I’m writing this on Christmas morning, sitting amongst piles of wrapping paper and the mountain of Hot Wheels that Santa Claus brought Eddie, The Muppet Christmas Carol on TV because it’s not time for football yet. But it’s also the first day of the final chapter. After 51 weeks in which I have watched, read, or listened to at least one piece of Superman-related media every single day, no matter what life had in store for me, I’ve only got seven days left to reach the finish line.
I’m going to think of this week as “the best of the rest.” I’m going to try to read and watch some of my favorite or some of the most significant stories remaining on the gargantuan list I started the year with. And make no mistake, that list is still pretty big. I haven’t gotten close to scratching off all of it. So perhaps, just perhaps, when I reach New Year’s Day, my journey with Superman won’t be ending, but merely evolving.
But time for that later. Let’s get started.
And as always, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman Archive!
Thur., Dec. 25
Comics: Superman Smashes the Klan #1-3, DC Go! Holiday Special #32
Notes: A few weeks ago I listened to the radio serial “Superman Versus the Clan of the Fiery Cross.” In 2019, writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Gurihiru loosely adapted that storyline into a three-issue miniseries, Superman Smashes the Klan, that kept the skeleton of the original story, but added some new elements that really made for one of those evergreen graphic novels that will be read for a very long time.
Set in the days after World War II, the story kicks off with a Golden Age-style Superman polishing off a leftover Nazi calling himself Atom Man. The fight is tougher than it should be, as Atom Man is powered by a glowing green crystal that Superman has encountered before, that makes him weak and sick. We soon discover that this is a very young Superman who does not yet know the truth of his alien origins. Something is nagging at him, and he sees an odd vision of himself in the mirror looking like a creature from outer space. Meanwhile the Lee family – Dr. Lee, his wife, and their children Tommy and Roberta – is moving from the Chinatown section of Metropolis to the city proper because Dr. Lee is starting a new job as Chief Bacteriologist of the Metropolis Health Department. Their new neighbor, Jimmy Olsen, stops by to introduce himself and invite them to the Unity House Community Center baseball practice.
The story follows the plot of the radio show fairly well, but it adds in elements that weren’t present on the air. Superman learns in the course of this story that he’s an alien himself, giving an added dimension to the story of the Lees and their struggle to find acceptance in Metropolis. We’ve also got an original character, Tommy’s sister Roberta, who wasn’t in the original story but takes on a large part of the narrative. As the daughter of a Bacteriologist, Roberta is a bit of a germophobe, which only serves to enhance her existing awkward nature, making it much more difficult for her to acclimate to her new home. I like this angle a lot. Having Tommy fit in as a typical all-American boy worked well for the radio show. You didn’t even know that he WAS Chinese for the first few episodes, making the angle of the Klan come across as a surprise to the listener. But in a comic book, there’s no way to make that kind of thing a surprise. While Tommy is still that kid who everyone loves and blends in with the Unity House baseball team easily, Roberta gives us a character to depict the alienation that someone – especially a kid – can feel in this sort of situation. The idea in the original was just to point out how foolish the likes of the Klan were, and that’s all to the good, but Gene Luen Yang (himself a creator of Asian descent) brings a whole new dimension to the story by emphasizing the struggle of an immigrant family through Roberta’s perspective. Not to make it sound like she’s some damsel in distress, mind you. Roberta is Superman’s deuteragonist in this story. She overcomes her anxiety to help her brother, realizing very quickly that Chuck Riggs is involved with the Klan and using her knowledge to race to Tommy’s rescue. She also inspires Chuck’s change of heart much earlier than happens in the radio serial.
Tommy, on the other hand, perhaps tries a little TOO hard to fit in, leaning on his ethnicity in ways he didn’t in the original radio story. Once he becomes part of the Unity House baseball team he keeps dropping jokes about being Chinese (“Confucius says” references, for example), using what makes him different to enhance his popularity. Although he’s a good-natured kid, his insistence on drawing attention to being Chinese bothers his sister almost as much as the people who insult them.
Superman himself has yet another perspective on the immigrant experience. He knows he was adopted, and we see flashbacks of Jonathan showing him a strange device that was in the ship that brought him to Smallville, but it spoke a language they were never able to translate. He’s even gone so far as to mentally suppress some of his more fanciful powers, making for a nice explanation for why he goes from “leaping tall buildings” to outright flight.
Another addition to the story is the Atom Man subplot. After Superman captures Atom Man in the beginning, we see periodically that he’s not in police custody, but being studied by the Metropolis Health Department, a study that Dr. Lee clearly has misgivings about. Lois Lane – who had almost no presence in the original radio story – takes the lead on this one, cracking open the story about the “Health Department” which turns out to be a private enterprise conducting dubious research. Naturally, this turns out to dovetail with the story of the Klan in a rather unexpected way. This is one point I’m a little unsure about. Making the Klan a more high-tech organization, with “loftier” ideals than the simple bigotry of the original works for this version of the story, to be certain, but I’m not sure if it undermines the original point at all. Perhaps smarter people than I can answer that one.
The is a fantastic story – a bold, proud tale that does far more than simply adapt the original radio drama. Indeed, it ties the story of Tommy and Roberta Lee in with the core concept of Superman, making who they are as integral to the series as who he is. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.
Fri., Dec. 26
TV Episodes: Superman and Lois Season 4, Episodes 6-10
Notes: With my wife working and my son having a mountain of toys to play with and college football to watch, I decided that the day after Christmas was the time to finally finish the last season of Superman and Lois. I’m not going to to a play-by-play on these last five episodes, so let’s assume that you’ve watched these episodes that I’m watching for the first time, and I’m going to discuss my feelings about them as I watch.
In episode 6, we see Lex trying to tighten his grip on Smallville by buying up property and bribing the citizens, but they hold firm and resist – mostly because Clark wants them to do so. It’s a wonderful series of scenes in which Clark realizes something that viewers figured out several episodes ago: after seeing Lois and the boys run to Superman’s side after he was killed by Doomsday, the entire town of Smallville now knows that he’s really Superman. And best of all, every single one of them is willing to keep the secret and cover his back. It’s a great story beat, and actually one I’ve thought about several times over the years. Considering everything that he did for the town of Smallville, especially in those continuities where he had a career as Superboy, it would be utterly absurd if there weren’t a lot of people who deduced the truth. The fact that they keep the secret speaks to an inherent goodness in them, a loyalty to the hero who has saved them time and again. Plus, when we see him trying desperately to put the cat back in the bag, convincing people that he’s NOT Superman, it’s hilarious.
Of course, there’s gotta be some drama, and the fact of his identity leaking out predictably causes some problems – kids who are resentful of Jonathan and Jordan, an antagonist from an earlier season that comes back and causes trouble. The scene where someone takes a shot at him in a diner, forcing him to reveal himself, is just glorious, and it leads to the secret being revealed to the world. When that happened in the comics I hated it, because I knew this was a genie that had to go back in the bottle and we’d seen it before. But here, when it happens on a TV series that only has three episodes left, it’s an opportunity to tell a story that hasn’t been told with Superman before, and the creators nailed it.
Beyond that, of course, another big arc in this season is the fact that Clark now has Sam Lane’s heart, and it’s reducing his powers, causing him to age. At the same time, Luthor is planning his final revenge with the combination of a new super-suit (stolen from John Henry and beefed up with Kryptonite) and the return of his Doomsday monster. It all collides in the final episode, “It Went By So Fast,” a title which I can only assume was a meta way for the writers to indicate the fact that they didn’t really want the show to end. I get it, too – this last half-season, lower on the soap opera dramatics and higher on the Superman stuff, was really fantastic, and it’s leaving me wanting more.
They’ve done the Doomsday battle before in live action – in Smallville, in Batman V. Superman, and even before in this series…This is probably the best one I’ve ever seen. With Clark on the ropes, seeing Jonathan and Jordan step up to fight hits me in that parenting place that seems to dominate how I interpret stories these days. John Henry and Lana joining the fight as well shows how big Superman has become, how this world is rising up to meet him. He may have lost a step thanks to his heart transplant, but he’s also inspired another generation of heroes, meaning he doesn’t have to do it alone.
And that’s just act ONE of the finale.
While Clark is chucking Doomsday into the sun, back on Earth Lex attacks the twins and Lois goes after him directly. As she shouts at him to stop attacking everyone around her when she’s the one he really wants, she yells the most Lois Lane line I’ve ever heard: “I am not afraid of you, but you’ve always been TERRIFIED of me,” then nails his warsuit with a mine. It’s not enough to stop him, but it slows him down enough for Clark to make it back to Earth and really start the final battle. It’s an epic, airborne spectacle that ends, inevitably, with Luthor taken down.
And now we’re only HALFWAY through the episode.
Next we get a time skip to about year later with Lana’s wedding to John Henry Irons (an event that would happen a few months later in the comics as well). Kyle and Chrissy are expecting a second child, and Kyle and Lana have reconciled into what appears to be a sincere friendship. Jordan and Sarah, similarly, seem to have finally buried the hatchet, and John Henry spends a tender moment with Natalie as Lois gets an important text about Lex’s future behind bars.
In the final act, we get a voiceover from Clark about how Sam’s heart allowed him to live another 32 years, and how he wanted to leave behind a legacy, making the world a better place. Clark, along with the twins, John Henry, Natasha, even Bruno Mannheim, begin to make real change. Using the influence of Superman and Lois Lane, they start a foundation that accomplishes good throughout the world. The twins each marry and have kids of their own, and we get a nice scene of Grandma and Grandpa Lois and Clark (in admittedly dubious aging makeup). But eventually, Lois’s cancer returns, and Clark is left alone. He lasts for several more years before Sam Lane’s heart that had beat in his chest for so long finally gives out, passing away quietly with his sons next to him.
Clark sits up, young again, seeing his own body behind him. He embraces his sons – young again – and sees his grandchildren. He finds Luthor, of all people, sitting at his kitchen table, and offers him forgiveness…says goodbye to his friends one at a time, and in the end he sees a vision of Lois, waiting, to take him into the light.
Here’s the thing: the story of Superman doesn’t end. It just – it doesn’t. Five years from now, ten years, a hundred years from now, there will and should be new stories of Superman being told.
But if Superman DID end…this is the right way to do it. An ending that is happy in the life he and Lois get to lead, despite the fact that this life – like all those of mortals – must end. And the fact that a Superman left behind a better world than he arrived on in that spacecraft from Krypton. In the comic books, they can’t really do a story in which Superman changes the entire world this way, because they still need something to tell stories about next month and next year. But here, with a television series coming to an end and, with it, closing off the stories of that universe, they have the freedom to show what Superman is REALLY capable of. This season has been a buildup, showing how Superman inspires those around him – not only his own children or friends, but the people of Smallville who were willing to stand up for him, and the people of a world that grows to do the same. The ending of this episode is a tearjerker, but it’s left with a beautiful message of hope that is entirely appropriate for Superman.
But it’s not only hope. Superman is about hope, yes. But the thesis of this series is true as well: “[Love is] the thing that makes life worth living.” It’s what makes the story of Lois and Clark so powerful, in all its many iterations. A man from another world, a woman who represents the best of ours, and how they come together…this is a story worth telling.
Comics: DC Go! Holiday Special #41
Sat. Dec. 27
Comics: DC Go! Holiday Special #43 (Cameo), Detective Comics #1103, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #5, Superman Unlimited #8, Action Comics #1093, Superman Vol. 6 #33, Absolute Superman #14, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #46, Supergirl Vol. 8 #8, Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2 #14, Justice League Red #4 (Power Girl), Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #5
Notes: For the final time (this year), I’m going to do a roundup of recent Superman-related comics, starting – oddly enough – with Detective Comics #1103. One of the first comics I read this year, back in the first week of January, was an issue of Tom Taylor’s Detective that showed Superman helping Bruce through an existential crisis. This actually serves as a nice bookend, with Bruce teaming up with Lois to help with an investigation. Superman appears briefly, but most of the issue is concerned with Lois showing off how dang capable she is, and how much respect Bruce has for her. It’s the middle of an ongoing storyline, so it’s probably not something most people would read on its own, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s a great Lois guest appearance.
The final issue of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum wraps up W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo’s celebration of the Man of Steel in dynamite fashion. Lex Luthor has engineered a new Kryptonite Man, powered by the entire spectrum of the remnants of Superman’s home, and the battle between the two of them sends Superman on a spiral that leaves him questioning the very nature of the universe itself. Prince’s story leans heavily on metafiction, concentrating on Superman as a story and weaponizing that part of the character’s nature. The finale is entirely unexpected, but in its own way, as sincere a love letter to Superman as the likes of All Star Superman was – in fact, Prince and Morazzo lean heavily on Morrison and Quitely’s story here, and they do so in a way that’s both loving and triumphant. This is hands-down the miniseries of the year.
Superman Unlimited #8 gives us another of the one-off stories that this series has been doing so well. The influx of Kryptonite on Earth has changed a lot of things, including energy sources, and an experimental space flight is planning to make faster-than-light travel a commercial enterprise on Earth. With Lois Lane as a passenger on the maiden voyage, the Justice League assigns Guy Gardner to escort the flight in case something should happen. And wouldn’t you know it? Something happens. I have no doubt that Guy’s appearance in this issue is at least partially due to his guest-starring role in this summer’s big movie, but at the same time, it’s done exceptionally well. Guy is such a fun character – a rude, insufferable boor that is in every way diametrically the opposite of Superman…except for the fact that they’re both true heroes at heart. Seeing them together, both clashing and cooperating, pretty much always makes for a good time, and this issue is no exception.
Action Comics #1093 is another one-off story, this time Mark Waid telling a Superboy tale that shows an event that’s fundamental to Superman’s moral core. Dozens of farmers throughout Smallville are given notices of foreclosure on their farms at the same time. The new owner of the bank assures them that if there’s an “error” they’ll figure it out, but the time it would take to do so would ruin every farm in Smallville. When Superboy contemplates using his power to “find” the money to save the town, it becomes a battle of wills between Clark and his parents, who think that using his powers for personal gain – even to save the town – isn’t the way to go. I’m sure that everyone who’s ever read a Superman comic has fantasized about having the power to hunt down undiscovered gold or some other get rich quick scheme, and Waid does a good job with the Kents of painting a picture of why such a thing should be above a Superman. I still have to confess that I’d probably go dig up the gold if I had Superboy’s powers, but in my defense, nobody has ever called me Earth’s greatest hero.
DC KO’s “All Fight Month” continues with Superman #33, with the unlikely battle between Lex Luthor and Etrigan the Demon. Throughout the month I’ve been impressed at just how well these battles have transcended being mere slugfests. Oh, there’s fightin’ a-plenty, but each of them has gone beyond that to telling a story that digs into the heart of the characters involved. We see who they are, why they do what they do, and what makes them worthy of the Omega Heart, even if it’s only in their own mind. Joshua Williamson taps into the blackness in Lex’s heart and simultaneously shines a light on him. By the end of the issue, you almost (aaaaalmost) want to root for him in his fight with the Demon, because damned if he doesn’t convince you that he’s earned the win. We also continue the storyline with Superboy-Prime and Lois, whose Superwoman powers have returned, in the Fortress of Solitude. Recent announcements about the state of the Superman titles after KO ends have made these pages a bit more relevant than we’d realized, and although I hate the fact that they keep spoiling things in the solicits, I’m very curious to see what’s coming next to this title.
Absolute Superman #14 ends the current storyline with an epic battle between Kal-El and Ra’s Al Ghul for the heart of Smallville. As the two of them go at it, we see Lois facing off against the Peacemakers and Sol’s internal battle with Brainiac, all of which come to an amazing crescendo in this issue. Without going into a blow-by-blow, the ending of this one is probably the most hopeful thing I’ve seen yet in the Absolute Universe as a whole, although as suits this world tainted by Darkseid’s energy, the victory is bittersweet and not without a price. In many ways, it clears the table for this series, and it will be very interesting to see where the story goes from here.
World’s Finest #46 continues the story of Lex Luthor and the Joker, fused into a single being and armed with the power of a device that gives them the sum total of all knowledge in the human race. Superman and Batman, naturally, have to step up and stop them, this time getting a little extra help from Green Lantern to juice them up in a way he’s done once before. The issue ends on a cliffhanger, and it’s a pretty good one, except for the fact that it suffers a bit from Prequelitis. Admittedly, even in the present day what happens at the end would likely be wiped out by the next issue, but when you’re dealing with a series set in the past, there’s really zero tension with the “shocking” ending. It’s still a great, fun story, though.
I’m going to end my tour of new comics with Supergirl #8. It’s Christmas in Midvale, but Supergirl isn’t feeling merry. The holidays, with their emphasis on family, always make her remember everything she lost in the destruction of Argo City. Still, the Danvers and Lesla-Lar do their best to cheer her up, even as they get a strange visitor from the past that Supergirl has neglected for far too long. Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl is probably my favorite new comic book title of the year, but this issue is a little atypical. While the series is usually very bright and uplifting, this issue is somewhat darker and more bittersweet, particularly for a Christmas story. That said, it works really well. Sophie takes Kara’s pain and shapes it into a valuable lesson for Lesla-Lar, whose journey to becoming a superhero is an important component of this title. The story is told well and propels the characters forward, while still giving us a little Christmas cheer in the process.
This is most likely the last I’ll talk about newly-released comics in the Year of Superman, and it’s bittersweet for me too. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to taking a break on January 1st, but at the same time, I’ve enjoyed pontificating about these new issues as they come out. It’s one of the main reasons I’m thinking about how to continue this blog into the new year.
Yeah, I’m teasing that again. Sue me.
Sun. Dec. 28
Comics: Superman: Space Age #1-3
Notes: Continuing the theme of “Endings,” today I’ve decided to revisit the three-issue Space Age miniseries by Mark Russell and Michael Allred from 2022. Published as a Black Label series, like many of them, it really feels more like an Elseworlds. It’s set in a universe where Superman rises to prominence in the 1960s, with a Clark Kent that’s spurred to go out and find ways to save the world following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Before he puts on his costume for the first time, though, he encounters a strange man called the Pariah, who warns him that the world will end in approximately twenty years. Pariah claims to have accidentally unleashed a great evil called the Anti-Monitor, an ancient being whose goal is to bring order to the Multiverse by destroying every positive-matter universe until only his own Antimatter universe remains. He tries to dismiss the Pariah as one of the “kranks” he’s assigned to cover as a Daily Planet cub reporter, but something about him sticks with Clark and he’s unable to shake it. On the other hand, he’s sometimes skeptical that the world will even last 20 years, as the arms race is intensifying and made worse by a false flag attack on Coast City orchestrated by Lex Luthor. The cataclysm turns out to bring heroes out of the woodwork: Batman captures Luthor, Abin Sur passes his ring on to Hal Jordan, Themiscyra sends Diana to the UN as an ambassador, and Superman makes his true debut disposing of American missiles before they can annihilate the Soviet Union. Book one ends with these four coming together at a new Hall of Justice.
In book two, we jump ahead to the 70s, where Superman is well-established, and the world is at peace following a nuclear disarmament treaty. But an interview with Lois leaves him questioning whether he’s doing all he can, and a similar disagreement drives a wedge in the Justice League. It’s a bad time for it too, as Green Lantern warns of the impending approach of a cosmic threat called Brainiac and, at the same time, a Superman from an alternate universe where all human life has been rendered extinct. It’s not all bad news, though – Clark is promoted to an editor’s desk at the Planet, Lois breaks Watergate, the two of them fall in love and she confesses that she knows he’s Superman just before he tells her. They even have time to get married and have a son before Brainiac arrives on Earth. But he’s not there to destroy the world, only to take its greatest resource before the Anti-Monitor can destroy it himself, hoping to use that resource in his battle against the Multiversal destroyer. That resource, as it turns out, is Kal-El of Krypton. The League drives Brainiac off the planet, but at the cost of Green Lantern’s life.
The final book in the trilogy takes us into the 80s where Clark finds Pariah again, who is impressed by his years of heroism, but still sees the end as inevitable. With less than two years before the Anti-Monitor arrives, the Brainiacs again ask Superman to join their fight, and this time, he considers it – but when a heart attack fells Johnathan Kent, he changes path, dedicating himself to saving the human race by eradicating disease by scanning their DNA. It turns out to be a ploy to record their genetic code. When the Anti-Monitor destroys the world, Superman makes for the Brainiacs’ portal, but instead of going into it he pushes through a crystal encoded with the DNA of every human he could collect, sending them to the empty world populated by the other Superman. He returns to his family just before the end, where on the other world the other Superman restores the human race on a new home.
In terms of “ending stories,” I kind of have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it’s excellently done. The writing and storytelling are top-notch and the characters, even in the Elseworlds setting, still feel mostly true to the heroes we know and love. And I’ll pretty much always be on-board for artwork by Mike Allred, whose unique style is one of my favorites of all time. On the other hand, there’s an impending sense of doom that spreads across the entire thing. There are other dark “final” Superman stories, like Kingdom Come or Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, but in both those cases we journey through the darkness with Superman and ultimately end in a place of hope. This one has a sense of nihilism that doesn’t quite befit the character. Even the ending, where the other Superman brings back humanity (starting, naturally, with Lois Lane), leaves us with the feeling that it’s only buying time. After all, the Anti-Monitor is still out there, the final battle has yet to be fought, let alone won.
The series raises some interesting questions as the different Leaguers look on things with different perspectives. Green Arrow views the world through the perspective of the “Trolley Problem,” whereas Batman’s point of view is that he just saves whoever he can, knowing he can’t save everyone. Superman, as fits the character, refuses to accept that, and is determined to find a way to save everyone even if doing so seems impossible. It’s a noble point of view that works in the regular DCU, but Russell shines a light on how unrealistic that perspective actually is. If I was looking for something realistic, though, I don’t think I’d be reading Superman in the first place. Superman is an ideal, and ideals don’t have to be realistic. They’re something to strive for, even if you know they can never really fall into your grasp, and that’s how Superman works best.
So is Space Age a good story? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt.
I don’t think it will ever be one of my favorites, though.
Mon., Dec. 29
Comics: DC Go! Holiday Special #47 (Supergirl), Doomsday Clock #1-12
Notes: This is a controversial book, DC’s sequel to Watchmen which brings those characters into conflict with the heroes of the DC Universe, but I’m including it here for an important reason. In the end, this is very much a story about Superman. The first issue shows us the state of the world – since Ozymandias’s scheme was revealed by Rorschach’s journal, he has become the most wanted fugitive on the planet and the world has crept closer and closer to the very nuclear annihilation he was hoping to avoid. A new Rorschach has arisen, this time working with Ozymandias, who has a tumor growing in his skull. The two of them hope to find the only person in their universe with the power to change anything – Dr. Manhattan. Meanwhile, in another universe, Clark Kent wakes up from a nightmare, a horrible vision of the car crash that killed Jonathan and Martha Kent when he was only a teenager. It’s the first nightmare he’s ever had.
Ozymandias and Rorschach ally themselves with a pair of criminals – Marionette and Mime – who are seeking their missing son. They trace Dr. Manhattan to the DC Universe, where people are in upheaval following the popularization of the “Supermen Theory,” which posits the idea that the reason so many of Earth’s metahumans are American is because they have been deliberately created by the government since Superman’s first appearance. Faith in superheroes is eroding, with the only one who still has the public trust being Superman himself.
Over the course of these twelve issues Geoff Johns and Gary Frank delve into the nature of the DC Universe itself, starting with the notion (from DC Rebirth) that it was Dr. Manhattan who was responsible for the New 52 reboot in the first place. Turns out, it’s more complicated than that. Manhattan did toy with the fabric of the universe, but the reason it was possible for him to do so is because the “Prime” DC Universe – the one that’s called Earth-0 these days – isn’t actually part of the multiverse as we know it. Manhattan calls it the “Metaverse” (take that, Mark Zuckerberg) because it’s a core reality that the others are all reflective of. In the Metaverse, Superman made his first appearance in 1938 and inspired the heroes of the Justice Society. Then reality snapped, moving Superman’s appearance to 1956. The JSA still existed, but now Clark Kent had an early career as Superboy, inspired BY the JSA, and it was that Superboy that in turn inspired the Legion of Super-Heroes 1000 years in the future. Another snap popped Superman’s first appearance to 1986, and–
–are you seeing the pattern here?
The idea is this: Superman is the center of the Metaverse. As time goes forward, his existence is the constant, and as such, the universe is in a constant state of change. But every time the universe shifts, the previous iteration is preserved in a different world in the Multiverse. The original Golden Age Superman’s world is Earth-2. Another was preserved as Earth-1985. The version Manhattan created is Earth-52, and so forth. Eventually, Superman’s timeline will catch up with the Legion a millennium in the future, and when that happens, the ideals of Superman will become universal, and create a lasting peace.
Man, that’s a nice thought, isn’t it?
This book – much like the original Watchmen – suffered from a lot of delays before it could be finished, and many of the larger concepts have been ignored since then. I don’t think the concept of the Metaverse has been explored since this book, for instance, and by its very nature it makes sense that they wouldn’t bring it up all that often. On the other hand, this book also established that Martin Stein was part of a government conspiracy to create superheroes, and Firestorm was the result of that, something that I’m almost positive has not come up again. But that’s the beauty of this book – it provides a framework that can be used to explain away virtually any discrepancy or change in continuity. That thing you remember that the heroes didn’t? It happened in a previous iteration of the Metaverse, and it’s still canon out there in the Multiverse…somewhere.
If you’re the kind of person who considers Watchmen sacrosanct, I can understand why you wouldn’t like this book. It does, in a way, undermine the conclusion of that story by answering the intentionally vague question of what would become of Rorschach’s journals, and (perhaps even more blasphemous) it allows for that world to have a happy ending. But as good as Watchmen is, I have no objection to the notion of returning to that universe. The HBO miniseries did it in excellent fashion. I like this one too, if for no other reason than because it confirms something very important: Superman is the most important hero in the entire universe.
Shoot, guys. I could have told you that.
Tues. Dec. 30
Graphic Novel: It’s a Bird
Notes: As with Doomsday Clock yesterday, I want to spend these last few days of the year with stories about Superman and about what he means. That quest led me back to It’s a Bird, the unique 2004 Vertigo graphic novel by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. It’s perhaps the most unusual Superman story of them all in that Superman isn’t actually in it.
The story, which is semi-autobiographical, starts with five-year-old Steve waiting in a hospital as his grandmother languishes. To placate him and his brother, their father brings them a Superman comic…after which, Steve swiftly rejects comics, as they remind him too much of the hospital, making it all the more ironic that he would grow up to write them. When an adult Steve is offered the job of writing Superman by his editor, he rejects it, unable to find the character relatable.
The story is mostly about Steve trying to find his way into the Superman, and along the way he takes some interesting detours. His father goes missing, and fears of the disease that took his grandmother come back. Meanwhile, everyone he talks to about getting offered Superman is ecstatic for him and dumbfounded that he doesn’t want the job. These two threads are intercut with pages of Steve’s own musings on Superman, on who the character is and what he means – or at least, what he’s supposed to mean – as he tries to find something about the character that he can make believable in the real world.
The interlacing storylines, of course, come together in the end, because such things always happen in fiction even if they almost never do in real life. His father’s disappearance turns out to be related to the death of Steve’s grandmother all those years ago, and in confronting his father and the disease that haunts his family, Steve starts to find a way in to Superman.
It’s a good story, a powerful one, but it’s one whose inherent premise is one I somewhat disagree with. Steve’s quest is to find a way to make Superman “real.” I don’t think that’s necessary. Superman isn’t part of our real world any more than Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny or the food replicators on Star Trek. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t important, though, or that there’s nothing to be learned from them. In a lot of ways, I think the very fact of Superman’s fanciful nature is perhaps the most important thing about him.
Just as the story is very atypical for a Superman comic (such as it is), so is Teddy Kristiansen’s artwork. Kristiansen’s style is an odd halfway point between sketches and realism, in some ways making me think of Art Spiegleman…which is appropriate enough, as this book echoes Maus in various ways. Both stories are autobiographical, and with a frame narrative about the author struggling to relate to their fathers. In Maus, of course, the ghost that hangs between Art and his father is the spectre of the holocaust, while in this graphic novel it’s the shadow of the Huntington’s Disease that follows Steve’s family.
The book, of course, is specifically described as “semi-autobiographical.” Not really knowing much about Seagle himself, I wouldn’t presume to declare which parts are true and which ones aren’t, but regardless of any plot elements I tend to believe that all of the emotion in this book is genuine. The concerns, the fears, the anxieties that “Steve” expresses are almost certainly part of Seagle’s own psyche. Writers tend to do that, after all.
This is the Superman book for people who don’t understand Superman. I don’t know if, in the end, it will actually help them figure the character out – at least, not the way that I understand him – but it will at the very least help them find a path through someone else asking the same questions, and that’s a journey very much worth reading.
Comics: Harley Quinn X Elvira #3 (Power Girl guest appearance), Justice League Red #5 (Team Member Power Girl), Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #6 (Team Member)
Wed. Dec. 31
Comics: Superman #247, Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #29
Notes: Well glory be, here it is. 365 days later, and the journey I started back on January 1 with Action Comics #1 is about to end…or at least, to evolve. I’ll talk more about that (say it with me) later, but for now, it’s time for the final Superman reads of the year. I thought hard about what to read today. In the early part of the year I’d planned to end it with a classic “last” Superman story, like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? or Kingdom Come, but I decided to add those when I did the week of comics that influenced James Gunn’s Superman. So how else to end it? I ultimately decided to go with two comic books about what Superman is, because that’s where this entire journey has led me anyway.
First is Superman #247, the Elliot S! Maggin/Curt Swan classic “Must There Be a Superman?” Like many of the stories I’ve read this year, I encountered this one for the first time when it was published in DC’s classic Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told collection. Let’s talk about why it qualifies.
The story begins with Superman taking on a special task for the Guardians of the Universe – a pod full of deadly spores on a path to Earth, and as the spores are yellow the Green Lanterns are helpless to stop it. Superman creates an artificial planet to draw the spores away safely, but is injured in the process, rescued by Green Lantern Katma Tui and brought back to Oa to heal. As Superman is healing, the Guardians take advantage of his unconscious state to plant a notion in his mind that his influence on Earth may be impeding human progress. (If this had been the “Year of Green Lantern,” you would have found me discussing a LOT of stories that drive home an important point: the Guardians are pompous assholes.) When Superman wakes up, the Guardians give him a tour of Oa, continually dropping comments about him contributing to a “Cultural Lag” on Earth, and sending him home with the notion that if he steps back, Earth will be better off.
As he returns to Earth, he stumbles on a child migrant worker being abused by his employer. Rescuing him, the child – Manuel – brings Superman back to his community where the residents begin begging him to help solve all their problems, such as fixing their crumbling houses. Superman refuses, saying that they need to know how to care for themselves, but an earthquake strikes just seconds later, destroying their homes. Superman blunts the quake and rebuilds their houses, but tries to convince them that they need to know how to care for themselves because no one – even Superman – can do anything. He returns to Metropolis only to get word of a cruise ship endangered by a waterspout, which he rushes off to save, even as the Guardians watch from afar.
Looking back at this story now, I feel like this was Maggin’s way of responding to people who asked why Superman didn’t just sweep in and fix all the problems in the world. After all, with his power, why couldn’t he just solve hunger, homelessness, war, famine, disease, and so forth? From a narrative standpoint, of course, the answer is obvious: if Superman were to do all these things, what stories would be left to tell? It would literally be the end of Superman, as a going storytelling concern. But what about in-universe? How do you explain it to a kid like Manuel, who’s getting beaten up by a man who basically controls his entire life? The answer is something that people who know Superman could have told you from the beginning: even with the best of intentions, having someone (like Superman) doing everything for them would hold them back, leave them unable to act or take care of themselves. It kind of reminds me of all those stupid ads begging me to use Google AI to write an email or a Facebook post as if I haven’t been perfectly capable of doing that for my entire life.
Superman is there to take care of the things that we can’t. As far as the things we CAN take care of…we shouldn’t expect him to do it all for us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take inspiration from him.
“Inspiration” is the theme of the final comic I’m going to read in this year of Superman, Jack Kirby’s Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #29. Kamandi, for the uninitiated, was a series about a post-apocalyptic world in which the human race is all but extinct, and the world is populated by anthropomorphized animals. In this issue Kamandi, one of the few remaining humans, finds the “Tablet of Revelation,” an ancient carving that prophesies the “return of the Mighty One,” a great warrior of the past. When the apes see Kamandi’s friend Ben Boxer, they believe him to be the returned “Mighty One.” One of the apes, Zuma, tries to engage him in combat, but the elder says that the Mighty One can only be revealed by demonstrating his powers against overwhelming odds. A catapult hurls claimants through the sky to prove that they can fly higher than the tallest building, an enormous boulder called the “Daily Planet” awaits the man who can move it, and so forth. Ben’s mutant powers convince some of the apes he’s the Mighty One, but a battle breaks out when they pledge to take him to his suit. In the fight, they come across a very familiar blue costume with a cape and a brilliant scarlet S-shield. Zuma tries to claim the costume, but perishes in battle as Kamandi defends the suit, saying “I know who owns it! I know that somewhere he’s still alive!” The suit is left, waiting until the true Mighty One returns.
This comic was released in 1975, some 30 years before the idea of the S-symbol standing for “hope” was put in place, but it’s hard not to think of it as you read this story. Kamandi’s faith that Superman is still out there is the sort of thing you’d expect, it feels like an appropriate place for the legend. The future of the DC Universe has been rewritten dozens of times, of course, with many of the various possibilities showing an immortal Superman, a legacy of heroes that lasts a millennia, or both. This feels like part of that, like the hero himself has left something behind with the promise that more is to come.
And that “promise of more to come” feels an appropriate place for me to stop.
Almost.
Movie: Superman (2025)
Notes: The first movie I watched this year was the original Christopher Reeve Superman from 1978. I’m going to end the year by revisiting the movie that inspired me to start this journey in the first place, James Gunn’s Superman. I’m not going to write it up again – Heavens knows you can find that on my original review. But I’m going to watch and enjoy.
One year later, and I have succeeded. I have watched, read, or listened to at least one thing starring or about Superman or a member of his family for an entire year. I’m actually quite stunned that I made it.
And I’ve still got so much to say.
But not yet. Come back Friday, friends, for my final thoughts on this year-long Odyssey, and my explanation of where I’m going from here.
Happy New Year.
Blake M. Petitis 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.
Blake M. Petit 