Eradicator

Year of Superman Week 11: The End of the Return

blakemp Year of Superman , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

This week we’ll reach the end of the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline (probably – I’m writing this on the afternoon of March 12 before I start reading any of them, so I suppose anything might happen). After that, I intend to touch upon some of the stories that follow and some of the ways that the Death and Return storyline were reflected in other media. Being such a fundamental part of the Superman mythology at this point, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone to see that it’s been revisited many times. We won’t get to them all, but there’s plenty coming up. 

Wed., March 12

Comics: Action Comics #690, Superman: The Man of Steel #25, Superman Vol. 2 #81, Adventures of Superman #504, Adventures of Superman Annual #5

“Eradication”? Get It? GET IT?

Notes: Let’s start with Action Comics #690. The Last Son of Krypton, close to death, returns to the Fortress of Solitude only to learn that his “power source” is gone – he’d been using the real Superman’s body to generate the energy he needed. The process has helped to resurrect him, though, and now Superman is on his way to Metropolis, charging across the ocean floor in a Kryptonian mech. The Kryptonian, meanwhile, sends what amounts to a deep fake video to the Justice League, blaming Coast City’s destruction on the Eradicator and sending the League and their most powerful allies on a wild goose chase into outer space to track him down. After all, it won’t be great for his plans if Earth’s most powerful heroes are still on Earth. 

Two things of note in this issue. First of all, the robots in the Fortress help repair the Eradicator’s damaged memory, revealing to him (and the reader) his true identity. It’s been a long time, but I’m pretty sure I figured this one out ahead of this issue. You see, at this time I voraciously re-read my favorite comics. I’d start with the Man of Steel miniseries, read every subsequent Superman comic in order (I had begun – but not completed – the process of filling in the gaps) until I reached the most recent, then go back and start from the beginning. So I’d read the Eradicator story maybe five or six times, it was pretty fresh in my memory, and Roger Stern dropped a LOT of clues (unlike Dan Jurgens, who was pretty good at holding the Cyborg’s true identity close to the vest). The other thing I want to point out concerns Superboy, captive of the Cyborg, struggling to get free and save Metropolis from being destroyed like Coast City. Up until this point, Superboy had been motivated largely by his thirst for fame and adoration. There were glimpses of the good core of Superman in him, but this is the point where it really starts to come out, when he REALLY starts to see the big picture and find himself willing to put himself on the line. It’s a good look for the Kid.

That’s a face only a Martha could love.

In Man of Steel #25 Superboy is still being held by the Cyborg in the enormous engine built over the ruins of Coast City, unable to figure out why his powers don’t work the way he expects them to. He manages to escape, rushing back to Metropolis just as Supergirl, Steel, Lex Luthor, and Lois all converge at the Metropolis airport, where the Kryptonian mech we’ve been following for a few issues now emerges from the ocean. After a brief fight, Lois holds the others back, recognizing the Kryptonian battlesuit. It cracks open and spills open its precious cargo: a black-clad Superman, ready to put his life on the line for Metropolis once again. There’s so much to love about this issue. We get Lois back, for one thing: after her creepy friend Jeb Friedman makes a move on her she has a moment of crisis and realizes she’s lost herself, then is determined to make her way to Coast City to blow the lid off the Cyborg. Superboy continues gaining more of an awareness of himself as well, and bringing all of our heroes (and Lex) together again leads up to a really inspiring last page. From here, it’s a roller coaster to the end of the story, and I’m there for it.

Lois: “Superman never wore black like some executioner.”
DC: But this will sell a LOT of action figures.
Lois: I withdraw my objection.

Superman #81 picks up right here, as the others face off against this newest guy wearing Superman’s face, with nobody sure what to make of him — especially since he has no powers. He’s saying the same thing as everyone else: Ms. Lane, you know me, you’re the one who gave me my name, so forth, and Lois is struggling until he pulls out To Kill a Mockingbird. The mention of Clark Kent’s favorite movie gives Lois pause – could this actually be the real deal? After a brief conversation, he borrows a pair of flight boots from one of Team Luthor and he, Superboy, and Steel take off for Coast City. Meanwhile, one of the Cyborg’s minions fills in another one of the truth about their master – the former Hank Henshaw, reduced to a computer intelligence, conquered Mongul and is using him to destroy Earth in Superman’s name. The wraparound sequences are best here, with Clark and Lois, all touching moments even now. The middle of the book, with the Cyborg’s origin, is less interesting once you already know the story. At the time, though, it was necessary – Henshaw had been a relatively obscure character who had only made a few prior appearances, and they were actually just before I became a regular Superman reader, so I had to go back and learn who he was after the fact. I wonder if I would have picked up on who Henshaw was earlier had I already read those comics. Probably not, if I’m being honest, but I’m still curious. 

Does anyone else remember the action figure line that came out after this with the slogan “Don’t mess with the S”? Wasn’t that an AWFUL slogan?

In Adventures #504, the trio lands in Coast City, where the powerless Superman scavenges weapons from the Warworlders as they fight their way to the heart of the engine. Cyborg’s got another missile prepared, though, and Superman and Steel watch helplessly as it blasts off for Metropolis, realizing only after the launch that Superboy is clinging to the side. He rides the missile across the country, trying to take it apart, before deflecting it from Metropolis at the last second, arcing it into the air where it explodes…seemingly taking the Kid with it. Spoiler alert: Superboy survived, but man I love this issue. If the Kid was going to stick around (as he did) he really needed a Hero Moment in this story, something to show that he was worthy of wearing the shield. I would say saving Metropolis from total destruction, possibly at the cost of his own life, does the trick.

Fortunately Superboy’s sense of timing got better later.

Of course, this DOES take us to Adventures of Superman Annual #5, our final Bloodlines check-in. Superboy wakes up in the hospital, having just stopped the missile, and is approached by Maggie Sawyer for help in hunting down the alien serial killers from the previous three Superman (and a dozen other) annuals. Meanwhile we meet the improbably named Donna Carol “D.C.” Force, youngest of the Force family. Everyone in D.C.’s fam has the metagene, but hers hasn’t activated yet, and she comes to Metropolis with her Uncle Harry chasing rumors of the alien killers who are making new metahumans. She winds up getting attacked, of course, and a paramedic’s defibrillators seem to give her the final ingredient, activating her gene and giving her electrical powers. D.C. teams up with Superboy to fight the aliens as Sparx. 

Sparx was easily the most successful of the four New Bloods that came from the Superman books, becoming a series regular in Superboy and the Ravers a few years later and having assorted appearances in the years since. I really like the concept of a kid who comes from a family of metas who just wants to be a superhero, too – it’s a nice, kind of sweet idea. The real issue with this book is TIMING. Superman and Steel are back in Engine City on the other side of the country trying to prevent the Cyborg from destroying the entire planet, and Superboy takes time out for a SIDE QUEST? You’ve gotta be kidding me. 

Thur., March 13

Comics: Action Comics #691, Superman: The Man of Steel #26, Green Lantern Vol. 3 #46, Superman Vol. 2 #82

Dammit, Clark, stop breaking the covers. Do you have any idea how expensive these are?

Notes: As Superman and Steel fight their way to the heart of Engine City in Action Comics #691, we discover that Supergirl has been following them since leaving Metropolis, using her invisibility to act as Superman’s “secret weapon” (a nice little nod to the original status quo of the original Supergirl). In the Fortress of Solitude, the Eradicator drains the power from the Fortress’s devices, leaving both the systems and robots dead, in order to recharge himself enough to return to the fight. And in the heart of the Engine, Mongul finds himself planning to turn on the Cyborg, while revealing that the Engine is powered by a gargantuan piece of Kryptonite. Good stuff in here. The book leans heavily on “If Lois believes he’s really Superman, that’s good enough for me,” and the man in black’s actions back it up. By the end of this issue, Steel is fully convinced that it’s the real deal, and even Mongul recognizes that this new enemy has far greater honor than the Cyborg, whose version of events must be twisted. 

Speaking of the “man in black,” I wanted to point out something regarding the covers for these issues. You notice how, although they had Superman in the black recovery suit (which has become a fan favorite alternate Superman look) they gave him his usual short hair instead of the long hair he came out of the Kryptonian mech with and would keep for the next few years? I’ve never quite understood that. I wonder if it was a case of the covers being drawn far enough ahead of time that the long hair hadn’t been decided upon yet when they were released. It’s an interesting little artifact though, isn’t it?

I would totally wear this cover on a T-shirt.

In Man of Steel #26, Mongul reveals his plan: since Superboy stopped the missile from turning Metropolis into a second engine, which would have made Earth into a new Warworld, he’s going to content himself with firing the existing engine and just, y’know, destroying the world. As a powerless Superman faces Mongul, Steel plunges into the heart of the engine. And in a moment that will change the DCU forever, Green Lantern returns from space to investigate what has happened to his city. There are two great bits in this issue for me. First of all, the Cyborg underestimating Steel’s ability to stop the engine. No way a mere human could possibly throw a wrench into his plans, right? But Mama Irons didn’t name him after the steel-drivin’ man for no reason. The allegory of John Henry vs the Machine may be a bit on-the-nose, but holy crap, is it a fantastic story beat. The other thing, which doesn’t really have a ton of significance but I’ve always thought was funny, was Lois’s scuzzy friend Jeb Friedman watching her concern over the battle in California and asking her if her late finance Clark Kent ever realized she was really in love with Superman.

That caption would prove to be far more prophetic than anybody would have guessed.

Green Lantern #46 is next. As Hal Jordan returns from space to see the wreckage of his home, he dives into the heart of the engine to do battle with Mongul. It’s a brutal fight, Hal hampered not only by Mongul’s yellow skin, but by the fact that if he really cuts loose he’ll unleash the Kryptonite powering the engine, but in the end there’s a hell of a beatdown. You don’t usually find this issue in the collected editions anymore, and for two reasons. One, the more important of the two, is because DC (and Marvel) are reluctant to reprint any of the work of this issue’s writer, who was convicted a few years back of some rather unsuperhero-like behavior. (I’m not going to elaborate – if you don’t already know, Google will tell you.) The other reason you don’t see it is a story reason – the issue runs concurrently with Superman #82, the end of the storyline, and reveals how the reign ends, which is kind of a problem if someone hasn’t read it yet. 

You know it’s special because CHROMIUM.

And here we are, Superman #82, the grand finale of “Reign of the Supermen.” Superboy and the Eradicator return to Coast City to rejoin the battle, but the others are cut off by the Cyborg, leaving him to face Superman and the Eradicator alone. In the depths of the Engine, they battle the Cyborg to a standstill. In a last-ditch effort, the Cyborg unleashes the power of the Kryptonite engine, draining it entirely in a massive power-blast, but the Eradicator hurls himself in front of Superman. The Kryptonite kills the Eradicator, but as the radiation passes through his body it transforms, restoring Superman’s powers. The other heroes break into the engine room just in time to see him defeat the Cyborg, and the true Superman stands revealed once and for all.

This really is a fantastic end to this storyline. Sure, neither the Eradicator nor the Cyborg turned out to be truly dead, and even Superman says in this issue that he doesn’t think Henshaw really CAN die, but try to forget the 30 years of comic book history that have passed since then. It’s Dan Jurgens at his finest, writing and drawing a fight for the ages. Images like the Cyborg inhabiting Steel’s armor and turning it against him are striking, as is the sight of the jawless Cyborg staggering around in pain before the end. Even the Eradicator gets his hero moment, sacrificing himself to save Superman, having been transformed by their psychic bond and abandoning his previous goal of restoring Krypton in favor of restoring her last son. Even now, all these years later, having read this story a dozen times, it’s awesome. 

But although this is the finale of “Reign of the Supermen,” it’s not the end of the Death and Life saga. The next few issues of the Superman books would all feature epilogues of one sort or another and there were several follow-up miniseries such as Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey, which I’ll be tackling over the next several days. There’s still a lot of fun to come from our favorite hero biting the dust. 

Fri., March 14

Comics: Adventures of Superman #505, Action Comics #692, Superman: The Man of Steel #27, Superman Vol. 2 #83, Adventures of Superman #506, Action Comics #693

You know it’s special because HOLOFOIL.

Notes: Now for what I’m gonna call “epilogue month” (and a half). After the Cyborg was defeated and the Reign of the Supermen ended, there were a LOT of loose ends left to tie up. Adventures #505 starts with Superman returning to Lois Lane, who had at this point spent several days worried about what was happening in Coast City. After a happy reunion, they start brainstorming – after all, Superman’s resurrection is one thing, but how are they going to explain Clark Kent being found alive after all this time? The issue continues with several other happy reunions – with Jimmy and Perry, Maggie Sawyer, and best of all, with Bibbo. There’s a good bit of set-up here, mapping out how things are going to go for Clark and Superboy in the coming months, but mostly it’s kind of a down issue in terms of action. Even the supervillain who briefly shows up, “Loophole,” is disposed of quickly and in a rather comical way. It’s like the writers knew that – after the emotional roller coaster we’d been on since Doomsday first cracked open his shell – we needed a break. 

“It’s weird, when Clark was missing the broom closet was never locked…”

But just a week later, Action Comics #692 picks up right from that point, with Superman clearing away more Doomsday rubble and finding…CLARK KENT? Well no – not really. Turns out, Supergirl has used her shapeshifter powers to help complete the masquerade that brings Clark back from the dead. Although for everybody who ever complains about Clark’s glasses being an inadequate disguise, you have to wonder how nobody ever mentioned the fact that both he and Superman got long hair at the same time or how they both got it cut a few years later (comic book time) when Clark and Lois finally got married. 

We also get more loose end-tying. Here we learn that the Eradicator’s body has been taken to STAR Labs, where a heartbeat is detected, and Steel is expected to make a full recovery. There’s also a really cute moment where Lex Luthor confronts Superman about how absent Supergirl has been lately. When Superman deftly tells him off for acting as if he owns the girl, even Lex Luthor has to smile, realizing the real Superman is back. Sure, it’s just because that means he’s still got a chance to kill him himself, but it’s still oddly sweet. 

The issue ends with an unexpected visit from lesser-known DC Comics mystic Dr. Occult, whom Superman had met before. Occult is there to tell them just how close Superman got to dying, and that only a combination of several factors (including the efforts to revive him on the scene, the Eradicator’s interference, and Jonathan stopping his spirit from crossing over to the other side) managed to successfully bring about his resurrection. The point of this sequence is obviously to add back a little more dramatic tension in the future – DC no doubt felt that they HAD to convince the readers that Superman wasn’t immortal, even though later comics would pretty much say, “No, actually, he kinda is.” The issue ends with Occult dropping Lois and Clark off in Smallville for a joyful reunion with the Kents.

It’s just who he is, folks.

Man of Steel #27 shows us Clark’s welcome return to the Daily Planet, while Jonathan and Martha Kent go on a bit of a health kick that will ultimately redefine and modernize the characters a bit. Martha, from the John Byrne days onward, had been drawn as kind of a plumper version of Peter Parker’s Aunt May, and the makeover she soon undergoes makes her more youthful and vibrant, which was a welcome change. But the whole subplot is worth it for the panel where Jon Bogdanove draws Jonathan Kent pouting over the changes, hands stuffed in his pockets like a disappointed child. It’s like Power Pack, the Golden Years here. We also get the first hint that John Henry is going to relocate to Washington, D.C., which would be the setting when he got his own spinoff series later that year. Oh, and in the main plot, Lex throws a “Welcome Back” party for Superman that gets caught in the battle between the Underworlders (and their new leader) and Project Cadmus. This is set-up for future storylines that we won’t be covering from this blog, but it shows you how forward-thinking the writers were in this era. 

“Yeah, this way we don’t have to do another cover design.”

Superman #83 is the most literal epilogue to the saga (it even says it on the cover) as the heroes of the DCU gather to mourn the devastation of Coast City. I’m really glad they did this issue – with the joy over the return of Superman, it would have been really easy to forget that seven million (fictional) people died, but they didn’t pull away from it here. Obviously it would become a much, MUCH bigger plot point in Green Lantern, but it needed to be addressed in the Superman titles as well. The memorial gets disrupted when Lex Luthor shows up and the heroes nearly come to blows over what to do with the Engine: Green Lantern wants to let the atrocity crumble into the ocean, but Aquaman points out that such a thing would be toxic to the seas. Oh yeah, and a few of the Warworld stragglers are still there, causing trouble. The ensuing battle causes the Engine to crumble, but the Lanterns use their powers to sterilize the remnants and make them safe to settle in the ocean. In the end, Superman uses pieces of the engine to construct an eternal flame in memorial to those lost. 

Although the ramifications of the death and return storyline would be felt in the Superman books for a very long time, at this point they started to become a little less prominent as new storylines moved in and took their place. It only makes sense, of course, if you’re doing an ongoing serial like the four Superman titles were at the time, you never really get to call anything “the end.” More stuff always has to come in, and the Death and Return was, at this point, giving way to the stories of the future. But there are two last bits I want to mention. Adventures #505 brings back Superboy, where he learns the truth about himself and his powers. They’re based on Superman’s “aura” that gives him his invulnerability, but this causes Superboy’s powers to differ from the man himself in some interesting ways. The Kid finally accepts the Superboy name, and just like Steel, elements are put in place for his spinoff series. Finally, Action #693 brings Superman to STAR Labs, where the Eradicator’s body is still alive, but there is no spark of consciousness within him. A terminally ill doctor named David Connor is in charge of examining the body, but somehow (through comic booky science) winds up transferring his consciousness into it, thus making David Conner the new Eradicator. At this point, the status quo is more or less established for the foreseeable future – all of the remaining “Supermen” have a new lease on life and the cleanup of his death is more or less complete.

Sat., March 15

Essay: “The Superman Mythology: A Mini-Tribute to Edmond Hamilton by Jack Williamson” from The Krypton Companion

Notes: I don’t think I realized today was going to be a hard day earlier in the week. It’s been a rough few weeks for me, guys, the kind of period where having things like this blog to complete are what keeps me interacting with the universe instead of curling up into a ball, but March 15 is different even than that. March 15th is my mother’s birthday. We lost her in 2017, just ten days before Erin and I found out we were going to be parents. My son never knew his grandmother, and she never knew he was going to be born. I miss her a lot, and when times are bad I miss her even more. The point of all this is to say that I just did not have it in me to continue on today with “Death of Superman” stuff, even the aftermath.

Pictured: literature.

So instead, I turned to TwoMorrows’ excellent book of Superman minutia, The Krypton Companion and read a short piece about science fiction writer Edmond Hamilton and his connection to the Superman mythos. I’d heard of Hamilton before, but I’d never before connected him with our own Emil Hamilton, who Jerry Ordway confirmed was named for him. Emil was originally brought in as a one-off villain in Adventures of Superman, but Ordway pushed to rehabilitate him when John Byrne wanted a scientist-type friend for our hero. Ordway says he likes stories of bad guys being reformed. Me too – which is why it still ticks me off when they make Emil bad again.

Sorry I didn’t have more to say today, guys. I hope I’ll be in a better head space tomorrow.

March 16 & 17

Novel: The Death and Life of Superman by Roger Stern (Unfinished)

Notes: I’ve been riding the struggle bus lately. A few weeks ago I started having some car troubles and, frankly, the market ain’t great to replace it right now. This has had me under some greater-than-usual stress and, if I’m being honest, on those days when the stress gets particularly bad it’s been difficult to do even the things I want to do. One of the reasons behind “The Year of Superman” was to immerse myself in things that bring me joy, but when I’m in a bad headspace it’s hard to tackle that. All of that said, I haven’t missed a day of Superman content, I’ve just spent the last few days with Roger Stern’s novelization of The Death and Life of Superman, which was published back in 1993. I haven’t finished it yet – well, not this time around, anyway – but I’ve been enjoying it. 

There are lots of novels based on comic book superheroes, but novels adapting specific storylines are a bit more rare. I guess once DC realized just how big an impact this storyline was having, they started looking for more ways to monetize it. So Stern wrote this novel, while Louise Simonson wrote a “Junior Novelization” called Superman: Doomsday and Beyond, which I’ve actually never found a copy of. This isn’t the first time I’ve read this book, of course. I got it when it first came out, and in fact, it was originally released on my birthday (a fact I remember because I still see the original ad for it when I look through comics of the time) so it’s likely I requested it as a birthday present that year. I remember enjoying it quite a bit at the time, and it must have sold pretty well because DC did another novelization the next year, this time Batman: Knightfall by Dennis O’Neil, which I also enjoyed. I’ve still got that hardback copy, but I also snagged a paperback last year in a used bookstore, having no notion at the time that I’d be using it for such a worthy cause as the Year of Superman. It’s my first time reading it in at least 20 years.

Totally not posting this just so that everyone knows when my birthday is.

Reading it concurrently with the comics has been a fun experience, and showcases just how closely Stern’s manuscript adheres to the originals. Much of the dialogue is left intact, and even minor scenes such as Lois seeing a man in a hat and mistakenly thinking it’s Clark back from the dead remain. The only large swaths Stern skips over (at least in the portion of the book I’ve read so far) are the subplots regarding the Underworlders and Keith from the Superman: The Man of Steel issues, which were great for ongoing readers of the books, but didn’t have any real impact on the story of Superman’s death, so their absence isn’t really felt.

Stern keeps the same Justice League lineup from the comics, even going into explanations of Superman’s history with the team (which, if you’ll recall, was relatively new at the time) and the backstory of Guy Gardner’s expulsion from the Green Lantern Corps. Most adaptations would gloss over these things, or change the team to a more “traditional” lineup (as was done in the Death of Superman animated film I watched not long ago), so there’s a sort of purity in this incarnation. 

I also like how Stern brings in the backstory of the main cast – Superman, his relationship with Lois, and so forth. He plucks scenes from earlier comics, especially John Byrne’s Man of Steel miniseries, and uses them to fill in the world in which the story takes place. It’s really impressive how well the world is built up. Someone who has only a cursory knowledge of Superman can pick it up and pretty quickly get up-to-speed on everything they need to know about THIS incarnation of Superman. It’s pretty impressive, although I’m forced to wonder if anyone who isn’t familiar with the comics of the era would think it’s too much.

Like I said, I’m not quite done with the novel yet. I’ve got about a quarter of the book left to go, and I haven’t even gotten to the Cyborg’s big reveal yet, so I’ll have to come back when I get there to report on how well Stern sticks the landing. As of right now, I’m really quite happy with how good the adaptation has been.

Tues., March 18

Comic: Return of Superman 30th Anniversary Special

“Return” doesn’t look a day over 29, does it?

Notes: As they did with his death, in 2023 DC Comics came to us with an anniversary special for Superman’s return. And like that previous book, this one was a blend of then and now. The main story is set in the present, with Lois Lane adjusting to becoming the new editor of the Daily Planet, as Perry White was in a coma at the time. (Long story. It was Lex Luthor’s fault. Him and Brian Michael Bendis.) On the day of the frame story, Superman is occupied elsewhere, when the Cyborg Superman returns, once again attacking Metropolis. With the real deal out of the picture, Superboy, Steel, and the Eradicator return to clean up the pretender. Meanwhile, Lois and Ron Troupe go through Perry’s journals of the time when the would-be Supermen first appeared and reflect.

I really like the structure here. Perry White is, in my opinion, an underused character. We see Lois all the time, of course, and Jimmy had his own series that lasted a really long time, but I’ve always seen Perry as sort of a second (or third, depending on how you count) father figure to Clark and Lois both, and we don’t see his insights enough. Even though he was literally unconscious at the time of this story, using his journal for the frame to the flashback stories works really well to tap into his mindset. 

The first of the four flashback sequences focuses on Steel and his effort to get the infamous Toastmaster guns off the streets of Metropolis. It’s a fine story, once again reuniting Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove to show off their character and what he came to mean to the less-affluent sections of Metropolis. In the Eradicator story, written and drawn by Jerry Ordway, Perry plays witness as he faces off against one of Ordway’s oft-used foes from his time on the Superman comics, mad scientist Thaddeus Killgrave. The story leaves Perry uncertain about the visored hero, and with good reason. Karl Kesel and Tom Grummett are together again for the Superboy story, and this may be my favorite of the bunch. The Kid is definitely playing the part he did back in 1993 – arrogant and thirsting for fame – but Perry is able to see the good in him. A sweet interlude at a skateboard park reveals the child inside, something few of the stories of the time bothered to do, and it works really well. 

The last story, by Dan Jurgens, deals with Perry’s skepticism over the Cyborg Superman and how he tortured himself for publishing Ron Troupe’s story (from Superman #79) that indicated he was the real deal after the Cyborg’s true colors were shown. I love the angle we get here, how Perry never quite forgives himself for that mistake. He’s the editor of the Daily Planet, damn it, and his responsibility is to the truth. To have made such an egregious error eats at him. This is honestly pretty refreshing – the idea of a journalist in the modern day having the sort of integrity to take personal responsibility for what was an honest mistake…dang, when’s the last time you saw anything even close to that in the real world? 

The special as a whole is fun. The thing that surprises me most of all is that, in the end, while it serves perfectly well as a spotlight on the four Supermen that rose up to take Clark’s place, it’s really kind of a celebration of Perry White.

Thus ends week 11. In week 12, I’ve still got some “Death of Superman” epilogues and odds and ends I intend to tackle, but I’m looking ahead to week 13. What I would like to do, friends, if you can help me, is try a sort of “Reader’s Choice” week. What are some of your favorite one-off stories about Superman? They can be from any time period, any continuity, and don’t even have to be from a Superman comic (maybe he makes a memorable guest appearance in Firestorm or something). I’d like to get a bunch of done-in-one stories to cover over a few days. Bonus points if the issue is available via the DC Universe app, but if it isn’t, that’s not necessarily a dealbreaker. I’ve got a pretty hefty collection, after all, and odds are that your favorites will be among mine as well. So head to the comments and hit me with your suggestions!

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. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!

Year of Superman Week Ten: The Reign Begins

blakemp Year of Superman , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Last week, I spent most of my Superman time reading the story of his death from 1992. This week we’re jumping ahead over that gap in publication to look into the story that brought him back. Get ready for “Reign of the Supermen,” friends! But first…

It’s gonna get CRAAAAAAAZYYYYYYY…

Wed., March 5

Comics: Adventures of Superman #500

Supposedly, you could peel off the top layer of this cover and remove Jonathan’s hand. I never tried it. I don’t know why the hell anybody would want to.

Notes: The return of Superman begins right where Superman #77 ended with Jonathan Kent lying in a hospital in cardiac arrest. I think back to 1993, when we had to wait about three months in the relative hours that passed between these issues. It truly seemed, at the time, that Jonathan had died of grief over the death of his son, and unlike Clark, we didn’t really feel certain that Jonathan would necessarily be coming back. I think that’s one of the things that still makes this issue so damned good.

Before I get too deep into this I need to make something clear – if you have never read the “Reign of the Supermen” story before, I’m going to be spoiling stuff left and right, beginning in this little recap of this issue. I’m assuming that anyone reading this blog is a hardcore Superman fan and already knows the story pretty well, but on the off-chance that you don’t, consider this your spoiler warning. I didn’t worry quite as much about spoilers when it came to the Death of Superman because…well, it’s right there in the title. But there are a few twists coming in the story of his return, so if you don’t know (for example) who the four people who stepped up to fill Superman’s shoes are, this is your warning to go read the entire story first before you come back here.

Okay, back to Adventures #500. The first half of the issue follows Jonathan into a near-death experience. In a strange realm somewhere between the living and the dead, Jonathan sees Clark being taken away by a contingent of Kryptonian spirits. He charges after his boy, uncovering the truth – the “Kryptonians” are minions of Clark’s old foe, the demon Blaze, and it’s up to Jonathan to convince “Kal-El” to turn around and come back to Earth.

I wonder if there was ever a temptation to have Superman fight this battle himself, do the sort of “power of will” ending that so many of his stories have had in the past. Certainly, it would have been adequate, but…this is better. Having him saved by Jonathan is just better. Showing the father risking everything to save his child is always something that’s going to tug on my heartstrings, and the fact that the child in question is Superman himself somehow makes it even better. “Oh, my son is the most powerful man in the world? Man of steel? Man of tomorrow? His symbol literally means ‘hope’? Shut up, hand me a shovel, and get out of my way.”

I love Jonathan in this book. 

The shovel, by the way, is a really nice callback to the last chapter of John Byrne’s Man of Steel, where Clark was mesmerized by a hologram of Jor-El and Jonathan broke him free by smashing it with a shovel. Here it’s not really Jor-El, but demon wearing his form, but the fact that Jonathan manages to summon a shovel out of the ether to save his boy just makes me want to jump up and cheer.

The main story ends with Lois and Inspector Henderson of the Metropolis PD going to Superman’s tomb to find that it empty, just in case the Christ allegory in the character wasn’t obvious enough. After that, though, we get into our first sightings of the four new characters who stepped up as the stars of the series for the next few months, and each of them has an introduction that is quite fitting for the person they would prove himself to be. John Henry Irons is first glimpsed pulling himself from rubble and proclaiming that he’s got to stop Doomsday – the hero inherent in him is already clear. The “Last Son of Krypton” first shows up dishing out a rather brutal brand of justice – the right intentions, but the wrong path. “The Kid” (who at this point had no name) is broken free from Cadmus by the Newsboy Legion and demonstrates the pigheadedness that defined his early years with a simple proclamation: “Don’t ever call me Superboy!” And finally, the Cyborg makes his first appearance in a wordless sequence in which he lands in front of the Daily Planet building and destroys the marker that designates the spot where Superman died, proclaiming simply “I’m back.” As the true villain of the piece, it’s a nice introduction. Would the real Superman necessarily destroy his memorial? Possibly…but a villain intent on destroying Superman’s good name would definitely do so.

I’m looking forward to reading the rest of this again, my friends. 

Thur., March 6

“One of these things is not like the others…”

Comics: Action Comics #687, Superman: The Man of Steel #22, Superman Vol. 2 #78, Adventures of Superman #501

Notes: The return storyline begins in earnest today. Like I said yesterday, I’m not going to bother to try to hide the reveals for these books, but at the same time, I’m also going to try to recreate the thought process we went through as readers when these books were still fresh, still coming out one week at a time (except for these first four issues, which were all released on the same day). The story begins with the “Last Son of Krypton,” who would eventually be revealed to be the Eradicator, being reconstituted in the Fortress of Solitude by the very robots that he built. Ever since he was supposedly destroyed back in Action Comics #667, the energy that made up his essence had been trapped in the walls of the Fortress, finally restored here. Roger Stern structures it in such a way, though, that it’s not immediately obvious that we’re looking at the Eradicator. It’s possible, or so it seemed at the time, that this energy-being who then went to retrieve Superman’s body, was actually Superman’s soul. He’s less compassionate than our Superman, less personal with Lois, but this too could have been an artifact of his encounter in the afterlife from Adventures #500. 

Man of Steel #22 gives us John Henry Irons’ first full appearance, and we first see him sitting on the stoop of an apartment building, telling kids the story of John Henry versus the machine. Again, subtlety was not a strong suit for these comics. Anyway, John – under the alias “Henry Johnson,” is horrified when a gang hit kills one of the neighborhood kids using a weapon he recognizes as a “Toastmaster,” something he designed in his previous life. He remembers how Superman once saved his life, and told him to “make it count,” inspiring him to make the Man of Steel armor to clean the streets of his weapons. I’ve made no secret of my love of John Henry, and how of the four Supermen, he was my favorite. I think it’s important to point out, though, that the idea of him being the “real” Superman wasn’t out of the question at the time. Although the other three all LOOKED like Superman, John Henry was the one who ACTED the most like Superman. What’s more, this first issue introduces us to John’s neighbor Rosie, the clairvoyant, who claims the Man of Steel is a “walk-in spirit,” the result of a soul whose body has been killed but who instead finds another body to inhabit. If that sounds ridiculous to you, keep in mind that this is part of a universe that includes Deadman and the Spectre. Although it didn’t turn out to be true, at the time the notion that Clark Kent’s spirit was somehow inside John Henry’s body was not something that we could safely rule out. 

In Superman #78, the Cyborg makes his big splash, breaking into Cadmus to take Doomsday’s body. In order to prevent Westfield from attempting to clone the creature, he brings it into space and chains it to an asteroid, drifting – seemingly – aimlessly. The Cyborg then encounters Lois, who insists he visit Professor Hamilton for study. To everyone’s shock, Hamilton’s tests reveal that the Cyborg’s metallic parts are indeed Kryptonian, and his body is genetically identical to Superman. He is, to all appearances, Superman brought bac to life. The truth is that Hank Henshaw, in a computer consciousness, stole the Kryptonian Matrix that brought Kal-El to Earth as an infant, giving him the material to build a convincing body. He was also clever in that the parts of his body that were replaced with metal corresponded pretty well to the areas that seemed to suffer the most damage during the battle with Doomsday. This was the Superman that I remember finding the most plausible in that first month, for the aforementioned reasons. There is, however, one other clue that convinced me pretty well that turned out to be a cheat: in his internal monologue, the Cyborg looks at Doomsday and thinks, “They didn’t bother to wash MY blood off you.” That particular possessive pronoun makes no sense for anybody to use except Superman, and was one of the strongest arguments – among readers – for the Cyborg’s claim to the throne. It still doesn’t make sense that the Cyborg would think that way. That’s a little bit of narrative cheating that bugs me to this day.

Last, we get Adventures of Superman #501, the introduction of the Metropolis Kid. The lad who would one day be Superboy comes to town saving joggers, fighting crime, and proving just how arrogant a super-powered 15-year-old would be. He’s upfront from the beginning, though, telling the world that he’s Superman’s clone, although this would later turn out to only be part of the story, and that story itself would change more than once before it settled on its current status quo. Of the four Supermen, this was the one that I never once thought could be “our” Superman brought back to life…however, that didn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t “real.” After all, if Rosie was right about John Henry’s body containing Superman’s soul, he would need somewhere to go, right? Some comic book science aging the Kid could have made a perfect vessel to contain it, had the story gone in that direction.

I’m remembering the fun of this storyline now. For the last 30 years, any time I’ve read these comics again it’s been with that perspective of knowing the ending. While I can’t throw that lens away, I’ve kinda rediscovered the way I looked at the stories at the time, trying to measure all the possibilities…and that’s a fun way to read these. 

Fri. March 7

The “telescope” is literally a giant horseshoe magnet. Trust me, this image is cooler.

Animated Short: The Magnetic Telescope (1942)

Notes: Unsure if I can get in any reading time today, I decided to squeeze in the next Fleischer short while I have a chance. In this one, a scientist (I’ll let you decide for yourself if there should be a “mad” in there) invents a telescope with an enormous magnet attached, with the intention of drawing celestial bodies closer to Earth for further examination. The problem with this, of course, is that he is DRAWING CELESTIAL BODIES CLOSER TO EARTH. It doesn’t help when the police shut down his machine, cutting off the power after he’s already pulled a comet towards Metropolis and robbing him of the ability to send it back. Superman, naturally, is going to have to get in there and save the day. The short is pretty standard, with the usual gorgeous animation and a story that is fairly predictable. The most interesting thing, I think, is the lack of common sense displayed not only by the scientist, but by Clark Kent, who is taking a TAXI to the observatory after Lois calls in to report the catastrophe. It isn’t until the cab gets stopped by falling meteor chunks that Clark decides to switch to his costume and fly there. Why is he wasting money on a cab in the first place? 

Sat. March 8

Comics: Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #2, Action Comics #688, Superman: The Man of Steel #23, Superman Vol. 2 #79, Adventures of Superman #502

It was the 90s, you see, there was nothing more important than “Edge.”

Notes: The tricky part of reading the “Reign of the Supermen” and related comics is going to be working in the annuals. As they don’t carry the “Triangle” numbers the way the regular issues do, I’m going to cycle them into the reading order as close as I can figure to when they were released, relative to the other comics, and that means I’ll be starting with Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #2. Now in 1993, DC’s summer annual event was a story called Bloodlines, in which a group of aliens came to Earth to feed on humans. Some of the humans they attacked, however, didn’t die, but instead had their metagene awakened, giving them superpowers. The result was that each annual this year introduced a new superhero or villain. Some of them were pretty cool, others were kind of lame, and the only one who had any real lasting impact was Hitman. Edge, for instance, the character that John Henry Irons meets in this issue, hasn’t made an appearance since 1995. It’s pretty tertiary to the ongoing story, with the biggest contribution being that it shows how the Man of Steel is becoming accepted in the neighborhood.

They’re fighting over who has the better hairstyle.

Moving back to the regular issues, we’d entered an interesting time. Although the Triangle Numbers and weekly serialization continued, each of the four would-be Supermen had their own plots and stories that lasted for the first couple of months of “Reign” before the Cyborg played his hand and tied the four titles together again for the rest of the run. In Action #688, for instance, we see a confrontation between the Eradicator and Guy Gardner. In a move that’s surprisingly touching, Gardner is outraged to see four people wearing Superman’s symbol, having gained a new respect for Superman following the Doomsday battle. Guy sets out to put a stop to them, but when he sees how brutal the Eradicator is with criminals, he decides that maybe this fellow IS the Superman Metropolis needs. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted. 

These two, on the other hand, are fighting over who has the goofier nickname on the cover.

Man of Steel #23 then gives us the first encounter between two of the would-be Supermen, Steel and Superboy. The kid makes a mistake that costs a Daily Planet helicopter pilot his life, and John Henry takes him to task for it, but considering that the weapon that dealt the killing blow was of his design, he grows into being more understanding. This is also the issue in which he meets Lois, who feels the same way about John as I always have – this is the only one of the pretenders who seems to have Clark’s spirit. In retrospect, I wonder if Lois’s endorsement was the reason I gravitated so strongly to John Henry, not only then, but in all the years since as well.

Schwarzenegger briefly considered copying this image for his Gubernatorial posters, but decided it was too low-key.

Superman #79 is told through a newspaper column written by Ron Troupe, who is trying to show himself worthy of replacing the (believed to be dead) Clark Kent at the Daily Planet. Perry White challenges him to bring in a story so big that he proves he deserves the job, and it’s hard to argue the SCALE of the story he brings in. Troupe lucks into being on the scene as the Cyborg thwarts a presidential assassination attempt, and in the process, uses a genetic scanner that seems to confirm that he is, in fact, the true Superman. There are two things about this issue that stick with me. First, although I don’t think I realized it at the time, it’s impressive how Dan Jurgens worked so hard to stay away from delving into the Cyborg’s life when he wasn’t in front of the public, and avoided giving us a glimpse into his thoughts (after that misstep in the previous issue). The other thing that stands out to me is that so many, so SO many comic book writers don’t have the slightest idea what a news article is supposed to read like. Even if I accept Ron’s writing as a column rather than a proper news article, the fact that he himself uses the genetic scanner on Superman makes the whole thing a gargantuan conflict of interests. I recognize the irony here, as Clark obviously made his career by writing about himself, but at least he tried to HIDE it. 

All we need is Krypto! (Actually, there’s a version of him in this issue.)

Rounding out month two of “Reign,” in Adventures of Superman #502, Lex Luthor tries to lure Superboy away from WGBS by having Supergirl prance around in front of him in a slinky dress. I wish I was making that part up. But the kid sticks with WGBS when Vinnie Edge presents him with a new manager who also happens to have a teenage daughter…all while the kid is crushing on WGBS reporter Tana Moon. It’s odd, when these books came out I was roughly the same age as the kid is mentally, and I don’t remember being bothered by just how openly he’s manipulated through sex appeal. I suppose it’s the perspective of maturity, or whatever the hell you call it when you apply that particular characteristic to me. This issue is also the first in the “Reign” era to end on a cliffhanger, as Edge hires a villain called Stinger to attack the kid, and winds up blowing up a bridge, leaving Superboy and Supergirl shocked and unable to do anything because they’re out of pages! Man, I hope they figure out a way out of this in Action #689.

Sun., March 9

Comics: Superman Annual #5, Action Comics #689, Superman: The Man of Steel #24

“Myriad!” is Latin for “character who has made one appearance in the last 30 years.”

Notes: We’ve got another Bloodlines crossover for you this time. Unusually for this particular crossover, though, it actually picks up on threads from the ongoing comic book. Back in issue Superman #77, Lex Luthor murdered his martial arts instructor, partially because she embarrassed him in training, but mostly to prove he could still get away with it now that Superman was dead. In Superman Annual #5, one of the aliens gobbling up people left and right finds her discarded body in a landfill and makes her into a quick snack, inadvertently activating her metagene and resurrecting her. She wakes up with no memory of her life, but soon finds she can absorb the memories and personality of anyone she comes into contact with, and even control them. She clashes with Luthor and the Cyborg (which I suppose is appropriate, as it was technically his book at the time) before absorbing the memory and personality of one of Luthor’s assassins and vanishes. Myriad’s future, after the Bloodlines crossover, wasn’t much better than Edge. She popped up in an issue of Action Comics a few months later, then – as far as I can tell – nothing until a surprise appearance in a Batman one-shot, Legends of Gotham, in 2023. But you know, I’ve often believed that even the least-interesting characters can be made fascinating if you give them to the right writer and put them into the right story. Who knows? Maybe Myriad could have a comeback some day. At the very least, the next two newbies we’re going to meet stuck around a little bit longer than the first two.

This is exactly the way my brother watches March Madness.

Action Comics #689 picks up immediately after Adventures #502, and this is the point where the four books begin to really intertwine again. As Superboy and Supergirl rescue the victims of the bridge collapse, in the Fortress of Solitude a man crawls from the machinery that has been recharging him. At the time, it was intended to appear as though this was the Last Son of Krypton (aka the Eradicator) having rested up, but in retrospect, this was the issue where the real Superman actually came back, although we wouldn’t know it for some time. The Eradicator had taken his body from the tomb and was using it as a sort of power source in the Fortress, but in so doing, the machinery resurrected him, a process which – at the end of the storyline – they made damn sure to insist would never work again. Except that they kinda did it again years later when Superboy died. Ah well, who’s counting? Anyway, also in this issue we see Steel face off with the Eradicator over the latter’s more lethal techniques, something Steel vehemently opposes, once more proving that if any of these four EVER had a claim to the S-shield, it was John Henry Irons. Oh yeah, and Mongul is guiding a vast warship through outer space on a trajectory to Earth in order to exact his revenge on Superman. That couldn’t possibly be bad, though, right? 

They were REALLY trying hard to make “Iron John” stick, weren’t they?

Man of Steel #24 follows this up as Steel and the Eradicator’s fight brings them to Coast City, California. Steel tries to convince the Kryptonian that his brutality is unbecoming of a Superman and, surprisingly, the Eradicator actually takes his words to heart. He promises to leave Metropolis to Steel, while he tackles injustice out on the west coast, a decision that would prove to be really, really unfortunate for an awful lot of people. The rest of the issue is concerned with John’s return to Metropolis and a battle with the White Rabbit, the source of the Toastmaster weapons plaguing the city and who also happens to be John’s ex. This issue – as well as most of the “Reign” issues – also briefly checks in with Lois, who is still struggling with Clark’s loss. As much as I like this storyline, I don’t care for how little of Lois we see. I get it – they need to tell the story of the four wannabes and, frankly, there isn’t too much to DO with Lois other than show her skepticism. Still, she’s as important to these books as Clark himself, and when she only shows up on two or three pages in an issue, I miss her. 

Mon., March 10

Comics: Action Comics Annual #5, Superman Vol. 2 #80, Adventures of Superman #503

Notes: I’m going to break with my effort to read the annuals in release order because I realized that, after this point, the Eradicator (at least in this form) doesn’t return to Metropolis for the remainder of the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline, however his Bloodlines annual is set in Metropolis, so even though it came out after, it must take place BEFORE the issues I’ve already read. Being a nerd is fun. 

Note: nothing even remotely like this happens in the issue.

Anyway, Action Comics Annual #5 introduces us to Loose Cannon. Eddie Walker is a former Metropolis Special Crimes Unit officer whose reckless behavior (they always called him a “Loose Cannon” – GET IT???) leaves him partially crippled in an encounter with a metahuman perp. Maggie Sawyer calls him back into service to investigate the murders that are being carried out by the alien visitors , and he winds up becoming their next victim. Now, by night, he turns into a seven foot tall bruiser with blue skin that changes to different colors depending on his mood, because they had to make him at least a LITTLE different than the Hulk. He and the Eradicator throw down with the aliens, but they escape because the crossover was only halfway finished at this point. Loose Cannon fared slightly better than previous two “new bloods” we’ve read about, getting his own miniseries and sporadic appearances in the years since, but he’s never gonna be an A-lister. Not that this really sets him apart from the rest of the Bloodlines characters. 

That Newstime ad I mentioned last week seems more prophetic now, doesn’t it?

Superman #80 is where “Reign” REALLY takes a turn. Mongul’s warship arrives on Earth and heads to Green Lantern’s home of Coast City, which is conveniently where the Last Son of Krypton is currently operating. The Cyborg sweeps in to “investigate,” and riiiiight up until this point, you might still be thinking he’s the real Superman. Right up until the page where he blasts the Eradicator in the back and tells him, “You’ll be blamed for the deaths of millions.”

Oh. So HE’S the bad guy. 

Three pages later, Mongul’s ship detonates 77,000 individual explosive devices, annihilating Coast City and murdering the seven million people who call it home.

I cannot stress this enough, the Cyborg really IS the bad guy.

The explosion reduces the Eradicator to his energy form and he retreats to the Fortress of Solitude, where again we get one of those fake-out scenes of “someone” piloting a Kryptonian mech, implied to be the Eradicator, but whom we who have read this story before know is our boy Clark. The issue ends with a wonderfully ominous page of Mongul kissing the Cyborg’s hand as he declares that Metropolis is his next target. 

This issue was probably a bigger shocker back in the day than the actual death of Superman was. I mean, we all knew that Superman was going to die. It was on the NEWS. But nobody leaked word that Coast City – home of Hal Jordan and one of the more established fictional cities in the DCU after Metropolis and Gotham – was going to be wiped off the map. This wasn’t just something huge for the Superman books, it was going to have radical consequences for Green Lantern, which in turn would have consequences for the Justice League titles, Guy Gardner’s book, Flash…it was the beginning of a domino chain that reverberated for years. Even now, looking at the current status quo of the Green Lantern corner of the DC Universe, where Parallax is an entity that powers the Yellow Lanterns and each color has its own such entity…this is the book that led to the stories that led to that particular status quo years later. You have to wonder if, in that Superman retreat where the writers were trying to figure out what to do since Warner Bros made them delay the wedding of Lois and Clark because of the Dean Cain/Teri Hatcher TV show, they had any inkling of just how big the consequences of someone joking “Let’s just kill him!” would be. 

Cyborg is really just envious of the leather jacket.

The Cyborg’s plot continues in Adventures of Superman #503. Having taken care of the Last Son of Krypton, he requests that Superboy be sent to the remains of Coast City to “assist” him, really planning to eliminate another of his rivals. He takes the Kid down fairly quickly, but not before making a grave mistake – talking about having powers like the Kid “when I was your age” on the WGBS news feed. Back in Metropolis, Lois hears this and knows for certain he’s an imposter – in this continuity, Clark’s powers hadn’t fully developed yet when he was 15. The real Superman, meanwhile, stumbles from the Fortress in his Kryptonian mech and begins the march back to civilization, and the Kid shows the first glimpse of the power that will later be called “tactile telekinesis,” further evidence that he is NOT – as Paul Westfield at Cadmus claimed – simply a clone of Superman. Without belaboring the point, because I don’t think it actually is clarified until after the “Reign” story ends, we eventually learn that Cadmus couldn’t totally crack Superman’s genetic code, so they manipulated a clone to LOOK like him and used what information they COULD get to give him similar – but different – powers. Years later Geoff Johns came in and further retconned the origins to its current status quo: Superboy is a clone whose DNA is a mix of Superman and Lex Luthor. But they co-parent like champs.  

Tues., March 11

TV Episode: Justice League Unlimited Season 2, Episode 3: “The Doomsday Sanction”

“Okay, tell me when this starts to hurt…”

Notes: I didn’t have any reading time today, guys, and by the time I finally had a chance to sit down I was kind of exhausted. As much as I love reading, sometimes your brain just isn’t in that place, you know? So instead, I decided to dip into the excellent Justice League Unlimited cartoon to check out an episode centering around our old pal Doomsday.

Written by the late, great Dwayne McDuffie, this episode starts with Batman popping into Amanda Waller’s shower in a hell of a power move, confronting her over her activities with Project: Cadmus, which in the DCAU is a project dedicated to creating weapons capable of defeating the Justice League, including clones. One of the Cadmus doctors, Dr. Milo, is told his research is going to be defunded. Angry at being cut off, he goes to the cell where Doomsday is being held and tells the creature that he is an altered clone of Superman who was trained to hate the Man of Steel by Waller and Emil Hamilton, and it’s the two of them who should be his REAL target. Doomsday doesn’t care WHY he hates Superman, though, just that he does, and after dispatching Dr. Milo, he sets out, confronting Superman on a volcanic island the League is trying to evacuate. As the battle rages, Cadmus’s General Eiling sends a missile with a Kryptonite warhead to destroy both Superman AND Doomsday, not caring what it will do to the inhabitants of the island where the battle takes place…an attack that even Waller realizes is going too far. Batman stops the missiles while still over open ocean and Superman stops Doomsday by chucking him into the volcano. The League takes Doomsday into custody, and Superman exiles him to the Phantom Zone. That action doesn’t sit right with the recovering Batman, though, causing him to fear that maybe Cadmus has a point.

This was such a fantastic series. McDuffie’s handling of the characters was amazing, and the way he and the other writers pieced together all the different nuggets of the different DC heroes into a cohesive whole that made sense for this universe is nothing short of astonishing. They never did a real “adaptation” of the Death of Superman storyline, but they found interesting uses for Doomsday nonetheless. It’s a very different TYPE of Doomsday, I must say. He’s not a mindless beast – he’s intelligent and at least relatively verbose, able to exchange taunts with Superman and tell him he’ll live to regret exiling him before they send him off to the Zone. He is also clearly far less powerful than the Doomsday from the comics. Superman’s fight with him wasn’t EASY, don’t get me wrong, but considering that the only way he could be stopped in the comics was by the two of them killing each other, the fact that a mere volcanic eruption seems a little less impressive. Even more so the fact that he is held prisoner – both by Cadmus and by the League – with relatively little difficulty…this is a different Doomsday than the one who kills Superman in the comics. But for this world, for this universe, for a Saturday morning Cartoon Network series that was ostensibly aimed at children, it’s not a bad fit at all. 

If there’s one thing I don’t like about this episode – this series as a whole, to be honest – it’s placing Emil Hamilton on the side of Waller’s Cadmus mad scientists. Hamilton is one of those characters from “my” Superman era – the good-hearted and sometimes absentminded scientist who, after making one mistake which Superman stopped before it could go TOO far, turned into one of Superman’s greatest allies. In the comics they eventually gave him a heel turn as well, and that’s something that has never sat right with me in all the years since. It’s been well over a decade since he’s made more than a token appearance anywhere, and honestly, I’m not even sure what his status even is anymore, vis-a-vis his relationship to Superman, after all the years of reboots both hard and soft. But they always say that comics are cyclical – it’s probably only a matter of time before somebody who loves Emil Hamilton the way I do steps into the shoes of writing Superman and finds a way to rehabilitate him and bring him back. At least, I sincerely hope so.

The Reign continues next time, friends!

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. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!

Year of Superman Week Five: Like Throwing Darts at a Board

blakemp Year of Superman , , , , , , , ,

As I approach the end of January, having finished up my first theme week, I find myself in a bit of a pickle in regards to what Superman content I want to read today. I’m not ready to kick off another theme week yet, but as I look over my (prodigious) list, I find that most of the stuff I’m particularly excited for is all suited for one of the theme weeks I’ve got planned for later in the year. So what, then, should I read on this random Wednesday? Never let it be said that I make things easy on myself. After some brief deliberation, I just scroll through the offerings on DC Universe Infinite until I settle, fairly randomly, on my first read for the week.

Wed., Jan. 29

Comics: Legends of the DC Universe #39, Superman Vs. Meshi #1

Notes: DC once published a title called Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, which featured a different creative team on every story arc telling stories that were not necessarily constrained by any particular continuity. There were some amazing stories told in this series, and they eventually spun the idea off into Legends of the DC Universe, a series which not only switched out the creative team with every story, but also the main character. This issue, a one-off by Danny Fingeroth and Randy Green, is called “Sole Survivor of Earth.”

Which, let’s face it, sounds like a depressing idea even if you WERE that sole survivor.

The issue begins with a very familiar scene – a scientist and his wife concerned about an upcoming disaster that could mean the end of life on their planet, a fear made even more prescient due to their infant son. But we aren’t on Krypton this time – we’re in Washington state. Superman, meanwhile, is at the Fortress of Solitude, building a memorial to his Kryptonian parents, when he gets a notification of a disturbance at the Earth’s core. The scientist, Dr. Balboa, has been studying the tremors and trying to stabilize them, only to accidentally trigger a sequence that could destroy the Earth. In desperation, he and his wife drop their son into a spaceship and blast him to another inhabited system. Why not? It worked for the last guy.

Except in this case, the “last guy” manages to save the world, stopping the destruction Balboa’s experiments caused but sapping a lot of his power anyway. When he tracks down Dr. Balboa, he learns about the child in the rocket and sets off to space, despite his own power loss, to find him.

This is a good issue. It’s never going to make a boxed set of the Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told (that reminds me, I’ve got to find and read my copy of The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told), but it’s a fun story that nicely turns the traditional Superman origin story backwards. There’s not a lot of tension, to be honest, because the outcome is never in any doubt. Nobody thinks that Balboa is actually going to blow up the Earth, and there’s no such thing as an infant in danger once Superman finds out that they need help. Their survival is pretty much guaranteed. But that doesn’t make it any less fun to look at things from a different point of view once in a while.  

I also, somewhat randomly, went back and read Superman Vs. Meshi #1. This manga series was a part of a line of books that DC co-produced with Kodansha Comics. Joker: One Operation Joker was another, and the third, Batman: Justice Buster is still running. I always considered this the most bizarre of the three, though, because…well… it’s about Superman eating at Japanese chain restaurants. 

You will believe a man can fry…rice. I’m sorry, that was terrible.

No. Really. That’s what this entire series is about. And it ran for 23 issues.

In this first issue, having been turned down by Lois for a lunch date, Clark whips over to Japan to indulge at an all-you-can eat yakitori joint. (For people, like myself, who have no idea what yakitori is, I Googled it – chicken skewers.) There’s a brief fight scene – a flashback as he remembers the villain he fought who on the day he first discovered the restaurant, but the bulk of the story is him ordering various meat skewers and gushing over how delicious they are. The writer, Satoshi Miyagawa, lovingly describes the food in a way that makes you wonder whether you’re reading a superhero comic book or a restaurant review, and at one point he’s so “overwhelmed by flavor” that the food literally activates his heat vision. He even goes on about how well the yakitori pairs with the soda he ordered. 

Perhaps the weirdest thing is that none of this ever feels out of character. Would Superman pop over to Japan just for lunch? Yeah, I think he would. Would he have a running inner monologue about how good the food is and how it all comes together? People forget that Clark Kent is a writer, and like most writers I know, he probably has an inner monologue that never shuts the hell up. The only difference is that this is a scene that they would almost never write in an American comic because it’s too important that we get to the scene where he has to beat the crap out of Terra-Man or something. 

This book is so WEIRD. But for some reason, I like it. 

Thur., Jan. 30

TV Episodes: Superman and Lois Season 2, Ep. 1, “What Lies Beneath”

The “V” season, apparently.

Notes: The second season starts off right where season one ended – the rescue of Natasha Irons from John Henry’s original universe…but in her universe, this Natasha is the daughter of Lois Lane, something that causes issues for the both of them. Meanwhile, both Jordan and Jonathan are facing issues with their respective girlfriends, and the teenagers acting like teenagers have Lois and Clark butting heads with each other.

In my notes on the season one finale, I mentioned that this show was cut from a different cloth than other CW shows. As season two begins, though, it feels a bit more CW than ever. The clash between Lois and Clark over Jonathan’s behavior feels really forced – Lois is taking her frustrations out on Clark and he’s not acting with the degree of empathy one would expect from Superman. I’m actually starting to feel a little vibe from the Lois Lane miniseries that I read last week, where Lois acted inexplicably angry towards everyone. Eventually, she explains this as anger over her own mother leaving her family when she was young, and thinking she’s like that because she doesn’t feel anything motherly for Natasha…who, we have to stress here, is NOT her daughter. It doesn’t really make that much sense.

Natasha, meanwhile, is behaving even more irrational, taking her frustrations out on her father and somehow blaming him for the fact that the people who were her friends in her home dimension don’t know her here. Huh? In her case, at least, the frustration is more understandable, but the show skips over showing us why Natasha can’t seem to fit in. There’s an undercurrent of rage to this episode that’s baffling me. 

Superheroes? Oh yeah, there’s a little of that. Superman learns that Sam Lane’s replacement at the DOD is using the X-Kryptonite recovered in season one to create his own little army, complete with his shield, which Superman isn’t happy about. I sense this is going to be the undercurrent for this season. 

Comics: Superman: Lex Luthor Special #1, DC’s Lex and the City #1

I mean, not so’s you would notice, Lex.

Notes: I also read a couple of this weeks’ new comics today, one of which is more relevant than the others. The Superman: Lex Luthor Special is continuing the ongoing storyline from the main Superman comic and, in fact, is written by regular writer Joshua Williamson. In last fall’s DC All In Special, Darkseid was (seemingly) killed, but a new, alternate universe was forged, infused by Darkseid’s negative energy, as opposed to the more hopeful environment of the main DCU. In this issue, Mr. Terrific is trying to crack the secret of this other world (which readers will know is the setting of DC’s Absolute Superman and other titles), but the inherent darkness is too much. There’s only one man brilliant enough to understand this but with a mind that won’t be corrupted by it…unfortunately, Lex Luthor has had amnesia for some time, and has been trying to live down the dark deeds of his previous self. 

This is hardly the first time we’ve seen Lex try to be a good guy, but much like we’ve seen Lois become Superwoman before, this series has been handling it well. It’s such a tight balancing act with Lex, as we see there is a goodness in him, but it’s usually overshadowed by his darker, more selfish nature. This issue seems to promise that story is moving forward now, with a final revelation that’s going to change things. I’m more interested in the flashbacks to Lex’s childhood that help paint who he really is. Good issue.

This week also gave us DC’s annual Valentine’s Day special this year titled DC’s Lex and the City. Luthor is the star of the title story in this anthology, in which a gossip columnist gets tangled in his web. It seems a little farfetched that Lex would be smitten with this woman, to be honest, but despite that It’s an okay story. It’s an okay anthology, with some stories being better than others, as is usually the case. If you’re planning to read this, the Mr. Freeze story is the prize of the bunch. Really, though, the main reason I’m even taking any notes about it is to point out that whoever is giving titles to DC’s holiday specials deserves a raise. Lex and the City is hilarious, and it goes right up there with the Christmas special Grifter Got Run Over By a Reindeer and the Halloween haunt Are You Afraid of Darkseid?, among others. I love it. 

Fri., Jan. 31st

Comics: Day of the Krypton Man from Superman Vol. 2 #41, Adventures of Superman #464, Action Comics #651, Superman Vol. 2 #42, Adventures of Superman #465, Action Comics #652; Return of the Krypton Man from Superman: The Man of Steel #1, Superman Vol. 2 #57, Adventures of Superman #480, Action Comics #667

It’s so embarrassing when they mix up your suits at the cleaners.

Notes: Today I (again, randomly) decided to read the two storylines that most contributed to the creation of the Eradicator, one of the best concepts of the late 80s before he got a little watered down (as happens to a lot of great villains, am I right Venom, Carnage, Sabretooth, the Joker, and Doomsday?) I considered starting with the storyline that where he first showed up, but the Exile arc is pretty long and I’ve already decided to restrict myself to only two long story arcs this year, lest I have no room for anything else. So here’s the short version: while exiled in space, Superman found a Kryptonian artifact called the Eradicator which he brought back to Earth, where it constructed a citadel in the antarctic, which eventually became this continuity’s version of the Fortress of Solitude. As Day of the Krypton Man begins Draaga, an alien Superman encountered during that arc, is coming to Earth to get his revenge on the big guy. At the same time, that cosmic bruiser Lobo is heading to Earth to prove how tough HE is by throwing down with Supes. Also, Maxima of Almerac is once again zipping to Metropolis to convince Superman to become her mate. And if that wasn’t enough, when they get to Earth they all find a Superman that is becoming cold and aloof, ignoring his family and friends and approaching his task as Earth’s protector with stark logic rather than his trademark compassion. He’s firing people from his new job as editor at Newstime magazine, forgetting Lana Lang’s birthday, and spurning Lois when she tries to ask him out. This is, simply, neither the Superman nor the Clark Kent any of us know. 

The Eradicator’s doing, as it turns out. The device is manipulating Superman, transforming him both mentally and physically into the “ideal” Kryptonian. His encounters with the three alien menaces all end in ways that would be out of character for Superman when he’s in his right mind, the fight with Draaga even transporting the top half of the Statue of Liberty to the moon. (Professor Hamilton’s fault – he was trying to help, but if Superman was himself he’d never have allowed the fight to happen at such a popular tourist attraction in the first place.) Eventually he makes the decision to abandon both of his identities, Superman AND Clark Kent, and live merely as Kal-El, a Kryptonian trying to bring Krypton to Earth.

I love the ending of this one. What ultimately snaps him out of it and allows him to break free of the Eradicator’s influence is concern for his parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent. When the Eradicator endangers the two of them, his reprogramming of Clark’s brain starts to break down and the real Superman comes back. Over the nearly 90 years that this character has existed, the degree to which he identifies as a Kryptonian has always varied wildly from one incarnation to another. This is the way I see him: he’s a human, a resident of the planet Earth, who happens to have a Kryptonian heritage. And when the two clash, it’s Clark Kent that wins out over Kal-El.

At the end of this story, Superman balls up the Eradicator and chucks it into the sun, thinking that’ll be the end of it, but about 15 months (and one engagement) later, he shows up again in the appropriately-titled Return of the Krypton Man storyline. The Eradicator returns, this time in a humanoid form, having used his time in the sun to begin the process of transforming it into a red dwarf to mimic the sun of Krypton. The next step in his plan is to terraform Earth itself into a replica of his dead planet. I may have mentioned a few weeks ago how tired I am of the “Kryptonian villain tries to turn Earth into Krypton” trope…well, I first read this story when it was originally published, long BEFORE I got tired of it, so it doesn’t bother me quite as much.

“And take THAT!”

Although this one is four issues instead of six, each of those four issues was giant-sized, so the page count works out about the same. Despite that, this one feels like a much quicker read. This storyline started with Superman: The Man of Steel #1, the book which gave the “Triangle Era” of Superman four titles and essentially making his adventures a weekly rather than a bunch of semi-related monthlies. With this storyline the creative teams were slightly shuffled as well. The Superman/Eradicator fight is ongoing, beginning at the end of Man of Steel #1 and continuing more or less uninterrupted throughout the other three issues, while a number of subplots are established or developed throughout the four issues. Among them we’ve got Perry White, on leave from the Daily Planet, trying to save his marriage; his temporary replacement laying off 10 percent of the newspaper staff, including Jimmy Olsen; Cat Grant finding herself the target of harassment from her boss while Jose Delgado (aka Gangbuster) looks after her son; and a terrorist group called Cerberus making attacks across Metropolis. All of these stories play out and develop as Superman and the Eradicator fight on Earth, off in space, and back to Earth again. 

Superman wins, of course, with the help of Emil Hamilton. This is a decent story that eventually turns out to be setup for the Death and Return of Superman story, which I’ll probably be getting to in just a couple of weeks. I do wonder, though, if they were already planning that when this storyline was put to press or if it was just one of those moments of serendipity.

Sat., Feb. 1

TV Episode: Superman and Lois Season 2, Ep. 2, “The Ties That Bind”, Ep. 3, “The Thing in the Mines”, Ep. 4, “The Inverse Method”

Notes: It’s been a rough 24 hours for me, and I have to confess, I wasn’t certain I’d get around to Superman today. But I’ve gone this far and I don’t want to break the streak so early in the year, so I’m jumping into the next few episodes of Superman and Lois.  

There’s a LOT going on in these few episodes. Clark is being plagued by strange visions and emotional outbursts that are making him dangerous. Trying to figure out what’s going on, he discovers that his newly-found brother has somehow regained his powers. Lois is being targeted by a podcast host who’s getting sources of hers from an old story about a cult to recant their testimonies to her. Jonathan suspects a kid at school is taking some sort of super-steroid. Jordan finds out his girlfriend had a fling at camp. Lana decides to run for mayor. John Henry and Natasha try to settle in on the Kent farm. This is the Dagwood Sandwich of CW superhero shows.

Not to say that it’s bad. There’s a lot of stuff going on, but the show doesn’t really have difficulty keeping everything straight. And it’s likely that, before the season is over, everything will come together like an episode of Seinfeld. It’s just weird to have so many different plots running at the same time, moving in and out of each other as the focus switches around the various characters involved. 

The Lois plot, involving the cult, is the one that’s bothering me at the moment, mostly because once again we see Lucy Lane turning up as a punching bag. I don’t think we’ve seen Lucy before in this continuity (someone correct me if I’m wrong) but I immediately think of all the stuff that’s happened to the character in the comics over the years. She was blind for a while, she was a villain for a while, she gets dumped by Jimmy Olsen, she marries Ron Troupe and has a baby, but if I’m being perfectly honest I haven’t got the foggiest notion if that kid even still exists in the current DC Universe. And here she is, a former cult member who seems to be disavowing the sister that tried to save her. This isn’t really a knock on the show, it’s just telling a story, but I really dislike the trope of making a character the universe’s punching bag. (I know I’ve said it before, but it’s the reason I don’t enjoy most modern Spider-Man comics anymore.) I guess I’m just saying that I wish Lucy would get a break. Everybody needs one once in a while. 

Nice little surprise towards the end of episode three, though: Superman battles the “Thing in the Mines” from the title, a powerful enemy in a suit of armor. When Superman cracks the armor open, though, he finds a distorted version of his own face staring back at him. Is this their version of Bizarro? And have they found a way to do the character that actually makes him menacing? Unlike Lucy, Bizarro is a character I can take either way, either as the ultra-powerful menace OR as the misunderstood giant who’s not actually out to HURT anyone, but is dangerous just by virtue of his power. If he’s a pure bad guy this time around, I’m okay with that.

Last thing I’ll point out is the increased focus on Natasha. I like how she’s turning around. She felt kind of whiny in that first episode this season, but she’s come back and shows a lot of wit and intelligence in these. I’m willing to chalk that first appearance to growing pains as the writers tried to figure out the character. I’m already liking her much more. 

Episode four (I’m writing this as I watch and not going back to edit, just for clarity) seems to prove that I’m right. The Mine Guy looks about as Bizarro as you could get in live-action without getting goofy.

Sun., Feb. 2

Comic: DC Speechless #3

Silent but delightful.

Notes: DC Speechless was a short digital-first series by Gustavo Duarte. Each issue placed a different character in a wordless, comedic adventure of some sort. In this issue, Superman is forced to face down a couple of giant bugs attacking not only Metropolis, but also his wardrobe. 

These silent issues are always a neat challenge for storytellers. Getting everything across through pictures only is a mark of a great artist, and Duarte is really good at telling a funny story. I enjoyed this quickie for what it is – simple, a little silly, and beautifully drawn.

Mon., Feb. 3

Comic Book: Superman #123

A psychologist could have a field day with this.

Notes: It’s time for a little more Silver Age silliness. Before the first appearance of Kara Zor-El, the Supergirl we all know and love, there was a proto “Super-Girl” that first appeared in this comic. An archeologist gives Jimmy Olsen a souvenir – an ancient totem that can ostensibly grant three wishes once a century. Jimmy, having earlier overheard Superman tell Lois that he could only ever marry a “super girl” who wouldn’t be in danger from his lifestyle, decides to wish up a prospective wife for him. This, friends, is why he’s called “Superman’s pal.”

Of course, things go wrong as the girl keeps blundering into things and screwing them up, because that’s apparently what super powered women do, until she finally sacrifices herself to save Superman from some Kryptonite. The funniest part is the panel where Jimmy uses the totem to wish her away before she dies, where he chokes and says, “We’ll never forget you,” then everbody promptly proceeded to never mention her again, not even a few months later when Superman met his cousin from Krypton who looked virtually identical to the girl that his best friend conjured up or him to marry. Wild time.

Ah, but the fun wasn’t over. Jimmy got THREE wishes from the totem, remember, so this is a full-length three-parter! In the second part of the story some crooks read the Daily Planet story outlining how Jimmy used the totem to create Super-Girl, then break into his apartment to steal the magic artifact and use it to take away Superman’s powers. That’s it. Not for powers of their own. Not to, I dunno, kill Superman. Not even just for a mountain of money so that the criminals don’t have to crime anymore. The underworld of Metropolis was really short-sighted at the time, weren’t they? Anyway, Superman and Jimmy use some stunts to mimic his powers and make the crooks think the wish didn’t worry so they’ll retrieve the totem, at which point he shows up, captures them, and has Jimmy cancel the wish.

With just one wish left, Jimmy wants to make it a great one to make up for how the first two screwed up. (Jimmy, for heaven’s sake, just wish for a winning lottery ticket like a normal person.) This time he decides it’d be swell if he could send Superman back in time to meet his parents, but since he doesn’t want Superman to hear him MAKING his wish, he types it up. And apparently he’s as bad at spelling as Lois legendarily is, because he accidentally types “I wish for Superman to MATE his parents on Krypton.” Supes is whisked back in time to an era before his parents married. One might expect him to have to play Cupid here, based on how Jimmy’s typo was phrased, but Jor-El and Lara are already a couple. They just can’t get married yet because they’re accused of being part of a terrorist plot to overthrow the government and they wind up needing their son’s help to clear their names. This includes tricking a villain into accidentally creating Kryptonite, which seems kind of counter to the whole “no killing” thing, but I digress.

It’s another case of insane Silver Age storytelling – all three parts of this “novel” (which they loved to call these stories on the cover) are predicated on wild misunderstandings, incredible cases of jumping to conclusions, and just plain bafflingly stupid choices on the parts of the heroes and villains alike. I’m a teacher, and I’m constantly telling my students that it isn’t fair to use the standards of the modern day to judge the citizens of an earlier time, but stories like this make it pretty dang tempting sometimes. 

Tues., Feb. 4

Short: The Bulleteers

Notes: After a very random and, frankly, pretty harsh week for me outside of the Superman blogosphere, I decided to close things off with another of the classic Fleischer shorts. Next up is The Bulleteers from 1942. In this one, the bad guys (you can tell they’re bad guys because they’re all wearing the same cowl with a point in the front but no mask) create a bullet-shaped rocket car they intend to use to rob the Metropolis treasury.

The very faces of evil.

I do not understand the motivations of villains like these. They want money? They have invented a flying car that turns into a giant bullet. They can afford to construct a secret base in the core of a mountain, complete with turning one side of that mountain into a hidden drawbridge-style door. I don’t know exactly what the overhead on any of this stuff is, but it seems to me that patents on this kind of technology alone have to be far more than the city of Metropolis could possibly be able to cough up.

Anyway, after the Bulleteers crash into the Treasury building, which conveniently seems to keep all of the money in the city in one enormous vault, Superman gets his hand on it and rips it apart in midair, saving the day. Good for him.

Tangent: This isn’t directly Superman-related, but I think it’s something worth addressing. Today, the trailer for the new Marvel movie Fantastic Four: First Steps was released. You may not know this, but my love for the Fantastic Four is almost – not quite, but ALMOST – up there with my love of Superman. The Thing is my second-favorite character in all of comics, and I firmly believe he’s the best thing Stan Lee and Jack Kirby ever did. I saw the trailer and I enjoyed it immensely. I even made an incredibly dorky TikTok video about it, in my own inimitable style.  

The reason I’m bringing it up here, though, is because in some of the Superman groups I follow, I saw people posting the video and saying they don’t think it will be competition for James Gunn’s Superman. And I have to ask this question, guys.

Why does it NEED to be?

Seriously, where is it written that every film has to be a direct rival of every other? Or every studio? Is it because they come out in the same month, Superman on July 11th and Fantastic Four two weeks later on the 25th? Or is it just because Marvel and DC fans have some sort of deep-seated need in their very souls to somehow prove their dominance over the other?

It makes no sense to me. I am looking forward to Superman. Hell, I decided to devote this entire YEAR to how much I’m looking forward to it. But that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to look forward to Fantastic Four. It doesn’t mean if I like one, I am not allowed to like the other. It’s said that a rising tide raises all ships, and I sincerely believe that – a great superhero movie will make people thirst for MORE great superhero movies, and hopefully the studios will learn the right lessons from one another about what MAKES a great superhero movie. Judging by the trailers from these two films, I feel as though they have.

And if there’s no other reason to ask why they have to be opposed to one another, just ask yourself this: would Superman want it that way? Would he want to be rivals? Or would he be in the front row of the cinema on July 25th, cheering for the adventures of Marvel’s first family with the rest of us.

I rather suspect that would be the case, don’t you?

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. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!