I woke up early on June 11th, friends. It’s summer vacation, there is no reason for me to get up early, but I was wide awake at 6 am and refreshing the AMC Theaters app, looking every few minutes to see if it had begun yet. Today, you see, was the day that Superman tickets officially went on sale. 

At noon, it turns out. I found that out later.

But I was too excited to get back to sleep, and when the app finally opened up and allowed advance ticket sales to begin, I got the first three seats in an early screening for one month from today, July 11th. I showed the tickets to Eddie, and I told him how excited I am not just to see the movie, but specifically to watch it with him.

That’s more important to me than anything else, really. Taking my son to see a new Superman movie. It’s something I never thought would happen, especially after Justice League sloughed through theaters when Eddie was only three months old. Now? I couldn’t possibly be more excited.

But that’s still a whole month away. Time for a fairly random week in the Year of Superman.

And as always, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman Archive!

Wed., June 11

Comics: Young All-Stars #10

Notes: The first comic I’m going to discuss this week is a surprise, even to me. I’ve mentioned before that – although I’m only writing about Superman comics here – there are lots of other comics that I’m reading, and as I made my way through a bundle of Roy Thomas’s Young All-Stars from the 80s, issue #10 stopped me in my tracks. Young All-Stars was Thomas’s attempt to rebuild the Golden Age of DC history post-Crisis, in a world in which the likes of Wonder Woman, Batman, and – yes – Superman had not yet existed. And Thomas was uniquely suited to that task, having a love for the Golden Age that I maintain is unsurpassed among any comic book creator that wasn’t actually working during that era. 

One of the members of that team was Arnold “Iron” Munro – a young man of incredible strength, speed, and resilience who kind of filled the “Superman” role in the team. Munro’s first appearance was in issue one of this title, and after a few adventures, he managed to get his hands on the diary of his late father. In this issue he sits down and reads it – the diary of one Hugo Danner.

I’ve read ABOUT this before in my vast studies of the DC Universe, but this was the first time I actually read this issue, the issue in which it was revealed that Iron Munro was the son of the main character of Philip Wylie’s novel Gladiator, which if you remember from the very first week of this Year of Superman project is believed by some to be at least partially where Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster drew their inspiration for Superman. The issue is a straight-up adaptation of that novel, run through the frame story of Iron Munro reading the main narrative in his father’s diary. Thomas hits all the major beats, although he condenses the story greatly, and for the most part only makes minor changes.

There is one BIG change, though, and a necessary one. In the novel, Hugo Danner’s own father (whose experiments gave him his powers) informs Hugo that his process is not an inheritable trait, and that should Hugo ever have children they would not possess his power. In the comic, Dr. Danner says that he doesn’t KNOW if the process will be inherited, and Hugo replies that he always assumed he was infertile, else he’d have dropped litters of little Gladiators all over the world. (It was 1988 and Young All-Stars was a direct market title: I wonder if that comment would have snuck through if it had been made to adhere to the Comics Code.) The story of Iron Munro’s own birth is absent from this issue, and in fact, the way the diary ends it seem quite possible that Hugo didn’t know that he had successfully fathered a child before his own death, but with this completely unexpected Superman connection, I’m more excited than ever to continue reading this great series from the 80s.   

TV Episodes: Superman: The Animated Series Season 1, Episode 1-3, “The Last Son of Krypton” Parts 1-3

Notes: With just a month to go before the big movie, I’m going to be ramping up how much Superman I share with my son, Eddie. My wife suggested that today we watch the pilot of Superman: The Animated Series together, a three-parter that was also released on DVD as the movie Superman: The Last Son of Krypton. I’ve seen this several times over the years, and I seem to find something else to appreciate about it every time. For example, this time around, we see Jor-El pleading with the Kryptonian Council that they have to put the entire population of the planet into the Phantom Zone before the planet is destroyed (a good idea that I’m surprised more versions of this story haven’t addressed). But the Council doesn’t listen, this time not out of pure hubris, but because the planet’s massive Brainiac computer is assuring them that Jor-El is mistaken and the planet is safe.

Keep that in mind, people: in the DC Animated Universe, the entire population of Krypton died because people trusted an evil A.I. It’s the lesson we ALL need to learn from this.

Although it isn’t as noticeable if you watch the movie version, the entire first episode of this series takes place on Krypton, with Jor-El first trying to convince the council, then turning against the ruling Brainiac computer before having to steal his own rocket prototype to send Kal-El to Earth. It’s kind of brave, really, to have an entire episode without any of the regular performers or characters, save for baby Kal-El himself, especially on a story that – even by 1996 – was pretty darn well known. But this was in an era where TV shows HAD to have a “proper” pilot episode to set everything up, and the creators brought the same love and attention to detail to the show that they did Batman: The Animated Series, so it’s hard to complain. 

Episode 2 begins with Kal-El’s rocket landing in Kansas and being found by the Kents. Martha, as usual, loves him right away, and after some minor persuasion, Jonathan agrees to take the starchild in. We get a timeskip to teenage Clark, who is excelling at school, but struggles to fit in, finally confessing to his best friend, Lana Lang, that he has incredible powers and abilities beyond those of mortal men. After he rescues a child from an explosion, Jonathan and Martha show him the rocket that brought him to Earth, where a message from Jor-El tells him about his origins. After a quick flight around Smallville, another time skip brings us to Metropolis, where people are reporting a “guardian angel” with red wings whisking around the city saving people from near-disasters. At the Daily Planet, Lois Lane is asked to take new hire Clark Kent to a LexCorp press conference unveiling a new military exosuit – a conference interrupted by a terrorist attack. As villains swarm LexCorp to steal the suit, Clark slips away and changes to his OWN special suit – Superman makes his debut, appropriately enough, saving Lois Lane. 

Back in Lois Lane week, I wrote about how good Dana Delany is as Lois Lane, and I want to reiterate it today. She’s brash, a little self-important, and utterly dumbfounded at how Clark manages to make it to LexCorp before her after she ditches him. It’s no wonder he falls in love with her. Tim Daly, meanwhile, makes his debut in this episode as well, and I’ve always liked his Superman. There’s a sort of quiet strength in his voice. He’s powerful, but confident, and he gives you the impression that being Earth’s greatest hero is effortless most of the time. These two, along with the deliciously oily Clancy Brown as Lex Luthor, were a real power trio in this show. 

Part three picks up right where part two ended, with Clark trying to save an airplane in the fallout of the terrorist attack. The Planet dubs him “Superman” and, after some advice from Jonathan and Martha (“I don’t want anybody thinking you’re like that nut in Gotham City,” she says), he swoops in to Lois to give her an interview. Later, as Clark, he tells Lois his theory that Luthor was behind the theft of his own exosuit in order to reap a windfall from the government building a better version, as well as selling the original suit to an enemy power. Lois being Lois, she tries to investigate on her own, only to get caught by the terrorists. Fortunately, in what will become quite the habit, Superman shows up in the nick of time. After cleaning up the bad guys and throwing Luthor a warning, Metropolis cheers for its new Man of Steel.

Meanwhile, in deep space, an alien craft picks up a probe with a familiar pattern – Brainiac lives.

Ah, what a great way to end the first episode of this new Superman. Even Eddie watched some of it, which is pretty good for a him. I’m going to be sharing more and more with him as we work our way up to July 11th. 

Thur., June 12

Movies: Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, Superman/Batman: Apocalypse

Notes: I didn’t necessarily plan for there to be an animated theme this week, but when it happens on its own, who am I to argue? Today I rewatched the two animated films that adapted the first two story arcs from Jeph Loeb’s Superman/Batman series, Public Enemies and Apocalypse.

In Public Enemies, after Lex Luthor has risen to the presidency, he drums up false charges against Superman and Batman, sending a task force of heroes (and Major Force) led by Captain Atom to take them down. The world’s finest team has to go on the run, prove their innocence, and defeat President Lex. Apocalypse, the sequel, is a pretty solid adaptation of the “Supergirl From Krypton” story arc I wrote about back in Supergirl Week. 

It’s so great to see Tim Daly, Kevin Conroy, and Clancy Brown reprising their roles from the DC Animated Universe, and this movie is full of great little moments, such a conversation between Superman and Batman after the former has been shot by a Kryptonite bullet and Bruce is trying to bring him to the Batcave for medical attention. Out of nowhere, Clark starts talking about Magpie, the first villain the two of them ever faced together. It’s a great little bit that serves no purpose other than to indicate that these two are, in fact, friends…which is how it should always be. 

The sequel, Apocalypse, is a little jarring at first. The animation style changes dramatically between the two movies, as each is trying to imitate the original artist – Ed McGuinnes for Public Enemies and Michael Turner for Apocalypse), but the continuity of having Daly and Conroy back helps. The story follows the comic book pretty closely, adding Summer Glau as Supergirl and Susan Eisenberg as Wonder Woman to round out our cast of heroes. 

As a whole, the film is a pretty straightforward adaptation of the comic book, from Kara’s discovery, to her training on Themiscyra, her abduction to Apokalips, her recovery in Smallville, and the final confrontation with Darkseid. It doesn’t tread any new ground, it just tells the story. Which is actually kind of refreshing, after you think of the way some of the more recent Batman animated movies have felt the need to change the ending (Hush, A Long Halloween, and Gotham By Gaslight all suffered from this remarkably stupid choice). While it’s true that SOME measure of change is almost always necessary to successfully adapt a story from print to film, there are too many films that seem to make the changes for no reason, and I love the fact that this one avoided that trap. 

Comics: Nightwing Vol. 4 #126 (Cameo)

Fri., June 13

Magazine: DC Comics Presents Superman

Notes: Last week my family stopped at Barnes & Noble for my wife’s birthday. After we had checked out, as we were walking towards the door, Erin suddenly perked up and rushed to the magazine rack. There she plucked the special edition I’d been hearing people online talking about: DC Comics Presents Superman. I knew it was out there, and I had to pick it up.

The magazine is on newsstands across America, there to serve as a sort of gateway for people who don’t read comics all the time but are interested in the movie. It reprints the first issues of three of the miniseries that James Gunn drew inspiration from for the new movie, specifically All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely, Superman For All Seasons by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, and Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Brian Azzarello and Lee Bermejo. It’s also peppered with bits and pieces of Superman trivia, and some commentary by Gunn on each of the three stories and how they helped influence the movie.

Now let’s be clear here: if you’re a Superman superfan such as myself, there’s pretty much nothing new for this magazine to offer. I’ve read all three of the comics contained herein before. I knew almost all of the trivia tidbits. I’ve already got a DC Universe Infinite subscription, so the offer for a 30-day free trial on the back cover (so you can read the REST of the three miniseries that this magazine only samples) is useless to me. Even the cover – Dan Mora’s recreation of Action Comics #1 featuring the David Corenswet costume – isn’t new, as the same artwork was used on an Action #1 facsimile edition that came out last month. But there was absolutely no way I could let this book sit on the rack without swooping right back to the same Barnes and Noble clerk who had just checked me out and picking it up. 

I’m not going to get in-depth on the stories here, since I intend to read and discuss each of those three miniseries in the near future. I was, however, a little surprised to see the inclusion of the Lex Luthor issue. I’ve heard the other two mentioned often as being part of the inspiration for the movie, but I hadn’t heard about the Azzarello/Bermejo series before. Gunn’s commentary mentions that Nicholas Hoult’s Lex is going to be smarter and more menacing than the Luthors we’ve seen on the screen before, and with all due respect to the late Gene Hackman, I think it’s about time. It also helps to underline a point that Gunn has made on social media: that the core of the movie is going to be the three characters of Clark, Lois, and Lex Luthor. 

Simply as a Superman superfan, I’m glad to add this magazine to the collection. Functionally, the most important thing is that this alerts me that I need to move Lex Luthor: Man of Steel up in my planned reading order for the rest of this year. And for those of you who maybe AREN’T walking Superman encyclopedias such as myself, it’s a cool primer before the movie. 

Sat. June 14

TV Episodes: Superman and Lois Season 2, Eps. 12-15.

Notes: After getting some writing done on an unrelated project, I decided to burn the rest of season two of Superman and Lois this afternoon. Here’s the quick synopsis of all four of them: We pick up right as Clark tells Lana his big secret, a shock that drives a schism between the Kents and Lana’s family. Lana gets over her anger, but her fear of putting her own family in danger and the stress of keeping the secret wears on her. Clark and Tal manage to destroy the pendant that Ally Alston plans to use to merge people with their Bizarro-world counterparts, but a battle with Clark leaves him powerless. Before he can recover – a process he is warned may take years, Ally makes her next move, bringing a square Bizarro sun into orbit around Earth, flooding the world with red sunlight. Newly-minted Smallville mayor Lana tells the people about what’s going on, as John Henry and Natasha prepare his armor to continue the fight in Superman’s absence, but John is soon missing in action. Jordan has to reveal his powers to protect Lana and Sarah, and Sarah immediately figures out that her mother has been hiding the secret as well, proving that she’s the smart one in the family. And then, as if all that wasn’t bad enough, Earth and Bizarro World begin to flicker and merge, with Ally serving as a nexus between the two. 

The season finale begins with Chrissy Beppo of the Smallville Gazette announcing to the world that the planet is merging with its counterpart, everyone is screwed, and Superman isn’t around to save them. I guess the New York Times was reporting on the Met Gala that day. Tal hooks up again with the family to stand with them as Lois and Sam get bounced to Bizarro Earth and Bizarro Lois comes to ours. Tal tries to fight Ally in space, but his powers are drained as easily as Clark’s were, and he has to be saved by Jordan. Clark decides that the only thing to do is for Tal to throw him into the sun to jumpstart his powers and give him a fighting chance. Natasha puts together her own armor and heads to space, where she finds her father, but the odds of either of them making it home seem slim. Tal throws Clark into the sun. The plan works, and supercharged Superman races to Earth to face down Ally Alston. Knocking her from the sky, he flies around the two worlds to build up enough energy to – I am not making this up – PUNCH THEM APART. 

Of course it works. It might be absurd, but it’s still Superman. 

After the chaos ends, Jordan and Sarah have a heart-to-heart and mend fences. Then, in the most baffling moment of a TV series in which people have a conversation on the surface of the sun and a super-punch breaks apart two planets that are fusing together, Lois tells her boss Chrissy that Clark is Superman, because she’s tired of keeping secrets from her friend. Tal somehow winds up on Bizarro World and, even stranger, sends Jonathan and Jordan trucks. I…I don’t get it either. Clark takes the family out to the ocean to recreate a new Fortress of Solitude, this time for all of them and not just himself. And in a sequel hook for next season, John Henry gets evidence that Bruno Mannheim, head of Intergang, is the man who murdered his counterpart in this universe. 

Plenty of interesting things to talk about in this block of episodes. Let’s start with Tal – the bad guy of season one, as seems to be the trend in these CW shows, slowly creeps towards a redemption arc this season. He’s not a good guy, per se, but he doesn’t want to merge with his Bizarro self any more than anyone else, so he pitches in. That seems to be how these things always go, and while I usually enjoy a good redemption, sometimes it seems like the producers want to keep a good actor around after the logical course of his story is over, and this is the best way they can think of to do it. It’s also kind of weird that, considering the global consequences of this story, the only stuff we see outside of Smallville are some establishing shots of cities around the world. Yeah, it’s where the characters live and it’s kind of the home base of the series, but you’d think that maybe it would be important to impart this kind of information on to, say, the president, as opposed to the mayor of Smallville. 

Clark’s plan, meanwhile, is absurd on the face of it. Even if being chucked into the sun IS good enough to recharge his powers, there’s nothing that indicates that Ally wouldn’t be able to just steal them again when he goes back to face her. I mean, she DOESN’T, although there’s no explanation as to WHY. It’s a dumb idea and it seems idiotic to even try, but when he tells the boys that they have to hold onto hope…well damn if Tyler Hoechlin doesn’t sell that. He really is great in this role.

The Chrissy stuff is the hardest for me to deal with, though. Telling Lana Superman’s secret makes sense. The truth filtering down to Sarah works from a storytelling standpoint. But telling Chrissy just seems intended to include a comedy beat that’s pretty nonsensical and doesn’t feel earned in any way. 

There are good character moments throughout the episodes, especially the last one. Jordan and Jonathan get into a fight because Jordan is terrified their father will die, while Jonathan refuses to accept the possibility – a nice beat that’s indicative of both of them. There’s an even better moment a second later as Sam Lane, the guy who’s an antagonist half the time, gives them a speech about how lucky the world is to have their father – to have Superman. We even get to see a tearful reunion between Kyle, Lana, and the girls, that leaves me touched. And the John/Natasha stuff is just fantastic. There’s also a nice Easter Egg at the end, where the celebration of Superman’s triumph is dubbed “Miracle Monday,” which happens to be the title of a Superman novel by Elliot S! Maggin. 

The best thing about the second half of this season, though, is the greater emphasis on family. John and Natasha, by the end of the season, really do feel like members of the Kent family. Tal and Lucy both wind up closer to their respective siblings than they were when the season began. Even cluing Lana and Lucy in on the Big Secret all feels like an effort to create a true Superman family in this series. It may be CALLED Superman and Lois, but it’s becoming much more of an ensemble than I think anyone would have expected. 

The first half of this season wasn’t really my bag, but the second half – despite some moments in the finale – really brings it around. I’m feeling better about how it’s going and I’m looking forward to season three. 

Sun., June 15

It’s Father’s Day here in the US, and boy, did my wife understand the assignment. This morning she and my son presented me with a Superbundle that started the day off right: the miniature figures from the new Superman movie, a DVD set of all the LEGO DC movies, a great Superman and Krypto shirt, and the best pajamas I’ve ever owned. I hope all the dads out there had a great one.

Comic: Action Comics #600

Notes: I’m reading this book for a specific purpose a little outside of the ordinary. I was invited to sit in on the excellent Back to the Bins podcast, where host Paul Sparato invites various geek pundits like myself to and discuss older comics. I’ve done the show a few times now, and I always have fun. When Paul asked me what I wanted to talk about, I just said “Something Superman-related,” because I kind of have a theme going right now. I settled on one of the books on my still-massive list of comics I hope to tackle before the end of the year, Action Comics #600, the conclusion of John Byrne’s run on this series. We’re set to record tomorrow morning, so I’m reading my pick today. 

The main story here picks up right where the previous issue left off – Superman has encountered Wonder Woman, and the two of them are engaging in a liplock that has her looking as surprised as the reader. The two first met a few months prior, during DC’s Legends crossover, and Superman has been harboring an attraction to Diana ever since. (Can you blame him?) But their “first date” is interrupted when Diana receives a distress call from Hermes on Mount Olympus. Superman goes with her to investigate, only to find that the home of the gods has been conquered by Darkseid. Although he tries to trick them into fighting each other, Superman and Wonder Woman are too clever to fall for it, and not only bring the fight to Darkseid, but show that his attempt at conquest, as Olympus is currently deserted.

None of that is why I like this story so much, good as it is. What I really like is the end, where Superman and Wonder Woman mutually realize that they’re better off as friends than lovers. To Superman, the visit to Olympus makes him realize that their worlds are simply too different to mesh, whereas Diana feels their personal philosophies are too different. 

All of this is true, but that’s not the reason I prefer Clark and Diana as friends. It’s not even because Lois and Clark are made for each other. But as I mentioned several weeks ago, Diana is, in many ways, the only person that Clark can truly relate to on this level – someone who understands the burden of his power and his struggle to do good with it. Very few people are ON his level, and most of the others are either villains or people who look up to Clark as a father figure. Diana gives him a confidant that he sorely needs, and I feel like this story kind of sets that up. 

There are also a few back-up stories, also written by Byrne, starring Wonder Woman, Lex Luthor, Jimmy Olsen, and – bizarrely – Man-Bat. Although none of these are quite as memorable as the main story, there’s some important stuff here, particularly Lex’s discovery that the Kryptonite ring he’s been wearing is making him sick, and a moment that we may be able to pinpoint as the scene where Lois’s affections start to swivel from Superman to Clark Kent, before she knew they were the same person. The Jimmy and Man-Bat stories, on the other hand, lead into a nice Mike Mignola story that I should read soon just because I remember it and I remember it being really good.

Movie: LEGO Batman: DC Super-Heroes Unite

Notes: After I finished reading the Action Comics issue, Eddie and I spent the afternoon watching the first of the films in the boxed set they gave me, LEGO Batman: DC Super-Heroes Unite, which happens to co-star Superman. In this one, the Joker teams up with Lex Luthor to carry out his latest nefarious scheme. Batman is determined to stop the villains on his own, despite the fact that Superman keeps popping up and trying to help him. This movie set up a whole LEGO DC Universe that ran for about a decade, with several other shorts and films that all stem from this first story, where Superman has to teach Batman that it’s okay to have friends.

It also has the great fun of LEGO movies. There are a lot of silly moments, some great comedy, buoyed by the fact that they got Clancy Brown back to voice Lex again. Christopher Corey Smith does his best Mark Hammil impression as the Joker, and Troy Baker and Travis Willingham do a solid job as Batman and Superman, respectively. The movie also has plenty of Easter Eggs for the fans and liberal use of Danny Elfman’s score for Batman and John Williams’s Superman theme. I’ve always liked this movie, and I look forward to sharing the rest of them with my son. 

Mon. June 16

Comics: Superman/Wonder Woman #1, Green Lantern Vol. 8 #22 (Guest Starring Superboy), Superman Family #216

Notes: I’m recording with Paul this morning, so before I do, I go to the DC Universe Infinite app and pull up the book he selected for the podcast, Superman/Wonder Woman #1. (Paul, for the record, made his choice first, and was the reason I went with Action #600) This was a New 52-era comic, which I haven’t discussed that much this year yet, but it’s an interesting take on the characters. In the New 52, Superman and Lois weren’t together, she didn’t know his identity, and so forth. It was also a younger Superman – Tony Daniel’s artwork makes Clark look like he’s in his early 20s, and that feels appropriate here. In this issue, which picks up on a recent Justice League issue where the two of them start dating, Clark and Diana each grapple a little bit with their burgeoning relationship before getting into a fight to try to stop a device that’s causing chaotic weather.

I’ve made my feelings about the Superman/Wonder Woman relationship pretty clear here in the past, so I won’t belabor the point. I will say, however, that this series does a decent job with the concept. If you’re going to have Superman and Wonder Woman together, it makes sense to have conversations about what that means and how they mesh together, considering how different their respective worlds actually are. Unfortunately, these conversations always seem to have a trajectory that points towards the fact that this particular pairing just isn’t that good an idea. Writer Charles Soule does his best, but I’ve never read a Superman/Wonder Woman romance that didn’t feel like an organic relationship rather than an editorial mandate, with the exception of Kingdom Come.

I am impressed, however, at how well Soule meshes the book with the Superman and Wonder Woman titles of the time. This comic picks up on threads from both of the stars’ respective series and incorporates them in ways that make the book feel relevant. Far too often, when you’ve got a team-up book where one or both of the stars have their own ongoing titles, the team-up feels kind of irrelevant. Mark Waid manages to avoid that with his current World’s Finest series by having it set in the past, but I’ve read enough of the bronze age World’s Finest to know that was a serious flaw in that title. This book avoids that nicely, and in fact, by the time this particular series ended it was essentially as relevant to the ongoing story arcs as Superman and Action Comics.

I don’t love this book, but if I’m being honest, it’s mostly because I don’t love the concept itself. If you can divorce yourself from that, it’s really not bad. 

After I finish reading, Erin takes Eddie to the living room while I set up my laptop in our bedroom, and Paul and I have a lovely chat about these two issues. I do miss podcasting. I did it for a decade pretty consistently, and it was one of my favorite ways to get my voice out there. It only ended because we had a new baby in the house, and it was impossible to get time to record. Well, the new baby is almost eight now, but it still takes a lot of string-pulling to arrange our schedule in such a way that Erin can sequester him and give me enough quiet time to have these kinds of chats. It’s not something I think I’ll be able to do again regularly any time soon, but I’m really grateful whenever Paul or any of my other podcast pals are able to bring me along for the ride. I’ll be sure to drop the link to the episode once it’s posted. 

Tues. June 17

Comic: All New Collector’s Edition #C-54 (aka Superman Vs. Wonder Woman)

Notes: To close out this week, I decided to take a peek into another classic Superman/Wonder Woman story, this one from All New Collector’s Edition. This treasury-sized special from 1977, by Gerry Conway and Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, presents a lost tale of the Superman and Wonder Woman of Earth-2, and is set firmly in the grip of the second World War. Shortly after the battle of Midway, both Superman and Wonder Woman independently have adventures which alert them to the existence of the Manhattan Project. While Clark Kent tries to report on it, Wonder Woman’s discovery that “Man’s World” is pursuing atomic weaponry horrifies her to the point that she goes to the University of Chicago in the hopes of destroying it. When word reaches the Daily Planet that Wonder Woman has seemingly gone berserk, Superman rushes to Chicago to confront her. The two friends battle fiercely, destroying city blocks before they mutually decide to take their disagreement to a neutral playing field: the moon. While on the lunar surface, their battle is interrupted when they see the lights of the eastern seaboard of the United States begin blinking in Morse Code: an SOS. Putting aside their disagreement, the heroes report to Washington where they discover that the component pieces of the atomic bomb model have been stolen. Wonder Woman chases down one of them taken by the super-powered Japanese warrior called Sumo, while Superman faces the German Baron Blitzkrieg on the streets of New Orleans. They bring the villains – and the stolen pieces of the device – together on a Pacific Island, where Blitzkrieg activates the atomic weapon. He and Sumo begin to fight over who was going to take the technology back to their respective country, while Superman and Wonder Woman retreat to a safe distance just before the island they are on is annihilated by the world’s first atomic explosion. Returning to Washington, Franklin Roosevelt assures Wonder Woman that the atomic weapon was intended only as a display of power, and that the United States would NEVER use such a thing in war.

Subtle, Mr. Conway.

This is a great book, I must say. First of all, it’s always fun to see these heroes in the World War II setting. Roy Thomas was the master of this in the 80s, but this book preceded All-Star Squadron and really did a great job painting the two respective heroes in that world. The artwork is by Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez and is amazing, but I repeat myself. But mostly, it’s the twist on the formula that I appreciate the most. 

There are thousands of comic books about heroes – friends – who wind up fighting each other over stupid, contrived misunderstandings, battles that should and would never have happened if anybody were to just take two seconds to have a dialogue with one another before resorting to throwing punches. But the fight in this book actually makes sense in-character. Diana Prince may have worked for the United States Army, but she wasn’t really an American, and the idea of “Man’s World” having their hands on such a horrifically powerful weapon is something that cannot sit well with her. Her attack on the University of Chicago may be a little over the top, but it’s not out of character. Superman, meanwhile, is acting to defend the interests of the United States, showing a trust in his adopted country that he was raised with but Wonder Woman wasn’t. As such, the conflict feels real and natural, even to the point where Superman has to fight Wonder Woman once she’s started her attack. In modern comics, there would have been much greater consequences of this – imagine Tom King’s Wonder Woman run after she had launched an attack on an American University – but in this special it ends neatly. It’s a great, classic one-off story.

Next week I’m going to be traveling, friends, going on a trip to visit family, but that doesn’t mean the Year of Superman is taking a break. To the contrary, I’ve already got a plan to keep going while on the road. See you next time!

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