with Spider-Man being the thing that sets him back on the right path.

Title: Superboy and Spider-Man 2099 in “Beyond the Cobwebs of Tomorrow”
Writer & Artist: Sean Murphy

Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man 2099, is on the run. I know, what else is new? But as he flees from the authorities, we realize that he’s not in the 2099 that we’re used to, not exactly, and that idea is driven home even harder by the sudden appearance of a time-tossed Superboy and a special guest star. As our heroes compare notes, they come to realize the real threat they face and…

…and that’s it. The story ends with the team-up forged and our heroes barrelling off to take care of business. But the problem is, that isn’t really a story. This is, if anything, the first CHAPTER of a story, and an incomplete chapter at that. I get that these backups have a pretty limited number of pages, but this whole sequence comes across as a tease of something that I really want to read. Teasers are only fun, though, if what’s being teased eventually reaches you to be read. Despite a fun team-up and some well-executed pages, this is the first story in the book that I feel is a little bit of a letdown.

Title: Jimmy Olsen and Carnage in “Jimmy Con Carnage”
Writer: Matt Fraction
Art: Steve Lieber

Fraction and Lieber, the creative team behind the Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen miniseries from a few years back, reunite for the wildest pairing in this book. Jimmy’s meandering has led him to leave Metropolis for New York and get a job as the newest photographer for the Daily Bugle. And like ALL Bugle photographers learn, J. Jonah Jameson has one edict: PICTURES OF SPIDER-MAN. The only problem is that new-to-town Jimmy doesn’t even know what Spider-Man looks like. Doesn’t even know about the hyphen.

I know these stories are out of continuity, but it’s crazy what they allow Fraction to get away with in this one. It’s crazy, for instance, that Jimmy somehow has never seen one of Peter Parker’s 17 million photographs of Spider-Man. It’s crazy that he thinks Carnage matches the description. It’s crazy the significance that a hyphen plays in this story. It’s hilarious and ridiculous in all the ways that Jimmy’s solo series was, although with a bit more finality.

Title: Jonathan Kent and Ben Parker in “The Bridge”
Writer: Jeff Lemire
Art: Rafa Sandoval

This story (another one that feels like it belongs in this combined world) is a quick snapshot, Jeff Lemire bringing us a sweet glimpse at the adoptive fathers of our two heroes. A chance meeting, many years ago, brings Ben Parker to Smallville, Kansas just as a massive rainstorm threatens people in town, and Lemire shows us the kind of steel that forged Clark and Peter into the men that they are. Nothing particularly surprising in this one, just a good, simple encounter that feels like a minor but welcome detail in this strange world that they’re building.

Title: Bias
Writer: Greg Rucka
Art: Nicola Scott

This one, too, feels like a little snapshot. Jack Ryder’s program has a pair of special guests, Lois Lane and Jonah Jameson, on the air debating the concept of media bias. Lois calls Jonah out on his anti-Spider-Man stance, and Jonah responds.

There’s not much else to say about this one, honestly. Like the Lemire story, it feels like a detail added in to populate the world. I appreciate how well Rucka casts each of these characters, up to and including Jonah’s defense for his position on our friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. But it’s again just a tidbit, a nugget of something more.

Title: Power Girl and the Punisher in “Blind Date”
Writer: Gail Simone
Art: Belen Ortega

Of all the pairings in the book, this one may seem the most random, until you remember that both of these characters were created by Gerry Conway, and it seems that Simone thought it would be fun to pay tribute to that. She was, of course, correct about that. In this story, Karen Starr is on her way to a blind date with – well – perhaps the most hated Marvel character of the past half-decade or so. It’s just her bad luck that the restaurant where she’s meeting him happens to be full of criminals that have been targeted by Frank Castle.

As unusual as the team-up is, Simone handles it with her usual humor and charm. Somehow she structures the story in a way that brings them together organically, while still dropping in plenty of meta-commentary about the characters and playing with who they are and just how deeply different they are, while at the same time, having more than a little in common. This may be the most unexpectedly fun story in the book.

Look, I’m not going to pretend that I’m a hard sell. This is a comic book focusing on two of my favorite characters and an all-star collection of creators. It’s a load of fun and it feels oddly as though it’s being used to build towards something larger. (I’m probably wrong about that. I hope I’m not.) At any rate, it was well worth the price, and I can’t wait for Marvel’s half to come in April.

Superman Stuff #12: Reviews for March 4-18!

March 25, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Absolute Superman, Action Comics, Batman, Black Flame, Boy Thunder, Brainiac, Conner Kent, Crime Syndicate, Dan Mora, Dan Slott, Darkseid, DC Comics, DC KO, Hawkman, Hourman, Jason Aaron, Javi Fernandez, Jon Kent, Joshua Williamson, Juan Ferreyra, Kandor, Lesla-Lar, Lex Luthor, Lucas Meyer, Marcus To, Mark Russell, Mark Waid, Master Txyz, New Titans, Nightwing, Parasite, Rafa Sandoval, Reign of the Superboys, Sami Basri, Scott Snyder, Skylar Partridge, Sophie Campbell, Superboy, Supergirl, superman, Superman Unlimited, Tamara Bonvillain, Tate Brombal, Tomorrow Man, Ultraman, World's Finest, Xermanico

Geek Punditry #167: Mish, Mash, Consolidation’s a Smash

March 20, 2026 blakemp Geek Punditry 20th Century Fox, Batman, DC Comics, DC Studios, Disney, HBO Max, IDW Publishing, Looney Tunes, Lucasfilm, Marvel Comics, netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount, Paramount Plus, pluto tv, SpongeBob SquarePants, Star Trek, star wars, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, uncle scrooge, Warner Bros

The bidding war is over, and after a protracted tussle over the fate of the grand old movie studio called Warner Bros, the winner – shockingly – seems to be Paramount. Over the last few months we’ve watched as Warner Bros, which of course has expanded far beyond being a movie studio to being a full-blown media empire, was put on the market. We saw it get snapped up by Netflix, we saw as Paramount entered the game with a hostile takeover bid, and we saw them continue to sweeten the pot until Netflix stepped back and threw in the towel. And now, pending government approval and all sorts of other rigamarole that will tie things up for a while, it seems as though Warner Bros will become another star on the Paramount mountain.

Feelings about this are…complicated, to say the least. Generally speaking I’m not a fan of the massive media consolidation we’ve borne witness to this century. Fewer players in the game means less competition, and fewer outlets for fewer voices. And sure, we live in an era where anybody can theoretically build an audience and a following using social media, but in practice, the big companies are always going to have an edge. Even when a new player comes along – an A24, for example – they’re going to have an uphill battle when it comes to staying relevant next to the likes of Disney, Sony, and whatever this new Paramount/WB hybrid will be called once it’s all over.

That said, if it HAD to be between Netflix and Paramount, Paramount is the company I feel will be better for people who want movie theaters to survive, no matter what Netflix claimed. And if it’s happening whether we like it or not, I’m not in the mood to debate it. I would rather talk about what’s going to happen when the properties of these two corporate monoliths are under one roof.

What’s going to happen when Warner Bros – the company that owns DC Comics, DC Studios, the Looney Tunes, Hanna-Barbera, Harry Potter, and countless other properties – is folded under the umbrella of the company that controls CBS, Star Trek, Nickelodeon, SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? This is going to be mostly speculation, of course – I’m the first to admit that I don’t know anything. But I’m going to throw out some ideas and discuss some concerns about what’s going to happen. And keep in mind that all of this is dependent on how long it takes for the deal to be complete, as well as how long it takes for existing licenses and deals to expire, so I can’t really put a specific timeline on any of this.

“Let’s call it PARAMAX.”
“For the last time, Curtis, NO.”

One thing we CAN be sure of is that there’s going to be a change in the respective streaming services. Paramount has already indicated that eventually they intend to fold HBO Max into their existing Paramount+. When this happens, one can only hope they don’t decide to double the price on whatever the remaining service will be. Furthermore, I really hope that they use the technology behind HBO Max, because of all the major streamers I’ve used I’ve found Paramount+ to be the buggiest and most annoying. Honestly, if I didn’t love Star Trek so darned much I would have abandoned it entirely.

What content will there be, though? Warner Bros has had a terribly frustrating habit of sending out some of their properties, including movies and TV shows that were once on HBO Max, to other streamers like Netflix, Amazon Prime, and most recently Tubi (which picked up a gargantuan selection of WB cartoons). I would like to believe that Paramount would be smarter with its properties than Warner Bros was, but I would be kidding myself. Remember, Paramount+ was launched (originally as CBS All-Access) with the promise that it would be the home for everything Star Trek. Then they cancelled Prodigy after one season and Netflix saved season two, but now that deal has expired and it can’t be found anywhere. What I’m getting at is that both of these companies can be pretty boneheaded about what to do with their legendary properties, so having a singular service – whatever form it winds up taking – will be no guarantee that you can find everything you want under one roof.

Over in the Comic Book Collecting group I help moderate on Facebook, a user asked if we thought that the Ninja Turtles – now that they’re corporate siblings – would be added to the DC Universe. This is something I find particularly unlikely. Although DC has a proud and storied history of absorbing the superhero characters of other defunct publishers that they’ve purchased, the Ninja Turtles are too valuable an intellectual property in their own right to make them part of a different one. It’s the same reason that Disney never made Anna and Elsa from Frozen an official part of the Disney Princesses merchandise line – they make too dang much money on their own to mash them together with everybody else.

That said, although I do not foresee a future in which Donatello becomes the new leader of the Teen Titans or anything, I think that being under the same corporate umbrella will make crossovers easier and more likely. It’s happened before. The Turtles have had four separate comic book crossovers with Batman, one of which was adapted into an animated movie, and they’ve freely crossed over with dozens of other properties over the years – Ghostbusters, Strangers Things, Masters of the Universe, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, Naruto, and that’s just off the top of my head. Having them cross paths with the Justice League is in no way out of the question. Heck, having them cross paths with Bugs Bunny isn’t out of the question.

“Dude, our dad is like, a bat without wings! We could be cousins!”

Just because I don’t think the Turtles will be part of the DCU, though, that still raises the question of who is going to publish them. The Turtles have been licensed to IDW Publishing for many years now. So have other Paramount properties, most prominently Star Trek. And just last year, IDW launched a new IDW Dark line of horror comics, including several series based on Paramount properties such as The Twilight Zone, Event Horizon, A Quiet Place, and Smile. I don’t know exactly how long those contracts have left, but once Paramount owns one of the Big Two comic book publishers, will they really want to continue licensing their properties to one of the…Fluffy Five? I need better nicknames.

It’s possible that Paramount would move the comic book licenses for their properties over to DC, but it’s by no means certain. After all, DC hasn’t done a ton of licensed comics in recent years, aside from the occasional crossover or a book based on one of their current corporate siblings. They’ve published Star Trek before, of course, but that was nearly 30 years ago, and there hasn’t been any indication that they would be interested in doing so again. And even now WB properties have had recent comics published by companies other than DC, such as Cartoon Network comics published by IDW or the current Space Ghost and Herculoids comics produced by Dynamite.

And recent comic book history has made it quite clear that sharing a parent company isn’t necessarily a guarantee of comic book consolidation. When Disney bought Marvel Comics in 2009, they ended the Disney Comics license that Boom! Studios had. Then when they bought Lucasfilm in 2012, they pulled back the Star Wars license from Dark Horse and gave it to Marvel. They did the same with Aliens and Predator when they bought 20th Century Fox. But although Marvel has produced a lot of Star Wars, Alien, and Predator comics, Disney has ALSO licensed Star Wars out to other publishers again, first IDW, and then back to Dark Horse, with their respective series co-existing with the Marvel books. Marvel has also done precious little with the classic Disney characters – a few What If? one-shots mashing Mickey Mouse and friends with Marvel superheroes, and a few Uncle Scrooge comics. But at the same time, Disney kept farming those characters to other publishers as well. Dynamite currently has the license to Disney Afternoon books like DuckTales, Darkwing Duck, and Gargoyles, as well as other properties like Lilo and Stitch, Disney Villains, and – most recently – the Muppets. As for the classic Disney comics, after being moved to IDW (they are in this licensing mix a LOT), they vanished for a few years, only to come back last year at Fantagraphics. In fact, last fall I walked into my comic book shop and bought new comic books starring Scrooge McDuck from three different publishers at the same time.

I guess that made Fantagraphics, Dynamite, and Marvel the Three Scrooges. Ah? AAAAAAAH?

The melding is far from certain, is what I’m getting at.

What about some of the other properties the different companies hold? How will they be affected? Paramount+ isn’t the only streamer they own, they’re also the controlling company of what is possibly my favorite streaming app, Pluto TV. Pluto has on-demand content, but it also has 24/7 channels dedicated to dozens – perhaps hundreds – of individual shows and genres, most of them owned by Paramount: channels dedicated to Star Trek, I Love Lucy, classic sitcoms, game shows, and tons of other things. Not everything on Pluto is owned by Paramount (they also have channels dedicated to Mystery Science Theater 3000, RiffTrax, and the Universal Monsters, for instance), but I don’t think you can currently find any WB properties there. Could we see channels with all-day streams of the Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Babylon 5, DC Cartoons or the live-action DC superhero shows? I have to admit, of all the theories I’m throwing around, this is probably the one I feel most likely to happen in the near future. It just seems very much like the kind of thing Paramount is likely to do. Although – like everything else – how SOON it might happen would depend largely on the current licensing deals they have in place, what rights exactly those existing deals entail, and when they expire.

If all of this sounds confusing…well, that’s because it is. The merger of two of the biggest media companies in the world is an enormous endeavor, something with so many moving parts that I can’t even wrap my head around it. And we just don’t know how it’s all going to shake out in the end.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. He kind of likes the idea of a SpongeBob/Animaniacs crossover where Squidward just rapidly loses his mind over the Warner Brothers and the Warner Sister.

Superman Stuff #10: Supergirl: Wings

March 11, 2026March 10, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff DC Comics, Elseworlds, J.M. DeMatteis, Jamie Tolagson, Supergirl, Zauriel

Obviously, I decided against doing a full-on “Year of Supergirl,” because I’m smart enough not to subject myself to that kind of regimented schedule twice. That said, with Kara’s movie coming out in just a few short months, I do intend to start peppering my regular reading with more of her stories more often, and for this week’s “Superman Stuff” I decided to revisit the 2001 Elseworlds one-shot Supergirl: Wings, written by J.M. DeMatteis with art (including a lovely cover painting) by Jamie Tolagson.

This book seems to be inspired by the late, legendary Peter David’s run on Supergirl, in which the Matrix version of the character sacrifices herself to save a young woman who was seemingly beyond redemption, an act of selflessness which bonds the two of them together into a spiritual being that David calls an “Earth-Bound Angel.” Wings removes the “Earth-Bound” part of that, starting with a multitude of the Heavenly Host, the “Shining Ones,” looking down upon the poor, struggling humans. Two of those Shining Ones include Matrix and Zauriel (the angel from Grant Morrison’s JLA run).

Matrix is an Amenlee, one of the angels tasked with caring for human souls. But Matrix has become disenchanted with humanity, put off by our more negative qualities, and finds herself struggling to find herself – especially in her dealings with a woman named Linda Danvers, who has lost her own Guardian Angel and seems to be spiraling down a dark path. The story of this Elseworlds is actually pretty close to what David wrote in the mainstream Supergirl comic of the era, honestly. What sets it apart and makes it an Elseworlds is that DeMatteis leans more heavily on the spiritual side, more so than even David did. It’s odd to see a mainstream comic book that wades this heavily into matters of faith, with elements that are reflective of both Christian and pagan practices that all come together into a bizarre tapestry that includes the likes of the Spectre, the Phantom Stranger, Aquaman, and a very different Clark Kent.

DeMatteis does a lot of exploration in this book, delving not only into questions of the soul, but also about the search for self. Early in the story, Matrix bemoans the fact that – unlike humans – the angels such as herself have no free will and are only tasked with carrying out the will of the Presence (or God, as they sometimes call “hir”). But that doesn’t really track, does it? If she truly had no free will, how would she flirt with rebellion, how could she contemplate abandoning her post and abandoning humanity at all? Despite what she says, the Angels’ lot is painted less like that of people with NO free will and more like people with limited options, struggling to content themselves with the task appointed to them. The metaphor is heavy and, despite being no angels ourselves, it’s not hard to sympathize with Matrix as she explores just how trapped he has come to feel with her role in the universe.

Tolagson’s artwork is really perfect for this series, a style that evokes the likes of Mike Mignola, leaning on the fantasy elements and downplaying any trace of the superhero. Some pages call to mind the likes of Sandman or Fables, while others seem to be pulled from books like The Demon or Books of Magic.

Were this to be published today, it would probably be part of the Black Label line. It doesn’t have any overt R-rated elements (no sex, no language, relatively minor instances of violence), but the concepts and the themes brought to the page are extremely heavy and far deeper than your standard superhero book. It’s an interesting companion to David’s Supergirl, and a story that ultimately lands on a place that feels hopeful and uplifting. Matrix’s story feels familiar, not only like it’s something that we’ve seen on the page before, but like it’s something so many of us have lived through at one point or another. It’s a very different kind of story, and all the more remarkable for it.

I’m definitely going to spend more time with Supergirl this year – part of me even wants to do a whole-series read of the David run, but I don’t know if I can spare that kind of time. But for a taste of a very different look at Supergirl, this is an intriguing sample.

By the way, folks, I’m always open for requests. If there’s a specific comic book, TV episode, animated feature, or anything else regarding Superman or his extended family that you’d like me to discuss in this space, just let me know.

Geek Punditry #165: I Like What I Like

March 6, 2026March 5, 2026 blakemp Geek Punditry DC Comics, DC KO, Miracle on Ice, Miracle: The Boys of '80, Olympics, Pluribus, Rhea Seehorn, superman, Vince Gilligan

Last week, for the first time in the three years since I started writing these “Geek Punditry” blogs, I missed a post, but I think you’ll forgive the reason. Thursday, while I was still brainstorming possible topics for pop culture effluvia to talk about, I got a phone call from my father to tell me my grandmother had passed away. It wasn’t a shock – she was 94 years old, after all – but just because something isn’t surprising doesn’t mean it isn’t painful. My grandmother was one of the most important people in my life, and I’m sure you’ll understand why I just wasn’t in the right headspace to go into some sort of lighthearted analysis over an episode of SpongeBob or something the next day.

I’m still not in that headspace, not really. On the day you read this we’ll be having her funeral and saying goodbye, and I’m still not in the mood to do any serious kind of dissection of the kind of stuff I usually write about here. But I didn’t want to go another week without a Geek Punditry, so I decided instead I would just spend this week’s post talking about a few things I’ve read or watched recently that I enjoyed. These are just short, capsule recommendations for pieces of media that have pleased me in some way, and that’s really the reason I started this feature in the first place. I wanted to talk about the things that I love and share them with other people.

So here we are, just a few short suggestions for things to watch or read.

DC KO

DC Comics’ latest crossover event (they have so, so many, the Big Two publishers) ended this week, and it ended in a spectacular fashion. In DC KO, the Justice League discovered that Darkseid – who had been presumed dead since 2024’s DC All In Special – was not, in fact, dead, but coming back more powerful than ever. The only way to stop him would be for one of them to claim the Heart of Apokalips, a powerful, sentient artifact that has been supercharged with Darkseid’s “Omega Energy.” Claiming the artifact would give the holder the power of the “King Omega,” and make them a match for Darkseid, capable of resetting the universe as they see fit. In order to claim the power, though, the heroes would have to prove themselves worthy of it by fighting one another in a tournament across the entire multiverse. And it gets even worse when the villains get wind of the plan and worm their way into the tournament as well.

The premise – and I’ll be the first one to admit it – is absolutely preposterous. It sounds like the setup for a video game or the kind of story a kid whips up in the backyard as an excuse to have all of his toys fight each other. It’s an excuse for huge, over-the-top fight scenes pitting hero and against hero (and occasionally villain), to transform our characters into variants of themselves from other parts of the multiverse, and to give them new, temporary costumes that will look really dandy as action figures and other merch. There was even a one-shot spinoff where they fought characters from OUTSIDE of the DC Universe, including Red Sonja, Vampirella, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Homelander from The Boys. It was an enormous, bloated, insane cash grab.

And damned if I didn’t love every minute of it.

For one thing, superhero fans love a good fight scene. It’s just inherent in the genre. And having the heroes fight one another is the kind of thing that fans like to bicker and debate – who would win in a fight between the Flash and Green Lantern, for example. But to explain why friends and teammates would fight one another usually requires some sort of contrived coincidence, mistaken identity, mind control, or other overused trope. DC KO bypasses all that and makes the contrivance the whole plot, and somehow, that made all the difference. Why would Green Lantern fight the Flash? Because they know that the only way to save the universe is for ONE of the heroes to beat all the others in a fight, so they’ve gotta give it their best.

But it didn’t stop there. Although KO was structured as a series of fight scenes, the writers still managed to do some excellent character work. There was a series of one-off issues in December featuring some of the marquee matchups: Superman Vs. Captain Atom, Harley Quinn Vs. Zatanna, Cyborg Vs. Swamp Thing, and perhaps the most personal of them all, Red Hood Vs. the Joker, the man who killed him that one time. And in each of these issues, the fights and the choices the characters made delved into who they really were and what they really wanted. Was it an excuse to see Superman and Captain Atom throwing down in a way that they usually don’t do, needing to hold back in fear of annihilating a city or something? Absolutely. Did it say something real, important, and powerful about who Superman is as a character? Dang right.

The series ended this week in a way that I found quite satisfying as well, taking a step towards meta-commentary about what the DC Universe actually is and where its soul comes from. And people who know how I feel about the DC heroes will not at all be surprised that I loved the conclusion this story drew. I felt great about what I read, and I’m looking forward to the next act of the larger story DC is telling (of which KO is, evidently, the end of Act I).

Pluribus

I know I’m behind on this one, but in my defense, I don’t have Apple TV+. I do, however, have a friend who has given me access to his Plex server, and he’s got Pluribus on his system, which means that I get to watch the newest show by Vince Gilligan, the man behind a couple of shows called Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I’m four episodes in to the nine-episode first season, so I’ve still got a ways to go, but I’ve seen enough to be confident in saying that Vince Gilligan has got to stop hoarding all the awesome, because it’s not fair that one man gets to create one of the best shows on television THREE TIMES IN A ROW.

I’m not going to say very much about the story of this show. I think it’s the kind of thing that works best if you don’t really know much going in and just let the surprises hit you one at a time. In fact, prior to watching the show all I knew was:

The show is science fiction (and although he’s best known for crime dramas, don’t forget that Gilligan cut his teeth in the industry as a writer for The X-Files)
It stars Better Call Saul’s Rhea Seehorn in the lead role (and she is FANTASTIC)
Gilligan made some statements about how much generative AI sucks while promoting the show (which has turned out to have some thematic resonance, but nothing plot-relevant, at least not as of episode four)

Although it is sci-fi, Pluribus has a lot of the same DNA as Gilligan’s other two acclaimed series. The shows are all about deeply damaged people who are pushed into a situation that quickly grows out of their control and they’re forced to make morally questionable choices for the sake of survival. Tonally, I think it’s similar as well. Although Pluribus is probably the most serious of the three series, it still has a lot of moments of dark comedy that help you make your way through it.

Basically, if you like what Vince Gilligan has done so far, you’re going to like this too.

Miracle: The Boys of ‘80

I am, as most people who know me will tell you, a total sucker for the Olympics. I love the games, and I spent the better part of two weeks recently absorbed in the snow and ice of lovely Milan and Cortina, rooting for Team USA. And to feed the hunger for people like myself, Netflix recently dropped a new documentary, Miracle: The Boys of ‘80. This film is all about the 1980 US Olympic hockey team and the journey that led to the moment called “the Miracle on Ice,” when they managed to defeat the highly-favored Soviet Union in the semifinal round of the games.

The Miracle on Ice is a story that, of course, has been told many times. This isn’t the first documentary about it, and Disney even made a narrative film about it starring Kurt Russell, Miracle, that was pretty good. But this particular film tells the story through the eyes of the players and people involved, mostly through interviews with them as they detailed the path they took from the inception of the team – a ragtag band of underdogs that couldn’t have been more dramatic if they’d been hired by a studio casting director – all the way through the games. I recently made one of my “LitReels” about the concept of sports as storytelling. I think the reason that sports are so important to a lot of people are because they are, in fact, stories that we attach ourselves to, as much as any book, TV show, movie series – even history and religion are important to us (I believe) because of their value as the stories that we internalize. This is a fine documentary that does a fine job in telling one of the greatest stories in the history of American sports.

There you go, friends, a few things to dig into between now and next Friday. Hopefully by then I’ll be a little more coherent, a little more capable of finding a topic to do a deep dive. Until then, be good to each other, and let the people you love know it.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok.

Superman Stuff #9: Reviews From Feb. 11-25

March 4, 2026March 3, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Absolute Superman, Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Batman, Booster Gold, Carlo Pagulayan, Dan Slott, Darkseid, Dave Johnson, DC Comics, DC KO, Diego Olortegui, Doomsday, Eber Ferreira, Eddy Barrows, Edwin Galmon, Fico Ossio, Jason Paz, Javi Fernandez, Joe Quinones, Joseph P. Illidge, Joshua Williamson, Julio Ferreira, Lena Luthor, Lois Lane, Marcus To, Mark Waid, Milestone Comics, Morgan Hampton, New History of the DC Universe, Nikolas Draper-Ivey, Owlman, Patricio Delpeche, Pete Ross, Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Prankster, Red Son, Ryan Sook, Scott Godlewski, Scott Snyder, Sophie Campbell, Starchild, Static, Stephanie Williams, Stephen Segovia, Superboy, Superboy-Prime, Supergirl, superman, Superman Unlimited, Tim Trapper, Ultraman, Valentine De Landro, Wonder Woman, World's Finest, Xermacio

Once again, it’s time to look into the reviews of some of the Superman-related comics that have dropped in the last few weeks, including some pretty massive events. Let’s get right to it.

DC KO #4
Title: Trial By Absolute
Writers: Scott Snyder & Joshua Williamson
Art: Javi Fernandez & Xermancio
Main Cover: Javi Fernandez

The Final Four have made their way through all comers, but before they can turn their attention to one another, four new combatants have entered the fray. Tainted by the energy of Darkseid, the combatants will be forced to fight the Absolute Universe versions of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman – as well as Booster Gold who has been possessed by Darkseid himself.

This event has promised us one throwdown after another, and there’s no way to argue that it hasn’t lived up to that promise. This issue is perhaps the most high-octane, brutal battle yet. The fight between the four remaining heroes and villains with their Absolute counterparts is scripted and drawn with incredible energy and brutality, but at the same time, Scott Snyder has not skimped at all when it comes to character and story. In fact, there are multiple twists in this issue that catch you off-guard and send the story spinning into new, unexpected directions. At the same time, the twists all fit the characters – a great twist is one that is a surprise without violating what you already know about the world you’re reading, and Snyder pulls that off.

For people who are into Superman (know anybody like that?) seeing “our” Superman face off against the Absolute Kal-El is one of the high points of the issue. Neither character is disrespected or nerfed in respect to the other, but there’s also no room for any doubt as to which of the two is the original. I am slightly disappointed at just how the Absolute characters were used, however. Similar to the surprise guest stars from the Boss Battle one-shot, the Absolute heroes are in and out rather quickly. It’s not even clear as to when, exactly, this story takes place in the Absolute timeline – Superman seems to know Batman here, whereas in their respective comics, they haven’t met yet. Although there’s definite promise here for future brushes between the two worlds, it feels like this encounter will mostly be a footnote for the Absolute characters, even as it sets up the conclusion for the Final Four.

I know I’m being deliberately vague here, by the way – I suppose it’s clear that Superman is one of the Final Four (as it should be) but I’m trying to avoid spelling out who else is in that group in case anyone is trying to remain spoiler-free. Considering just how this one ends, though, I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep that up for the finale. So if you’re reading along with these reviews, I would highly recommend being up-to-date with DC KO when I drop my thoughts on issue five. Whenever that might be.

Superman Unlimited #10
Title: Die Laughing Part Two
Writer: Dan Slott
Art: Mike Norton
Main Cover: Dave Johnson

Intergang has set its sights on Metropolis’s new mayor, Perry White, and they’ve contracted the Prankster to take care of the problem. But Oswald Loomis’s nephew is trying to step into his uncle’s role and take over the family business, and the NEW Prankster isn’t quite as funny as his predecessor.

This is a solid issue. There’s something up with this new Prankster – in these two issues he’s appeared we never find out his real name, and there’s no explanation for his bizarre powers, something Uncle Oswald has never had. I feel like this is just part of a coming, larger story, even as these two issues work perfectly well as a couplet. I also like how a big part of the middle of this story isn’t about the power of Superman, but rather the investigative skills of Clark Kent. Not to say that Superman is entirely absent, but we see more Clark than we often do these days, and I appreciate that.

We also get a quick interlude with Jon, who’s been setting up the new Daily Planet office in Smallville, only to get an ominous warning from an unexpected source. Even more so than the Prankster stuff, this is explicitly setup, especially since DC has revealed their “Reign of the Superboys” initiative that’s going through all of the Super-titles after DC KO ends. If you didn’t know, Jonathan is going to take the reigns of this title for an indeterminate amount of time, and it looks like the groundwork is being laid here.

I’m still really digging Mike Norton’s Superman. I love the way his character works, with the kind of strong lines and clean character work that made so many of the Triangle Era artists stand out, and I hope we see more and more Superman from him in the future.

Superman #35
Title: Life Secrets (A DC KO Tie-In)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Art: Eddy Barrows, Eber Ferreira, Julio Ferreira
Main Cover: Dan Mora

The final instalment of this title’s DC KO storyline runs with the conclusion of issue #4 and leads straight into #5. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the storylines that’s been going through this book turns out to be crucial to the conclusion of the crossover. But that’s not the one that works best.

We’re following two intertwined threads here. First, the Doomsday/Time Trapper is reeling from the events of issue #4 and trying to gird himself for what must come next. After all, at least part of him is the creature that was created eons ago for the express purpose of destroying Darkseid, and it may be time for that charge to finally come due. Meanwhile, Lois and Superboy-Prime continue their faceoff with Darkseid’s Legion, and it is this latter part that is particularly revelatory.

From the moment he was introduced in this title, we’ve been building a redemption arc for Prime, and it gets center stage in this issue, where he is faced with choices that he’s made before and is given an opportunity to make better choices this time. I’m not in the business of giving out spoilers, but it should be pointed out that when “Reign of the Superboys” takes over the Superman titles next month, DC has revealed that Prime is going to be the start of this title for the time being.

There’s also a great face-off between Lois and Darkseid’s Saturn Girl. Just like prime, this series has hinted that the dark Legion may not be completely beyond hope, and that hope spot is further explored this month. I’m really anxious for the final issue of the crossover to drop…which I guess will be today as you read this. Holy cats, why are you reading this blog instead of DC KO #5? Have you lost your senses?

Action Comics #1095
Title: Pressure
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Patricio Delpeche
Main Cover: Ryan Sook

The adventures of Superboy in Action Comics continue, although Clark actually takes a back seat this issue. Last month, on a camping trip, Pete Ross happened to spy Clark Kent going into action as Superboy. This issue is Pete’s story, as he struggles with this knowledge and wrestles with whether to confront Clark with what he has learned – and ask why his best friend would ever keep such a secret.

I adored this issue. Mark Waid, human comic book encyclopedia that he is, is doing a phenomenal job of mining the classic tales of Superboy to bring the drama to this series. In the Silver Age this was the status quo – Pete knew that Clark was Superboy (even learned it the same way as he did in Waid’s story, if I’m not mistaken) and chose to keep that knowledge to himself. But as was so often the case with those Silver Age tales, there wasn’t an awful lot of thought given to the implications of this sort of thing. How would Pete feel about learning his best friend was keeping such a gargantuan secret? Doesn’t Clark know that he can trust him? Does anybody else know? And why would Pete choose to keep what he’s learned to himself instead of talking to Clark about it?

The answer to that last question is because it was the Silver Age, and if anybody in a Silver Age DC story had the ability to have a rational adult conversation about anything 95 percent of the stories would have ended on the second page. But Waid actually finds a way to justify Pete’s actions, draping his decision in a metaphor for a real-world issue and presenting it in such a way that makes perfect sense and somehow makes all of the characters – Pete, Clark, even Lana Lang – come across as behaving in a mature, emotionally intelligent way. How often could you say that back in the 50s?

Supergirl #10
Title: My Bloody Valentine
Writer: Sophie Campbell
Art: Joe Quinones
Main Cover: Sophie Campbell

It’s Valentine’s Day, and Kara has a date with the mysterious, long-haired, tattooed boy of her dreams. Her friends Lena and Luna, however, are following along, sensing something is amiss.

After last issue’s slight misstep, this one is more of what I’ve come to enjoy about this series. The “date” is mostly a setup for this issue’s fight scene, but Campbell isn’t having a fight just for the sake of a fight. In the midst of battle we get some good character moments and the ongoing storyline of Kara and her friends (particularly Lena Luthor, in this case) continues nicely. Lena made a mistake in the last issue for which she’s trying to mend fences, and while this issue doesn’t patch everything up in a neat little bow, it also doesn’t cause some insurmountable gap between the friends like books that lean on melodrama are wont to do. Kara and Lena both some some real emotional maturity here, which is particularly funny when juxtaposed against the “date” scene, which works mostly as a parody of gooey Silver Age romance comics tropes.

I have to point out, though, that the recent run of holiday issues is starting to strain credulity a little bit. Literally half the issues of this series have been holiday stories at this point (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and now Valentine’s Day) and while comic book time is naturally elastic, it does have its limits. As this issue begins, Lena and Luna are going to visit Kara on Valentine’s Day to try to make up for their screwup at the New Year’s Eve party – so it’s been six weeks since they spoke to one another? Nobody has made any effort to patch things up before now? I’m willing to forgive, because this really is a great book, but I’m crossing my fingers that next issue’s story (part of the “Reign of the Superboys” initiative) won’t be a visit to show us how they celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in Kandor.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #48
Title: Day For Night Part One
Writer: Mark Waid
Art: Marcus To
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Once again, Mark Waid has been let loose in his favorite playground, the DC Universe. In this issue we leave behind our pals Superman and Batman and instead visit their arch Earth-3 counterparts, Ultraman and Owlman, as they begin plans to expand their Crime Syndicate to unprecedented levels, with world conquest as their goal.

Waid is building out Earth-3 quite a bit here, introducing versions of DC heroes that I’m pretty sure have never showed up in a Crime Syndicate story before (although I could potentially be wrong about that – I’m certainly not the walking encyclopedia of comic book knowledge that Waid is). There’s a particularly amusing sequence that really puts the relationship between Owlman and Talon (his Robin analogue) into focus. All of it works up to a nice last-page surprise that seems poised to set up the rest of this arc. As per usual, I’m very excited to see where this is going to go next.

Adventures of Superman: Book of El #6
Title: The Warworld Engines
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Art: Scott Godlewski
Main Cover: Scott Godlewski

This issue we at last return to Otho-Ra and Osul-Ra, Superman’s adopted children, who disappeared back in the first issue after Superman was abducted to the future. We also come across another clan wearing Superman-like sigils, while our hero is battered and beaten down.

I’m trying, guys, I REALLY am trying to get interested in this book, but it’s just not working. Having left behind the Green Lantern stuff (although future covers seem to indicate we’re not done with it yet), we’ve gotten back to Superman vs. Warworld, which was an era of Action Comics that, if I’m being honest, bored me stiff. Despite his power, “cosmic” Superman stories rarely work for me. The character is all about heart and how he deals with people, and throwing him into deep space against all-powerful entities and sci-fi clans that think he’s just a legend…it’s too far from the things that make me keep reading Superman comic books. It just isn’t connecting with me, no matter how much I wish it was.

New History of the DC Universe: The Dakota Incident #1
Writers: Joseph P. Illidge, Stephanie Williams, Morgan Hampton, & Nikolas Draper-Ivey
Art: Valentine De Landro, Carlo Pagulayan, Stephen Segovia, Jason Paz, Fico Ossio, & Edwin Galmon
Main Cover: Diego Olortegui

Strictly speaking, I don’t feel obligated to review this book the way I do many of the other Superman appearances. He shows up in this book, but his appearance is brief and it’s not his story. That said, I liked this book quite a lot and I wanted to talk about it and it’s my own blog – dammit – so I’m gonna write about this if I want to.

Spinning out of last year’s fantastic New History of the DC Universe miniseries is this one-shot focusing on the heroes of the Milestone universe. As the previous NHOTDCU explained, the Milestone heroes (versions that are fairly close to their original incarnations from the 90s) have always existed in the current incarnation of the DC Universe, but they all vanished from the public eye after something referred to as the “Dakota Incident.” This issue delves into their history, showing the reader just how they fit into the DCU, and the events of the incident that led to their departure.

I’m impressed at how relatively easily they worked the characters into the DC Universe while still keeping their original stories mostly intact. There is one element that’s added to link the origins of many of the Milestone heroes to the DC Universe proper, but that addition doesn’t really change anything about who they are or how their adventures unfolded back then. The issue also places a heavy emphasis on Static, holding him up as perhaps the most significant of these characters. That makes sense – he’s certainly the most well-known and popular Milestone character among the general public (by virtue of his old cartoon show if nothing else), but it also fits with the character of Virgil Hawkins very well.

For fans of these characters, especially the original versions, this issue serves very well to integrate them into the DC Universe, explain their absence, and – most importantly – set the stage for their return. It’s already been teased in various places, not the least of which is the last page of this issue, and I am very much looking forward to seeing the heroes of Dakota rise again.

Superman Stuff #8: Digital MIA

February 25, 2026February 24, 2026 blakemp Superman Stuff Action Comics, DC Comics, dc universe infinite, Digital Comics, superman

Sometimes people ask me, “Blake, have you read every Superman story there is?” And I smile and laugh because I can totally understand why they might think such a thing. I’ve got a whole shelf of Superman toys and knicknacks, I own approximately 97 Superman shirts, socks, and other assorted articles of clothing, I spent an entire year of my life reading or watching a different Superman story every single day, and although I do not personally HAVE a tattoo, if I ever were to get one, you can probably guess what image I would choose. So you may be surprised when I tell you that the answer to the question “have you read every Superman story?” is a definitive NO.

The thing to remember, friends, is that despite my age, Superman is considerably older than me. Earth’s greatest hero is coming up on his 90th birthday in two years, and I am not quite there yet. There are mountains of Superman stories that were published before I was born. And to be certain, I’ve read a lot of them. His first appearance in Action Comics #1 has been reprinted frequently, as have many of the most popular and memorable stories, stories that introduced important characters and concepts, and so forth. But the truth is, there are a lot of Superman stories – especially from the Golden and Silver Ages – that have never been reprinted. In this day of digital comics, one would think that it would be simple enough for DC to put them all on their DC Universe Infinite app, to which I subscribe and use almost daily. But if you go into the archives and start poking around, you see massive swaths of comics that simply aren’t there.

There are reasons for that, of course. It’s NOT as simple as just pushing a button and putting them online. Many of those comics, especially the older ones, have never existed in a digital form. They were drawn, colored, and printed on paper before the advent of computers, and to digitize them today would require someone to take the old prints, scan them in, and remaster them into a readable format, and that is assuming copies of the books are available (which is often not the case with Golden Age comics, especially the more obscure ones). If there are available copies it’s not an impossible task – a great many classic comics have been preserved this way – but it IS a time-consuming and sometimes expensive task, which is why those older comics that ARE available digitally are the ones that are the most popular and most significant.

All that said, I wish that DC would put more effort into preserving their older comics. On a whim, I went through the app and looked at the assorted Superman titles to see which ones have missing issues, and the results are, frankly, alarming. Of the 904 issues of Action Comics Vol. 1, DCUI lists 463 of them available digitally. (Actually, that number isn’t exactly accurate, as the 463 includes annuals and specials that DC places in the run of the main title, but the number is close enough to make my point.) As of when I checked the app on Feb. 23, the following issues of Action Comics are unavailable digitally: 106-251, 253-266, 268-283, 285-307, 360-363, 377-456, 458-520, 522-551, 560-582, 603-617, 627-642, 653-658, 660, 663-668, and, bizarrely, 729.

It’s interesting to note which books ARE available as well. There’s an enormous hole at the end of the Golden Age and beginning of the Silver Age, stretching almost completely from 106 through 360. In that run there are only three issues that pop up: issue #252 (the first appearance of Supergirl), issue #267 (an early Legion of Super-Heroes story with the first appearance of several key members), and issue #284 (I have no idea what makes this issue special enough to warrant inclusion).

Left: Worthy of digitizing.
Right: Somehow, NOT worthy of digitizing.

Also missing are most, but not all, of the Action Comics Weekly run, from issues #601-642. For those who don’t know, at this time DC experimented with changing Action from a monthly title starring Superman to a weekly anthology book with several ongoing stories, of which Superman was only one of them. What’s bizarre to me is that they have issues #618-626, which I have to assume contains some serialized story they deem significant enough to include.

Speaking of anthologies, it should also be noted that the early Golden Age issues of Action are incomplete. The series was originally an anthology before Superman (or his spin-off characters, like Supergirl) eventually took over the entire book, for but many of those anthology issues, ONLY the Superman story is online. Granted, that’s probably the part of the book of greatest interest, but that still leaves huge gaps in DC history. The same is true for the other Golden Age anthologies that are remembered mostly for their main character, such as the Batman stories in Detective Comics or the Wonder Woman stories in Sensation Comics.

Reading this period is going to be like rolling the dice.

I kept looking. Volume 1 of Superman is missing issues 25-27, 29, 31-33, 44-75, 77-121, 132-232, 239, 243-247, 249-256, 258-265, 267-304, 309-337, 339-364, 366-409, and 416-422. That series didn’t end there, but the title was changed to Adventures of Superman, which is missing issues 580-581, 599-607, 610-638, 640-641, and 643-649. During that time, the book ran concurrently with Superman Vol. 2, which is missing a relative few issues (178-185, 188-203), and Superman: The Man of Steel, which seems to only be lacking 121-129. The baffling thing is that these three titles, along with the post-Weekly era of Action Comics, were part of what fans fondly recall as the Triangle Era, that period in the 90s and early 2000s when the four Superman titles fed into each other week to week, essentially making one glorious serial. Anybody attempting to read this era in its entirety on the app will find bizarre and baffling gaps in the story.

These are the main Superman titles, of course, but the spin-off books have fared little better. Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane ran for 137 issues between 1958 and 1974. Of those, only issues #1-21 and, randomly, #93 are available digitally. Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen ran for 163 issues before the title was changed to Superman Family and it became an anthology with stories featuring assorted characters in the…well, the title makes it clear. Of the original Jimmy Olsen run, we have only the first eight issues, then issues 133-148, the seminal Jack Kirby run on the title. The series continued as Superman Family from issues #164 until it was cancelled with #222, but the only one available on the app is #182, again, for reasons I can’t fathom.

Finally, let’s talk about the Superman team-up book of the late 70s and early 80s, DC Comics Presents. This series has fared much better than many of the others we’ve covered here. Of the 97 issues in the run, only three are missing: issue #47, which guest starred He-Man and the Masters of the Universe and is therefore no longer available to DC due to licensing issues, and issues 70 and 71, which guest-star the Metal Men and Bizarro, respectively, and don’t seem to have any particular reason they should be discluded.

“By the Power of Lawyers! YOOOU CANNOT REEEEEAD MEEEEEEEE!”

This is not a comprehensive examination, of course. I haven’t checked in on most of the annuals, specials, or miniseries, although it should be noted that only the first issue of the Superman: The Secret Years miniseries from 1985 is included, which is totally perplexing to me. Why bother to digitize ONLY part one of a four-part story?

I should also note that this is not a problem unique to the Superman comics. If you go through the back catalogues of most DC books prior to the modern era, you’ll see similar gaps in the libraries of Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc. I also stopped looking after the New 52 reboot of 2011, at which point digital comics had become relatively common, and I feel mostly certain that everything one could reasonably expect to be available is so. But what I’ve laid out here should be enough to make it clear how big this problem is.

Again, digitizing the thousands of comics that have not been scanned would be a daunting task. It would be time-consuming and expensive. Some of the books – such as the aforementioned He-Man crossover – would run into rights issues that prevent them from being reprinted or added to the app. Others may cause some sort of confusion in terms of royalty payments to the creators involved. And a few – a scant few, but a few – books have been deliberately left out because one of the creators involved would later go on to infamy for reasons entirely unrelated to their comic book career. (If you don’t know what I mean, look up who originally wrote the 1990 Green Lantern title and Justice League Europe and you’ll quickly discover why those books are mostly off the DC website and out of print.)

And of course, DC Comics is a business, and it’s not likely that they will undertake all of these endeavors unless they see a profit in it. What would the profit be, then, in having employees spend thousands of hours scanning in and remastering the thousands of comics that are currently AWOL? Would they be able to sell enough collected editions to justify it? Would it draw in a mountain of new subscribers to the app? The honest truth is, even if it WERE as simple as hitting a switch that allowed DC to say “Every Superman comic ever is now on the DC Universe Infinite app!” it probably wouldn’t generate enough new users to fully justify the cost.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t worth doing.

DC Comics is a business, sure, but comic books are an art form, and art should be preserved. And increasingly, in this modern age, digital preservation for older comics, books, movies, music recordings, and other works of art is proving to be the best way to make sure that it is available to future generations. Public domain helps with this. Once a work is available to the public, there are a lot of people who have a vested interest in seeing that it is preserved. The first Action Comics issues – and by extension, the first appearances of Superman – will enter the public domain in 2034. Every year after that, a new batch will be added to that list. If DC doesn’t do it themselves, eventually somebody else will make these classic books available. There’s a comfort to that, but it also begs the question of whether that’s what DC really wants. Is it actually in their best interest to keep these things buried until everybody ELSE can get their hands on them and put them out there for the world?

I’m not speaking objectively, obviously. I want very much for all these missing works to be available there for me to read here and now, although I’m willing to wait for DC to do it right…provided they’re actually doing it. In the earlier years of the app, DC had a relatively regular schedule of adding older comics to the library, but that has largely dried up. Every Wednesday DC adds the most recent NEW comics to the app, but the older back catalogue hasn’t had a substantial update in a very long time. It’s a shame.

And it’s time DC did something about it.

Geek Punditry #164: Archie Gets Small — And That Ain’t a Bad Thing

February 20, 2026February 20, 2026 blakemp Geek Punditry Archie, Archie Comics, Compact Comics, DC Comics, Jughead, Oni Press

Time for an update on a couple of topics that we’ve talked about here in Geek Punditry before – both of which coincidentally have collided in recent weeks. Last August (in GP #138: Riverdale in Crisis) I wrote about how Archie Comics was changing its long-running digest program, and how that was just one of the many ways that the old stalwart publisher looked like it was in trouble. At the time, I postulated that one of the ways that Archie could possibly right the ship would be to partner up with another publisher to pull out of their dilemma. And because the laws of physics are universal and immutable, it turns out I was right.

In December, Archie announced a new partnership with Oni Press (publisher of such things as Rick and Morty and Adventure Time, among many other fine comics). Although it appears as though Archie is still publishing their own digests and one-shots, which is almost all they’ve done the last few years, Oni is going to release three new ongoing Archie series later this year: a new volume of Archie, a new Sabrina series, and a continuation of Archie’s popular horror line of titles with Archie in Hell. I’m back and forth on these. I’m more of a fan of the classic, traditional Archie comics than I am of the various attempts to modernize them over the past two decades, even though some of them (like Mark Waid’s Archie run) were done very well. I am, however, intrigued by the fact that this new Archie is going to be written by W. Maxwell Prince, creator of Image Comics’ incredible horror title Ice Cream Man as well as my favorite miniseries of last year, the decidedly non-horror Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum.

But more pertinent today is the fact that Oni is also going to release new archive and paperback editions of classic Archie stories. Earlier this week, they announced what some of those will be, including a hardcover edition of Tom King’s Archie: The Decision, omnibus collections of Archie: The Married Life, and a “definitive” edition of the horror title Afterlife With Archie. I just have to say, it is audacious as heck to produce a “definitive” edition of a comic book series that was never finished because the writer got distracted by working on the Riverdale TV show.

“So is the ‘Deluxe Edition’ going to have an ending?”
“HAHAHAHAHA! No.”

But that’s not all! Oni also announced three new collections of the “New Riverdale” comics from about a decade ago, reprinting the Archie, Sabrina, and Jughead titles from that era. And these New Riverdale collections will all be in their nifty and acclaimed Compact Comics format!

Hold on a second… “Compact Comics.” That sounds familiar.

Oh yeah! It’s familiar because DC Comics launched that format back in 2024. DC’s Compact Comics are a format just slightly larger than a mass market paperback book. The series was introduced in an attempt to grab readers who otherwise might not be in a comic shop or want to carry around a full-size graphic novel. (I talked about it in GP #119: It’s the Little Things, and I suggested future titles DC could give the Compact Comics treatment in GP #124: Compact These!) DC was the first comic publisher – in the modern era, anyway – to make a major push in this digest sized-market, and with books collecting anywhere from a single 120-page graphic novel to over 400 pages of a series for only $9.99, the line has become a smash hit. By the end of this year, DC will have 37 different titles available, ranging from perennial classics like Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Kingdom Come to newer acclaimed series like Far Sector and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (The latter, coincidentally, happens to be the basis for this summer’s Supergirl movie. Funny how that works out, isn’t it?)

Now it’s true that success in any field of entertainment, comic books included, will inevitably inspire imitators, so once DC’s Compact Comics made a splash it was only a matter of time before other companies got into the game. Marvel joined the fray with their “Premiere Collection,” books that are slightly larger than DC’s and at a slightly higher price point ($14.99 instead of $9.99). Boom! Studios will also join in next month with the first “Compact Edition” of their popular Mighty Morphin Power Rangers series, also at $14.99. Oni, however, is even bolder than these two. Their Compact Comics line not only copies DC’s name, price point, and publishing dimensions, but even the trade dress is, save for the color scheme, almost identical to DC’s. Looking at an Oni Compact Comic and a DC Compact Comic, someone who doesn’t know anything about the respective companies could easily be forgiven for thinking they were released by the same publisher.

“Can I copy your homework?”
“Fine, but change it a little so the teacher doesn’t notice.”

Now don’t get me wrong, I really don’t object to any of this. I love the Compact Comics format and, as I’ve said before, I would be perfectly happy if this became the default collected format for most comic books. It’s more appealing to the casual reader, and provides an easier way to break into markets outside of the realm of die-hard fans, like drugstore bookshelves or airport shops. And as much as I dislike movie tie-in covers, DC could be forgiven if they were to release a print of the Woman of Tomorrow book with a photo of Milly Alcock on the cover and a sticker that says something like “the graphic novel that inspired the DC Studios movie!” Hardcovers, archive editions, and “deluxe” editions in the larger format are fine, of course, but if all you want is to read the story, you can’t beat this style. I am just amused by how flagrantly Oni ran with DC’s success.

As for the future of Archie – I’m very glad that they’ve found a partner to help them stay alive. And I hope that this first wave of books is enough of a success to justify future waves. As I said, the “New Riverdale” stuff isn’t really my bag, but in the future I would love to see more books in the Compact Comics format – classic Archie, of course, would be the bee’s knees. But I would also like to see some of the less traditional stuff, like Archie’s Red Circle heroes, the Mighty Crusaders – even the Impact Comics versions of those characters that were published (coincidentally) by DC back in the 90s but haven’t been seen since.

Archie’s back library is vast and varied, even though the tales of the gang from Riverdale are their bread and butter. Having them in a good, readable, sharable format is a great thing. Here’s hoping this first wave is a huge hit so that we can all get more.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. He’s waiting for the Compact Comics version of Jughead’s Diner. Go ahead, Google it. It’s a thing.

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