I don’t want every “Superman Stuff” post to be comic book recaps, hence last week’s post where I talked about the upcoming Spider-Man/Superman and Bizarro: Year None announcements. That said, one of the reasons I wanted to keep this going was so that I could keep talking about the NEW Superman comics as they come out. With that in mind, this week I’m going to give my feelings on some of the Superman-related comics that have been published so far in 2026.
Superman Unlimited#9 Title: Die Laughing Part One Writer: Dan Slott Artist: Mike Norton Main Cover: Dave Johnson
A series of strange deaths strikes Metropolis, and although they could be accidental, there’s something that makes it feel like they’re linked to an old foe of Superman’s. (I realize I’m playing coy with who the villain is, and they name drop him on the cover, so I guess that’s a little pointless.) Meanwhile, Metropolis’s new Mayor Perry White finds himself a target, and at Steelworks, Jon Kent gets an important warning from a very unexpected source.
There is a LOT of stuff going on in this issue. The main plot regarding Perry White is the through-line, but the story of Jon at Steelworks feels like there’s more going on than is readily apparent, and the ongoing story of the massive Kryptonite meteor that’s fallen to Earth is woven in through what happens in the other plots. What’s more, we also get to see a classic foe and a new collaborator show up here in ways that feel like there’s a lot of story to tell. The way this book is packed is honestly reminiscent of the way stories were structured during the much-missed Triangle Era, and as I read this I felt those pangs of regret that I’m going to have to wait a month for this storyline to continue rather than just one week.
Slott does some of the little character bits he’s so good at here. For instance, we see Clark Kent at a press conference by Mayor Perry White where he acts just like he’s asking questions to any random elected official, and Perry humorously reminds him that he doesn’t exactly have to introduce himself. It’s funny, but it also brings up the idea that it’s kind of unethical to send a reporter to cover a press conference when the guy at the podium happens to be godfather of the reporter’s son. Then again, Clark has been reporting on himself for almost 90 years now, so…
Mike Norton steps up for the artwork this issue, and it makes me wish we saw him drawing Superman more often. His lines are clean and bold, very reminiscent of the style we saw from the likes of Dan Jurgens or Jerry Orway back in the day. Having him on this book feels very, very right. I hope we get to see more of his work on Superman in the future.
Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #47 Title: The Merger Part Three: Truth and Consequences Writer: Mark Waid Pencils: Adrian Gutierrez Inks: Vicente Cifuentes Main Cover: Dan Mora
Fusion – the merged form of Superman and Batman – is in battle with Merger, the Lex Luthor/Joker mashup. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Merger has used Hawkman’s Absorbascon to learn the identities of our heroes and transmit that information all over the planet. Fortunately, Fusion has a whole Justice League to back them up.
I’ve loved this book since day one, because Mark Waid is clearly having a lot of fun playing around with all these classic pieces of the DC Universe. World’s Finest is set several years in the past, so when the secret is revealed we get to see some things that wouldn’t happen if this story were set today: a more villainous Poison Ivy going after Alfred, or a Lois Lane who is heartbroken to realize that Superman has been hiding under her nose all this time. Waid writes these moments very well, with compelling character work, especially in the Lois Lane scene.
That said, he’s walking a tightrope here, playing with what they sometimes call “Schmuck Bait.” It’s when a story (particularly in an ongoing franchise) teases a development that you know will not or cannot stick. In this case, we know with 100 percent certainty before the issue even begins that the secrets of Superman and Batman’s respective identities will go back in the box, so that lowers the stakes dramatically. The trick is to use this to milk good character beats that will retain their significance even once the actual plot is reversed. He manages to do that here, and even ends the issue with a new little wrinkle that could be brought back later, either in the pages of this book, or in other DC titles set in the current continuity. Either way, there’s potential there.
Supergirl Vol. 8 #9 Title: Resolutions Writer: Sophie Campbell Art: Joe Quinones Main Cover: Sophie Campbell
Continuing the holiday kick this book has been on (the last three issues have been Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas stories, respectively), it’s New Year’s Eve in Midvale, and Supergirl’s squad has been invited to a booze-free party to ring the year in. Lesla, unfamiliar with the effects of alcohol in the first place, is a bit disappointed to learn that it wouldn’t have any effect on her Kryptonian physiology. Lena has an idea for how to fix that little problem. Chaos ensues.
I have to admit, I didn’t see this issue coming. The first half comes across as Campbell trying to do an 80s style “very special episode” about the consequences of drinking, which would actually fit very well in what we’ve gotten from this series so far. The second half, however, takes a rather wild left turn when those consequences actually begin to stack. Stuff happens in this issue that drives a severe wedge in the family of friends Supergirl has built up around her, and I frankly didn’t see it coming. What’s more, Kara herself comes across as kind of cold in this issue – outwardly, at least. The reader gets to see her agonizing over the choices she makes and the way that she’s forced to push away her friends, but to those friends themselves she puts on a face of stoicism that’s really unexpected. Particularly in the case of Lesla, who is arguably a victim here, Kara doesn’t show the usual compassion that we get from her. I’ve been a big supporter of this book, but this is the first issue that feels like a misstep.
I’ve got no such complaints about the artwork, however. Campbell’s work on this title is great, but whenever she steps aside, they can bring in Joe Quinones to pinch-hit. I love his take on Kara and the rest of the cast, and I especially would like to see more of his version of Kandor.
Action Comics#1094 Title: Our Superboy at War Writer: Mark Waid Art: Patricio Delpeche Main Cover: Ryan Sook
This is an interesting one. The main story here is Superboy – in conjunction with his arrangement with General Sam Lane – being summoned to help with a military operation. Although that’s the A-plot, it’s also the least interesting part of the issue to me. That’s not to say that it’s not handled well – Mark Waid taps into the psyche of Clark Kent and has him go through this storyline in a way that feels very accurate for the character. The issue is that it’s very by-the-book. The beats are predictable, as are Clark’s reactions. I suppose that’s the thing about understanding a character really well – sometimes it can make certain stories feel very rote.
The b-plots in this issue are much more interesting to me. In the early part of the book, Clark has a study date (of sorts) with Lana Lang, and we’re teased with a strange animosity her father has for Clark. In the latter part, he goes on a camping trip with Pete Ross and laments the fact that there’s nobody he can share his secrets with. Both of these segments, to me, were far more satisfying than the A-plot. In each case, Waid is using established elements of the two characters to build them out a bit. For instance, Lana’s father being an archaeologist is a long-standing and well-known piece of the lore, but Waid seems to be using it here in a way that feels somewhat menacing, as though that status has a dark secret that’s going to cause trouble down the line. Pete, on the other hand, is famous for being the character who (in the Silver Age) knows that Clark is Superboy, but doesn’t tell anybody – not even Superboy himself. It definitely seems like we’re trending in that direction, but I trust Waid to do more with the concept than previous writers did. In the meantime, it’s really sad to see Clark upset about his big secret and the fact that there’s nobody else that could possibly understand what it’s like to have his kind of power.
Dang, if only he had some friends. If only he had a Legion of them or something.
Adventures of Superman: House of El#5 Title: I Am the Lantern in the Dark Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson Art: Scott Godlewski Main Cover: Scott Godlewski
A Sun-Eater has been unleashed on Lanternholm, the world that serves as the haven for the Lightborn. Superman and Ronan Kent join the fight alongside Ronan’s sister, Rowan. The Lanternholm stuff has actually been the most interesting part of this series yet to me, and I’m glad to see it take center stage in this issue. The DC Universe, let’s face it, has a LOT of potential futures. Some of them are easily compatible with one another, others require a bit more shoehorning to fit in, and this future in particular is at best going to be relegated to an alternate timeline in which Superman never comes home because – come on, let’s be honest here – we know that Superman is going to come home. It’s another example of that Schmuck Bait I mentioned earlier.
But that’s something that could theoretically be used to the story’s advantage. It is impossible for this future to be the “real” future of the DC Universe, so why not take some wilder, braver swings with it? I’d like to know more about what happened to the Lanterns in this future. I’d like to know more about what happens afterwards, with Rowan’s new status at the end of this issue. I’d read a miniseries about that, I’d read a miniseries about her. I’d be excited for it.
Absolute Superman #15 Title: The Never-Ending Begins Part One: In Blue Writer: Jason Aaron Art: Juan Ferreyra Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval
A new storyline kicks off this issue, although it kicks off in a very low-key way. After the huge win at the end of last issue, Kal-El is trying to settle in, taking over the Kents’ farm and running it the way they would have wanted while, at the same time, operating as Superman around the world. Of course, as the beginning of a new story, new threats are coming in as well, and we see the seeds for a few things planted here.
It’s nice to have something of a breather this issue, as we see Kal-El spending time with a lot of people, exploring his relationships with both Lois Lane AND Lana Lang, and interestingly enough, even Ra’s Al Ghul. There’s shoe leather to be expended here, building on who each of these people is to our new Superman. What I really like, though, is the direction this series is trending. Clark has traded in his Kryptonian suit for a uniform made for him by Martha, a uniform that speaks to a brighter future for the character. The Absolute Universe is one where Darkseid’s ethos reigns supreme and hope is the underdog…but despite that, Superman still acts as a symbol of that hope, and this issue continues to demonstrate that.
We also get the first appearance of the Absolute version of one of Superman’s oldest foes, and he’s taken in a very different direction. The Toyman has gone through several incarnations over the years. This one is different from any of them, but it suits the universe we’re living in and still fits the concept of the character fairly well. We also get a cameo by next issue’s big guest star, Hawkman, and recent comments by Scott Snyder that we’ll see a gathering of heroes in this universe sooner or later feel like they’re inching closer to fruition.
DC KO #3 Title: No Mercy Writers: Scott Snyder & Joshua Williamson Art: Javi Fernandez & Xermancio Main Cover: Javi Fernandez
Following December’s “All Fight Month” event, the combatants in the KO tournament have been narrowed down to an “Elite Eight.” The remaining fighters are each given an opportunity to choose a partner to fight alongside in the next battle. However, the one fighter who generated the MOST Omega Energy gets a special prize – their partner may come from ANY level of reality…and that winner is the Joker.
Much as the “All Fight” issues were at their best when used as an examination of character, even the selection of the heroes’ partners serves that same purpose. Some of them are obvious, some of them are understandable, and some of them are baffling. All of them demonstrate something about the character who makes the choice, and it’s writing like that which has elevated DC KO from being just a mindless slugfest into one of the most compelling events the DC Universe has had in ages.
There’s a running commentary from the Heart of Apokalips throughout the story that focuses heavily on Superman as well – what’s going on in his head, how he’s dealing with the battle, how he handles the fact that he’s got to fight, kill, perhaps even use his friends. What’s more, from the beginning the idea has been that it was okay for the heroes to die or to kill in pursuit of winning the tournament, because whoever wins and gets the Omega Energy at the end will have the ability to reset the universe and fix everything. This issue Snyder really starts to explore what that would actually MEAN. Would anyone – even Superman – have the wherewithal to only turn the clock back to before the tournament, or would that temptation to make the world unto what he thinks would be paradise be too tantalizing?
Also, there are a couple of moments in this issue that are gonna make for great action figures.
Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
Last weekend was Fan Expo New Orleans. If you recall, during the full Year of Superman last year, I wrote about the Superman-related stuff I found at Fan Expo 2025. And right now, let’s all be grateful that was last year and not this year, because this year’s Fan Expo – I’m sorry to report – was kind of a bust. The big cons have been shedding comic and science fiction participation for years, that’s nothing new. The shows are becoming more and more focused on anime and photo ops. And look – it’s not like I think that everything has to cater to me personally. I know, I’m an old man and people need to chase the money young people are bringing to the table. But there are full-on anime cons out there. The convention culture was built around comic book and sci-fi geeks, such as myself, and it feels very much like we’re the ones getting left out in the cold. All of this is to say, after a Saturday afternoon of prowling the vendor floor, I probably spent less money at this year’s Expo than I ever have before.
Seeing as how this is “Superman Stuff,” I’m only going to run through the few related finds I got. I knew even before I got there that I was going to hit up one of the booths that sells custom LEGO-style minifigures, because I’ve got a display of Superman-related figures in my classroom and I wanted to add to it. There was a movie version of Superman and Krypto that I added to my display, but sadly, those were the only two Superman characters they had that I didn’t have already. (I did, however, pick up the movie Fantastic Four, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the core Heeler family from Bluey, so I came away satisfied.)
The comics were an even bigger bust. I like to hit the bargain bins – the dollar comics, the weird stuff. But I found only two such bins in the whole show. and I’m pretty sure there were only four or five comic book vendors TOTAL. I walked away with a handful of old Archie comics and some 80s Marvel goodness, but the only Superman comic that fell into my hands was a battered reading copy of Action Comics #342 from 1966, which I’m digging into today.
In “The Super-Human Bomb,” Brainiac is prowling space, trying to think of some way to defeat Superman, when he finds himself under attack by another alien named Grax, whose 20th level intelligence is obviously way above Brainiac’s mere 12th level. Grax has a beef with Superman as well, and has come up with a scheme to destroy him, but he needs a force field and somehow Mr. 20th Level can’t figure out how to make one, so he steals Brainiac’s. Grax tricks Superman with a missile that attaches a bomb to the man of steel, a bomb he claims is powerful enough to annihilate Earth, and it’s rigged to go off if Superman tries to remove it. Oh yeah, and just in case he gets any smart ideas about flying into space, Grax put Brainiac’s force field around Earth, trapping him here, with a 24-hour timer on the bomb.
I have to admit, inability to invent a force field notwithstanding, so far Grax is making a solid case for being eight levels smarter than Brainiac. He never got this far.
Superman spends the next 24 hours trying desperately to stop the bomb, but everything fails. He even offers to let Grax kill him if he will spare Earth, but Grax refuses. Minutes before the explosion, Brainiac messages Superman and tells him how to defeat Grax: build an enormous magnet (shaped like a horseshoe, because theming) and use it to draw Grax’s ship against the force field, trapping him in the blast radius of the bomb. Superman gets into Grax’s ship and hits the switch for the bomb, just as – in the most dramatic moment in comic book history – I realize that this $1 reading copy I purchased is missing pages out of the middle, so I can’t see how the story ends.
Incredible!
The back-up story, fortunately, is complete: Supergirl stars in “The Day Supergirl Became an Amazon.” College student Linda Danvers is on a trip to the South Pacific to gather specimens for the school aquarium, when their ship is struck by a heavy storm. Supergirl secretly guides the ship to an island, where the students casually decide to begin collecting their specimens rather than wondering about, y’know, getting rescued. But the island turns out to be occupied by an Amazon tribe that would later be sued by Themiscyra for trademark infringement.
The Amazons put Linda and her classmates in slave girl costumes because fun, and that night Linda puts her Supergirl costume on a bird so people will see it flying around and assume Supergirl is on a mission, and that may be one of the most confusing sentences I’ve ever written. The Amazons feed the girls a “nectar of strength” which doesn’t appear to impact Linda’s classmates, but she pretends that the nectar has given her super powers and starts wiping the floor with the Amazons in trial after trial. Eventually, Linda does such a good job of building a pyramid with the stones from the Amazon’s homes that the queen gets fed up with her and lets the girls go. The story is an absolute masterpiece, assuming that you don’t stop to wonder why Supergirl dropped their ship on the island instead of taking them to a safe place in the first place, why she felt it necessary to put her costume on a bird, or what Linda’s major was and what kind of college sends three random students to the South Pacific in a hovercraft.
Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. Don’t forget, you can check out earlier blogs in the Year of Superman/Superman Stuff Archive! Got a request for a future “Superman Stuff”? Drop it in the comments!
I’m writing this on Christmas morning, sitting amongst piles of wrapping paper and the mountain of Hot Wheels that Santa Claus brought Eddie, The Muppet Christmas Carol on TV because it’s not time for football yet. But it’s also the first day of the final chapter. After 51 weeks in which I have watched, read, or listened to at least one piece of Superman-related media every single day, no matter what life had in store for me, I’ve only got seven days left to reach the finish line.
I’m going to think of this week as “the best of the rest.” I’m going to try to read and watch some of my favorite or some of the most significant stories remaining on the gargantuan list I started the year with. And make no mistake, that list is still pretty big. I haven’t gotten close to scratching off all of it. So perhaps, just perhaps, when I reach New Year’s Day, my journey with Superman won’t be ending, but merely evolving.
Comics:Superman Smashes the Klan #1-3, DC Go! Holiday Special #32
Notes:A few weeks ago I listened to the radio serial “Superman Versus the Clan of the Fiery Cross.” In 2019, writer Gene Luen Yang and artist Gurihiru loosely adapted that storyline into a three-issue miniseries, Superman Smashes the Klan, that kept the skeleton of the original story, but added some new elements that really made for one of those evergreen graphic novels that will be read for a very long time.
Set in the days after World War II, the story kicks off with a Golden Age-style Superman polishing off a leftover Nazi calling himself Atom Man. The fight is tougher than it should be, as Atom Man is powered by a glowing green crystal that Superman has encountered before, that makes him weak and sick. We soon discover that this is a very young Superman who does not yet know the truth of his alien origins. Something is nagging at him, and he sees an odd vision of himself in the mirror looking like a creature from outer space. Meanwhile the Lee family – Dr. Lee, his wife, and their children Tommy and Roberta – is moving from the Chinatown section of Metropolis to the city proper because Dr. Lee is starting a new job as Chief Bacteriologist of the Metropolis Health Department. Their new neighbor, Jimmy Olsen, stops by to introduce himself and invite them to the Unity House Community Center baseball practice.
The story follows the plot of the radio show fairly well, but it adds in elements that weren’t present on the air. Superman learns in the course of this story that he’s an alien himself, giving an added dimension to the story of the Lees and their struggle to find acceptance in Metropolis. We’ve also got an original character, Tommy’s sister Roberta, who wasn’t in the original story but takes on a large part of the narrative. As the daughter of a Bacteriologist, Roberta is a bit of a germophobe, which only serves to enhance her existing awkward nature, making it much more difficult for her to acclimate to her new home. I like this angle a lot. Having Tommy fit in as a typical all-American boy worked well for the radio show. You didn’t even know that he WAS Chinese for the first few episodes, making the angle of the Klan come across as a surprise to the listener. But in a comic book, there’s no way to make that kind of thing a surprise. While Tommy is still that kid who everyone loves and blends in with the Unity House baseball team easily, Roberta gives us a character to depict the alienation that someone – especially a kid – can feel in this sort of situation. The idea in the original was just to point out how foolish the likes of the Klan were, and that’s all to the good, but Gene Luen Yang (himself a creator of Asian descent) brings a whole new dimension to the story by emphasizing the struggle of an immigrant family through Roberta’s perspective. Not to make it sound like she’s some damsel in distress, mind you. Roberta is Superman’s deuteragonist in this story. She overcomes her anxiety to help her brother, realizing very quickly that Chuck Riggs is involved with the Klan and using her knowledge to race to Tommy’s rescue. She also inspires Chuck’s change of heart much earlier than happens in the radio serial.
Tommy, on the other hand, perhaps tries a little TOO hard to fit in, leaning on his ethnicity in ways he didn’t in the original radio story. Once he becomes part of the Unity House baseball team he keeps dropping jokes about being Chinese (“Confucius says” references, for example), using what makes him different to enhance his popularity. Although he’s a good-natured kid, his insistence on drawing attention to being Chinese bothers his sister almost as much as the people who insult them.
Superman himself has yet another perspective on the immigrant experience. He knows he was adopted, and we see flashbacks of Jonathan showing him a strange device that was in the ship that brought him to Smallville, but it spoke a language they were never able to translate. He’s even gone so far as to mentally suppress some of his more fanciful powers, making for a nice explanation for why he goes from “leaping tall buildings” to outright flight.
Another addition to the story is the Atom Man subplot. After Superman captures Atom Man in the beginning, we see periodically that he’s not in police custody, but being studied by the Metropolis Health Department, a study that Dr. Lee clearly has misgivings about. Lois Lane – who had almost no presence in the original radio story – takes the lead on this one, cracking open the story about the “Health Department” which turns out to be a private enterprise conducting dubious research. Naturally, this turns out to dovetail with the story of the Klan in a rather unexpected way. This is one point I’m a little unsure about. Making the Klan a more high-tech organization, with “loftier” ideals than the simple bigotry of the original works for this version of the story, to be certain, but I’m not sure if it undermines the original point at all. Perhaps smarter people than I can answer that one.
The is a fantastic story – a bold, proud tale that does far more than simply adapt the original radio drama. Indeed, it ties the story of Tommy and Roberta Lee in with the core concept of Superman, making who they are as integral to the series as who he is. I can’t recommend this one highly enough.
Fri., Dec. 26
TV Episodes:Superman and Lois Season 4, Episodes 6-10
Notes: With my wife working and my son having a mountain of toys to play with and college football to watch, I decided that the day after Christmas was the time to finally finish the last season of Superman and Lois. I’m not going to to a play-by-play on these last five episodes, so let’s assume that you’ve watched these episodes that I’m watching for the first time, and I’m going to discuss my feelings about them as I watch.
In episode 6, we see Lex trying to tighten his grip on Smallville by buying up property and bribing the citizens, but they hold firm and resist – mostly because Clark wants them to do so. It’s a wonderful series of scenes in which Clark realizes something that viewers figured out several episodes ago: after seeing Lois and the boys run to Superman’s side after he was killed by Doomsday, the entire town of Smallville now knows that he’s really Superman. And best of all, every single one of them is willing to keep the secret and cover his back. It’s a great story beat, and actually one I’ve thought about several times over the years. Considering everything that he did for the town of Smallville, especially in those continuities where he had a career as Superboy, it would be utterly absurd if there weren’t a lot of people who deduced the truth. The fact that they keep the secret speaks to an inherent goodness in them, a loyalty to the hero who has saved them time and again. Plus, when we see him trying desperately to put the cat back in the bag, convincing people that he’s NOT Superman, it’s hilarious.
Of course, there’s gotta be some drama, and the fact of his identity leaking out predictably causes some problems – kids who are resentful of Jonathan and Jordan, an antagonist from an earlier season that comes back and causes trouble. The scene where someone takes a shot at him in a diner, forcing him to reveal himself, is just glorious, and it leads to the secret being revealed to the world. When that happened in the comics I hated it, because I knew this was a genie that had to go back in the bottle and we’d seen it before. But here, when it happens on a TV series that only has three episodes left, it’s an opportunity to tell a story that hasn’t been told with Superman before, and the creators nailed it.
Beyond that, of course, another big arc in this season is the fact that Clark now has Sam Lane’s heart, and it’s reducing his powers, causing him to age. At the same time, Luthor is planning his final revenge with the combination of a new super-suit (stolen from John Henry and beefed up with Kryptonite) and the return of his Doomsday monster. It all collides in the final episode, “It Went By So Fast,” a title which I can only assume was a meta way for the writers to indicate the fact that they didn’t really want the show to end. I get it, too – this last half-season, lower on the soap opera dramatics and higher on the Superman stuff, was really fantastic, and it’s leaving me wanting more.
They’ve done the Doomsday battle before in live action – in Smallville, in Batman V. Superman, and even before in this series…This is probably the best one I’ve ever seen. With Clark on the ropes, seeing Jonathan and Jordan step up to fight hits me in that parenting place that seems to dominate how I interpret stories these days. John Henry and Lana joining the fight as well shows how big Superman has become, how this world is rising up to meet him. He may have lost a step thanks to his heart transplant, but he’s also inspired another generation of heroes, meaning he doesn’t have to do it alone.
And that’s just act ONE of the finale.
While Clark is chucking Doomsday into the sun, back on Earth Lex attacks the twins and Lois goes after him directly. As she shouts at him to stop attacking everyone around her when she’s the one he really wants, she yells the most Lois Lane line I’ve ever heard: “I am not afraid of you, but you’ve always been TERRIFIED of me,” then nails his warsuit with a mine. It’s not enough to stop him, but it slows him down enough for Clark to make it back to Earth and really start the final battle. It’s an epic, airborne spectacle that ends, inevitably, with Luthor taken down.
And now we’re only HALFWAY through the episode.
Next we get a time skip to about year later with Lana’s wedding to John Henry Irons (an event that would happen a few months later in the comics as well). Kyle and Chrissy are expecting a second child, and Kyle and Lana have reconciled into what appears to be a sincere friendship. Jordan and Sarah, similarly, seem to have finally buried the hatchet, and John Henry spends a tender moment with Natalie as Lois gets an important text about Lex’s future behind bars.
In the final act, we get a voiceover from Clark about how Sam’s heart allowed him to live another 32 years, and how he wanted to leave behind a legacy, making the world a better place. Clark, along with the twins, John Henry, Natasha, even Bruno Mannheim, begin to make real change. Using the influence of Superman and Lois Lane, they start a foundation that accomplishes good throughout the world. The twins each marry and have kids of their own, and we get a nice scene of Grandma and Grandpa Lois and Clark (in admittedly dubious aging makeup). But eventually, Lois’s cancer returns, and Clark is left alone. He lasts for several more years before Sam Lane’s heart that had beat in his chest for so long finally gives out, passing away quietly with his sons next to him.
Clark sits up, young again, seeing his own body behind him. He embraces his sons – young again – and sees his grandchildren. He finds Luthor, of all people, sitting at his kitchen table, and offers him forgiveness…says goodbye to his friends one at a time, and in the end he sees a vision of Lois, waiting, to take him into the light.
Here’s the thing: the story of Superman doesn’t end. It just – it doesn’t. Five years from now, ten years, a hundred years from now, there will and should be new stories of Superman being told.
But if Superman DID end…this is the right way to do it. An ending that is happy in the life he and Lois get to lead, despite the fact that this life – like all those of mortals – must end. And the fact that a Superman left behind a better world than he arrived on in that spacecraft from Krypton. In the comic books, they can’t really do a story in which Superman changes the entire world this way, because they still need something to tell stories about next month and next year. But here, with a television series coming to an end and, with it, closing off the stories of that universe, they have the freedom to show what Superman is REALLY capable of. This season has been a buildup, showing how Superman inspires those around him – not only his own children or friends, but the people of Smallville who were willing to stand up for him, and the people of a world that grows to do the same. The ending of this episode is a tearjerker, but it’s left with a beautiful message of hope that is entirely appropriate for Superman.
But it’s not only hope. Superman is about hope, yes. But the thesis of this series is true as well: “[Love is] the thing that makes life worth living.” It’s what makes the story of Lois and Clark so powerful, in all its many iterations. A man from another world, a woman who represents the best of ours, and how they come together…this is a story worth telling.
Comics:DC Go! Holiday Special #41
Sat. Dec. 27
Comics:DC Go! Holiday Special #43 (Cameo), Detective Comics #1103, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #5, Superman Unlimited #8, Action Comics #1093, Superman Vol. 6 #33, Absolute Superman #14, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #46, Supergirl Vol. 8 #8, Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2 #14, Justice League Red #4 (Power Girl), Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #5
Notes: For the final time (this year), I’m going to do a roundup of recent Superman-related comics, starting – oddly enough – with Detective Comics #1103. One of the first comics I read this year, back in the first week of January, was an issue of Tom Taylor’s Detective that showed Superman helping Bruce through an existential crisis. This actually serves as a nice bookend, with Bruce teaming up with Lois to help with an investigation. Superman appears briefly, but most of the issue is concerned with Lois showing off how dang capable she is, and how much respect Bruce has for her. It’s the middle of an ongoing storyline, so it’s probably not something most people would read on its own, but it’s worth mentioning because it’s a great Lois guest appearance.
The final issue of Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum wraps up W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo’s celebration of the Man of Steel in dynamite fashion. Lex Luthor has engineered a new Kryptonite Man, powered by the entire spectrum of the remnants of Superman’s home, and the battle between the two of them sends Superman on a spiral that leaves him questioning the very nature of the universe itself. Prince’s story leans heavily on metafiction, concentrating on Superman as a story and weaponizing that part of the character’s nature. The finale is entirely unexpected, but in its own way, as sincere a love letter to Superman as the likes of All Star Superman was – in fact, Prince and Morazzo lean heavily on Morrison and Quitely’s story here, and they do so in a way that’s both loving and triumphant. This is hands-down the miniseries of the year.
Superman Unlimited #8 gives us another of the one-off stories that this series has been doing so well. The influx of Kryptonite on Earth has changed a lot of things, including energy sources, and an experimental space flight is planning to make faster-than-light travel a commercial enterprise on Earth. With Lois Lane as a passenger on the maiden voyage, the Justice League assigns Guy Gardner to escort the flight in case something should happen. And wouldn’t you know it? Something happens. I have no doubt that Guy’s appearance in this issue is at least partially due to his guest-starring role in this summer’s big movie, but at the same time, it’s done exceptionally well. Guy is such a fun character – a rude, insufferable boor that is in every way diametrically the opposite of Superman…except for the fact that they’re both true heroes at heart. Seeing them together, both clashing and cooperating, pretty much always makes for a good time, and this issue is no exception.
Action Comics #1093 is another one-off story, this time Mark Waid telling a Superboy tale that shows an event that’s fundamental to Superman’s moral core. Dozens of farmers throughout Smallville are given notices of foreclosure on their farms at the same time. The new owner of the bank assures them that if there’s an “error” they’ll figure it out, but the time it would take to do so would ruin every farm in Smallville. When Superboy contemplates using his power to “find” the money to save the town, it becomes a battle of wills between Clark and his parents, who think that using his powers for personal gain – even to save the town – isn’t the way to go. I’m sure that everyone who’s ever read a Superman comic has fantasized about having the power to hunt down undiscovered gold or some other get rich quick scheme, and Waid does a good job with the Kents of painting a picture of why such a thing should be above a Superman. I still have to confess that I’d probably go dig up the gold if I had Superboy’s powers, but in my defense, nobody has ever called me Earth’s greatest hero.
DC KO’s “All Fight Month” continues with Superman #33, with the unlikely battle between Lex Luthor and Etrigan the Demon. Throughout the month I’ve been impressed at just how well these battles have transcended being mere slugfests. Oh, there’s fightin’ a-plenty, but each of them has gone beyond that to telling a story that digs into the heart of the characters involved. We see who they are, why they do what they do, and what makes them worthy of the Omega Heart, even if it’s only in their own mind. Joshua Williamson taps into the blackness in Lex’s heart and simultaneously shines a light on him. By the end of the issue, you almost (aaaaalmost) want to root for him in his fight with the Demon, because damned if he doesn’t convince you that he’s earned the win. We also continue the storyline with Superboy-Prime and Lois, whose Superwoman powers have returned, in the Fortress of Solitude. Recent announcements about the state of the Superman titles after KO ends have made these pages a bit more relevant than we’d realized, and although I hate the fact that they keep spoiling things in the solicits, I’m very curious to see what’s coming next to this title.
Absolute Superman #14 ends the current storyline with an epic battle between Kal-El and Ra’s Al Ghul for the heart of Smallville. As the two of them go at it, we see Lois facing off against the Peacemakers and Sol’s internal battle with Brainiac, all of which come to an amazing crescendo in this issue. Without going into a blow-by-blow, the ending of this one is probably the most hopeful thing I’ve seen yet in the Absolute Universe as a whole, although as suits this world tainted by Darkseid’s energy, the victory is bittersweet and not without a price. In many ways, it clears the table for this series, and it will be very interesting to see where the story goes from here.
World’s Finest #46 continues the story of Lex Luthor and the Joker, fused into a single being and armed with the power of a device that gives them the sum total of all knowledge in the human race. Superman and Batman, naturally, have to step up and stop them, this time getting a little extra help from Green Lantern to juice them up in a way he’s done once before. The issue ends on a cliffhanger, and it’s a pretty good one, except for the fact that it suffers a bit from Prequelitis. Admittedly, even in the present day what happens at the end would likely be wiped out by the next issue, but when you’re dealing with a series set in the past, there’s really zero tension with the “shocking” ending. It’s still a great, fun story, though.
I’m going to end my tour of new comics with Supergirl #8. It’s Christmas in Midvale, but Supergirl isn’t feeling merry. The holidays, with their emphasis on family, always make her remember everything she lost in the destruction of Argo City. Still, the Danvers and Lesla-Lar do their best to cheer her up, even as they get a strange visitor from the past that Supergirl has neglected for far too long. Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl is probably my favorite new comic book title of the year, but this issue is a little atypical. While the series is usually very bright and uplifting, this issue is somewhat darker and more bittersweet, particularly for a Christmas story. That said, it works really well. Sophie takes Kara’s pain and shapes it into a valuable lesson for Lesla-Lar, whose journey to becoming a superhero is an important component of this title. The story is told well and propels the characters forward, while still giving us a little Christmas cheer in the process.
This is most likely the last I’ll talk about newly-released comics in the Year of Superman, and it’s bittersweet for me too. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to taking a break on January 1st, but at the same time, I’ve enjoyed pontificating about these new issues as they come out. It’s one of the main reasons I’m thinking about how to continue this blog into the new year.
Yeah, I’m teasing that again. Sue me.
Sun. Dec. 28
Comics:Superman: Space Age #1-3
Notes: Continuing the theme of “Endings,” today I’ve decided to revisit the three-issue Space Age miniseries by Mark Russell and Michael Allred from 2022. Published as a Black Label series, like many of them, it really feels more like an Elseworlds. It’s set in a universe where Superman rises to prominence in the 1960s, with a Clark Kent that’s spurred to go out and find ways to save the world following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Before he puts on his costume for the first time, though, he encounters a strange man called the Pariah, who warns him that the world will end in approximately twenty years. Pariah claims to have accidentally unleashed a great evil called the Anti-Monitor, an ancient being whose goal is to bring order to the Multiverse by destroying every positive-matter universe until only his own Antimatter universe remains. He tries to dismiss the Pariah as one of the “kranks” he’s assigned to cover as a Daily Planet cub reporter, but something about him sticks with Clark and he’s unable to shake it. On the other hand, he’s sometimes skeptical that the world will even last 20 years, as the arms race is intensifying and made worse by a false flag attack on Coast City orchestrated by Lex Luthor. The cataclysm turns out to bring heroes out of the woodwork: Batman captures Luthor, Abin Sur passes his ring on to Hal Jordan, Themiscyra sends Diana to the UN as an ambassador, and Superman makes his true debut disposing of American missiles before they can annihilate the Soviet Union. Book one ends with these four coming together at a new Hall of Justice.
In book two, we jump ahead to the 70s, where Superman is well-established, and the world is at peace following a nuclear disarmament treaty. But an interview with Lois leaves him questioning whether he’s doing all he can, and a similar disagreement drives a wedge in the Justice League. It’s a bad time for it too, as Green Lantern warns of the impending approach of a cosmic threat called Brainiac and, at the same time, a Superman from an alternate universe where all human life has been rendered extinct. It’s not all bad news, though – Clark is promoted to an editor’s desk at the Planet, Lois breaks Watergate, the two of them fall in love and she confesses that she knows he’s Superman just before he tells her. They even have time to get married and have a son before Brainiac arrives on Earth. But he’s not there to destroy the world, only to take its greatest resource before the Anti-Monitor can destroy it himself, hoping to use that resource in his battle against the Multiversal destroyer. That resource, as it turns out, is Kal-El of Krypton. The League drives Brainiac off the planet, but at the cost of Green Lantern’s life.
The final book in the trilogy takes us into the 80s where Clark finds Pariah again, who is impressed by his years of heroism, but still sees the end as inevitable. With less than two years before the Anti-Monitor arrives, the Brainiacs again ask Superman to join their fight, and this time, he considers it – but when a heart attack fells Johnathan Kent, he changes path, dedicating himself to saving the human race by eradicating disease by scanning their DNA. It turns out to be a ploy to record their genetic code. When the Anti-Monitor destroys the world, Superman makes for the Brainiacs’ portal, but instead of going into it he pushes through a crystal encoded with the DNA of every human he could collect, sending them to the empty world populated by the other Superman. He returns to his family just before the end, where on the other world the other Superman restores the human race on a new home.
In terms of “ending stories,” I kind of have mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it’s excellently done. The writing and storytelling are top-notch and the characters, even in the Elseworlds setting, still feel mostly true to the heroes we know and love. And I’ll pretty much always be on-board for artwork by Mike Allred, whose unique style is one of my favorites of all time. On the other hand, there’s an impending sense of doom that spreads across the entire thing. There are other dark “final” Superman stories, like Kingdom Come or Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, but in both those cases we journey through the darkness with Superman and ultimately end in a place of hope. This one has a sense of nihilism that doesn’t quite befit the character. Even the ending, where the other Superman brings back humanity (starting, naturally, with Lois Lane), leaves us with the feeling that it’s only buying time. After all, the Anti-Monitor is still out there, the final battle has yet to be fought, let alone won.
The series raises some interesting questions as the different Leaguers look on things with different perspectives. Green Arrow views the world through the perspective of the “Trolley Problem,” whereas Batman’s point of view is that he just saves whoever he can, knowing he can’t save everyone. Superman, as fits the character, refuses to accept that, and is determined to find a way to save everyone even if doing so seems impossible. It’s a noble point of view that works in the regular DCU, but Russell shines a light on how unrealistic that perspective actually is. If I was looking for something realistic, though, I don’t think I’d be reading Superman in the first place. Superman is an ideal, and ideals don’t have to be realistic. They’re something to strive for, even if you know they can never really fall into your grasp, and that’s how Superman works best.
So is Space Age a good story? Yes. Absolutely. Without a doubt.
I don’t think it will ever be one of my favorites, though.
Mon., Dec. 29
Comics:DC Go! Holiday Special #47 (Supergirl), Doomsday Clock #1-12
Notes: This is a controversial book, DC’s sequel to Watchmen which brings those characters into conflict with the heroes of the DC Universe, but I’m including it here for an important reason. In the end, this is very much a story about Superman. The first issue shows us the state of the world – since Ozymandias’s scheme was revealed by Rorschach’s journal, he has become the most wanted fugitive on the planet and the world has crept closer and closer to the very nuclear annihilation he was hoping to avoid. A new Rorschach has arisen, this time working with Ozymandias, who has a tumor growing in his skull. The two of them hope to find the only person in their universe with the power to change anything – Dr. Manhattan. Meanwhile, in another universe, Clark Kent wakes up from a nightmare, a horrible vision of the car crash that killed Jonathan and Martha Kent when he was only a teenager. It’s the first nightmare he’s ever had.
Ozymandias and Rorschach ally themselves with a pair of criminals – Marionette and Mime – who are seeking their missing son. They trace Dr. Manhattan to the DC Universe, where people are in upheaval following the popularization of the “Supermen Theory,” which posits the idea that the reason so many of Earth’s metahumans are American is because they have been deliberately created by the government since Superman’s first appearance. Faith in superheroes is eroding, with the only one who still has the public trust being Superman himself.
Over the course of these twelve issues Geoff Johns and Gary Frank delve into the nature of the DC Universe itself, starting with the notion (from DC Rebirth) that it was Dr. Manhattan who was responsible for the New 52 reboot in the first place. Turns out, it’s more complicated than that. Manhattan did toy with the fabric of the universe, but the reason it was possible for him to do so is because the “Prime” DC Universe – the one that’s called Earth-0 these days – isn’t actually part of the multiverse as we know it. Manhattan calls it the “Metaverse” (take that, Mark Zuckerberg) because it’s a core reality that the others are all reflective of. In the Metaverse, Superman made his first appearance in 1938 and inspired the heroes of the Justice Society. Then reality snapped, moving Superman’s appearance to 1956. The JSA still existed, but now Clark Kent had an early career as Superboy, inspired BY the JSA, and it was that Superboy that in turn inspired the Legion of Super-Heroes 1000 years in the future. Another snap popped Superman’s first appearance to 1986, and–
–are you seeing the pattern here?
The idea is this: Superman is the center of the Metaverse. As time goes forward, his existence is the constant, and as such, the universe is in a constant state of change. But every time the universe shifts, the previous iteration is preserved in a different world in the Multiverse. The original Golden Age Superman’s world is Earth-2. Another was preserved as Earth-1985. The version Manhattan created is Earth-52, and so forth. Eventually, Superman’s timeline will catch up with the Legion a millennium in the future, and when that happens, the ideals of Superman will become universal, and create a lasting peace.
Man, that’s a nice thought, isn’t it?
This book – much like the original Watchmen – suffered from a lot of delays before it could be finished, and many of the larger concepts have been ignored since then. I don’t think the concept of the Metaverse has been explored since this book, for instance, and by its very nature it makes sense that they wouldn’t bring it up all that often. On the other hand, this book also established that Martin Stein was part of a government conspiracy to create superheroes, and Firestorm was the result of that, something that I’m almost positive has not come up again. But that’s the beauty of this book – it provides a framework that can be used to explain away virtually any discrepancy or change in continuity. That thing you remember that the heroes didn’t? It happened in a previous iteration of the Metaverse, and it’s still canon out there in the Multiverse…somewhere.
If you’re the kind of person who considers Watchmen sacrosanct, I can understand why you wouldn’t like this book. It does, in a way, undermine the conclusion of that story by answering the intentionally vague question of what would become of Rorschach’s journals, and (perhaps even more blasphemous) it allows for that world to have a happy ending. But as good as Watchmen is, I have no objection to the notion of returning to that universe. The HBO miniseries did it in excellent fashion. I like this one too, if for no other reason than because it confirms something very important: Superman is the most important hero in the entire universe.
Shoot, guys. I could have told you that.
Tues. Dec. 30
Graphic Novel: It’s a Bird
Notes: As with Doomsday Clock yesterday, I want to spend these last few days of the year with stories about Superman and about what he means. That quest led me back to It’s a Bird, the unique 2004 Vertigo graphic novel by Steven T. Seagle and Teddy Kristiansen. It’s perhaps the most unusual Superman story of them all in that Superman isn’t actually in it.
The story, which is semi-autobiographical, starts with five-year-old Steve waiting in a hospital as his grandmother languishes. To placate him and his brother, their father brings them a Superman comic…after which, Steve swiftly rejects comics, as they remind him too much of the hospital, making it all the more ironic that he would grow up to write them. When an adult Steve is offered the job of writing Superman by his editor, he rejects it, unable to find the character relatable.
The story is mostly about Steve trying to find his way into the Superman, and along the way he takes some interesting detours. His father goes missing, and fears of the disease that took his grandmother come back. Meanwhile, everyone he talks to about getting offered Superman is ecstatic for him and dumbfounded that he doesn’t want the job. These two threads are intercut with pages of Steve’s own musings on Superman, on who the character is and what he means – or at least, what he’s supposed to mean – as he tries to find something about the character that he can make believable in the real world.
The interlacing storylines, of course, come together in the end, because such things always happen in fiction even if they almost never do in real life. His father’s disappearance turns out to be related to the death of Steve’s grandmother all those years ago, and in confronting his father and the disease that haunts his family, Steve starts to find a way in to Superman.
It’s a good story, a powerful one, but it’s one whose inherent premise is one I somewhat disagree with. Steve’s quest is to find a way to make Superman “real.” I don’t think that’s necessary. Superman isn’t part of our real world any more than Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny or the food replicators on Star Trek. That doesn’t mean that he isn’t important, though, or that there’s nothing to be learned from them. In a lot of ways, I think the very fact of Superman’s fanciful nature is perhaps the most important thing about him.
Just as the story is very atypical for a Superman comic (such as it is), so is Teddy Kristiansen’s artwork. Kristiansen’s style is an odd halfway point between sketches and realism, in some ways making me think of Art Spiegleman…which is appropriate enough, as this book echoes Maus in various ways. Both stories are autobiographical, and with a frame narrative about the author struggling to relate to their fathers. In Maus, of course, the ghost that hangs between Art and his father is the spectre of the holocaust, while in this graphic novel it’s the shadow of the Huntington’s Disease that follows Steve’s family.
The book, of course, is specifically described as “semi-autobiographical.” Not really knowing much about Seagle himself, I wouldn’t presume to declare which parts are true and which ones aren’t, but regardless of any plot elements I tend to believe that all of the emotion in this book is genuine. The concerns, the fears, the anxieties that “Steve” expresses are almost certainly part of Seagle’s own psyche. Writers tend to do that, after all.
This is the Superman book for people who don’t understand Superman. I don’t know if, in the end, it will actually help them figure the character out – at least, not the way that I understand him – but it will at the very least help them find a path through someone else asking the same questions, and that’s a journey very much worth reading.
Comics:Harley Quinn X Elvira #3 (Power Girl guest appearance), Justice League Red #5 (Team Member Power Girl), Justice League Vs. Godzilla Vs. Kong 2 #6 (Team Member)
Wed. Dec. 31
Comics: Superman #247, Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #29
Notes: Well glory be, here it is. 365 days later, and the journey I started back on January 1 with Action Comics #1 is about to end…or at least, to evolve. I’ll talk more about that (say it with me) later, but for now, it’s time for the final Superman reads of the year. I thought hard about what to read today. In the early part of the year I’d planned to end it with a classic “last” Superman story, like Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? or Kingdom Come, but I decided to add those when I did the week of comics that influenced James Gunn’s Superman. So how else to end it? I ultimately decided to go with two comic books about what Superman is, because that’s where this entire journey has led me anyway.
First is Superman #247, the Elliot S! Maggin/Curt Swan classic “Must There Be a Superman?” Like many of the stories I’ve read this year, I encountered this one for the first time when it was published in DC’s classic Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told collection. Let’s talk about why it qualifies.
The story begins with Superman taking on a special task for the Guardians of the Universe – a pod full of deadly spores on a path to Earth, and as the spores are yellow the Green Lanterns are helpless to stop it. Superman creates an artificial planet to draw the spores away safely, but is injured in the process, rescued by Green Lantern Katma Tui and brought back to Oa to heal. As Superman is healing, the Guardians take advantage of his unconscious state to plant a notion in his mind that his influence on Earth may be impeding human progress. (If this had been the “Year of Green Lantern,” you would have found me discussing a LOT of stories that drive home an important point: the Guardians are pompous assholes.) When Superman wakes up, the Guardians give him a tour of Oa, continually dropping comments about him contributing to a “Cultural Lag” on Earth, and sending him home with the notion that if he steps back, Earth will be better off.
As he returns to Earth, he stumbles on a child migrant worker being abused by his employer. Rescuing him, the child – Manuel – brings Superman back to his community where the residents begin begging him to help solve all their problems, such as fixing their crumbling houses. Superman refuses, saying that they need to know how to care for themselves, but an earthquake strikes just seconds later, destroying their homes. Superman blunts the quake and rebuilds their houses, but tries to convince them that they need to know how to care for themselves because no one – even Superman – can do anything. He returns to Metropolis only to get word of a cruise ship endangered by a waterspout, which he rushes off to save, even as the Guardians watch from afar.
Looking back at this story now, I feel like this was Maggin’s way of responding to people who asked why Superman didn’t just sweep in and fix all the problems in the world. After all, with his power, why couldn’t he just solve hunger, homelessness, war, famine, disease, and so forth? From a narrative standpoint, of course, the answer is obvious: if Superman were to do all these things, what stories would be left to tell? It would literally be the end of Superman, as a going storytelling concern. But what about in-universe? How do you explain it to a kid like Manuel, who’s getting beaten up by a man who basically controls his entire life? The answer is something that people who know Superman could have told you from the beginning: even with the best of intentions, having someone (like Superman) doing everything for them would hold them back, leave them unable to act or take care of themselves. It kind of reminds me of all those stupid ads begging me to use Google AI to write an email or a Facebook post as if I haven’t been perfectly capable of doing that for my entire life.
Superman is there to take care of the things that we can’t. As far as the things we CAN take care of…we shouldn’t expect him to do it all for us. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take inspiration from him.
“Inspiration” is the theme of the final comic I’m going to read in this year of Superman, Jack Kirby’s Kamandi: The Last Boy on Earth #29. Kamandi, for the uninitiated, was a series about a post-apocalyptic world in which the human race is all but extinct, and the world is populated by anthropomorphized animals. In this issue Kamandi, one of the few remaining humans, finds the “Tablet of Revelation,” an ancient carving that prophesies the “return of the Mighty One,” a great warrior of the past. When the apes see Kamandi’s friend Ben Boxer, they believe him to be the returned “Mighty One.” One of the apes, Zuma, tries to engage him in combat, but the elder says that the Mighty One can only be revealed by demonstrating his powers against overwhelming odds. A catapult hurls claimants through the sky to prove that they can fly higher than the tallest building, an enormous boulder called the “Daily Planet” awaits the man who can move it, and so forth. Ben’s mutant powers convince some of the apes he’s the Mighty One, but a battle breaks out when they pledge to take him to his suit. In the fight, they come across a very familiar blue costume with a cape and a brilliant scarlet S-shield. Zuma tries to claim the costume, but perishes in battle as Kamandi defends the suit, saying “I know who owns it! I know that somewhere he’s still alive!” The suit is left, waiting until the true Mighty One returns.
This comic was released in 1975, some 30 years before the idea of the S-symbol standing for “hope” was put in place, but it’s hard not to think of it as you read this story. Kamandi’s faith that Superman is still out there is the sort of thing you’d expect, it feels like an appropriate place for the legend. The future of the DC Universe has been rewritten dozens of times, of course, with many of the various possibilities showing an immortal Superman, a legacy of heroes that lasts a millennia, or both. This feels like part of that, like the hero himself has left something behind with the promise that more is to come.
And that “promise of more to come” feels an appropriate place for me to stop.
Almost.
Movie: Superman (2025)
Notes: The first movie I watched this year was the original Christopher Reeve Superman from 1978. I’m going to end the year by revisiting the movie that inspired me to start this journey in the first place, James Gunn’s Superman. I’m not going to write it up again – Heavens knows you can find that on my original review. But I’m going to watch and enjoy.
One year later, and I have succeeded. I have watched, read, or listened to at least one thing starring or about Superman or a member of his family for an entire year. I’m actually quite stunned that I made it.
And I’ve still got so much to say.
But not yet. Come back Friday, friends, for my final thoughts on this year-long Odyssey, and my explanation of where I’m going from here.
Happy New Year.
Blake M. Petitis a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon.
It’s the final Geek Punditry of 2025, and you know what that means. Everybody gets a slinky!
Here you go.
Well, that or…It’s time for the 2025 Pundy Awards, the ONLY awards show that is voted on by the exclusive governing body of Me, in which the best in pop culture for the year is given the accolades it deserves. But this year’s Pundies will be a little different. 2025 was a hectic year for me, for many reasons. One of those reasons is that I immersed myself in the Year of Superman project (which you no doubt have been following here on the blog with slavish devotion). As a result, I haven’t consumed as much new media this year as I usually do. Oh, there’s always a mountain of movies that I haven’t gotten around to yet, but I’ve fallen seriously behind in my TV viewing as well. I haven’t seen the new seasons of Stranger Things, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, Abbott Elementary, or Bob’s Burgers, and as far as watching NEW shows – it just hasn’t happened. I’ve only even seen the first two episodes of Welcome to Derry.
The point is, I don’t have as big a pool of influence to draw from as I usually do. Even amongst the new stuff, you’ll probably notice a substantial slant towards stuff related to Superman or DC Comics in general. So this year’s Pundies aren’t really going to be all that structured. I’m going to talk a little bit more freeform about the stuff that I’ve enjoyed this year.
For example, I could tell you that my favorite new movie that I saw this year was Superman. You will not be surprised. I thought James Gunn’s reinvention of the DC Universe started off beautifully, that David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult were flawless in their respective roles, and that the future of the DCU looks very bright indeed. But if you want me to wax poetic about that, you can go back and read the review I wrote in July.
“When a cold wind blows it chills you, chills you to the bone…”
So besides Superman, what were my favorites out of the (relatively) few movies I watched this year? Let’s start with Guillermo Del Toro’s new version of Frankenstein for Netflix. I’ve loved almost everything I’ve ever seen from Del Toro, so I wasn’t surprised that I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. I was surprised at just how far it deviates from the original novel. Shifting Elizabeth’s role to the wife of Victor Frankenstein’s brother, rather than making her his own love interest, gives the story a different flavor entirely, one that I didn’t see coming and I’m not 100 percent sure if it’s an improvement. On the other hand, I loved the element of Christoph Waltz’s character funding Frankenstein’s experiments because he wants a “perfect” body for himself. Most surprisingly, though, was how he rewrote the ending of the story. In Mary Shelley’s novel, and in most adaptations, they play up the idea of Victor as a neglectful “father” for his creature, making the tragedies of the story indirectly his fault. The end of the film changes this narrative, being one of the few versions of the story in which we see him recognize his faults and show remorse for them. The only other version I can think of that does this, interestingly, is Mel Brooks’s Young Frankenstein.
The real sinners are the friends we made along the way.
Speaking of classic monsters, a lot of people have sung the praises of Ryan Coogler’s vampire movie Sinners this year. Some are even calling it a best picture candidate. I wouldn’t put it QUITE that high, but it IS an excellent movie. Michael B. Jordan plays a pair of twin brothers who return home to escape some of the sins of their past, but their attempt to become honest businessmen is broken immediately when the tavern they open is assaulted by…well…vampires. It’s not just another vampire movie, though. This film is deep, powerfully emotional, and at times even sadly beautiful. There’s a ton of killer music (excuse the pun), and Hailee Steinfeld’s performance adds to an already incredible performance by Jordan as two very different characters. It’s a horror movie, technically, but like we get from Del Toro, it’s a horror movie that appeals to people beyond the genre.
Evidence that comedy still exists.
Perhaps the most delightful surprise at the cinema this year, though, was Akiva Schaffer’s reboot of The Naked Gunwith Liam Neeson and Pamela Anderson. The idea of “spoof” movies has taken a nasty hit in the past few years, with many of them being reduced to painful reference-fests bereft of actual humor like we get from the Friedberg/Seltzer team, so I honestly didn’t have high hopes for this one. To my shock, I got the funniest movie I’ve seen in years. The humor is spot-on, feeling like the classic Leslie Nielsen films brought back to life. What’s more, Neeson plays the son of Nielsen’s character, making this a legacy sequel rather than a remake, which I always prefer anyway. But the biggest surprise – and here’s a sentence I never thought I would be writing on January 1st – was Pamela Anderson. Pamela Anderson is a FANTASTIC comedic actress. She’s got perfect timing and flawless delivery, and she and Neeson have legitimate chemistry, which apparently is due to the fact that they actually fell in love on the set of this film. The Naked Gun is proof that the movie industry CAN still make good comedies. The hard part is getting people in the theater to WATCH them.
Moving on from movies, let’s talk television. As I said, I didn’t get to watch very much new TV this year, and once I catch up I may have totally different picks for my favorites. But of the new TV I DID watch in 2025, here are the three shows I enjoyed the most.
Do you really wanna — do you REALLY wanna taste it?
First of all – and I know that we’ve already talked about James Gunn – I loved the second season of Peacemaker. The John Cena-starring show is the one definite holdover from the previous DC Universe, and Gunn spends a bare minimum amount of effort in the first episode retooling it to fit the new DCU he’s created, then he plops it right into the time immediately post-Superman. John Cena’s Peacemaker is suffering from severe trauma following the events of the first season (which is still in-continuity in broad strokes) and finds a way to an alternate dimension where his father and brother are still alive and he’s celebrated as the hero he wants to be. It seems perfect…at first. Just like the first season, the show is funny and full of action, but this season really amplifies the drama. There’s a deep storyline between Cena’s Christopher Smith and Jennifer Holland’s Emilia Harcourt that drives the season in a very real way. Danielle Brooks meanwhile, puts in an award-worthy performance as Leota Adebayo, the best original character from a DC TV series since Harley Quinn was created in Batman: The Animated Series. The ending is bittersweet, in that it sets up a new storyline but, at the moment, there’s no season three planned. The setup here is for the future of the DC Universe, and I can only hope that when it IS picked up, wherever that happens to be, it’s not only Peacemaker that makes his triumphant return, but the entire group of 11th Street Kids that we’ve come to love.
Like Kermit the Frog crossed with Loki.
This was also, as I mentioned several months back, the year I discovered Dropout TV, specifically its signature show Game Changer. If you missed that previous column, Game Changer is a game show where the contestants are usually improv comedians and the game itself changes in every episode – they never know exactly what the game will be or what the rules are until they start playing. This year’s seventh season started off with “One Year Later,” an episode in which the three contestants were given a series of wild tasks and then a solid year in which to accomplish them. The comedy comes from the creative ways that they do things like bringing a cardboard cutout of Sam Reich (the host) to the most “remote” location they can or recording the best outgoing voicemail message. Later we get the “You-Lympics,” where they have to complete a series of stunts unaware of the fact that they’re going to have to do the same ones again, competing not against each other, but against their own prior scores. “Crowd Control” brings in stand-up comedians with skill at working the crowd and makes them face an audience full of highly unusual quirks and personal history to work with, an episode that was so successful it spun off into its own series.
Spin that wheel!
But my favorite of the season, the one that I would show a newcomer to Dropout to convince them to watch Game Changer, was “Ruelette.” The players spin a giant Price is Right-style wheel which lands on different rules that they have to abide by for the rest of the game, like wearing an oversized cowboy hat or having to say everything in a singsong voice. The rules stack and twists are thrown in, and the game quickly flies completely off the rails into one of the most unhinged episodes of television I’ve ever seen. It’s glorious.
Summer belongs to them — AGAIN!
Finally, let’s talk about the revival of Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, which dropped this year. Picking up the summer after the first four seasons of the show, season five begins with the last day of school at the beginning of a new, glorious summer of games, stunts, ridiculous inventions, and Buford’s endless quest for a hot tub made out of a giant bread bowl. The hiatus since the show’s previous cancellation hasn’t dulled it in the slightest – it’s still as charming, funny, and toe-tapping as it ever was. I cannot wait for the second half of the season to drop on Disney+ next month.
As if fairy tales weren’t creepy enough.
I read a lot of books this year, I’m proud to say, but I’ve actually read relatively few NEW books. Of the dozens of books that crossed my to-read pile in 2025, only three of them were actually PUBLISHED in 2025. One of them is not worth mentioning in this column. Another was the Stephen King/Maurice Sendak collaboration on a new version of Hansel and Gretel. King takes the classic fairy tale and adds a few touches that are distinctly his, and even links to his larger universe (specifically the Dark Tower books). Sendak’s illustrations, as expected, are whimsical and ghastly at the same time, and I loved it.
And y’know what? It IS my favorite scary movie.
The other new book from this year was a nonfiction history of my favorite horror movie franchise, Your Favorite Scary Movie: How the Scream Films Rewrote the Rules of Horror by Ashley Cullins. As a fan of the Scream films (I’ve mentioned it here once or twice, I think), I sincerely enjoyed this book. Although much of the history is stuff that fans probably already knew, Cullins did in-depth interviews with dozens of the actors, writers, and other creators involved in the series over the decades, fleshing out a familiar story. She gives insight to the things we already knew, and adds a lot of stuff that we didn’t. The centerpiece of the book is a very loving, respectful tribute to the late Wes Craven, something that fans of the franchise in general or Craven specifically will find touching and even tearjerking. The book is also extremely thorough, tracking the history of the franchise from the one-act play Kevin Williamson wrote in college that provided the germ of the idea for the first film right up to the eve of filming for the seventh movie, which isn’t even coming out until 2026. I’ve read a lot of stuff about Scream, and this is probably the best book on the series I’ve come across.
Wait — Superman? Since when does this blog talk about SUPERMAN?
Finally, I want to move into the world of comic books, and again, you’re gonna hear me talk about Superman. DC declared it the “Summer of Superman,” which makes the man behind the Year of Superman laugh kind of derisively, but they absolutely stepped up. The addition of a new series this year, Superman Unlimited, gave the Man of Steel four different ongoing titles, as it joined the ongoing Superman, Action Comics, and the title he shares with his best pal from Gotham, Batman and Superman: World’s Finest. All four of the books are great right now. Superman has been part of an ongoing storyline tying into the larger DC Universe, Unlimited has focused on a story about an enormous Kryptonite meteor landing on Earth and changing the game for everybody, Action Comics is telling new stories of Clark’s early career as Superboy, and Batman and Superman is full of stories of the characters several years ago as well. (Both of the books set in the past, I should note, are written by Mark Waid, while Joshua Williamson and Dan Slott are behind Superman and Unlimited, respectfully.)
She hasn’t had it this good since Helen Slater.
That’s not all, though. With her own movie coming out next year, Supergirl got a new series written and (usually) illustrated by Sophie Campbell. In the new Supergirl comic, Campbell has Supergirl moving back to her hometown of Midvale only to find a second Supergirl getting in her way. The series is eight issues in so far, and it’s become an absolutely lovely story about found family, with Supergirl building up a team of unexpected friends around her. Campbell’s art is great as well – a bit more cartoonish than your traditional superhero comic book, but perfectly suited for the series.
A boy and his dog indeed.
Not only that, but the Superman titles gave us two of the best miniseries of the year. Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton by Ryan North and Mike Norton, is the story of the breakout star from this summer’s hit movie. For the first time, we see Krypto’s point of view of the destruction of Krypton, his journey to Earth, and the path that eventually led him back to Kal-El in Smallville. There’s something about that dog that pulls on the heartstrings, and in the course of the five issues I cried no less than six times. Of course, I’m kind of a softie.
Kryptonite! Now in all the Kolors of the rainbow!
Finally, and I promise this is the end of me plugging Superman, I absolutely loved Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum by W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo. Prince and Morazzo have had a hit series through Image Comics for the past several years with Ice Cream Man, an existential horror series that takes some of our most human fears and anxieties and materializes them in stories that would feel suitable in The Twilight Zone. In The Kryptonite Spectrum, Superman encounters Kryptonite meteors in colors he’s never seen before and begins experimenting to determine what they do. What’s astonishing is that, although this is by no means a horror story, Price and Morazzo still manage to tackle some of the stranger, more esoteric kinds of stories that they’ve become so well known for. The stories deal with things like the nature of time and identity, and while they may not be frightening, they’re very atypical for Superman…and they’re great.
Step aside, boys, Sue’s got this one covered.
Okay, let’s forget Superman and talk about a few other great comic books. Once again, Ryan North’s Fantastic Four is the best title Marvel Comics is publishing. Relaunching this year with art by Humberto Ramos, Fantastic Four continues to be an exploration of Marvel’s first family with time-travel adventures, an alien pet, and a focus on characters that the series has historically neglected. In the early days of the series, Susan Storm – then the Invisible Girl – was written almost as an afterthought, and frequently as a damsel in distress. A lot of writers have improved her over the years, but North has gone a step further, showing how smart, brave, and capable the Invisible Woman can be. She’s taken a leadership role and is using her powers in ways that no writer has ever done before. North’s love for the FF shows in every panel. It was recently announced that he’s taking over DC’s The Flash with artist Gavin Guidry next year, and I absolutely cannot wait.
Stuff like this is the reason people don’t want to go to the movies anymore.
Finally, I want to talk about how great Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis’s horror comic Hyde Street was this year. Published through the Ghost Machine studio by Image Comics, Hyde Street is a series about a mysterious town populated by people who are under the thumb of an unseen Gamemaker. Each of them is a person of vice or cruelty that has been trapped on Hyde Street and given the task of corrupting a certain number of souls before they can leave. Some of them are desperate for release. Others, like the demonic boy scout “Pranky,” are far past their limit of souls but are having too much fun to leave. The format leaves the series open to tell an endless number of horror stories, while still having its own backstory and mythology that’s turning out to be a lot of fun to explore.
There’s been some great storytelling in 2025, and I’m hoping to get even more in 2026. If I missed one of your favorites – well, like I said, there’s a LOT of stuff I missed this year. Let me know what I need to add to my list for next year.
Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. Also, for the 23rd consecutive year, the best food find of the year was the return of the McRib.
As I write this it’s December 17, one scant week until Christmas Eve. And I don’t mind telling you guys, we need a little Christmas right this very minute. Don’t worry, I’m not gonna quote the entire song. I will, however, spend the next several days reading some of my favorite classic Superman stories set around the holidays. I’ll also tackle this year’s DC Christmas special, which I’ve been sitting on in anticipation of this week, and I’ll take a look at the third Krypto short, Package Pandemonium.
Comic:DC Comics Presents #67, DC Go! Holiday Special #7 (Bizarro), DC Go! Holiday Special #8 (Sunshine Superman)
Notes: I’m starting this week with one of my all-time favorites, a comic book I’ve loved since I was a kid and I go back and re-read pretty much every year at this time. DC Comics Presents was, of course, the Superman team-up book for much of the 80s, and in issue #67 Superman teamed up with the greatest hero of them all: Santa Claus.
In “‘Twas the Fright Before Christmas” (a title which I feel has probably been used and reused hundreds of times over the years), Superman happens to pass by a kid using a toy gun to try to hold up a sidewalk Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. Superman determines that the toy gun actually has a device that’s controlling the boy’s mind, and he whisks him off to the Fortress of Solitude to investigate. Superman breaks the mind control and the boy, “Timmy Dickens” (because Len Wein and E. Nelson Bridwell were not subtle writers) tells him how he found some of his Christmas presents early. Superman deduces that it’s the work of his old foe the Toyman, and bundles up Tim to bring him home. Just moments after he takes to the Arctic air, Timmy’s other toy blasts him with a ray that sends him crashing to the ground, unconscious. As Tim pleads with him to wake up, a group of tiny men with pointy ears appear as if from nowhere and take them both to safety.
Back in Metropolis, we see the Toyman monologing about how he found a chunk of white dwarf matter that he used to create heavy gravity, cancelling Superman’s powers, and believes him to be dead…but JUST in case (the Toyman may be crazy, but he’s not an idiot) he starts preparing a few other weapons. Superman, meanwhile, wakes up surrounded by his rescuers. When he asks where he is, his eyes clear and he sees Santa Claus standing over him, welcoming him to his top-secret workshop. He gives Superman a tour of the workshop, triggering memories in Superman of a holo-projector he played with as a baby, a gift from Jor-El that was lost when Krypton exploded. With Superman still weak from the gravity beam, Santa offers to give him and Timmy a lift back to Metropolis in his sleigh. They stop at Toyman’s hideout and Superman bursts in to stop his old foe, but between the earlier blast and Toyman’s Kryptonite-armed toys, the pushover of a villain turns out to be far more dangerous than usual. Santa drops down the chimney and lets some of his own toys out, and the tiny warriors help the Man of Steel defeat the Toyman in an epic battle. After the Toyman is taken away, Santa gives Superman safe toys to replace all of Toyman’s tainted gifts. As he finishes his rounds he’s about to take Tim home, but Tim’s toy blasts him again, knocking him out. He wakes up back in the arctic snow, Tim standing over him, and he believes the events of the evening to be a dream. But after he brings Timmy home, he returns to Clark Kent’s apartment to find a special gift in his cape pouch – the holo-toy his father made for him.
Usually, I despise the whole “It’s all a dream…or WAS it?” trope, but this is one of the few stories where I give it a pass. Part of it, I suppose, is the nostalgia behind it. I was probably ten or eleven years old the first time I read this story, and it’s as dear a holiday yarn to me as the likes of Rudolph and Frosty. There’s so much charm to it, and I just love Curt Swan’s depiction of Santa Claus. As much as he is one of the iconic Superman artists of all time, sometimes I wish he had gotten to do a Santa miniseries or something, just because his style lends itself so well to the character.
The story also plays on nostalgia as well, with Superman remembering the toy from Jor-El and thinking fondly of Christmases past. And while Superman’s initial skepticism about Santa DOES seem a little silly, considering all of the other outlandish things in the DC Universe that he knows are real (lest we forget, he has previously visited an alternate dimension occupied entirely by funny animals), they at least justify it by him saying that he would have seen Santa’s workshop at the North Pole if it existed and Santa casually telling him that nobody sees the workshop unless he WANTS them to. That whole “magic vulnerability” again, y’know?
This story, along with several other classics, was reprinted in 1988 in the first of two Christmas With the Super-Heroes specials. It was my first exposure to not only this story, but other classics like the Teen Titans “Swingin’ Christmas Carol” and “Silent Night of the Batman.” Both this issue and the entire special are – for once – available on the DC Infinity app, and if you want a little holiday cheer, it’s worth the read.
Dec. 18
Comics: Superman Vol. 2 #64, Adventures of Superman #487, DC Go! Holiday Special #12 (Super-Pets), DC Go! Holiday Special #13 (Bizarro)
Notes: This was probably the first Superman Christmas story I remember reading as an ongoing fan of the comic, surprisingly enough. I’d only come on-board 14 issues prior, during the Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite, and there wasn’t a Christmas story the previous year. This one made up for it, though, with “Metropolis Mailbag” written by Dan Jurgens with art by the late Butch Guice. This story established something that we’ve come back to in the Superman titles a few times over the years: people send letters to him all the time and they pile up in the Metropolis post office, as he doesn’t actually have an address. Then, a few days before Christmas, he comes by and reads and responds to as many of them as he actually can.
The task of reading the mail is arduous for Superman, the hero who wants to help everybody and sees the mountains of letters as a visual representation of all the desperate people beyond his help. This year, at least, he has a little company, as Lois is joining him in reading the letters so she can write a story about Superman’s tradition for the Daily Planet. After sifting through fan letters and get-rich-quick schemes, he starts to sift out the people he can actually help, such as an Auschwitz survivor who has discovered that the sister whom she thought died in the war is still alive, but she has no means to get to Germany to see her. The triumph of their reunion is quickly dulled, however, when he finds another letter from a boy whose father is dying from a brain tumor. Superman visits the child in the hospital, arriving just minutes after Terry Baldwin Sr. passes away. Although Mrs. Baldwin is grateful that he came, Terry Jr. – who wrote the letter – is outraged. Superman sits with the boy and tries to explain himself, but he’s not having it.
“But you’re SUPERman!” Terry shouts.
“No. I’m SuperMAN. And there are many, many things I just cannot do.”
After a few weepy panels (both for the characters and the reader), the doctors come by to ask Mrs. Baldwin if her husband was an organ donor. Superman, sensing an opportunity to take some good from this tragedy, tells her about a letter he received earlier from another woman in desperate need of a heart transplant. In what can only be categorized as a Christmas miracle, Baldwin’s heart is a perfect match, and Superman swiftly delivers it.
One last letter comes from a charity for disadvantaged kids that can’t afford Christmas presents or a Santa Claus this year, asking Superman to make an appearance to distract them from the lack of toys. As always, Superman does it one better with the help of his friends. Emil Hamilton whips up a sleigh and plays Santa, delivering a load of toys donated by one Mr. Bruce Wayne. Superman flies the sleigh down to visit the kids, incognito, and slips away before any of them suspect that they’ve witnessed anything other than Christmas magic.
This issue has been a favorite of mine for decades now. It’s a sweet, simple extrapolation of who Superman is and what would likely happen in a world where he existed – a mountain of pleas for his attention, of course, and the way he tries to handle as many of them as possible.
The story also humanizes Superman in ways that few other stories do. It’s natural enough to see him in pain over all the people he simply cannot help – that’s just part and parcel for who a Superman should be. But the panel where he’s arriving at the hospital, unable to save Terry Sr., cuts right into the gut. Jurgens has him pause for a moment on the hospital roof before going inside, thinking about the boy whose world he’s about to shatter, thinking, “I hope he understands. I hope he won’t hate me.” You read this panel, Guice drawing Superman’s face in shadow, and you’re not hearing the voice of the world’s greatest hero. You’re hearing a very human man who loves people, who desires connection, and allows a very relatable moment of despair at the thought that he’ll be blamed for something beyond his control. It’s one of those single panels that encapsulates the character just beautifully.
The story worked so well that it was revisited a few times, most notably one year later when Superman was “dead” after his battle with Doomsday and the rest of Earth’s heroes picked up his mail and dealt with it in his honor. But this original did it best. It’s a perennial read for me, a work of art, and it is as Superman as Superman gets.
Fri., Dec. 19
Comics: New Adventures of Superboy #39, DC Go! Holiday Special #19, 20
Notes: It’s the last work day of the year for me, and honestly, I’m ready for it. I need some time to decompress, although I fear terribly that those circumstances I keep talking about are going to do their best to prevent such decompression in the home stretch of the Year of Superman. Still, I spent Thanksgiving with Superboy, so I’m bringing him back for one last go today in “A World Without Christmas” by Paul Kupperberg and Kurt Schaffenberger.
It’s Christmas Eve in Smallville, but Clark’s classmate Bash isn’t feeling it. Bash – whose parents had to go out of town unexpectedly, leaving him alone – rants against the commercialization of Christmas and storms out of the Kents’ Christmas party. Clark heads after him, approaching him as Superboy, figuring that Bash would be more receptive to him that way. It doesn’t work – Bash continues to rail against the world. Playing a little Dickens, Superboy whisks Bash to an alternate reality where there is no Christmas, and Smallville is a dilapidated dump. Bash encounters that world’s Clark Kent, who runs away from him in fear, summoning an angry mob that’s out for blood, wanting to drive out the “costumed stranger” and the “Bashford Punk” from town. The two are separated, and Superboy is found by that world’s Jonathan Kent, one of the few decent people left. He takes Superboy to an underground hideout where, to Superboy’s shock, he finds Bash teaching Jonathan’s friends to sing “Silent Night.” Superboy takes Bash back home, his Christmas spirit renewed, neither of them ever learning that the leader of Jonathan’s resistance is that world’s Bash Bashford.
It’s a different kind of Christmas story, that’s for sure – kind of bleak and melancholy. Although I suppose the ultimate message is that good can be found anywhere, which is appropriate enough for the Christmas season. I’ll allow it.
Sat., Dec. 20
Short Film: Krypto Saves the Day: Package Pandemonium
Notes: It’s the third of the four Krypto shorts, this time giving us a warm, fuzzy tale of absolute chaos that feels delightfully appropriate for the holiday season. It’s Christmastime in Metropolis, and while Clark is sending out his Christmas cards, Krypto’s X-Ray vision happens to spot a postal worker carrying a package with a mouthwatering t-bone steak. Hunger overwhelms Krypto’s urge to be a good boy, and calamity ensues.
Okay, three cartoons in and I think it’s safe to say that this is the pattern for the Krypto shorts: he gets the urge to chase something for some reason, he causes lots of wacky shenanigans in his pursuit, and in the end he realizes he’s made a mistake and does his best to fix all the stuff that he’s wrecked. Yeah, it’s formulaic, but is it really any more of a formula than the classic Coyote and Roadrunner or Tom and Jerry shorts? They’ve all got their patterns, the real question is whether the filmmakers can find a little variety and a little fun while staying within the bounds of the formula. And I think this one does. The chaos is funny and Krypto’s remorse at the end feels genuine. Plus I’m still chuckling over the fact that Metropolis has a store literally named “Oversized Ornaments Outlet.”
Sun., Dec. 21
Comic:DC Special Series #21
Notes: Today I’m grabbing another old favorite from DC Special Series #21, aka the Super-Star Holiday Special. This book from 1979 featured several stories starring Jonah Hex, Batman, Sgt. Rock, and the House of Mystery. The one I’m reading this for, though, is Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes in “Star Light, Star Bright…Farthest Star I See Tonight!”
Superboy is bouncing forward in time for one of his regular visits to the Legion just in time for Christmas. His friends show him some of the futuristic holiday celebrations, and Superboy is left feeling nostalgic for a simple, old-fashioned Christmas. Then, to make all the Legion’s futuristic technology worthwhile, he proposes a little adventure: using their tech to try to track down the Star of Bethlehem. With Wildfire, Lightning Lad, Saturn Girl, and Phantom Girl joining him, the Legion sets out to look for the star. When they arrive where it should be, though, they find a planet in dire straights. The planet is entering an ice age, causing its three intelligent species problems. An aquatic race is dying because the plankton they feed upon is freezing. A land-dwelling mammalian race is so desperate for warmth that they’re setting fire to their own crops. Finally, ice storms are battering the nests of an avian race, threatening the eggs that hold their young. The Legionnaires help each of the tribes but know their aid is only temporary, until Superboy comes up with a plan. Together, the Legion uses their powers to carve out an underground catacomb where the three races can shelter from the storm and coexist with one another, sharing resources and warmth until the United Planets can find a way to safely evacuate them to a more suitable world. Although Wildfire remains characteristically skeptical, Superboy is happy to credit his quest for the Christmas star for saving an entire world that Christmas Eve.
The first time I ever read this story, like the DC Comics Presents story from a few days ago, was when it was reprinted in Christmas With the Super-Heroes from 1988. Dang – maybe I should have just read that book this year. But regardless, I really like the message here. The story is a bit light on traditional Christmas elements: no Santa Claus, no Angels, no carols or candy canes. Despite that, though, writer Paul Levitz leans on the spiritual aspects of the holiday even 1,000 years in the future, set against the backdrop of a story that feels like it could have come out of an episode of Star Trek. It’s not something that many writers would do today…in fact, more recent Legion stories have mashed all of the Earth’s winter festivals into a bland, homogenized “Holiday” (which is actually what it’s called), whereas Levitz recognizes and celebrates different traditions: while the story is explicitly a Christmas tale, we see other alien cultures, as well as other Earth festivals like Chanukkah, which is celebrated by Colossal Boy (whose Judaism isn’t frequently referenced, but it’s not ignored either).
I particularly like how Superboy has this sort of childlike wonder to him. He’s never got a hint of doubt that their quest will bear fruit, and although he doesn’t exactly find what he expected, the fact that his curiosity helped save three intelligent civilizations is evidence that he was right all along.
Although only the final story in this special is Superman related, the others have a lot going for them as well. The Jonah Hex story cracks open Jonah’s childhood to show the horrible cycle he’s trying to escape, the Batman story has some early Frank Miller art, and the House of Mystery is a wild little romp where most (if not all) of DC’s horror hosts of the era get into a little contest to see who can tell the best Christmas story. The special is available on the DC Universe Infinity app, and it’s worth cycling into your yuletide reading.
Mon. Dec. 22
Comic:Superman Vol. 2 #165, DC Go! Holiday Special #26, 29
Notes: I don’t talk about cover art often enough in these write-ups, but let’s take just a moment to appreciate this lovely little scene by Ed McGuinness: Superman and Lois looking down at a box of ornaments as Superman ponders that most inscrutable of holiday questions: what do you get the JLA for Christmas?
The story within, unfortunately, is somewhat less effusive with the holiday cheer. Written by Jeph Loeb, this story takes place in the aftermath of the election of Lex Luthor as President, with Superman struggling to wrap his head around the fact that such a thing could have happened. The issue is a series of vignettes, each by a different artist, in which he visits a member of the League, has largely the same conversation over and over again, and then gives them a token Christmas present. Some of them, like Green Lantern’s gift, are a bit of a gag, while others like Wonder Woman’s belie a deeper meaning.
I get the intent behind this issue. The President Luthor story was a big one, and it makes sense for Superman to struggle with it, even to the point of a mild existential crisis But in practice, this issue comes off as very repetitive, with each Leaguer’s respective stance being highly predictable. The rotating artists thing doesn’t work great either. Some of the scenes are sublime – having the late Mike Wieringo illustrate an outer space game of Satellite Baseball between Superman and Kyle Rayner is just lovely. Others are less so, but I suppose that Loeb was a big enough name at the time to want to work with his friends, and I can’t in good faith begrudge him that.
All said, despite the premise of this issue being that Superman is delivering Christmas presents to his teammates in the Justice League, this is probably the least Christmasy story I’ve read this week.
But again, that cover is a banger.
I had more fun with the DC Go! Holiday Special #29. This digital series has mostly taken short stories from the assorted DC holiday anthologies of the past and re-presented them one at a time in their “Infinite” format, so they aren’t new stories, but I honestly don’t remember where most of them were originally presented. In this case, we’ve got “A Lex-Tacular Christmas Carol” by Ethan Sacks with art by Soo Lee. It’s one of a thousand takes on the ol’ Dickens chestnut, but it’s an entertaining one. After sending an employee (named Bob, naturally) off to spend his Christmas Eve working instead of spending time with his family, Lex sets out to have a good night’s sleep, only to find himself visited by a variety of familiar spirits. Just when you think you’ve seen every iteration of A Christmas Carol that you could think of, you get hit with something like this. Whereas most of our Scrooge stand-ins go through the requisite character arc, Lex is utterly nonplussed about the ghosts. Even his own father as the stand-in for Jacob Marley doesn’t make Lex bat an eye, merely comparing his current appearance to what he looked like when Lex – y’know – murdered him. Sacks DOES give in to tradition just a hair at the end, but all in all, Lex makes for them the most delightfully unrepentant Ebenezer Scrooge you could possibly imagine.
Tues., Dec. 23
Comic:Batman and the Outsiders #19, DC’s I Saw Ma Hunkel Kissing Santa Claus #1, Titans Vol. 4 #30 (Guest Star Jon Kent)
Notes: I like it when Superman pops up as a guest star alongside other, younger heroes. It’s a good way to see just how he’s perceived by the hero community at large, and this Christmas story from Batman and the Outsiders #19 serves that purpose well. On Christmas Eve, Geo-Force (arguably the most powerful member of Batman’s mid-80s team) is with the young Halo when gets a phone call from a friend who has swallowed a bottle of pills. After getting the young woman, Denise, to medical attention, Geo-Force discovers that she was driven to this desperate situation after being sexually coerced by one of her college professors. Geo-Force sets out to kill the professor and Halo rushes off to Batman for help. Recognizing that he can’t possibly stop Geo-Force on his own, Batman makes a call to Metropolis. As Superman and Halo seek out Geo-Force, hoping to stop him before he does something he can’t take back, Batman uses his own skills to attack the lecherous professor in his own way.
Several things worth mentioning in this one. First, when Batman quit the Justice League and founded the Outsiders (a whole 19 issues ago) it caused a rift between himself and Superman that all of their assorted titles dealt with for months, particularly the title they co-starred in, World’s Finest Comics. The fact that Bruce immediately calls Clark for help when he realizes what Geo-Force is up to is a wonderful way to demonstrate that the rift has largely been healed at this point. It’s also cute to see Halo mooning over Superman when she meets him for the first time. The “young heroine gets a crush on Superman” trope wasn’t new even when this book was published in 1984, and often it gets tiresome. It works quite well with Halo, though – she’s a teenage girl who is struggling with assorted identity issues of her own while, at the same time, still dedicated to being a hero. She’s also the kind of person whose heroism shows brightly, cheerfully – she may be a member of Batman’s team, but she’s not the kind of hero who sulks in the shadows.
The Geo-Force fight is the really interesting part of this story, though. It’s often tempting to enact what TV Tropes calls “the Worf Effect” in stories like this one – having a character who should theoretically be much more powerful than his opponent suddenly become weak or ineffective. It’s an annoying trope, and when you hear “Superman Vs. Geo-Force” (who’s very much a rookie at this point) it doesn’t seem like it should be a contest. But Geo-Force not only holds his own, but writer Mike W. Barr sells you on its plausibility. Superman’s powers are, after all, due in part to the lower gravity of the Earth, and since part of Geo-Force’s powerset is the manipulation of gravity, it allows him to balance the playing field considerably, making for a more tense battle scene.
Despite the dark undercurrent of this story, the presentation at the end feels hopeful and bright, which is just what you want in a Christmas story, isn’t it?
Also on the docket today is this year’s DC Comics Christmas special, I Saw Ma Hunkel Kissing Santa Claus. (Again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, whoever it is in the DC marketing department that’s coming up with the titles for these holiday anthologies deserves a raise.) There are eight stories this time out, and I particularly liked the opening story starring Ma Hunkel herself, as well as the tales with Billy Batson, Animal Man, and Dr. Light. But I’m here to talk about the Supergirl story, “Holiday Woes” by Ash Padilla with art by Anthony Marques. Kara is spending Christmas in Smallville with Lois and Clark – her first since declaring herself the protector of National City, and she’s nervous that if she takes time away from her tasks as a superhero, people in her town will go undefended. But Clark wants her to loosen her up, and sets her up on a blind date at the Smallville Winter Festival. As is to be expected from a blind date in a comic book, things don’t go exactly as planned.
I’ll knock out the thing I didn’t care for: the retcon of Pete Ross’s son. As recently as the Summer of Superman special early this year, we saw that Pete and Lana’s son Clark Ross is still in continuity and still a child. A teenage son named Jonathan Ross doesn’t fit in anywhere here. Now it’s easy enough to dismiss the story as just being out of continuity, as the stories in these holiday specials rarely turn out to have any ongoing relevance. But in this case, darn it, I WANT this story to turn up again. The truth about Kara’s date is really sweet, and the kind of thing that appeals to an old-school fan like myself. (And truth be told, I’d like to see Dr. Light team up with the Atom again the way they do in this issue. What can I say? Like Clark Kent in this story, I love love.)
Notes: I’m going to wrap up this festive week with some Golden Age Goodies, beginning with what I have to assume is the first ever Superman Christmas one-shot, Superman’s Christmas Adventure from 1940. Lois and Clark convince their editor to begin a campaign to collect and refurbish used toys to give to needy children for Christmas. News of this campaign makes it all the way to the North Pole, where Santa is pleased to see that Lois and Clark are acting as his helpers this year. But a pair of villains who hate Christmas – Dr. Grouch and Mr. Meany – have sent a ship to the Pole where they try to convince Santa to convert his workshop to a commercial enterprise. Failing, they attack the Planet’s toy drive, setting the workshop on fire, with it only being spared thanks to Clark’s super-breath. Foiled again, they decide to attack Santa’s workshop directly, only to be driven back by his army of toy soldiers. Lois has stowed away on their ship (because of course she has) so they strap her to a rocket and blast her into the sky, where Superman rescues her. The villains split up, with one of them kidnapping Lois (again) and the other stealing Santa’s reindeer – a crime that statistically is far greater than stealing forty cakes. Santa radios Superman for help, and although he saves the reindeer, Grouch and Meany manage to gas them to sleep, rendering them unable to pull Santa’s sleigh. Superman, of course, steps up to help the big guy make his rounds.
This 16-page comic, originally published as a department store giveaway, is absolutely wild. It ends when Santa gives the bad guys Christmas presents, despite the fact that they quite clearly belong on the naughty list, and this makes them instantly reform and give up evil. Really, that’s all it takes. And I didn’t even mention the two-page sequence where Superman takes a spoiled rich kid on a tour of the less fortunate children of Metropolis to make him appreciate what he’s got and teach him the spirit of giving. That has NOTHING to do with the main plot. This story is wild, unfocused, a plot seemingly assembled by shotgun. And I of course loved every panel. Here’s hoping that Tom King is working on the gritty reboot of Grouch and Meany for next Christmas.
Action Comics #93 brings us “Christmas Around the World.” It’s 1945, and in the aftermath of World War II, Lois and Clark find an abundance of refugee children separated from their families during the war. Superman, of course, loads them up in a glider and begins a world tour, delivering food and supplies to impoverished areas while, at the same time, reuniting the children with their families, and spreading Christmas spirit along the way. It’s an odd little story. There’s no villain. There’s not even really any conflict. The closest we have is one boy who lies about wanting to go with Superman to be reunited with his father, but who only didn’t want to make his friends (whose fathers died in the war) feel bad. It’s just a little picture postcard of a world healing itself after its darkest hour.
I’m going to wrap up this week of yuletide joy with Action Comics #105, a comic so stuffed with holiday cheer that I am currently wearing a t-shirt with the cover on it. Millionaire Jasper Rasper is a mean man who hates Christmas. He sneaks off to the North Pole and tempts Santa with some candy that is specially formulated to make fatty tissue multiply at an alarming rate. When Superman gets wind of the scheme, he rushes to the Pole to find that Santa is now too plump to make it down the chimneys on Christmas Eve. Superman begins whisking Santa around the world on an exercise tour, slimming him back down. As he’s about to head out, though, they find that Rasper ALSO drugged Santa’s reindeer (Santa needs to step up his security detail), so Superman agrees to pull that ol’ sleigh again. As they’re making their way south, they see that Rasper’s helicopter crashed on an iceberg. Superman saves him and the villain, just like our pals Grouch and Meany, has a miraculous change of heart.
Just when you think you’ve seen every Christmas story possible, we get a gem like “Villain makes Santa Claus too fat, so Superman becomes his fitness instructor.” It’s a magical time.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this week of holiday adventures friends, and I hope you and yours have the merriest of Christmases. And I hope to see you all next week, on New Year’s Day, when I’ll present the grand finale of my Year of Superman.
In case you didn’t make it to the end of last week’s blog (I don’t blame you), I want to talk about what’s going on for the last month of the Year of Superman. I have plans for the last two weeks, including a week of holiday-themed stories and then wrapping it all up with a sort of “best of” week featuring classic stories I haven’t covered, as well as stories that kind of function as “endings” for the Man of Steel. In the last two weeks before then, it’s gonna be a free-for-all. I’m going to try to cross off as many things from my to-read and to-watch list as I possibly can, but there won’t necessarily be any rhyme or reason, pattern or theme. I’m going to get in whatever I can. As I write this, on Dec. 3, I know what I’m reading today, but I’ve got no idea what you’re going to get over the next six. Here’s hoping we can have some fun with it.
Graphic Novel:Superman: Ending Battle (Collects Superman Vol. 2 #186-187, Adventures of Superman #608-609, Superman: The Man of Steel #130-131, and Action Comics #795-796)
Notes: About two years after the legendary Action Comics #775, “What’s So Funny about Truth, Justice, and the American Way?”, the four Superman titles came in with a sequel story that lasted for two months across eight individual issues. In “Ending Battle,” written in turn by Geoff Johns, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, and Joe Kelly, Clark Kent is in Washington, DC visiting his old friend Vice President Pete Ross (this was during the President Luthor era), when the White House is attacked by the Master Jailer and Neutron. They’ve been hired to kidnap Pete and his wife, Lana Lang – but not because he’s the Vice President. Superman stops them, but they manage to escape, and Pete gets a very cryptic call from President Luthor, asking him to tell Clark “You’re faster than a speeding bullet.”
Later that day (in part two), the Atomic Skull arrives in Kansas where he quickly takes down Superboy and is about to go after Jonathan and Martha before Superman arrives to save them. As the day continues, more villains attack people close to Clark Kent: Riot goes after his old high school coach, Quakemaster his dentist, Hellgramite one of his college professors, and so on. Superman races from scene to scene, capturing one B-list villain after another, piecing together that someone is targeting not Superman, but Clark. He also realizes that the villains that are being sent are deliberately sub-par – whoever is behind this isn’t actually trying to harm anyone, but rather to send the message that nobody close to Clark Kent is safe. The stakes are raised when King Shark goes after Jimmy Olsen. After Superman stops him, Shark claims that a voice in his head told him a name and location, and he didn’t have a choice but to attack. While Superman is cleaning up the Shark attack, someone attacks the Daily Planet.
In Part Three Superman arrives at the Planet to see it besieged by Green Lantern’s old enemy Evil Star. No seriously, that’s his name. But despite having a moniker that sounds like a third grader came up with it, Evil Star is a lot more dangerous than the bad guys so far. He’s powerful, and in control of dozens of inhuman monsters that make him very dangerous – but he has no more idea of why he’s attacking than King Shark did. The attacks are coming faster now – Rock and Terra-Man attacking Steelworks, the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit fighting Dr. Killgrave, and Superman has Lois gather everyone close to them at Steelworks, where Superman tells them that “Clark Kent” is in danger and that they’ve been targeted due to their association with him. Although many of them want to get out there and stand their ground, Lois convinces them that it’s better for them to stay there, safe, instead of dividing Superman’s attention by trying to rescue them all…and Bibbo (ah, but I love Bibbo) volunteers to make SURE everybody stays put. As he prepares to fight, a mental wave knocks Steel out of the battle and tells Superman to go to Lex Luthor.
In Part Four Superman finds Luthor hiding in a secret lair of his own, where he confesses that he knows Clark Kent is Superman…but he also says that he’s not the one responsible for the attacks. He doesn’t know who sent him Clark’s identity, and refuses to be a pawn in somebody else’s game (which is pretty damned Lex Luthor of him, you gotta admit). In the midst of their discussion, they’re attacked by the Elite. Superman quickly realizes that even THEY are being mentally controlled, and finally tracks down the source to the living interdimensional spacecraft called Bunny, whose consciousness has been destroyed and whose body is controlled by the Cyborg Superman. As he leaves the Cyborg in ruins, Superman declares war on the man he knows now to be responsible: Manchester Black.
In Part Five, Superman finds that the Master Jailer has converted Metropolis into the “largest prison on Earth,” and Manchester Black is waiting for him. But he still has a gauntlet of villains to get through: Prankster, a random Bizarro, a newbie called Puzzler, Neutron and Terra-Man again. (And in a beautiful one-page vignette, Mr. Mxyzptlk shows up. He’s planning to pursue his usual mischief, but when he sees just how royally pissed off Superman is, he voluntarily says his name backwards and disappears, realizing that this is “not a good time.”) As part six begins, Superman knocks the Kryptonite out of Metallo, declaring he doesn’t have time for this, and makes his way through a literal army of low-tier villains before stumbling upon the A-team: Bizarro #1, Mogul, and Silver Banshee working with the Master Jailer. The power goes out in the city and Lois decides she can’t stand sitting around in Steelworks anymore, sneaking out to investigate, only to find herself in the clutches of the man himself, Manchester Black.
Part seven takes Superman to the “boiling point” (to quote the cover) as he discovers that his four remaining foes are more dangerous than he realized. Black has tampered with Bizarro’s twisted mind, “clearing” it and making him far more capable than ever before, and after a full day of Superman running Black’s villain gauntlet, Bizarro and Mongul beat the tar out of him. Banshee, meanwhile, is also more dangerous now that Black has revealed Superman’s “true, genetic” name of Kal-El, giving her magic greater efficacy against him. Superman takes the fight to the tropics, where the sun refuels him, but even there, the Master Jailer has set snares for him, even spreading Kryptonite into the sand. He manages to defeat them and tracks Black back to Metropolis, where the villain has been mentally torturing Lois (in a series of profoundly disturbing scenes). When Superman arrives, he finds Black standing over her dead body.
In the grand finale, Black smugly reveals that the government let him out of prison to do dirty jobs for them, and he used that freedom to investigate, finding Clark’s identity by observing his affection for Lois Lane. He taunts Superman, saying that he’s finally shown him how the world “really works” – sending him on a day-long battle to “save the world,” and the only loss of life was the person who means the most to him. The battle is quick and fierce, and Superman annihilates Black’s body with a burst of heat vision – until that part is revealed to be another illusion. Superman refuses to dishonor Lois’s memory by killing his enemy. “Vengeance is not justice,” he says. In stunned astonishment, Black finally realizes – finally ACCEPTS – that Superman’s the real deal, that even after everything that’s been done to him, the armor will not break, and he won’t kill him, ever. The realization makes Black drop his illusions: Lois is alive, of course, Black’s suicide plan being to make Superman kill him and then discover Lois was alive…but he failed. Superman cannot be broken. He slinks away and wipes the minds of everyone he told Superman’s identity to, including Luthor (who, to his absolute fury, remembers that he USED to know who Superman really is, but CANNOT REMEMBER THE NAME). Then, seeing that he has indeed become the villain Superman called him, Black kills himself with a telekinetic bullet.
I don’t know if I’ve read this storyline through since it was originally published back in 2002, but holy hand grenades, it was a humdinger. This was one of the darkest Superman stories of the period, putting our hero through a physical and emotional wringer like he’s never been through before. The only thing I can think of to compare it to is the first half of the Knightfall storyline, when Bane breaks all of the villains out of Arkham Asylum and has Batman run himself ragged trying to defeat them all before he steps in and snaps his spine. But Black’s real goal wasn’t physical, it was emotional. It was about tearing down who Superman is at his core, making him betray his truest convictions, turning him into the monster that Black is convinced everybody is deep inside. It doesn’t happen, though. The story takes a very long, roundabout, and upsetting path to get there, but in the end the result is the same: Superman is Superman. And he cannot be compromised, no matter what. This story precedes Injustice, but in a way it almost feels like a rebuttal to that. Even in his darkest moment, even when he believes he’s lost everything, Superman doesn’t bend.
It’s the kind of climax that makes you smile and say, “Ya gotta respect that,” and in a way, that’s what Manchester Black does at the end. He sees that he was wrong, and he makes up for it as much as he can – restoring the status quo in regards to Clark’s secret identity, and then taking himself off the playing field. This being a comic book, of course, he eventually got better, but when he appears now he’s more of an anti-hero than the anti-villain he was in these storylines. “Ending Battle” changed him, and that’s quite a testament to the story.
The harshest part of the entire run comes in chapter seven, when Black tortures Lois. We see it – mentally he breaks her down, showing her her worst memories and her worst fears (such as Clark cheating on her with Wonder Woman) in a tremendously uncomfortable sequence that can only be described as mind rape. And frankly, it’s all unnecessary – as his plan depended on Lois being alive at the end of it, what the hell was the point of torturing her?
Fortunately, things work out at the end, and this was even a turning point for the Superman titles at the time. Following the events of the “Our Worlds at War” storyline (which coincided with the real-world tragedy of Sept. 11), Superman had changed his costume slightly, putting a black background in his S-shield, a black shield on his cape, and generally showing up in darker tones that were reflected in the stories of that period. After Black’s defeat, after he and Lois take time to heal, he goes back to the classic yellow, signaling that the period of mourning has ended and Superman is, indeed, Superman once again.
The only thing about this story that’s kind of confusing is just how isolated it feels. Granted, it takes place in a 24-hour period, but it spans the entire planet, and the only other heroes to actually appear are Superboy and Steel, neither of which turn out to be much of a factor. They reference the Justice League a few times, but it seems like the moment Superman realized someone was targeting Clark’s loved ones, he would have activated the entire JLA – have the Flash evacuating people, Green Lantern shielding them, Batman and Wonder Woman fighting at his side. This could almost be set in a world where Superman is the only superhero there is, and while I can understand that making the other characters a part of the story may have complicated it, leaving them out entirely feels like a tremendous oversight.
Comic:Justice League of America #49
Thur., Dec. 4
TV Episodes: Smallville Season One, Episode One, “Pilot;” Superman and Lois Season Three, Episode 7, “Forever and Always.”
Notes: It’s been a minute since I watched this one, but it’s time to sneak it in. Because the thing is, even though this show never calls our hero “Superman,” even though Clark never puts on the iconic costume until the last shot of the last episode, for an entire generation this is the gold standard of Superman on TV. As much as Christopher Reeve was fundamental to me, I know that people who came of age in the early 2000s latched on to this show. In fact, both David Corenswet and Nicholas Hoult identified this as their earliest exposure to Superman. And it lasted ten seasons for a reason: it’s a good show.
The pilot begins with an origin – a rocket in space falls to Earth in the little town of Smallville, Kansas, in 1989. In this version, though, it doesn’t fall by itself – along with the rocket comes a shower of meteors that causes untold havoc to the town, destroying buildings, striking cars and setting them ablaze, and horrifically killing the parents of little Lana Lang right in front of her eyes. As this is going on, industrialist Lionel Luthor (John Glover) is forced to land the helicopter he’s travelling in with his son, Lex, who runs into a cornfield in a blind panic during the shower. He stumbles on a young man lashed to a scarecrow with an “S” painted on his chest – a football initiation ritual – when a meteor streaks overhead and lays waste to the entire cornfield. When Lionel finds his son, the fallout of the meteors has caused his bright red hair to fall out. Oh yeah, and Jonathan and Martha Kent (John Schneider and Annette O’Toole) are tossed upside-down in their truck, only to find a little boy stumbling towards them through the wreckage. Martha, who has been praying for a child of their own, convinces her husband to adopt the boy. Because it wouldn’t be a Superman story otherwise, would it?
Twelve years later, young Clark Kent (Tom Welling) is now a student at Smallville High and he nervously asks his parents permission to try out for the football team. But Jonathan is hesitant, worried that there might be an “accident.” Clark doesn’t take it well, and when he realizes he missed the school bus carrying his friends Chloe Sullivan (Allison Mack) and Pete Ross (Sam Jones III), he dashes ahead, racing through the cornfields at super-speed to meet them at school. Clark catches a glimpse of Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk), whom he approaches sheepishly before stumbling and falling flat on his face, a common occurrence. While he watches Lana and her boyfriend Whitney, Clark feels a surge of pain beyond his teen angst, and his eyes fall on the necklace Lana wears all the time, the one with a green meteor rock in it. That afternoon, as Clark walks home moping about everything, Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum) loses control of his car when looking at his phone – let that be a lesson kids – and hits a roll of barbed wire that fell off a truck. Lex hits Clark head-on and his car plunges over the side of a bridge. Clark, unhurt, manages to pull the unconscious Lex from the wreck and perform CPR, saving his life. Lex is baffled at how Clark wasn’t hurt, especially when he sees the remains of his car, but is grateful to Clark for saving him. That same night, a local body shop is attacked by the young man that Lex saw in the cornfield 12 years ago. He seems to have electrical powers now, and he hasn’t aged a day.
Lex sends Clark a new truck as a “thank you,” but when Jonathan refuses to allow him to accept it, they get into an argument over how Clark feels like he’ll never be normal. Jonathan decides that it’s time to tell his son the truth of his origins and shows him the rocket that brought him to Earth on the day of the meteor shower. He rushes away in anger, eventually finding himself in a graveyard, where Lana Lang is visiting her parents. For the first time in his life, Clark is able to have a conversation with Lana without making a fool of himself. (It MAY have something to do with the fact that she gave Whitney her green meteor rock necklace for luck in the homecoming football game.) Although Clark is terribly non-specific, the two bond over their mutual trauma and he walks her home, getting a kiss on the cheek for his efforts and promising to save him a dance, even though she’s dating Whitney. Clark visits Lex to return the truck, and in the conversation it comes out that Jonathan doesn’t trust the Luthors because of Lionel’s shady business dealings. Despite the animosity of their fathers, Lex offers Clark his friendship, believing that their generation is the future.
Chloe, meanwhile, sees an odd bystander at the site of an attack on a former football player and tracks him down to a hospital where he’d been comatose since the day of the meteor shower, having recently escaped, identifying him as Jeremy Creek. Chloe shows Clark her “Wall of Weird,” an enormous catalogue of all the strange, inexplicable, and bizarre things that have happened in the town of Smallville since the day of the fateful meteor shower – dozens of news clipping and photos, including a Time magazine cover featuring a weeping three-year-old Lana Lang, and Clark suddenly feels guilty for the death of her parents. As he leaves school, Whitney grabs him, declaring that Clark has been targeted for the scarecrow initiation this year. Clark staggers in pain, seeing the green necklace around Whitney’s neck, and Whitney puts the necklace on Clark, saying, “This is as close as you’re ever gonna get to her.” While string up in the cornfield, Clark is approached by Jeremy Creek. He begs Jeremy to cut him loose, but Jeremy declares he’s safer where he is and leaves. Lex catches a glimpse of Jeremy in the field while driving to his father’s plant, then hears Clark calling for help in the field and cuts him down. The necklace falls from Clark’s neck and he feels his strength return, running from the field, and Lex finds the necklace in the dirt. Clark finds Jeremy about to use his powers to attack the Homecoming dance, and the two fight. Jeremy smashes a truck, getting sprayed with water that seems to short-circuit his electrical powers. When he awakens, he has no memory of the last 12 years. Clark goes home, watching from a distance as Whitney brings Lana home from the dance.
I was a faithful viewer of this series the entire time it was on the air, but I haven’t revisited it very much since the original run ended, and watching the pilot again after all this time is making me consider a full rewatch. (NEXT year.) I’d forgotten a lot of the little beats – how they tied in Lex and Lana’s respective status quo to the same meteor shower that brought Kal-El to Earth, for example, or the rather naked and shameless way Lana’s Aunt Nell thirsted after the very married Jonathan Kent.
The show did a great job of framing what is essentially a Superboy series (minus the costume) in the early 2000s. The characters all felt really true to the classic versions, as well, with the dynamics and relationships fitting the traditional mold while still feeling modern. One of the best things about the show, especially in the early seasons, was the dynamic between Clark and Lex. Although the notion of Lex being a friend of Clark’s who went bad was old, going back at least to the Silver Age, there had been precious few stories that actually EXPLORED that friendship prior to this part. Starting the show on the day they BECAME friends gave the show a nice element of tragedy to it. Lex insists to Clark that their friendship is sincere, and he honestly means it, but every single person watching the show knows that something is going to happen sooner or later to make it go terribly.
The elements that were added to the show are hit and miss. Using the meteors (Kryptonite, in case you didn’t pick up on it) as a sort of catch-all to create metahumans for the show made for a good source of villains, but it caused a “freak of the week” formula that started to get stale quickly. And although it is difficult to separate the character from the actress, Allison Mack’s Chloe Sullivan was a great new character, giving Clark a sort of confidant that he didn’t traditionally have. She was a fantastic character that added a new element unique to this version of the character. At one point they even added her to the comic books, in a Jimmy Olsen serial that ran in the pages of Action Comics during a period when DC was doing a lot of those backup serials. Unfortunately, she never showed up again after the Flashpoint/New 52 reboot, and considering the controversy surrounding Allison Mack, it seems unlikely that she’ll come back again any time soon.
It’s funny, really, how I am remembering now how much I liked this show back in the day. I don’t have time in December, that’s for sure, but I think when January rolls around I’m going to try to find time to pencil episode two into my viewing schedule.
Fri., Dec. 5
Comic: DC K.O.: Superman Vs. Captain Atom #1.
Notes: The “tournament” part of DC K.O. is hitting this month. With issue #2 of the main series narrowing the field down to 16 combatants, this month we’re getting a series of eight issues (four one-shots and four issues of existing ongoing series) that will feature one-on-one fights, and it all kicks off with Superman Vs. Captain Atom. Although he’s never really been an A-lister, Captain Atom is one of those characters like Firestorm, whose true potential is almost limitless if he really cut loose, and that makes him a suitable opponent for Superman. I won’t go through the play-by-play of the battle, but I will say that I was particularly satisfied with this issue. The fight was brutal and intense, but suitably, it was just as much a battle of ideology as it was a physical one. Captain Atom is ready to do whatever it takes to win, whereas Superman is desperately trying to hold on to his ideals even as the battle rages around him. Along the way, the story starts to pick up on the feel of a video game, with a strict set of rules, power ups, and alternate forms being laid out for the heroes as they go head-to-head. It’s rare that you see an all-fight issue that actually feels worthwhile, like it has weight to it, but if this is any indication of what the rest of the month is going to be, we’re in for some epic slugfests. I’m particularly looking forward to the last issue – the one-shot that will pit the Joker against his former victim, Jason Todd, the Red Hood.
Sat., Dec. 6
Movie: Man of Steel (2013)
Notes: I have to confess, I have deliberately dragged my feet when it comes to watching this movie in the Year of Superman project. But that should not be construed as a commentary on the film itself. No, my reluctance has nothing to do with the movie and everything to do with the toxicity of the fanbase that seems to have grown around it. With the possible exception of Star Wars, I have never seen a group of purported fans more whiny, obnoxious, delusional, or self-absorbed than adherents to Zack Snyder’s version of the DC Universe in the time since it was announced that James Gunn was going to reboot it. And in truth, I wasn’t totally in favor of the reboot when it was announced. I did – and still do – like Henry Cavill’s Superman, and I thought that a page-one restart was unnecessary. But that in no way excuses the abhorrent behavior from a small – but astonishingly vocal – segment of the fan base. So let me just say that if you’re one of the people who has spent the last few years online harassing James Gunn or the new cast, or fans of the new movies, or have attempted to review bomb or spread false narratives about the success of the film – if you’re one of these people, then please understand without a doubt that you suck, that you have made the rest of us who DID like the Snyder movies embarrassed to say so out of fear of being associated with you, and that Superman wouldn’t like you either.
Although he, of course, would give you a chance to redeem yourself, because that’s who Superman is.
Okay, that’s the last I’m going to say about that subject. Let’s talk about the movie. There were then – and still are – a lot of things about this incarnation of Superman that I really liked. Although I don’t feel like origin stories are necessary anymore, the opening sequence on Krypton is really dazzling, with a fascinating version of this world that’s unique and – although inspired by versions like John Byrne’s Krypton – isn’t exactly like anything else.
Snyder’s version of Superman leans into him as an alien: he is not of Earth, and although he strives to protect it he doesn’t feel as though he belongs. Every aspect of this version of Clark Kent emphasizes this – the early scenes where he’s struggling to contain his vision and hearing powers, the later scenes where he’s roaming the world before he settles in Metropolis, and of course, the main conflict in the second half of the movie that’s all about Zod calling him out, forcing him to be seen as an alien the very first time the human race glimpses him at all.
This is not, I should stress, my preferred version of Superman. I like it when the character is inherently human, with the fact of his birth on Krypton being incidental to the man he actually is. But like all legendary heroes going back to antiquity, there are different interpretations of the character, and for this particular “Superman is an alien” interpretation, the movie is very well-done.
Similarly, Henry Cavill’s Superman is the perfect fit for THIS interpretation. There’s a sadness and a longing to him, as he looks out on a world that he seems desperate to be a part of, but cannot connect with fully. Michael Shannon’s Zod has the anger and disdain that you want from the character, and he’s fantastic at what he does. Amy Adams as Lois Lane doesn’t quite have the ferocity that I usually like in my Loises, but she trades it for an intellectualism and demeanor where nothing quite phases her, and like many of the other things I’ve mentioned, it works for this version of the character.
There’s the score by Hans Zimmer to talk about as well. I absolutely love the music in this film – strong, bold, classical. Nothing will ever top the classic John Williams theme, of course, that music is etched into my soul. But Zimmer’s work is great, in particular the anthem that plays when we see Clark learning how to fly for the first time. That’s a fantastic sequence, and I never get tired of it.
Among detractors of this film, there are two major points of contention, one of which I think is justified, while the other is missing the point. First, the criticism I agree with: the portrayal of Jonathan Kent. I’m not wild about the fact that Jonathan tries to prevent Clark from using his powers to help people in this movie, although I think it’s more acceptable when you filter it through the lens of a father trying to protect his child. It’s not that he doesn’t care about the school bus full of kids that Clark risks his secret to save, it’s that in his mind HIS child is more important than any other, and he cannot abide the thought of what might happen to him if his secret were to become public. Speaking purely as a dad, I totally understand that perspective. But Jonathan Kent – and I’m going to be frank here – has to be the greatest father in the universe in order to raise a kid with Clark’s power who becomes a Superman instead of a Zod. This problem is especially clear when Jonathan allows himself to be taken by a tornado rather than letting Clark save him. It’s supposed to come across as heroic, in that he considers Clark’s secret more important than his own life, but when you think of the number of ways Clark could have saved his father and still protected his secret, then it just seems…foolish.
The other major criticism is one I disagree with wholeheartedly, and that’s the scene where Superman kills Zod. “Superman doesn’t kill!” they shout, and they’re right. But that’s not the same as saying he NEVER has. Snyder, again, seems to be taking his cue from John Byrne here, specifically the “Supergirl Saga,” in which Superman killed Zod and the two other Phantom Zone criminals to prevent them from finding a way to his Earth and destroying it. Doing so devastated Superman, causing a mental break and eventually steering him to dedicate himself to the protection of life, and never its destruction. The fact that Superman refuses to kill is MORE believable due to the fact that he did it ONCE.
And this film actually does the Byrne story one better. Rather than executing three helpless prisoners out of the fear of what they MIGHT do, in this film Superman kills Zod as he is ACTIVELY threatening the lives of innocent people. Even in a court of law, his actions at that moment would stand up as justifiable. But the lesson he takes away from it is the same – the agony on his face after Zod’s death shows just how deep a wound he’s created in himself.
The other two movies in which Cavill portrays Superman, similarly, have their ups and downs. I’m not going to get too deeply into either of them, except to say that I think Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice gets more derision than it deserves and that Zack Snyder’s Justice League is vastly superior to the theatrical cut of the film. But all that said, although I didn’t feel like the reboot was necessary when it happened, I have since come around on that one wholeheartedly. This movie was good at what it did, but what the James Gunn/David Corenswet movie does is simply much more like the Superman that means so damn much to ME.
TV Episode: Superman and Lois Season 3, Episode 8, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”
Sun., Dec. 7
Comic: Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #4
Notes: The penultimate issue of W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo’s Black Label miniseries is just as triumphant as the first three. In this one, Superman and Batman have figured out that the strange new varieties of Kryptonite they’ve been studying are actually the work of Mr. Mxyzptylk. In and of itself, this isn’t that surprising. What IS a bit of a shock, though, is the revelation that Mxy sent them as a distress signal – the Fifth Dimension is in serious danger, and only Superman can save them! But while he and Batman are doing their thing, Lex Luthor has plans for the new Kryptonite in his possession.
This issue is just a JOY to read. While it’s just as weirdly surrealistic as fans of Prince and Morazzo would come to expect, the tone is one that celebrates imagination and storytelling, focusing on how important these elements are to a character like Superman. It’s not at all what I expected from the two of them, and I couldn’t be happier with what we’ve been given. I should say, though, that it furthers the problem of DC not really knowing what “Black Label” should be, because it doesn’t seem to fit with anything else in that line at all.
There’s only one issue left, scheduled to drop next week, and I can’t wait for the finale.
Mon., Dec. 8
Comic: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #45, Supergirl Vol. 8 # 7, Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #144, Justice League of America #50
Notes: Mark Waid’s string of hits continues with World’s Finest #45, in which our two titular heroes actually take a mostly supporting role. This month, the Joker has gotten wind of Hawkman’s “Absorbascon,” a device that’s familiar to the readers, but which he sells to Lex Luthor on the promise that it can bring the user “infinite knowledge.” The two of them plot to get their hands on it, and the issue ends with their game being upped in a tantalizing and potentially deadly way.
What I really like here is that Waid is pushing forward the story while, at the same time, finding room to do a lot of great little character beats. Lots of people have written the Luthor/Joker partnership before, a team-up that makes little sense in reality, but that keeps happening mostly on the strength of having the arch-foes of the DC Universe’s top two hanging around together. The idea that someone of Luthor’s cold, rational nature would team-up with the Joker is ridiculous, so it’s always fun when a writer finds a way to make it make sense. The Joker of COURSE would love to hang out with Lex – poking holes in his logic is probably the next best thing to tormenting Batman – so having him bring a MacGuffin to Lex that the latter couldn’t possibly resist is a good excuse to force them together against Luthor’s wishes.
Although Superman and Batman take a back seat for most of this issue, we DO get some good moments with them, particularly the opening scene, which features Clark hanging out with Bruce at the Batcave, watching a football game between the Metropolis Meteors and the Gotham Goliaths. It’s incredibly rare to see the two of them doing something so utterly normal, just sitting around like any two ordinary guys, munching popcorn and rooting for their respective teams. It seems almost absurd for Superman and Batman to engage in such an afternoon…but for once, despite their clothes, they aren’t being Superman and Batman. They’re just Clark and Bruce. I can count the number of stories that pull that off effectively on one hand, and I’m not drawn by AI, so that’s a pretty low number.
I also want to call out the artwork by Adrian Gutierrez. I’ve made no secret of my love of Dan Mora’s work across the DC Universe, but Gutierrez has really stepped up and made this book his own. He handles the quiet character moments – like showing Superman wearing a football jersey over his uniform – just as real and perfectly in-character as the Big Damn Hero moments that come later in the issue. In other words, I’m a fan.
In Supergirl #7, it’s Thanksgiving in Midvale, and you know what that means! It means I should have read this comic book two weeks ago. But it ALSO means it’s Lesla’s first holiday on Earth. As Kara’s parents host a Thanksgiving dinner for all of Kara’s friends and family – including Superman and Lois – Lesla gets worried because Kara hasn’t shown up. Turns out she’s under the sea, trying to save herself from being turned into a mermaid by turquoise Kryptonite. You know, like you do.
My love for this book under Sophie Campbell’s stewardship continues unabated. On the one hand, we’ve got Supergirl herself tied up in a plotline that could have fallen straight out of the Silver Age, and Campbell is handling those adroitly. On the other hand, Lesla’s story carries most of the character weight in this issue, and it’s every bit as entertaining and meaningful as the superhero stuff. Lesla is trying to understand Thanksgiving, Lena hates it, Luna doesn’t celebrate it but just wants to be with her friends…the Double-L Squad that Kara has built up around her in this title is already one of the best supporting casts in comics. There’s so much happening with them, with the clashing personalities that somehow still make perfect sense as a group of friends, and it makes the book feel very real, very genuine, and very heartfelt. It’s honestly almost TOO perfect – I’ve been reading comic books for way too long and now I’m almost positive that something horrible is coming that’s going to break up this whole happy surrogate family. In my defense, though, the last page seems to be pointing to that as well, so it’s not just my hardwired paranoia.
I do have one question, though – having Superman show up for Thanksgiving dinner at the Danvers? That’s fine, everybody there knows Supergirl’s secret identity. Having him show up with LOIS, though…is that necessarily the best choice? Lex Luthor’s daughter is right across the table from them, is she not going to piece things together? I mean, I know she’s not the biggest fan of her dad, but still. Seems risky to me.
TV Episode: Superman and Lois Season 3, Episode 9, “The Dress.”
Tues., Dec. 9
Graphic Novel: Superman: Lois and Clark-Doom Rising
Notes: Dan Jurgens, of course, is one of the architects of Superman and who he is for the past 30-plus years, and when the Pre-Crisis Superman and Lois were brought back during the end of the New 52 era, he was called on to write the Lois and Clark miniseries that brought them and their young son Jonathan into regular DC continuity again. A few years later, he contributed this story as one of a series of back-up features that were running in Action Comics, specifically appearing in issues #1051-1057 of that series, along with the story from the Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special that I read earlier this year. I love Jurgens’ take on Superman, and I love any story with Jonathan back when he was still a kid and interesting, so reading the collected edition of this serial felt like a nice way to wrap up this week.
Following the fight with Doombreaker from the special, Lois and Clark take Jon back to the California farm where they lived while in hiding (the New 52 version of Superman being the main one at the time). Jon’s powers are still new and burgeoning, and Clark is hoping to spend some time guiding the boy.
Back in Metropolis, though, the creature called Doombreaker (originally a construction worker named Lloyd Crayton who kept a piece of Doomsday’s bone and was later transformed by it) has escaped. The bone that caused his transformation has gone missing too, and what even Lois and Clark don’t know is that Jon has kept it, hiding it so that no one else could use it to turn themselves into a Doomsday monster. While he’s secreting it in his treehouse, a spacecraft lands and a young woman steps out, Glyanna of the planet P’Luhnn, asking Jon to take her to the man she assumes to be Earth’s king – Superman. The two are attacked by a robot enforcer. Jon calls for help and Clark, with his super-hearing, races away. Just then, though, Doombreaker arrives at the Kents’ doorstep, seeking the piece of Doomsday Jon took with him.
Superman finds Glyanna’s spacecraft, but no sign of her or Jon. Glyanna and Jon, meanwhile, are being held captive on the Enforcer’s spacecraft, where he plans to return Glyanna home to stand trial for treason. Jon fights the Enforcer, but causes the ship to crash, barely pulling Glyanna from the wreckage in time. He again calls his father for help, but Superman is embroiled in battle with Doombreaker, who’s found the piece of bone. When the Enforcer again comes after Jon, Glyanna reveals she’s been controlling it all along, and puts Jon in stasis to use him as a bargaining chip to force Superman to help her. Lois uses a weapon from Glyanna’s ship to stop Doombreaker, then shows Clark the alien’s message – her planet is in the midst of a revolution, and all Superman needs to do to get his son back is put it down for her.
Superman arrives on Glyanna’s planet and is given an ultimatum – stop the uprising or she’ll kill Jon, who is hidden inside one of 120 lead cells all over the planet. As he tries to buy time by holding the mob back, Jon pounds on the walls of his cell (in a manner nicely reminiscent of Doomsday’s first appearance), counting on his father to hear the vibrations, even if he can’t see him. When Glyanna realizes what Jon is doing, she cuts off the oxygen to his cell, but Clark has already located him and breaks him out. Superman finds Glyanna’s parents, the rightful rulers who were overthrown by their daughter, who explain that she was led to turn against them by an outside force. The story ends with Glyanna in space, her mysterious advisor telling her that she’s got a weapon of her own for the future: Doombreaker is in their clutches.
This is exactly the kind of story I loved when Jon was younger – Superman and his son, interacting AS father and son. The boy is still trying to learn about his powers and learn how to be a hero – all of this is territory that very few comic books have covered before, and virtually none of them with as high a profile a character as Superman. Nor has there been a mainstream hero so perfectly suited to this kind of story – it was Superman as a father, something that in the 75-plus years of his existence (at the time) had never really been done before. It was a change of pace that fit the characters and worked beautifully.
Yeah. I’m still salty about Bendis aging Jon up and putting an end to that era prematurely. The Superman books are good right now, but Jon has been a weak link in the franchise ever since that point, and stories like Doom Rising just serve to demonstrate the inherent potential in this formula that was left largely unrealized.
It also makes me remember that – to the best of my knowledge – the cliffhanger at the end of this issue has never been resolved. Glyanna and Doombreaker are theoretically still out there somewhere, waiting for a time to return. Somebody call Jurgens up and get him on that.
Comics: Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #51 (Guest Appearance), DC Go! Holiday Special 2025 #2 (Cameo)
Only three weeks left, friends, it hardly seems real. See you for Week 50 in seven days.
Continuing on from last week, I’m still making my way through all of the different Superman adaptations I haven’t touched upon so far. Of course, Thanksgiving is this week as well, and as always, life is bound to throw a few curve balls into my plans, because life enjoys doing that to me. But I’ve got a bare minimum of seven movies and TV shows I’m going to try to hit this week. Can I do it in seven days? Your guess is as good as mine.
TV Episode:Superboy Season 1, Episode 1, “The Jewel of the Techacal.”
Notes: The same year as the Ruby-Spears Superman animated series I wrote about last week, the Salkinds (producers of the Christopher Reeve Superman movies) gave us a new live-action TV series starring John Haymes Newton as a college-age Superboy. Newton was replaced after one season with Gerard Christopher, whom I remember liking in the role a lot more, but I haven’t watched any of these episodes in years. I should, in all fairness, watch at least Christopher’s first episode as well for the sake of comparison, but I’ve only got the first season of the show on DVD and it does not appear to be on HBO Max because – and I cannot stress this enough – Warner Bros. does not know what the hell it’s doing. I’ve still got the whole month of December, though, so if I manage to locate any of the Christopher episodes, I’ll try to squeeze one in for the sake of completion. For now, though, we’re going to look at the first episode of the series, “The Jewel of the Techacal.”
Newton was joined by Stacy Haiduk as Lana Lang, and in a nice nod to comic book continuity, the episode begins with her archaeologist father, who is apparently nervous to see his daughter again after some time as he comes to town with a set of Mayan artifacts. Lana and Clark are both students at Shuster College (cute), along with T.J. White (son of Perry, of course), and a young Lex Luthor who gives neither “mad scientist” nor “insidious businessman” vibes, but rather came out of central casting in the search for a villain in an 80s movie about a ski resort whose wacky staff has to show up some snobbish guests. Anyway, as the episode opens, Professor Lang’s plane is having some trouble, its landing gear refusing to go down, so Superboy zips into the sky to make a quick repair. Lana is overjoyed that her father doesn’t – y’know – die, but is despondent only minutes later when he quickly blows her off to tend to his artifacts. The tension gets worse when Professor Lang suddenly and inexplicably collapses, a malady his assistant attributes to a curse that came with the artifacts they found. While he’s out, Lex and his goon plot to steal the artifacts, but Superboy arrives to stop it, only to find himself susceptible to the curse as well. He collapses while Lex makes off with an ancient chest containing…well, the curse, I guess. Superboy recovers and catches Lex, turning him over to the cops with most of the artifacts – all except for the cursed chest, which he brings back to…well, presumably to Techacal. We only SEE him flying into the clouds, because shooting in South America would have been entirely too expensive. Returning the chest breaks the curse, though, and Professor Lang recovers, giving him and Lana another chance.
The next time I want to crack jokes about the teen soap opera aspects of Superman and Lois, I’m going to stop myself and remember this show, because holy CRAP was this stuff overwrought. Is it understandable that Lana is upset to have her father lying in a hospital bed dying, apparently, of nothing? Absolutely. Should she be behaving like a character in a telenovela? Absolutely not. On the other hand, that’s better than the utter lack of emotion that we get from Scott Wells as Lex Luthor. (Lex only appeared in four episodes of season one and he, too, was recast for the second season.) As for Newton himself…he’s okay, but he’s a little stiff. The show doesn’t do much to justify why this is Superboy instead of Superman either, save for the fact that he’s in college and not yet in Metropolis. All things considered, it’s kind of a miracle that the show lasted as long as it did.
The really shocking thing, though, is that through 1988 there hasn’t been a single Superman-related TV series that has a proper status quo-establishing pilot. I guess that sort of requirement is more recent than I had realized.
Comics: DC K.O. #2, Superman Vol. 6 #32, Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2 #13
Notes: I popped by the comic shop today as well, grabbing this week’s books, and I’m going to take a little time this afternoon to catch up on DC’s current crossover event, DC K.O., the second issue of which is sitting in my hot little hands right now. In order to claim the Omega Energy before Darkseid – and with it, the power to reshape the entire universe – 32 heroes and villains have made it through the first stage of the gauntlet. In issue two, 16 items have been scattered across the battlefield. The rules are simple: if you’re holding one of the items when time runs out you advance to the next round. If you aren’t, you die. Lex Luthor (showing far more cunning than his counterpart in the Superboy TV show) makes right for a collection of Lantern power rings, while Superman tries not only to outrace Luthor, but stop the other villains at the same time.
Screenshot
This issue is where I feel like we’re really going to see exactly what DC K.O. is. The conceit is that the eventual winner of this tournament will be able to reset the universe as they see fit, so the consequences here are kind of minimal – heroes and villains alike can be broken, maimed, even die, and you know that when that reset button is hit it’s all going to go away. Normally I would consider the existence of that sort of reset to be a negative, but K.O. has two major things going for it. First, the writers are using the lack of consequences as an opportunity to really cut loose, pushing the battles to extremes that they normally would never approach. Even Superman has an opportunity to be more brutal without violating his ethos, and this issue shows us just how scary that would be. The other thing is that although there IS a reset button included, that button will be used at the whim of whoever eventually wins the tournament, and I have a suspicion that it’s not going to be a simple square one reset. Whoever wins is probably going to have the opportunity to change some things when they rebuild the universe (for example, should a member of the Bat-family come out on top, it seems like this would be a prime opportunity to bring back a certain faithful butler whose presence has been sorely missed for quite some time), and I’m very curious to see what shape that will take.
Superman #32 fills in a blank and continues the side-story at the same time. Half the issue is used to explain where Lex and the rest of the villains came from in DC K.O. #1 when they suddenly joined the tournament. The other half picks up the story of Lois and Superboy-Prime versus Darkseid’s Legion at the Fortress of Solitude. The Lex stuff is nice to explain something that I’m sure a lot of of were curious about, but I’m more satisfied with the Lois/ Prime storyline. Prime’s characterization has shifted since the days of Infinite Crisis, sliding from a bitter ex-fanboy to a kid who leans on the fourth wall in a way that almost feels Deadpool-like. Considering his origins, it makes sense, and it never goes so far as to have him addressing the reader; instead, it’s more like he’s got awareness of the medium he’s in and he’s using it. I didn’t have it on my bingo card for the Year of Superman, but the redemption of Superboy-Prime is shaping up to be a great story.
And in Justice League Unlimited #13, we get part two of “The Terrific Ten.” Mr. Terrific leads his team of time-tossed Justice Leaguers (including the Electric Blue Superman and a young Power Girl) into Hell itself to confront the demon Neron, who has chosen a devil of a time to juice up some of Earth’s villains again. Meanwhile, the very Omega Energy that the heroes in the main book are trying to claim is simultaneously rendering Earth uninhabitable, and the remaining Justice Leaguers are trying to help the Titans coordinate the evacuation of the entire planet. At the same time, they’re trying to round up the amped-up villains that Neron has set loose. I have to say this for K.O. – I’ve read most of the tie-ins so far, and none of them feel the same as the others. What’s happening in Superman and Justice League are totally different than Titans and Flash. And while some of them feel more immediately relevant to the main storyline, none of them feel wasted or irrelevant to the titles that they’re reaching into. You can’t say that about every crossover, and the DC creators deserve a lot of credit for making it work so well thus far.
Thur., Nov. 27
Comic: New Adventures of Superboy #38, JSA #54 (Guest Appearance)
Notes: Happy Thanksgiving! Well, it’s Thanksgiving as I write this. By the time you read this, it’ll be December 3, and I’m sure you’ll all be watching the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree, and if you aren’t, what even are you doing with your holidays? But at the time I write this I just took the dessert I made out of the oven, my wife is in the kitchen making her cornbread casserole, and Eddie and I are on the couch watching the Macy’s parade. Since they don’t have a Superman balloon for some insane reason, I need to work in something else to maintain my streak. Fortunately, the DC Universe app has me covered with New Adventures of Superboy #38, one of the terribly rare Thanksgiving comics out there.
The story begins with Superboy paying a visit to the Soames Reformatory, where he pitches in with Thanksgiving dinner by cooking the turkeys with his X-Ray vision. There’s one resident of the reform school who isn’t impressed, though: young Lex Luthor. Lex pitches a fit and Superboy leaves, upset that for all his genius, he fears that Lex will never mend his ways. (Prescient kid, that Superboy.) But there’s no time to bemoan Lex’s fate – he’s gotta bounce to the future for the monthly meeting with the Legion of Super-Heroes. At the same time (somehow), 13 years in the future, an adult Superman is making a visit BACK in time. Superboy collides with his grown-up self in the timestream, and the two of them are hurled back to their respective time periods, but with their minds switched. Superman – in Superboy’s body – winds up back in the 60s, while Superboy in Superman’s body goes to 1982.
Superman wakes up in Superboy’s body, believing that something has made him younger, and decides to go hide out in the empty Kent house in Smallville until he can figure out what’s going on, shocked to find his parents there, alive. Stunned, he puts on teen Clark’s clothes and sits down for a Thanksgiving dinner with his family and teenage friends. The next day, Lex manages to sneak out of the reformatory. Superman/boy, meanwhile, suddenly finds himself in a Groundhog’s Day Loop of reliving Thanksgiving, the result of some sort of device Luthor planted on him the day before. He tries to break the loop by, instead of travelling to the future to see the Legion switching it up and going to the past. Somehow, this works, because Albert Einstein said if he went far enough back he would loop around to where he started from. Superman catches Lex, but his rage at what his former friend will one day become nearly pushes him to destroy him in anger.
The story continues in Superman #380, where we see the other half of the story…presumably. That issue isn’t on the DC Infinity app. I cannot stress this enough, they have GOT to get their act together with this app. The story’s also kind of light on Thanksgiving cheer, so I’m going to call that an appetizer, with the main course being an unabashedly holiday story from JSA #54.
It’s Thanksgiving at the Justice Society brownstone in Manhattan, and they’ve invited the Justice League to join them. We get a series of vignettes to begin the story – Batman and Mr. Terrific talking shop, Wonder Woman and Wildcat having the required awkward political disagreement, Impulse and Jakeem Thunder bonding over a mutual hatred of school, and so forth. We get an amusing bit where Stargirl is upset about being placed at the kids’ table while Captain Marvel (whose secret identity she knows, but not everybody else does) gets to sit with the adults. Everything is going great…until Kulak the Sorcerer and the Warlock of Ys appear. Kulak is out for revenge against the JSA, the Warlock hates the JLA, but NEITHER of them really counted on just how many heroes’ dinner they just ruined. Their resistance…doesn’t last long. In the end, the two teams order a tower of pizzas and celebrate the holiday the way Batman always predicted they would.
Is it heavy on Superman content? No. But he gets a few nice moments, such as catching Wildcat flying out the window after Wonder Woman “disagrees” with him and another where he and Alan Scott crack their knuckles before wiping the floor with the bad guys. But it’s a funny, heartfelt story by Geoff Johns and Don Kramer, which is only slightly overshadowed by the absolute masterpiece that the Christmas story in the next issue would be. There’s no Super-family characters in that one so I probably won’t be reading it, but if you’re looking for Christmas comics to read over the next month, make sure you add it to your list.
Fri., Nov. 28
Movie Serial: Superman (1948), Episodes 1-15
Notes: I’ve been holding off on this one until I had a day with a big chunk of time where I could watch it, as the 15 episodes of the original Superman movie serial make up a whopping four hours and change combined, but there was no way I could consider this project complete without including the work of Kirk Alyn, the first actor to portray Superman in live action.
(Before anybody comes in the comments trying to correct me, I know that Alyn wasn’t the first actor to wear a Superman costume. Ray Middleton dressed as Superman during the 1939 World’s Fair. But to the best of my knowledge, there was no footage of Middleton and, if there is, it doesn’t seem to exist anywhere. We’ve got a few still photos. Alyn’s is the earliest actual performance we can WATCH.)
Anyway, I’m not going to try to do a total recap of the movie serial the way I do for a lot of the things I watch. It’s too long, frankly, and like a lot of movie serials there’s a lot of repetition that would make it kind of tedious to read about. But here’s what’s important: the serial tells the story of the destruction of Krypton and baby Kal-El coming to Earth, being raised by the Kents, and then making up his mind to become a hero in the city of Metropolis all in the first 20-minute episode. After that, we see Superman at odds with assorted criminals and natural disasters before finally coming into conflict with the main villain of the serial: the Spider Lady, who is using her “Reducing Ray” to hold the world hostage.
The storyline is very much in keeping with a lot of the adventure serials of the era: goofy sci-fi weapons of dubious practicality, a femme fatale villain with a sort of bland identity, and tons and tons of goons that came straight out of the Goon Casting Academy. It’s the fact that the hero of this one is Superman rather than “Commando Cody” or something that makes it interesting. And the Superman we get here is very well done. Kirk Alyn is a great Superman for the era: he’s strong, but also somewhat joyful. He’s having FUN with his powers, and that’s something that you can’t always say. He also is quite clearly taking his cues from Bud Collyer’s portrayal of the character on the radio and in the Fleischer shorts, duplicating the way Collyer would start off his catch phrase as Clark Kent (“This looks like a job…”) and then drop his voice an octave (“…for SUPERMAN!”) to signal that he’s going into action. Even the credits for the serial indicate that it is “adapted from the Superman Radio Program,” so there’s no pretending it’s a coincidence.
Noel Neill, as I mentioned last week, is our Lois Lane, a role she would reprise when Phyllis Coates left The Adventures of Superman a few years later…and I LOVE Neill’s Lois. She’s slick, clever, and occasionally even devious. She’s miffed at Clark for scooping her on the story that got him his job at the Daily Planet (a story beat that John Byrne would duplicate for his Man of Steel series four decades later) and isn’t above pulling some sneaky tricks to get him out of the way so she can beat him to the story. She’s feisty and ferocious, and I’m there for it.
Special effects being what they were in 1948, the serial makes frequent use of animation. The destruction of Krypton, the rocketship to Earth, any time Superman flies, and various super-feats that would be too difficult to portray in live action are all done through animation. It’s not – I must concede – particularly CONVINCING animation. It looks like the scenes in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? where the toons and live-action characters coexist. But for the time, it was innovative, and the animation is good, fluid, and impressive.
Kirk Alyn’s name is overlooked far too often when we’re talking about the actors who have portrayed the Man of Steel. This serial and his performance are both great fun, and worthy of inclusion…it wouldn’t have been a Year of Superman without him.
Sat., Nov. 29
TV Episode:Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman Season 1, Episodes 1-2, “Pilot,” Superman and Lois Season 3, Episode 6, “Of Sound Mind.”
Notes: In 1993 it was time for TV to take another swing at the Man of Steel. But as it WAS the 90s, this time out the focus was more 90s as well. For a superhero show, the emphasis was on the relationship and burgeoning romance between Lois Lane (Teri Hatcher) and Clark Kent (Dean Cain). In fact, they even gave Lois top billing in the title, as if to emphasize the fact that this wasn’t like the OLD adventures of Superman at all. The series doesn’t even begin with Clark, it begins with Lois returning to the Daily Planet office stripping off a disguise she used to go undercover to land a big story. As they’re celebrating her scoop, a young man steps off the bus outside, carrying a suitcase with the initials “C.K.” The young Clark Kent meets with Perry White (the great Lane Smith, perhaps my favorite Perry White of all time), who rejects him due to his lack of experience. He retreats to the rundown apartment he’s renting and, as a lightbulb above his head begins flickering, he casually floats to the ceiling and fixes it. Because, y’know, super powers. Lois, meanwhile, retreats to the apartment she shares with her sister Lucy, who berates her for the way she constantly drives away all the men in her life for being too weak, then sobs while watching a sappy movie. Because yeah, it’s a superhero TV show, but it’s also a romantic comedy.
The next day, Clark tracks down an aging actress in an abandoned theater, poaching a human interest story he heard Lois reject in Perry’s office, and brings it to the Planet, where his initiative impresses Perry enough to give him the job. Just seconds later, the TV in the office shows a disaster at a space launch. Lois is determined to follow leads that point to a conspiracy in the space program, and over her objections, Perry assigns her to partner with the newcomer Clark. She’s not thrilled about it, and she’s less thrilled when her scheduled date for a gala thrown by Lex Luthor drops out, forcing her to ask Clark to accompany her if she wants any chance at landing the first one-on-one interview Luthor has ever given.
Before the Gala he flies home to Smallville (under his own power, naturally) to have dinner with his parents (Eddie Jones and Jonathan and K Callan as Martha), where he bemoans the fact that he has to hide his powers instead of openly helping people. Jonathan, always the wise one, tells him he’ll find a way. At the Gala, Clark has his socks knocked off when he sees Lois dressed to the nines, but she’s preoccupied dancing with businessman Lex Luthor (John Shea). Luthor turns out to be charming, showing off his tower and saying how he loves the fact that everyone in Metropolis has to look up to see him. He uses the ball as an opportunity to announce his newest initiative: the creation of a space station bearing his name. He’s outraged, though, when the Congress of Nations rejects his proposal to continue their own plans.
Over the next few days Lois – despite herself – finds that she’s warming up to Clark, who has a charm she can’t deny, and is full of surprises, like the ability to read Chinese (which he demonstrates after bringing her Chinese food – unbeknownst to her – from China). He also comforts her when they find a source who has been feeding her information about the space sabotage dead, an apparent suicide, although Lois and Clark aren’t buying it. After a few close calls of nearly being caught helping people, Clark asks his mom to help him make an “outfit” to use.
Lois continues to pursue the story, finally getting herself and Jimmy captured. Clark manages to find her trapped in an empty warehouse, but has to allow himself to get caught in order to protect his secret. As Lois berates him for bumbling in without a plan, he casually frees himself from the shackles, but allows Lois to continue with her raving as it transmogrifies into a bit of a self-therapy session, then he frees them both. He gets Lois – and the unconscious Jimmy – out of the warehouse just before it’s blown up. The evidence she has saves the space launch, and Clark goes back to Smallville to help finish his disguise. After a montage, he settles on something…iconic: blue tights, with red boots, trunks, and a cape. Something is missing, thought and Martha digs into a chest to pull out the blanket Clark was wrapped in as a baby, complete with a familiar crest.
Jonathan, meanwhile, is watching the space launch on TV, not knowing that Lois has 1) stowed away on the rocket and 2) discovered a bomb. She tries to disarm the bomb, but instead causes a mechanical error that ends the countdown. Sensing something is wrong, Clark takes to the air and arrives just in time to reach the bomb and EAT the explosive, saving the rocket, its crew, and Lois. The crew – planning to be long-term colonists on the space station – fear the mission will end as their window is about to close, but Superman gets beneath the rocket and flies it into orbit himself, docking it with the station and saving the mission. In the final scene, the newly-dubbed Superman arrives at Lex Luthor’s tower to confront him over the bomb: he knows that Luthor was behind the sabotage to promote his own station. And although he can’t prove any of it, he’s going to have his eyes on Luthor from now on. As he takes off, he tells Luthor “If you ever need to find me, all you have to do is look up.”
If you remember the personal timeline of my experience with Superman, you may remember that I first became a big fan of the character in the early 90s, and this show was one of the elements that paralleled that. By the time it came out in 1993, I was already big into the comics, but the show helped fuel that fandom for a few years, helping to bolster Superman’s status as an icon (recently reignited thanks to his “death”) and carrying it forward. And it was, sincerely, the perfect show for the era. It’s VERY 90s, and the different take on Superman works for the time period. Teri Hatcher’s Lois is confident (good) bordering on arrogant (bad), but it soon becomes clear that it’s a mask for her rather deep loneliness (awwwww). Clark, meanwhile, isn’t the pushover that we had in the Christopher Reeve era. His background from “Smallville” leads to people (Lois, for instance) underestimating him, but he proves to be shrewd and clever, in addition to just being competent at reporting. This show also has to get credit for one of my favorite Superman lines, one that people (myself included) often misattribute to Superman For All Seasons: when a kid tells Superman she likes his costume, he replies, “Thanks, my mother made it for me.”
The supporting cast is aces as well. I mentioned already how much I love Lane Smith as Perry White, with a sort of drawl that makes his character sound like he’s handing out homespun wisdom. Jones and Callan as the Kents make for a perfect sounding board for Clark, demonstrating yet again how wise it was of John Byrne to let them live to Clark’s adulthood rather than forcing him to spend his life UTTERLY alone. And John Shea’s Lex Luthor probably wouldn’t have worked if they were going for the “mad scientist” interpretation of the character, but as the ruthless businessman, he’s perfectly suited for the role. Tracy Skoggins’ predatory Cat Grant is very much a reflection of the earliest versions of the character, and although he would be replaced in favor of a younger actor later in the series, I rather liked Michael Landes’ Jimmy Olsen.
One thing I’ve noticed is just how well the various live-action incarnations of Superman act as a sort of capsule of the time. While the broad strokes remain the same, the details in each incarnation of the character give you a good idea of where culture was at that point. 90s television was the era of the relationship drama, and this show reflects the Superman version of that perfectly.
Sun., Nov. 30
Novel: The Last Days of Krypton by Kevin J. Anderson
Notes: I’ve been reading this novel off and on for about two weeks, and I finished it up today. If there’s one thing I wish I had squeezed more of into this Year of Superman, it’s prose fiction…but the truth is there isn’t all THAT much to choose from, and some of the best — specifically as the novels of Elliot S! Maggin — were books I read just last year, not long before I decided to do this project, and I didn’t quite have the impetus for a re-read just yet. But this book by frequent Star Wars writer Kevin J. Anderson went a long way towards scratching that itch.
As the title implies, this book tells us the story of the final days (final years, actually, but that’s not as catchy a title) of the planet Krypton before its ultimate destruction. Jor-El is the protagonist of the book, a scientist whose work has been suppressed by Krypton’s staunchly unbending ruling council, even as he finds sign after sign that the planet is in imminent danger. One of the few people who takes him seriously is Councilor Dru-Zod, who has an eye on conquest and forges a bond with Jor-El in the hopes of using him towards his own ends. Over the course of the book, Jor-El falls in love with an artist, Lara Lor-Van, and colludes with his scientist brother Zor-El (mayor of Argo City) to help save the planet from itself.
Spoiler warning: It doesn’t quite work out.
That’s the tricky thing with prequels: so much of what’s going to happen is a foregone conclusion. Anybody with even a passing knowledge of Superman’s history knows that Jor-El’s efforts to save the planet will fail and that he and Lara will perish after sending their infant son Kal-El into space. People who have a slightly deeper – but still not encyclopedic – knowledge of the lore will also know that before the end of the story Zod will be in the Phantom Zone, allowing him to survive the planet’s destruction. And the real ones, of course, will know that Zor-El will save Argo City from Krypton’s destruction only to suffer its own doom some years later. So since all of these things are locked into canon before you even crack open the book, where’s the tension? Where’s the drama?
Miraculously, it’s there.
Anderson does a fine job of weaving a story that’s still compelling despite the fact that we know more or less how it’s all going to go. The relationship between Zod and Jor-El has shades of Shakespearean tragedy, of a friendship gone wrong, although the degree to which Zod ever actually considered Jor-El a friend is debatable. He also does a fine job of fleshing out Lara and Zor-El, characters who have never been quite as well-developed in the comics as Jor-El or Zod, imbuing them with distinct personalities that fit cleanly into the story and both serve as support for Jor-El in different ways.
Most impressive to me, though, is how Anderson plunders decades of Superman continuity for the details that populate this story. Stories from the comics like the ancient Kryptonian despot Jax-Ur, the abduction of Kandor by Brainiac, or the question of just why Argo City was beneath a dome in the first place all factor into the storyline. But Anderson avoids the trap that so many prequels fall into of feeling like the writers are just connecting the dots, trying to piece together the information we already have, and instead incorporates these different elements organically and sometimes in such a subtle way that you don’t quite realize the significance of certain things until they come to the forefront.
The story paints Krypton’s destruction as imminent, and finds fault with multiple characters – even, to a degree, Jor-El himself. It builds to the tragedy, this notion that the death of Krypton’s civilization may have been avoidable, but was propelled by hubris. The book is a little vague on just how inevitable the end of the planet was – there are several elements that make it seem like Krypton was doomed no matter what anybody did – but there are definitely actions by certain people that accelerate its death, and if not for the pigheadedness of those in charge, the people of Krypton may have found a way to save themselves, even if the planet as a whole was doomed.
Anderson isn’t beholden to any particular continuity. As I said, many of the elements are drawn from different eras of the comic books, but it’s not married to any of them. (It would fit fairly well with the Silver Age, for example, but doesn’t fit at all with the Man of Steel era.) Other things, like Jor-El’s physical description of white hair and shimmering white robes, seem to come more from the movies. Ultimately, though, it serves as a sort of platonic example of the final days of a grand civilization and a backdrop of the tragedy that ultimately would give birth to Earth’s greatest hero.
Mon. Dec. 1.
Comics: Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #47 (Jonathan and Martha Kent Guest appearance), Action Comics #1092
Notes: I have a child. Children have things like choir rehearsal and basketball practice. Dad has no time to do stuff. This is the circle of life. Anyway, without the time to watch anything today, I’m squeezing in some comics.
I don’t often write about the quick read “DC Go” comics, but every so often I get one that’s so delightful I need to draw attention to it. Batman: Wayne Family Adventures is a bit of a reimagining of the Batman characters as a sort of family dramedy. The focus is on Bruce and his multitude of adopted children, and although they are superheroes, the comic strip is really about them functioning as a family, with most actual adventures happening off-panel. Episode #47 is a spotlight on Alfred, having what appears to be a fairly regular dinner with his friends, Jonathan and Martha Kent. The story is sweet and simple, a portrait of the adopted parents of Earth’s two greatest heroes spending time together and relating to one another in a way that nobody else in the world possibly could. We’ve seen elements of this in the main continuity from time to time, but this short story really is a treat.
On to Action Comics #1092, which is sort of a breather issue. The Captain Comet storyline wrapped up last issue, so this month we see young Clark Kent bemoaning the fact that Lana Lang is interested in Superboy instead of “him,” Pete Ross wonder why he best friend is so distant lately, and Sam Lane roll into town to try to do something about this super powered teenager that’s been running around lately. There’s a lot of good character stuff here for Superboy – Mark Waid is dipping his toes into the struggles of Clark trying not to draw attention to himself, and seems to be leaning in towards the old Silver Age status quo of Pete Ross figuring out that Clark is Superboy but keeping that information private. The scene with Sam Lane is especially good, demonstrating the relationship that Superboy has forged with the people of Smallville in a relatively short time. On the other hand, Waid has a teenage Clark make reference to the Star Wars prequels, a comment that makes me feel egregiously old and for which I may never forgive him.
Tues., Dec. 2
Comic: Adventure Comics #423
Notes: I had intended, this week, to try to wrap up at least the most important “Superman Through the Ages” that I hadn’t gotten to yet – things like the pilot episode of Smallville and Supergirl, or to finally talk about Henry Cavill’s Superman movies. But it’s that time of year, guys. Holidays, family events, work, and a kid who is into both choir and basketball are eating up my time. I’ve got the last few weeks of this project planned a little – holiday tales for the week before Christmas and some all-star stuff, including “endings” for that week before the new year. In the two weeks between now and then, I’m not going to make myself beholden to any theme and I’m going to read whatever I want on the day, but I’m also going to do my best to scratch off as many of the remaining movies and TV shows from my list as possible.
Today, though, that isn’t going to happen, because of the aforementioned work and basketball and whatnot. So instead, let’s look at Adventure Comics #423, a story from the time that Supergirl was the headliner of the series, but which has her in conflict with Superman, who – as you see from the cover – she’s calling a traitor. In “Treachery,” written by E. Nelson Bridwell and Steve Skeates with art by Mike Sekowsky and Bob Oskner, Linda Danvers is shopping one day when she tries on a pair of sunglasses that she cannot remove from her face. The glasses are the creation of aliens who have been observing her from space and who plan to control her via messages embedded in the glasses. The aliens force Linda to go to Metropolis to visit her cousin Clark (you may have heard of him), and secretly switch his glasses for a pair sent by the aliens. They force Superman and Supergirl to visit their spacecraft, hidden beneath the waters of the bay, and collect glasses to use on the rest of Earth’s superheroes. As they enter, the heroes immediately begin mopping the floor up with the aliens before their leader Gur realizes his crony ordered them to enter the craft, but gave no commands preventing them from fighting back. He orders them to cease all action and executes the flunky responsible. Superman is ordered to trick the rest of the Justice League into putting on the glasses, but without specific orders of her own, Supergirl again rebels against the aliens and, again, is stopped by Gur. Gur’s brother, however, however, opposed to Gur’s plans for conquest, gives Supergirl an order to use her heat vision, which melts the glasses off her face and sets her free. She makes short work of the aliens and rushes to the Justice League satellite, where Superman is trying to con his teammates into wearing the glasses. (There’s a particularly funny panel where he’s grabbing the Atom like a doll and trying to force the glasses onto his face.) Supergirl tells Green Lantern to blast the glasses off Superman’s face and set him free. Meanwhile, the alien ship is sinking and Gur and his brother fight, with the two of them eventually going down with the ship as the rest of their crew escapes. Superman and Supergirl build a craft to send the rest of the aliens home, hoping that Gur was one-of-a-kind.
I’ve never read this story before, and I was surprised by just how much I liked it. The hero-versus-hero trope is kind of tired, as is the “mind controlled hero,” but it actually works here because there’s a reasonable explanation. “Here, try on these sunglasses.” It’s a simple enough way to kick things off, and it’s completely believable that even a Supergirl would be off guard and fall into that trap. From that point, it’s easy enough to accept her swapping Clark’s glasses and pulling him in as well. The only weak point was Superman utterly failing to convince the rest of the JLA to put the glasses on – he’s just not that good at deception. Speaking of which, it’s a good thing that nobody else seemed to see Superman flying around wearing the alien spectacles, because the ol’ Clark Kent disguise would have gone out the window REALLY quickly if they had.
We’re going into the last month of the year, friends, and my goal at this point is just to knock off as many things remaining on my list as possible. So expect the next two weeks to be kind of eclectic – movies, TV shows, comics, and whatever else I haven’t gotten around to yet. Thanks for sticking around this long – I hope you’ll find the last month of this little project to be as much fun as the first 11.
As I write this, it’s Oct. 29 and I am still very much in the Halloween mood. I know, however, that this isn’t going to be posted until Nov. 5, and I respect the fact that you guys have probably shifted gears by now. So I’m going to do another random week for you, bouncing from one story to another at will and not beholden to anything in particular. You may still see a vampire or two, I make no promises.
Well, except for the promise that you’ll see a picture of my kid in his Halloween costume when we get to Friday. I can absolutely promise you THAT.
Comics:Superman #410, 412, 413, Jon Kent: This Internship is My Kryptonite #16
Notes: With the end of the year looming, I’m going to try to tick off some of the more random comics on my list that I haven’t gotten around to, books that don’t fit into any particular theme or week, but that I want to read for one reason or another. And I’m going to start in 1985 with a three-part Lex Luthor story that has become a minor classic.
Superman #410 starts normally enough, with Superman saving Honolulu from a plunging satellite. With Hawaii safe, Clark returns to the Daily Planet office and dutifully types out the story, turning it over to Perry White to put on the front page of the paper. As the evening edition hits the streets, though, Morgan Edge comes to Perry with horrifying news – the satellite Superman supposedly stopped is still in orbit, making the story he “told” Clark Kent seem fake. Superman zips to space to investigate and finds the satellite he clearly remembers catching floating in orbit where it belongs. Superman is faced with a horrible choice – tell Edge the truth and have people believe Superman is losing his grip on reality, or allow him to think Clark falsified the story. Given a choice between shattering peoples’ trust in Superman or in Clark Kent, he allows Edge to think Clark was at fault. Edge and Perry immediately fire Clark from both the Planet and WGBS news. As Clark tries to find the truth about what happened, we see Lex Luthor in a secluded island hideaway, boasting to his minions how he has found a way to broadcast false memories into Superman’s mind.
The trilogy skips issue #411, the legendary tribute to Julius Schwartz issue, and resumes in Superman #412, which begins with a humiliated Clark Kent on the unemployment line. He’s called away just as he’s about to be served, as Superman is needed to prevent a nearby construction disaster. Meanwhile, as Perry, Lois, Jimmy, and Lana agonize over Clark’s dismissal, Luthor is gloating over how Superman “allowed” his old pal Clark to take the fall for his own false memories. Lana, in fact, tears into Superman the next time she sees him for the same reason. Clark turns to his old friend Steve Lombard – who now owns a sporting goods store – for work. They’re hanging out when Luthor arrives in Metropolis, planting a series of “Scrambler Rods” around the city and nearly impaling Steve in the process. As he catches up to Luthor, an enraged Superman drives his fist into Luthor’s chest, killing him. When he withdraws his hand, Luthor’s armor explodes in an atomic wave that destroys the entire city of Metropolis!
For, like, a panel, before Superman finds himself clinging to the top of a skyscraper, having hallucinated the entire encounter. Luthor, meanwhile, has finished planting his rods, ready for the final phase of his “Ultimate Revenge” plan.
The final chapter picks up just seconds later, Superman still at the top of the building, having lost all faith in his own grip on reality. Even though he’s certain that Luthor is behind all of his current troubles, he no longer trusts his own senses, destroying his effectiveness as Superman. He stumbles back to Steve’s store, where Steve receives a phone call from Lois with a plan of her own. She has Steve invite Clark to a “charity bash” that evening, to which he reluctantly agrees. As he ponders his future, another hallucination hits – Steve’s store seems to vanish, then the entire city block, then the entire city, including his friends. Clark is missing, then, when the “charity bash” begins – actually a dinner in honor of Clark thrown by the people who still believe in him. While his friends give testimonies in Clark’s honor, Superman watches in horror as Luthor makes him believe he is obliterating the entire planet Earth. While Luthor has Superman captive, suffering from his hallucinations, Clark’s friends are growing worried, searching for him, wondering where he’s gone. When Superman’s hearing picks up on their fervent pleas, it breaks through Luthor’s spell. He goes after Luthor, but a strange vortex plucks Luthor from his clutches before he can bring him to justice. Superman joins Clark’s “other” friends at the dinner, claiming the whole thing was part of a plan of his to smoke Luthor out, thanks Clark for going along with it, and says he’s SURE Clark is looking forward to getting back to work.
I’ve said several times that the late 70s and early 80s were kind of a pallid era for the Superman comics. The villains and stories felt recycled and pointless, and although there were attempts at change (Lois “breaking up” with Superman, Clark dating Lana, etc.) none of it felt particularly important or consequential. But in the last year or so before the John Byrne reboot, they took some chances, and this story is one of the better ones. Although the conclusion still puts everything back in its neat little box, the journey to get there is an interesting one and I like the whole concept of everybody coming out in support not of Superman, but of Clark Kent. This was a time when Clark was usually still written as the disguise and Superman as the real personality, so having people in Clark’s corner for once was fresh and satisfying. Luthor’s getaway is a little irritating, but the knowledge that the vortex was sucking him up to participate in Crisis on Infinite Earths helps a bit. I almost wish they hadn’t given Clark his job back at the end – with the reboot on the horizon it wouldn’t have really made much of a difference, but may have made this story even more memorable.
Thur. Oct. 30
Podcast: Totally Rad Christmas, Episode, “Superboy-Young Dracula (w/CM Chuck)”
Notes: It’s the day before Halloween, so I decided to take a break from my usual Star Trek podcast on the way to work and see if the Totally Rad Christmas podcast had dropped any Halloween episodes this year. To my delight, I found that Gerry D and CM Chuck had gotten together to review an episode of the 1988 Superboy series in which young Clark faced off against…well, Young Dracula. I haven’t really gone back and watched this series in a long time, and I’m not sure at the moment where to find it. I own the first season on DVD, but not the subsequent ones, and although I know at one point it was available on DC Universe, that before it was merged with HBO Max and before Warner Bros. lost their collective minds and started throwing their IP to the four winds in the hopes of finding somebody desperate enough to buy them. The whole situation is ridiculous.
But anyway, the podcast. I don’t really remember the episode they’re discussing, and I wish I had it readily available to watch, as I’ve still got so many other Superman/vampire encounters fresh in my mind. I was glad to see that Gerry did enough research to unearth Superman #180, which I talked about last week, and how it demonstrated that a vampire biting a solar-powered Kryptonian wasn’t the best idea for the vampire. But that was a side conversation, not about the show itself, and the scattershot nature of this particular podcast does a nice job of emulating a conversation hanging around the comic shop, but isn’t exactly comprehensive in its coverage of the topic at hand. I’ll have to find this episode on my own somehow.
Comics: Superman: Silver Banshee #1-2, Cheetah and Cheshire Rob the Justice League #3 (Cameo), Saga of the Swamp Thing #24 (Guest Appearance), Justice League of America #36 (Team Member), Flash Vol. 6 #26 (Guest Appearance), Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2 #12 (Team Member)
Notes: In the comments to last week’s blog, Ben Herman asked if I’d ever read Dan Brereton’s two-issue Superman: Silver Banshee miniseries from 1998. And I know I have, I bought it when it came out and it’s still in my collection, but I probably haven’t read it SINCE the original publication. And as it, too, is a Halloween story (which I had forgotten, or I would have included it last week), this seems like an excellent opportunity to revisit it.
On Halloween Eve, Lois Lane gets a tip that will help her uncover a notorious gang of art thieves called the “Trickertreaters.” At the same time, in the Netherworld, Silver Banshee learns that there is one remaining descendant of the MacDougal clan, the clan responsible for her curse, and that she will never be free until the last MacDougal has perished. On Halloween, though, there are other options – she can go to Earth again, and if she uses the power of “good works,” the final MacDougal can lift the curse freely, without need for further death. Lacy MacElwain, her target, now lives in Metropolis (because of course she does) and the Banshee sets out to find her, but instead is snared by a summoning spell cast by the devil queen Hecate. Hecate – as it happens – is the one who lured Lois Lane with the promise of catching the Trickertreaters, whose newest member happens to be…oh come on, you can guess…yep. Lacy MacElwain herself.
Funny how things work out sometimes.
Anyway, Hecate’s stooge Thorpe knocks out Lois and ties her up as the art thieves arrive with their newest acquisition, an amulet that has no apparent monetary value, but that Hecate needs so she can do evil witch stuff. She tries to dismiss them without payment, but they take offense to that and wind up battling Thorpe, who turns out to be some kind of were-demon-thing. That’s an industry term, peeps. Lacy manages to get her hands on the amulet, which she brings to the mystic web where the Silver Banshee is held captive. The two of them are transported away from Hecate’s lair, and the Banshee tells Lacy that she will be freed of her curse if Lacy destroys the amulet, but it turns out to be fairly powerful. Thorpe tracks them down, but Superman (who got a little concerned when he found a dead body in the church where his wife was supposed to be meeting an informant) has caught up to them and saves her. As he confronts Hecate, Lacy flees for home, but the Banshee follows her, demanding she destroy the amulet. Unfortunately for Lacy, Hecate’s demons – including the transformed Trickertreaters – have trailed her as well.
In issue two, the Banshee tries to defend Lacy from the attack, but is forced to merge the two of them into a single body to prevent her death. In their shared form, the Banshee promises Lacy that destroying the amulet will set them both free. Unfortunately, Thorpe has his hands on it now. Superman, meanwhile is trapped by Hecate’s magic, and she plans to use Superman and Lois in her scheme. She gets the amulet back from a reluctant Thorpe, and the Banshee/Lacy hybrid attacks. The Banshee’s wail is surprisingly effective against Hecate, but she can’t free Superman or Thorpe from the Puppeteer demon that is holding them. In the battle, Lacy is killed, and the Banshee is freed from her curse, but unwilling to allow Lacy to sacrifice herself, she follows her into the afterlife, where the two of them are consumed by light. When the light fades, Superman, Lois, and a back-from-the-dead Lacy are all that remain. Lacy goes home, only to find that in saving her, the Banshee is now bound to her…no longer merged, but more of a regular haunt.
I’m really glad that Ben suggested I read this one again. The Silver Banshee has always been an interesting sort of anti-villain – she does bad things (murdering people, y’know) but she doesn’t do them out of actual malice or evil, merely out of a desire to free herself from a torturous curse. Once that curse is lifted, you can take the character in different directions, and this two-issue story is a nice sort of capstone to the status quo John Byrne first established for the character. She’s been used periodically ever since, sometimes as a villain, sometimes almost as a hero. I don’t recall offhand how long Lacy stuck around, but I don’t think she’s currently a factor when the Banshee shows up. Still, if there can be THREE ongoing series starring Batman bad girls who keep straddling the line between villain and kinda-sorta-hero, I think it’s well past time the Silver Banshee got at least another miniseries or something to give her the spotlight.
Notes: I don’t have a ton of time to read, though, because there’s trick-or-treatin’ to do, so I pulled the 2010 Supergirl annual, in which Kara is accidentally bounced 1000 years into the future and encounters the Legion – but NOT the Legion SHE knew. This is her cousin Kal-El’s Legion (recently restored in Action Comics) when they were teenagers. Brainiac 5 wants to find a way send her back immediately, worried about her disrupting the timestream the way he always worries when Superboy shows up, but it’s not that simple. She’s there for a month, joining the team and lending a hand, and learning – tragically – the circumstances of her own death. When a horned villain calling herself “Satan Girl” attacks, Kara and Brainy bounce four days into the future to see that Satan Girl has destroyed Metropolis, possessed the Legion, and taken over the world. It gets worse when she realizes that Brainy himself summoned her, but is arrogantly dismissing his own part in it.
An epic battle ensues between Satan Girl and the possessed Legion, with Kara, Brainy, and an army of animatronic Jimmy Olsens on the other (it makes sense in context). In the end, Brainy manages to send them back and prevent himself from summoning Satan Girl in the first place, then brings Kara home. In the process, they erase her memory of the future, including that of her own death, but Brainiac swears to do something to save her.
I like this story for a lot of reasons. Don’t ask me to explain why, but the various versions of the Legion that have flirted with a Supergirl/Brainiac 5 romance over the years have always appealed to me, and this one plays with that element as well. I hate it when people get into “shipping wars” over their preferred pairings, but I have to admit that I have a few of my own, and this is one of them. It works for the characters as they were at the time, and I hope that when the dust settles around the whole All In/DC KO thingamabob and we have a new, proper Legion again, this is an element that will be touched upon.
That said, I’m a little bummed because the reason I chose this particular issue is that the DC Universe app describes it as a Halloween story and…it ain’t. I mean, it was released in October and there’s the whole “Satan Girl” thing, but there’s no mention of Halloween in the story whatsoever. I assume that most of the listings on the DC app are copies of the original solicitations for the comics, especially for something as relatively recent as this, but that gets me a little grumpy that I skipped over a chance for some prime Halloween content.
There are greener – relatively speaking – pastures with the Halloween story from Superman/Batman #65. The story begins with Superman trying to save a falling plane as he’s done thousands of times. And this one, of course, has Lois Lane on it, as it has thousands of times. But it also has Perry White, his parents, Jimmy Olsen – and Superman watches in confusion as the plane goes down, killing everyone he loves. The scene shifts and we see that Superman is actually unconscious, as are Batman, the Joker, and Lex Luthor, all of whom had been engaged in a battle, then all taken down by an outside force. We watch the Joker live through his worst nightmare – a place where people actually treat his terrors as a joke. Lex Luthor’s worst nightmare, it turns out, is living out the bland, boring life of a subservient, specifically Jimmy Olsen. And Batman has a nightmare of a family – married to Selina Kyle, a son named Richard, his parents alive — and then watching them all gunned down by Alfred so he can bring things back to “the way it has to be.” The dream is nightmarish enough for Batman to wake up and realize all of them have been captured by – and are about to be buried alive by – the Scarecrow. Superman comes to next, stopping Batman from going too far in his revenge, and in the end we see a glimpse of the Scarecrow’s own worst nightmare – a land where he’s just an ordinary man of straw, one without a brain. It’s a cute story, and definitely one that feels more seasonally appropriate than the Supergirl one. But I think that’ll do it for Halloween in this blog. Until next time, anyway.
Halloween Bonus: I know you won’t believe me when I say this, but I had no influence on my son’s choice of Halloween costume this year. Well, not directly anyway. Obviously, his sphere of reference is influenced by proximity to me, and I wasn’t exactly subtle when I told him how happy it made me to bring him to watch the new James Gunn movie back in July. But at no point did I deliberately try to influence or manipulate him when the time came for him to select a Halloween costume.
“Eddie,” I asked him during one of our 27 trips to the various Spirit Halloween locations in our area, “What do you want to be for Halloween this year?”
“SUPERMAN!” he announced.
“Nobody is ever gonna believe I had nothing to do with this,” I said.
We wound up getting his costume at Walmart rather than Spirit, since they somehow got an exclusive on costumes from the movie. But we got the black hair color spray from Spirit, and I finally got a chance to wear the Superman pajamas he and his mom got me for Father’s Day back in June.
And I may be a little biased, but amongst all the arguing about Reeves and Cavill and Corenswet…well, with all due respect to those gentlemen, I may have a new favorite Superman.
Sat., Nov. 1
Comics: Superman: Red and Blue 2025 Special
Notes: This summer, during my family’s annual trip to Pittsburgh, I used the time to read over a lot of collected editions of various Superman books that didn’t quite fit in anywhere else. One of those was the collection of the delightful anthology series Superman: Red and Blue. I was quite happy when DC announced that they were bringing the concept back this year for a one-shot special with four new stories.
First up is “Priceless,” written by Paul Dini with art by Mirka Andolfo. Dini’s story features Superman on a mission to collect a rare mineral he needs to bail Supergirl out of an alien prison. It looks as though Dini is maintaining the characterization of Supergirl from the movie – a sort of hard-partying girl who gets into a little trouble with her dog. The story is funny and the art is wonderful, but there’s a nice little turn at the end that shows us that things weren’t exactly what Superman had assumed – and, in fact, family is everything.
“All the Time in the World” by Michael Walsh is a pretty simple story, a day in the life of Superman set in the era when Jonathan was still a toddler and Clark is desperately trying to find the time to be a husband and a father in a world where the demands for Superman’s gifts are neverending. This one…hits. I mean, there’s nothing world-changing or anything going on here, but it’s a theme that is particularly significant to me, right now, at this moment, where I’m looking at a schedule and trying to figure out how to fit in my son’s choir rehearsal and his basketball practice and his speech therapy and my own job and my wife’s job and if it is even possible, in the entire totality of the universe, to carve out even a single afternoon where I’m not going to be pulled into yet another thing that I don’t even know is going to happen now but it going to turn out to be of universe-altering consequence approximately 30 minutes before it has to happen. I may not have any literal fires to put out or people to catch as they fall off a building, but this is real. I know nothing about Michael Walsh, but I have to assume he’s a parent, because how the hell else could he understand this so well?
Next is Dan Abnett and Caitlin Yarsky’s “Out of the Ordinary.” When Superman saves a small town in Canada from a giant robot – you know, like you do – he is approached by a reporter for the tiny local paper who sheepishly asks for an interview. And to the surprise of absolutely nobody who understands Superman, he graciously agrees to one. The bulk of the story is just a quiet conversation between Superman and this young woman in a small-town diner, about what it’s like to be him and what it means to be “ordinary.” It’s a lovely story that really does nail the character, and in fact it functions very nicely as a (Clark Kent-ian polite) kind of rebuttal to Quentin Tarantino and anybody else who thinks that Superman is the “real” identity and Clark is a mask.
Last is “Red-Letter Days” by Rainbow Rowell and Cian Tomey. On Lois and Clark’s anniversary, Superman is summoned away by one of those regular world-threatening crisis type events. By the time he gets back, Lois has gotten a tip on an enormous story that deserves front-page coverage, but it’s going to take her and her husband staying up all night to get the sources and get the news straight. This isn’t a Superman story, it’s a Lois and Clark story, and I love it for that. We see the two of them doing what they do best (when Clark isn’t wearing a cape, that is) and in a way that isn’t interrupted by supervillains, alien invaders, time travel, or any of the other thousands of things that screw up a superhero’s life on a daily basis. It’s a story of a loving couple that struggles a little sometimes to find time for each other, and it’s delightful.
Superman’s the greatest hero there is, I think I’ve fairly well established my position on that by now. But for all the stories where he saves the world or the universe or a cat in a tree, there aren’t enough stories like the ones in this anthology. Four stories that lean on the man part of his name rather than the Super. There aren’t enough of these, and I hope that the Red and Blue anthology comes back again and again.
Sun., Nov. 2
Comic: Brave and the Bold Vol. 3 #16
Notes: Sundays aren’t days of rest for teachers. We’ve gotta get ready for the week, and I’ve got a ton of stuff on my plate today, so I decided to look for a one-off story I could read without sacrificing a huge chunk of time. I decided on this issue from the 2007 reboot of DC’s Brave and the Bold, which in this incarnation was a team-up title without a specific anchor character – there was never any telling which two characters would wind up with each other on any given issue. And as you can tell from the look on Superman’s face, this team-up with Catwoman surprised him as much as anybody.
Written by our old pal Mark Waid with art by Scott Kolins, the story begins with Superman responding to a bat-signal, telling Gordon that Batman asked him to cover for him while he was out of town. Gordon asks him to look into a rumored underworld auction, and Superman’s hearing picks up a burglary nearby. He finds Catwoman stealing an enormous jeweled egg, and Catwoman – a little smitten with the Man of Steel – tells him she needed it to get into the same crime auction. The evening’s prize is allegedly a map that leads to a certain hidden cave outside of Gotham City. Superman reluctantly agrees to work with Catwoman to stop the map from falling into the wrong hands. Selina dresses the two of them up to go undercover at the auction and a comedy of errors follows, most of them based on Superman’s attempts to sidestep actually giving any sort of aid to the criminal element around them. In the end they manage to prevent the contents of the cave from being used for nefarious purposes, and their encounter ends in a bit of a stalemate…but one that leaves Catwoman smiling.
I really enjoyed this issue. Batman never makes an appearance, but the story is essentially about him – specifically about how Superman and Catwoman, respectively, each feel about the Dark Knight and how that common ground allows them to put aside their differences and work together. And while you don’t get the impression that Catwoman’s flirting with Superman is entirely serious, it doesn’t seem as though she’s entirely joking either. After spending her life playing with the bad boys, a “date” with the ultimate good guy seems to be a refreshing change of pace for her, and even when Superman gets a little bit of an upper hand on her in the last few panels, she doesn’t seem to mind all that much. It’s just a simple, charming little story, the likes of which we could certainly use more of.
Mon., Nov. 3
Animated Feature: The Batman/Superman Movie: World’s Finest (1997)
Notes: When I woke up this morning at around 2:30 with a rumbling in my stomach I had every intention of going to work. However, as the rumbling continued to have pointed conversations with me for the next several hours, I eventually resigned myself to a day on the couch. And since getting off the couch to find something to read didn’t seem like a fun time, I decided that today’s Superman fare would consist of something I could access via my remote control. Bizarrely, The Batman/Superman Movie: World’s Finest doesn’t appear to currently be streaming anywhere, not even on HBO Max. Although I could theoretically have watched the individual episodes of Superman: The Animated Series that were cut together to make the film, I once again am grateful for my adherence to physical media and how I’ve used that to meticulously populate my own Plex server.
Younger people reading this blog (and of course, we all know how popular it is with the kids) may not realize just what a big deal this movie was. Today, when everybody and their brother is trying to create a cinematic shared universe, it seems like a film of this nature would be a no-brainer. But in 1997, despite the fact that these characters were all owned by the same companies and their shows were worked on by the same people, there was still relatively little crossover. Batman: The Animated Series was a smash hit, and when the same creators put their work into a Superman series this is exactly what everybody was hoping for, but it was far from a foregone conclusion that we would GET it, at least not until it got gotten.
The movie starts off with the Joker and Harley Quinn stealing a jade dragon from a shop in Gotham City. Batman’s examination of the crime scene sets off some alarm bells, and he makes plans to head to Metropolis. In Superman’s town, the Joker and Harley rather forcibly coerce Lex Luthor into a partnership, presenting him with the “jade” dragon, which is actually made of Kryptonite. Lois and Clark are on-hand when Bruce Wayne flies into Metropolis for a business summit with Luthor, and feeling like she’d made a fool of herself in front of Superman earlier, Lois finds herself smitten with Bruce, who invites her out to dinner to discuss his plans in Metropolis. Although Bruce and Luthor have a business deal in place, Bruce pulls back from parts of it that are intended to create militarized robots, something that burns Lex.
That evening, as Batman roughs up some hoodlums in a bar to find information about the Joker’s whereabouts, Superman bursts in to stop his “vigilantism.” He’s shocked when he uses his X-Ray vision to peer through Batman’s cowl to see Bruce Wayne’s face, and Batman warns him about the Joker’s Kryptonite by taking out a shard to hold him back, allowing him to escape. When Clark returns to his apartment, he gets two surprises: a phone call from Lois informing him that she’ll be having breakfast with Bruce tomorrow, and a bat-shaped tracking device on his cape that alerts him to the fact that he was followed, and that Batman is watching him from a nearby building, his own identity revealed.
The next day, as Bruce arrives at the Planet to pick up Lois, he and Clark briefly compare notes on the Joker’s schemes. Clark is also a bit concerned about Bruce’s burgeoning relationship with Lois, to which Bruce replies, “It seems to me you had your chance.” At their date that night, though, the Joker swoops in and kidnaps her, despite Bruce’s efforts to keep her safe. The heroes go to her rescue, but despite knowing they’re walking into a trap, the Joker manages to get the upper hand and nearly kills them all before escaping.
Lois’s relationship with Bruce gets more and more serious, with her even requesting a transfer to the Planet’s Gotham office, but when she discovers he’s Batman (during an uncharacteristic moment in which his mask is yanked away) the brakes are put on. The heroes naturally team up to stop the Joker and Luthor, complete with his army of murderbots, and ultimately have to save both Luthor AND Metropolis from the Joker’s lunacy. Lois breaks up with Bruce, with the supreme irony of her not wanting to be in a relationship with a man with a dual identity, and Bruce and Clark part perhaps not as friends, but at least with respect and cooperation.
At the time this movie was released, the comics were still in a kind of nebulous state for Superman and Batman. The antagonistic relationship they had in the early years of the post-Crisis reboot had largely vanished and they were teammates in the Justice League again, but they had not yet re-forged the friendship that they’d enjoyed in years past. The movie does a quick job of fast-forwarding through that relationship to get them to a more stable place: when Batman and Superman first encounter one another in costume, they’re antagonists. The next day, each of them having learned the others’ identity, they immediately begin working together, if grudgingly. The cast is top-notch, of course. Tim Daly and Kevin Conroy ARE Superman and Batman for so many of us, but perhaps even better than the two of them together are the interactions between Mark Hamill’s Joker and Clancy Brown’s Luthor, perhaps the two greatest villain voices in animation history. I loved this movie when it first came out, and I still have fun watching it today.
Now if you’ll excuse me, my stomach is doing that thing again.
Tues., Nov. 4
Comic: Batman Adventures #25, Batman: Wayne Family Adventures #29 (Superboy Guest Appearance), Jon Kent: This Internship is My Kryptonite #17
Notes: I went back to work today, although I’m still not really at 100 percent. But I’m a teacher, and if you ask any teacher they’ll tell you that it’s sometimes easier to go to work feeling like garbage than it is to prepare for a class without you in it. At any rate, after the classing is done, I still need to work in something Superman, and I want it to be something quick. Continuing the theme from yesterday, with the World’s Finest movie, I decided to take a peek at Batman Adventures #25 from 1994, the first team-up between the animated Batman and Superman. Well, kinda, anyway. This comic came out before there was a Superman: The Animated Series, and the Superman that appears is based more on Superman as he appeared in comics at the time, long hair and all. Still, writer Kelley Puckett did an admirable job, and the artwork by the brilliant (and gone far too soon) Mike Parobeck make this issue a delight to revisit.
The story opens with Bruce Wayne at a party, unaware that there are crooks planting a bomb in the kitchen. Among the people he schmoozes with at the time is a Lex Luthor with long, red locks and a beard (befitting his “Lex Luthor Jr.” persona from the books) and a ponytailed Clark Kent. LexCorp and WayneTech are competing for a military bid, but the discussion is lost when Clark’s superhearing picks up the ticking bomb under a table. Bruce also notices something amiss and the two of them dismiss themselves, Superman appearing moments later to dispose of the bomb. While he takes it into space, Batman apprehends the crooks who planted the bomb in the first place. Superman comes down to help finish mopping up, and the two icons meet for the first time.
Maxie Zeus sends Commissioner Gordon a video taking credit for the attack and promising to blow up Gotham City if he doesn’t get the “proper tribute” by midnight, and although Zeus is clearly insane (demanding such ransom as “five hundred head of oxen” and “two hundred vestal virgins”), Gordon is clear that he doesn’t bluff. As the heroes search for Zeus’s explosives, Luthor offers his military hunter robots to aid in the search. Superman and Batman find Zeus’s lair, along with the controls of the bomb, just as Luthor’s robots crash in and attack everyone, including Superman, which he tries to explain away as saying the robots “mistook him for an enemy” – but shoot, isn’t it impressive that their weapons can slow him down? They defeat Zeus, but Batman soon deduces that the whole thing was staged by Luthor to secure the military bid. He confronts Luthor with the evidence, telling him to withdraw his bid or he’ll present the evidence to the military. In the end, he and Superman part on terms a bit friendlier than they did in the later movie.
It’s fun to go back and look at this sort of embryonic animated Superman here. Setting the story in Gotham gets them out of having to deal with elements like Lois, Perry, or the Daily Planet, with only Superman himself and Lex standing out as being from that world. And truly, visuals aside, they’re not that far off. Give each of them a haircut (and a shave, in Lex’s case) and tweak the dialogue a little so that this no longer comes across as their first meeting; you could quite easily make this canonical to the animated series. The relationship is slightly warmer, without the initial antagonism we saw in the movie, and is a little more in line with who they would become once they joined the Justice League together. The story works nicely as a little bit of a time capsule, looking at the world of Batman: The Animated Series before that world had a Superman in it and kind of guessing how he would fit in. The later Adventures in the DC Universe series would do the same thing with lots of characters, which made the whole thing kind of out of sorts when those same characters eventually appeared in different forms in the cartoon…but it was no less fun.
It was a nice week off from themes, folks, but we’re running out of 2025 and I’ve still got several themes left that I intend to tackle. So next week, I’m going to mirror something I did in October with “Superman gone bad.” Starting tomorrow, I’m going to spend seven days exploring the Supermen of Other Worlds – and I’m not just talkin’ Elseworlds, my friends. See you in seven!
It’s the last full week before Halloween, and I’m going whole hog on the spooky content, friends. This week we’re going to find ourselves encountering some of the creepiest crawlies there are. Vampires, werewolves, mummies, and Dr. Frankenstein’s bouncing baby boy are all coming your way week, along with a few Halloween specials. We’re gonna wrap up October in classic Abbott and Costello fashion with Superman Meets the Monsters!
Comics:Superman: The Man of Steel #14, Superman Vol. 2 #70, Young Justice #3, Wonder Woman Vol. 6 #25 (Cameo)
Notes: We’re going to kick off this week with a two-part story from 1992 in which Tim Drake – at time the newly-minted Robin – pays a visit after news that an odd “blood plague” has jumped from Gotham City to Metropolis. Tim suspects that the victims, drained of blood and left to die, were the targets of a vampire, and he’s determined to hunt them down. Tim, being the smartest member of the Batman family, is absolutely right: we see the vampire appear in the home of the ill Lucy Lane whose boyfriend (at the time) Jimmy Olsen is at her bedside when he appears. The vampire pulls Lucy from her window to feast, his appearance constantly changing and cycling through various famous movie vampires, before Jimmy drives him off with the flashbulb of his camera. The next day he shows Lois the photo he took of Lucy hovering in the air, proof of the attack because vampires can’t be photographed. Dozens of people start disappearing, including Jimmy’s friend Babe (I didn’t name her, folks), a rocker girl who hired him for a photo shoot.
Since Superman is out of town dealing with a series of disasters and calamities, it’s up to the rest of our cast to do something about the situation. The next night, Jimmy, Lois, and Ella Lane (Lucy and Lois’s mom) treat her room with garlic and prepare to look out for her. Jimmy, meanwhile, goes full-out Monster Hunter with a kind of ridiculous getup that I can’t believe never made it into an action figure. Jimmy and Robin encounter each other on a rooftop (their first meeting) as they both track their suspect, the mysterious “Dr. Ruthven.” (Ruthven, by the way, I believe is an old Bulgarian name which means “Obviously I’m a vampire in disguise, I mean, come ON.”) But when Ruthven turns out to be more they can handle, Jimmy activates his signal watch, summoning Superman to his side. He manages to grab Ruthven as the sun is rising, and they watch him disintegrate. Their victory is short-lived, though, as they hear Ruthven laughing, mocking them, saying that sunlight can’t kill a “modern” vampire.
The story continues in Superman #70, with Superman and Robin patrolling the city and Robin trying to convince Superman that vampires are undead, and the usual no-killing rules therefore do not apply. Superman, meanwhile, isn’t convinced that driving a wooden stake through someone is the way to go. Jimmy, hospitalized from his own injuries fighting Ruthven, implores Superman to save Lucy. As he seeks her out, Jimmy and Robin begin making plans. That night, Superman is distracted by a subplot just long enough for Ruthven to return to Lucy’s apartment and take her away, but Jimmy and Robin trace him to an old cemetery where he’s gathered dozens of people he’s infected, including Lucy. Lucy is about to bite Superman (and, as her vampire powers are magical, it would probably work), and Jimmy tackles Robin to prevent him from staking her.
As all this is going on, the situation is being observed by the demon Blaze, an old foe of Superman’s who is concerned that there are certain dead people whose souls were marked for her, but are still in the land of the living, trapped in their undead forms. Blaze floods the cemetery with light that burns the vampire virus out of the victims. Ruthven falls onto a statue of a soldier with a bayonet, essentially staking himself. All seems to be well until the final panel, when we see a face in Babe’s eye that reveals she is not as free of the vampire influence as we would have hoped.
The Babe situation would become a running subplot for quite some time, not resolving itself until some time after Superman’s death and resurrection, so it clearly wasn’t the end of this particular storyline. But that’s how it was during the Triangle Era – this little two-parter set up lots of pieces that would pay off later. The Babe story was one of them, the Blaze storyline would flare up just a month later, and there were even seeds for the two-part “Crisis at Hand” story we read here a couple of weeks ago. It’s fun to see Jimmy hanging out with Robin as well, although there’s never any real explanation as to why Batman would have sent him to Metropolis to deal with a friggin’ vampire without any backup. This was during the period where Tim was enjoying a few miniseries before graduating to his own solo title, and the red-hot popularity of the character explains his appearance in a meta sense, but not in a story sense.
As we’ve seen before, though, it bothers me that the heroes didn’t actually win this one. Without Blaze’s intervention, Superman may well have been bitten and turned into a vampire. Ultimately, it’s hard to call this one a victory for the good guys, no matter how much fun the story actually was.
For a bonus bit of Halloween fun, let’s look at Young Justice #3 by the late Peter David with art by Todd Nauck. Tim’s back again, this time with his pals Superboy and Impulse, having fun at a Halloween party with their brand-new superhero team. Unfortunately, a cult nearby has – in an attempt to summon a demon – accidentally plucked a teenage Mr. Mxyzlptlk from back in time. He encounters the kids and, hearing about his future shenanigans from Superboy, resolves never to use his powers frivolously. Unfortunately, it’s one of those “would you kill Hitler as a baby?” scenarios – it may sound like a good idea, but the ripples through time turn out to be disastrous. Young Justice is then tasked with teaching Mxy HOW to be a prankster in order to save the world.
David’s run on Young Justice was simply a delight. It was a series that had plenty of humor and laughs, but at the same time, never once skimped on characterization. Early in this issue, for example, there’s a scene where Superboy defends Robin from a jerk at the party, not because he doesn’t think Robin can handle himself, but because as someone who hangs out WITH Robin, he’s afraid that if Robin comes off as a wimp it’ll make him look bad. There was a lot of character growth done in this series, and by the end of it Tim and Conner were fast friends, but that bond didn’t exist yet here. There’s also a subplot with Red Tornado, who was acting as a sort of senior advisor to the team, reconnecting with his daughter as she goes trick-or-treating. These little character moments were a trademark of David’s writing, and whether he was writing a cosmic epic or a goofy story about a Halloween party, either way it elevated his work and helped make it more than the sum of its parts. It’s only been a couple of months, but I miss his stuff already.
Notes: Today I’m going to tackle a couple of comics that only a Mummy could love, starting with Superboy #123, “The Curse of the Superboy Mummy.” The story begins in ancient Egypt, when an oracle sees a vision of the future with Superboy demonstrating his amazing powers. The oracle tells the royal magician how to create a potion that will turn his son Seth into a super-boy, even crafting a costume to match that in the vision. Neferti, daughter of the pharaoh, takes an interest in Seth, but he spurns her as he had no interest in her before he gained his powers. She turns to a rival magician for a charm to make Seth love her. He gives her a jade scarab, but the magician tricks her and the scarab strikes Seth down, causing both he and Neferti to drown in the sea. The two are mummified and buried together. In sorrow, Seth’s father carves a warning inscription into his son’s tomb about a calamity the oracle predicted, but he is driven out before it can be finished.
5,000 years later, Lana Lang and Clark Kent are digging up a pyramid in modern Egypt (this isn’t quite as random as it sounds – Lana’s father was an archaeology professor) and happen to unearth the mummies of Neferti and Seth who – wouldn’t you know – happen to EXACTLY resemble Lana and Superboy, whose costume Seth is still wearing. Lana doesn’t know what the inscription on the tomb says, but Clark knows ALL ancient languages, because when you’ve got super-speed you need to find some way to pass the time. It reads “Mighty Superboy! Behold Seth, the super-youth of our day, and Neferti, who slew him by mishap. Heed the warning of the magic shield which predicts that you, too, will be killed by the maid, Lana, of your time, unless you first destroy her…” The mummies crumble into dust, and Clark dismisses the prophecy. Upon returning to Smallville, Superboy gets a sudden chest pain when he picks up Lana the next day. It happens again every time he gets near Lana, which is frequent, as she seems even more trouble-prone than Silver Age Lois Lane. Together they crack the mystery – Lana foudn and has been wearing Neferti’s scarab, which is affecting Superboy much like Kryptonite. The inscription, which was never finished, was supposed to say “unless you first destroy her SCARAB.”
This is why it’s always important not to bury the lede, guys.
It’s a fun story, though, and although it has a lot of the sillier tropes of the era, it presents them in a fun, more unique way than a lot of the comics of the time. Superboy doesn’t actually FIGHT a mummy, I guess, but he’s almost killed by one, and that feels like it fits in with Halloween to me.
Clark would encounter a mummy again in the John Byrne era, in Superman #5, “The Mummy Strikes!” Clark comes in to work where Perry White shows him a video that Lois sent covering an archeological dig in South America. The video cut out, and Perry orders Clark on the next flight down there to find out what happened – of course, the fastest flight happens to be Air Superman. When he arrives he finds he camp safe, allows Lois to think Superman dropped him off (it’s not TECHNICALLY a lie) and discovers what’s going on. The archaeologists have uncovered a metal cylinder that seems to have been made by advanced technology, but is at least 6000 years old. What’s more, the pyramid they are excavating was built over a technological structure that predates human civilization. As they search the caverns, a gigantic creature wrapped like a mummy bursts through the walls and attacks them. Clark manages to “get separated” from the group so he can use his powers against the mummy, but it knocks him out. Lois finds him and the creature, whose trappings have fallen away to reveal an enormous robot. The story continues in issue #6, where Clark wakes up to find Lois holding up his Superman uniform. She tells him that he has been unconscious for “two solar days” and refers to Clark as a “handsome stranger.” Clark realizes that Lois, and the rest of the camp, have had their bodies taken over by alien forces. He learns that these creatures belong to a race that existed on Earth before humans, but who abandoned the planet when struck by a plague. About 500 of them chose to stay and placed their minds in the body of their robot, which would awaken when the race that replaced them reached a sufficient level of development, then take their planet back. Superman battles the robot, which still has the minds of most of the lost civilization, and forces it to release Lois and the rest of the team, who conveniently have no memory of their captivity. He tricks the robot into trying to download its consciousness into his Kryptonian body, which short-circuits the transfer sequence, causing the robot to explode. Superman gives Lois the story this time, “Clark” having been returned to Metropolis already.
I enjoyed this little John Byrne two-parter with its appropriate seasonal goodness. The first half, with the mummy, has some classic monster movie tropes, although the science fiction underpinnings show through the seams from the very beginning. The second half does away with those trappings (literally and figuratively), but the notion of a pre-human civilization trying to wipe out humanity is another classic trope that you could find in the sci-fi invasion films of the 50s, giving the entire thing a nice, old-school feel that’s wildly apropos for the season. There’s also a funny little runner about Clark having neglected to shave and trying not to let Lois notice that he and Superman are sporting the same five o’clock shadow. I know I usually defend Lois in the old days for not figuring out that Superman and Clark were the same person, but I have to admit, stories like this one make that tough sometimes.
I’ll close off today with the curious little book that is DC Comics Presents #53. Presents, as you may recall, was the Superman team-up book, with Superman partnering up with a different guest star in each issue. In this one, his guest star is House of Mystery, an odd choice in that it’s not exactly a CHARACTER. House of Mystery and its sister title, House of Secrets, were a pair of horror anthology comics hosted by the brothers, Cain and Abel, similar in concept to classic comics like Tales From the Crypt, but not quite as intense. In this issue, Mystery’s host Cain pops in to present to us the Superman story “The Haunting Dooms of Halloween.” The story starts with a kid – little Ricky (who probably not coincidentally looks like Ricky from Superman III,which had been released earlier that year) trick-or-treating in a Superman costume when suddenly, without warning, he turns into Superman himself. He rushes to Metropolis and bursts into Lois Lane’s Halloween party, where he abducts Lois. At the same time, Jimmy transforms into Thor – the costume HE was wearing – and tries to save her by…making it rain. Clark, wearing a Green Lantern costume, pretends that whatever magic is affecting Jimmy has struck him as well and uses his “power ring” to fly after the fake Superman.
Back at the House of Mystery, Cain is settling in to tell another story to a group of children when he gets a visitor – Mr. Mxyzptlk (Mxy seems to just LOVE Halloween), who brings in the fake Superman and Lois. He restores Ricky to normal, then starts zapping the other kids to become the monsters and ghosts they’re dressed as. The real Superman (in his own costume now) tracks them down and enters the House, and a voice warns him that he must find Lois by midnight or she’ll be lost forever. He stumbles through the house, facing not only his own fears, but assorted monsters that he’s reluctant to hurt when he realizes that they’re transformed children. As the clock strikes midnight, Superman stands in stark horror at his failure…until Mxy reveals himself, and he starts to laugh. Cain is confused until Superman explains – the whole thing is obviously a joke. Mxy may be a pest, but he wouldn’t actually HURT anyone. This is a WILD swing, by the way, as there are plenty of Mxyzptlk stories where he DOES hurt people, but in this case it seems to be right – Lois is freed from her own prank (being stuck in a room full of comic book artists chained to their drawing boards and begging her to set them free), and Mxy begins to plot his next Halloween stunt. He’s foiled not by Superman, but by little Ricky, who feeds Cain a clue to trick Mxy into banishing himself for another 90 days.
This is a really silly story, far more lighthearted than your typical House of Mystery fare, and Cain plays a more active role than he usually does. It’s very much in keeping with the Superman stories of the era, though, and a joy to read as part of my Halloween windup. I didn’t anticipate having two Mxyzptlk stories in two days, however. I suppose Halloween WOULD be his favorite time of the year, though. Hey, DC, if you’re listening, I’ve got an idea for NEXT year’s anthology theme…
Fri., Oct. 24
Comics: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #44, 52
Notes: If there’s one thing you can say about Jimmy Olsen, it’s that his life is NEVER boring. Whether he’s getting elastic powers or turning into a giant turtle, some sort of nonsense is ALWAYS happening to him. Today I’m going to take a peek into a couple of his hairiest adventures, beginning with Jimmy Olsen #44, “The Wolf-Man of Metropolis.” Superman, who has apparently learned nothing from all the times Jimmy has turned himself into a turtle, drops off a box of ancient bottles and jars that he recently uncovered, including one that purports to contain a potion that can turn someone into a “wolf-man.” When Lois asks Jimmy if it’s real, he decides to prove it’s just a superstition by drinking the contents of the bottle. (Side note: whether werewolves are real or not, is it really the best idea to drink from a bottle that’s been underground for centuries? This is why Jimmy is still a junior reporter after 85 years.) That night, the potion kicks in and turns him into a werewolf just before he’s supposed to take Lucy on a date to a masquerade party. He avoids admitting he’s a werewolf by getting her a Red Riding Hood costume, and they even win the costume contest. Over the next few nights, though, he keeps changing into a wolf and having to find increasingly unlikely explanations for why he’s still wearing the makeup. Lois immediately catches on to what happened and tells her sister, but Jimmy keeps evading the question instead of just fessing up and asking her to break the curse for him, as the bottle says it will end if he gets a kiss from a pretty girl. Jimmy gets desperate, even attempting to pay random women in the park to kiss him (had this story happened today it would be all over social media and Jimmy would be cancelled FOREVER) before Superman brings Jimmy into a dark room and gets his cousin, Supergirl, to give him a smooch and put him out of his misery.
This story makes Jimmy look so remarkably stupid that you can’t help but love it. From drinking the potion to refusing to admit it even after Lois has told Lucy about the boneheaded thing he did this time, Jimmy doesn’t make a single correct decision throughout the entirety of the tale. He doesn’t even know, at the end, that Supergirl is the one who saves him, because this is during that period when her existence was still being kept a secret, which is why Superman asks her to kiss him in the dark. I would love to have listened in when Superman called her to help with this one: “Hey, Linda, it’s Clark. My idiot friend drank a potion that – yes, AGAIN – a potion that turned him into a werewolf. Will you kiss him for me?”
Incidentally, in the backup story in this issue, Mr. Mxyzptlk disguises himself as a leprechaun. It may not be a Halloween story, but if this keeps up I may have to re-name this “Mr. Mxyzptlk” week.
Jimmy’s monstrous problems weren’t over, though. Just eight issues later, MYXYZPTLK COMES BACK! I am UTTERLY DELIGHTED. Mxy, dodging taking his own girlfriend out for a birthday date, comes to Metropolis and falls head over heels in love with Lucy Lane. Trying to find a way to sabotage Jimmy, he sees the b0ttle of wolf-man potion in Jimmy’s trophy collection and makes him drink it, but further uses his magic to turn the potion into water. It doesn’t affect Jimmy, but he doesn’t know that. Instead, Mxy places his own curse on Jimmy, one that is immune to the kiss of a beautiful girl. When the sun comes down, Jimmy becomes a wolf-man again. Once more, Superman summons Supergirl to make out with Jimmy in the dark, but it doesn’t work and he’s still stuck as a wolf. The next night, he’s working late at the Planet office when the sun goes down and he once again wolfs out. Lois takes pity on him and gives him a kiss, but once again, nothing happens. On Night Three, Lucy insists on Jimmy taking her to the zoo at night, because that’s apparently something girls did in the 1950s. Jimmy changes again, and this time Lucy kisses him (with her eyes closed, trying to pretend he’s somebody else), but again, no avail. It keeps going – Lori Lemaris, Lana Lang, nobody’s kiss saves him! Until a veiled girl on the street rushes up to him and gives him a smooch that turns him normal again. She whips off her veil to reveal the less-than-gorgeous face of Miss Gzptlsnz, Mxy’s spurned girlfriend, who enchanted her own lipstick to break Mxy’s magic. She tricks Mxy into going home and follows him, then he goes back to Lucy to tell her he’s normal again, but this time she spurns him because he’s kissed too many girls this week.
I have no notes. This story is perfect and, although I haven’t actually looked it up, I assume it won the Nobel Prize for literature.
Sat., Oct. 25
Comics: Superman #143, Action Comics #531, Green Lantern Vol. 8 #27 (Superboy Guest Appearance), Green Lantern Corps Vol. 4 (Superboy Guest Appearance), Green Lantern Vol. 8 #28 (Superboy Guest Appearance), Action Comics #1091, Superman Unlimited #6, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #44
Notes: Today we’re going to spend a little time with Superman and his encounters with my favorite creature of them all – the Frankenstein monster. The creature has been in the public domain since the dawn of comics, and he’s showed up everywhere. In modern times, the DC version has even become a secret agent and adopted the name “Eric Frankenstein.” But we’re going to look at earlier versions this time out, starting with Superman #143: “Bizarro Meets Frankenstein!”
On Bizarro World, the Bizarro kids love Earth movies – terrifying monsters like Charlie Chaplin and comedies starring the likes of the Wolfman and Mummy. But Bizarro #1 is outraged when he sees a commercial advertising a new Frankenstein movie as starring “the world’s scariest monster.” Determined to prove that he, Bizarro, is scarier than Frankenstein, he zips to Earth, scaring the crap out of a Yeti just to prove that he can before he makes his way to Metropolis. First, he finds the actor wearing the monster makeup and chucks him out of the window, then makes his way to the movie set. To his shock, though, instead of being terrified of him, everyone laughs and the actresses even line up to give him kisses. Unbeknownst to him, the director saw Superman on set earlier and told the girls that he must have put on Bizarro makeup to stir up publicity to his Frankenstein movie. I assume this story must take place on an alternate Earth where that kind of logic makes sense.
Bizarro’s attempts to generate terror continue to fail. A few actors on a western set shoot at him to make him dance (having accidentally chewed a loco weed that’s growing on the movie lot) and a couple of kids don’t fear him, but treat him like Santa Claus (Bizarro doesn’t know that the kids’ parents are part of a circus freakshow, so ain’t nothin’ gonna creep them out). Finally, he gets back to the Frankenstein set, where he starts tearing stuff up, but once again, there’s no fear on anyone’s faces. Superman finally drives Bizarro off by playing a recording to make Bizarro think someone is screaming in terror and a static electricity machine to make the actors’ hair stand on end. Back on Bizarro World, Bizarro decides to celebrate Halloween (Dec. 24, of course) with his kids with a marionette of the scariest monster on Earth – Superman.
My goodness, what a delightfully absurd story. Perhaps the funniest thing is that Bizarro himself isn’t the one acting backwards this time. His goal of proving that he’s the scariest monster of them all is actually pretty straightforward, and in truth, is more logical than most of his stories often are. But even for the Silver Age, the set of contrived coincidences that keep people from fearing him over and over again just stack up to a point of utter absurdity. I love this story for what it is, though: ridiculous, cheesy fun.
Action Comics #531gives us “The Devil and the Daily Planet!” Morgan Edge is making preparations to sell the Daily Planet to a sleazy tabloid publisher named Mort Waxman, a decision that has Clark and his colleagues quite upset. As he’s being shown around the building, Waxman is attacked Scooby-Doo style by a ghost who tells him to get out. The staff begins searching the building, and Lois and Clark run afoul of a Frankenstein-type monster dead set on getting Waxman, whom he calls his “creator,” and Jimmy and Perry wind up fighting a horde of demons that attack a mysterious woman in the printing room. The whole thing turns out to be the work of the ghost of the Planet’s original printer’s assistant, who loves the newspaper and refuses to see it destroyed by Waxman. In the end, Edge is convinced that the paper is too important to turn over to a profiteering scum merchant like Waxman, marking one of the few instances in comic book history of Morgan Edge demonstrating something like integrity.
Marv Wolfman and Joe Staton are responsible for this one, and it’s pretty good. This is from 1982, that era when the Superman comics as a whole were kind of stale, but this was a different sort of story. Superman wasn’t quite the hero in this one, facing a supernatural threat where he was confused as anybody else, but the story holds up the ideals of the character very well. I also really like Staton’s Frankenstein Monster – it’s a nice design that is more evocative of the original Mary Shelley novel than the more popular movie rendition, and it really works well for the character here.
In addition to the creepy content, I’m also going to read some of the recent Superman comics today – it’s been a couple of weeks, and I’ve got several of them built up. Action Comics #1091 continues Mark Waid’s Superboy story with Sam Lane trying to capture young Clark. He escapes easily, but the realization that the military is after him leaves Clark rattled, especially since he was sent there by Captain Comet. When he confronts him, Comet tells Clark he knew that Lane would try to catch him and he wanted to see how Superboy would handle a problem he couldn’t simply punch. Clark soon realizes there’s more going on than Adam Blake is telling him. I said an issue or two ago that I hoped Mark Waid wasn’t taking the route of turning Captain Comet, one of DC’s longest running heroes (maybe never an A-list hero, but still a hero) into a villain. The reveal in this issue is really well-planned, and the final pages between Superboy and Captain Comet are magnificent. It’s perfectly in character for both of them, and it’s wonderful to see a story where a Clark this young starts learning the lessons that will make him the greatest hero of them all.
Dan Slott and Rafael Albuquerque (with Mike Norton this time) continue their story in Superman Unlimited #6. A visit to the Kryptonite-rich country of El Cadero to retrieve a Kryptonian sunstone runs into some problems as Clark’s lead suit is ripped open, exposing him to the incredible amount of Kryptonite radiation permeating the country. At that moment, of course, the Kobra operatives choose to take action. This is the sixth issue, the half-year mark of the title, which is traditionally where the first trade paperback collection will end. That makes it a decent time to take stock of where the series as a whole is going. Slott has set up a really interesting status quo, with a potentially hostile nation having control of the largest Kryptonite stockpile on the planet, Superman discovering a new power, and of course, the return of the Supermobile. The last page also is extremely promising, setting up future storylines for a couple of characters who have been underutilized lately. I’m hoping the second half of this title’s first year is as good as its first, because it’s been a strong addition to the Superman family of titles.
Waid is back for Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #44. Superman and Batman decide to send Robin (Dick Grayson – remember, this series is set in the past) to investigate a company that may have ties to LexCorp. Concerned about his safety, though, they ask Supergirl – who hasn’t held the highest opinion of Robin since their disastrous and hilarious date back in issue #12 of this series, to keep an eye on him from a distance. When the facility they’re in turns out to be experimenting with a synthetic Kryptonite, the fight gets a lot harder, and funnier. I absolutely love the antagonistic attraction Waid laces into the interactions of these two characters. It’s a funny dynamic to play up that’s pretty unique in pairings between the Superman and Batman families. I hope, at some point, we get to see Waid write a contemporary story with the two of them to see how the grown-up Nightwing and Supergirl get along these days.
Sun., Oct. 26
Comics: Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #142-143, Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #5, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum #3, Supergirl Vol. 8 #6, Justice League Red #3, New History of the DC Universe #4
Notes: More monsterly fun begins today with Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen #142, part of Jack Kirby’s run, in which Jimmy and Supes meet “The Man From Transilvane!” A vampire called Dragorin casts his spell on Laura Conway, secretary of Jimmy and Clark’s boss, Morgan Edge. When she passes out in the office, they quickly discover her vampiric affliction, and Dragorin appears to interrogate her about her previous employer, Dabney Donovan. Jimmy and Clark go to investigate Donovan’s old lab, where they face off with a werewolf, causing Clark to duck out and Superman to take his place. Together, they figure out that Dragorin is seeking information about a cemetery called Bloodmoor. They track Dragolin to Bloodmoor, where they find his secret – the miniature planet Transilvane, buried beneath his mausoleum! The story continues in issue #143, where we learn that Donovan created the entire planet, complete with its monster-like inhabitants, as one of his experiments. They find Dragorin in what looks like a coffin, but Superman realizes they’re more like decompression chambers, helping them make the transition from Transilvane to Earth. The monsters put Superman in a torture device, hoping to force him to reveal Donovan’s whereabouts. Unfortunately for them, Superman doesn’t know, and also, he’s Superman, so the torture device isn’t all that effective. Donovan’s machines are about to unleash a “Genocide Spray,” cleansing Transilvane’s surface of all life to prepare it for new experiments. Superman manages to stop the spray and send the Transilvanians back home. Together, he and Jimmy figure out that the beings from Transilvane were “copiers” – creatures of a fluid atomic base that transformed into monstrous forms because Donovan flooded their planet with images from horror movies. Superman decides to give them a more peaceful world, and they switch the movie in Donovan’s machine to Oklahoma.
There’s a reason they called Jack Kirby the King of Comics, and I suppose that reason is that no other man on Earth could have gotten away with starting a story by showing a vampire attacking a secretary and ending it by having Superman convert the entire population of a miniature planet into devotees of musical theatre. Kirby had no hesitation to take wild swings, and the more I read of his Jimmy Olsen run, the more convinced I am that this series showcased that better than anything else. Still, for all the fun I’ve had so far this week, I’ve seen relatively few legitimate monsters. There was a robot wrapped up like a mummy, an actor in Frankenstein makeup, kids turned into monsters by Mxy-magic, Jimmy turned into a wolfman without losing his inherent Jimmytude…and now this alien that’s kinda like a vampire. I feel the need for REAL monsters. Fortunately, I’ve got a few more comics lined up that may understand the assignment a little better.
Halfway through the Saints/Buccaneers football game, I decided that if I was going to cry this afternoon it should be for a GOOD reason, so I picked up Krypto: The Last Dog of Krypton #5. The final issue of Ryan North and Mike Norton’s miniseries is just as flawless as the first four issues as Krypto, still wandering, stumbles upon a family in trouble. Remembering some of the hardships he’s endured since coming to Earth, he comes to their rescue, and then something miraculous happens.
This is, simply put, a beautiful comic book. North has a pipeline right to the heart of the reader, tapping into emotion that greatly outstrips any other comic on the market right now. His Krypto never says a word, but nevertheless proves over and over again what kind of hero he truly is. Norton, meanwhile, is putting forth his A-game in every panel, filling Krypto’s canine face with courage and emotion.
This is the best miniseries of 2025. I’m putting it out there right now. It’s perfect.
Of course, Superman: The Kryptonite Spectrum may be a close second. The third issue of W. Maxwell Prince and Martin Morazzo’s Black Label series starts with a Superman who has been reduced to a teenager after exposure to a new kind of Cobalt Kryptonite, so the Justice League places him in the custody of one of the few people who can relate to what he’s going through: Billy Batson. As Batman tries to seek a cure to the Cobalt K’s effects, he stumbles upon a surprising revelation about the Rainbow Kryptonite in his possession. Billy and Clark, meanwhile, decide to visit a local amusement park that turns out to be a trap set by their respective foes, Dr. Sivana and the Toyman. Hilarity ensues.
Well, not “hilarity,” actually, but “existential drama ensues” doesn’t have the same ring to it. Prince layers his story with the same kind of deep questions and introspective moments that have made Ice Cream Man such a hit, but at the same time, respecting the characters and crafting a tone that feels kind of like the Silver Age taken a bit more seriously. It’s All Star Superman played for drama. And all of that is a good thing.
Sophie Campbell’s Supergirl #6 give us a brand-new Halloween tale. Kara is being plagued by bad dreams about her own past: her time as a Red Lantern, the time she was manipulated by Darkseid, and her own death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. As her friends try to figure out what’s wrong with her, Supergirl faces a demonic being called Nightflame who claims to be a facet of Kara’s own personality. It’s a quick, self-contained story, but there’s a lot to like about it. Campbell reflects a lot of elements of Supergirl’s past that seem to be intended to help differentiate which of her stories and versions are still in continuity these days (in addition to the previous stories I mentioned, her father’s tenure as a Cyborg Superman and the epic events of Woman of Tomorrow are both referenced). I have to wonder if DC disseminated Mark Waid’s notes for The New History of the DC Universe to its writers as they were coming in, because Campbell works hard to reflect the reality that miniseries has given us. But it doesn’t just show us the tough times in Supergirl’s past – it’s a story about a girl who has confronted her own demons and is working past them. For the most part, this series has been pretty lighthearted, but Supergirl is a character who has endured an awful lot of trauma (arguably much more than her cousin) and Campbell isn’t shying away from showing that.
Nightflame, by the way, is yet another Character from Supergirl’s past, and the cover is even an homage to her prior appearance from Adventure Comics #421. You’ve gotta appreciate the attention to detail.
The mystery deepens in Justice League Red #3. As Cyborg and Green Lantern try to save Red Canary from the Church of Blood, Power Girl confronts Red Tornado over the “gift” he offered her at the end of last issue. Red Tornado is starting to come apart – he’s afraid he’s losing his humanity and, at the same time, using his algorithm to try to predict future catastrophic events that his newly-assembled strike force is intended to prevent. But there’s one future – one REALLY bad future – that he’s got his eye on, and this issue he tells us what he’s going to need the team to do. I like the premise here, of Red Tornado putting together a red ops – um, black ops – team that does jobs he can’t divulge to the rest of the Justice League. I just hope writer Saladin Ahmed can pull it off without permanent damage to the character. I suppose it’ll all come down to how the rest of this miniseries shakes out.
Mark Waid finishes up his romp through the multiverse with New History of the DC Universe #4, with Barry Allen bringing us from the events of Blackest Night right up to the most recent events in the DCU. I’m a little surprised that he didn’t try to touch upon the Legion of Super-Heroes more, but I suppose that’s being saved for the regular comics. I did like how the notes at the end touch upon virtually all of the many potential futures of the DC Universe. There are a lot of great characters out there, and it would be kind of a shame to decanonize any of them. The book works well in terms of trying to explain the reason behind the assorted contradictions of DC history, if not explaining the contradictions themselves. By the end of it all, I feel like we have a solid foundation and understanding of just what stories matter, with a real pathway to the future. I’m going to have to go back at some point and read these four issues (and the extensive notes in the end) in one fell swoop.
Notes: There was more blood-sucking goodness to be had in Superman #344 from 1980, “The Monsters Among Us” by Paul Levitz and Curt Swan. Lois and Clark are sent to cover a seance at an old castle that is intended to summon the spirit of mystic Roland Randall on the 50th anniversary of his death. The medium, a blind woman named Cassandra Craft, tells Clark that she senses an “inner strength” to him, something he quickly denies. When the seance begins, Cassandra cries out and faints, waking up to say that Randall’s spirit is terrified of something. Clark spots two figures in the storm raging outside and ducks away so Superman can investigate. The two shapes burst into the room, appearing as Dracula and the Frankenstein monster, and they’re after Cassandra. After a quick battle with Superman the monsters escape, vowing to return. The next day, after a bizarre vignette where the Frankenstein monster steals some cakes from a bakery truck and briefly tousles with Superman, they return to the castle seeking Cassandra. He manages to fight them off, setting the creature on fire and creating a miniature sun with a hydrogen balloon to cripple Dracula. With the monsters out for the count, the Phantom Stranger appears out of nowhere and spirits them away.
No, really, that’s how it ends. No explanation, no rationalization, not even a “to be continued.” Dracula, at least, says something like “Not again!” but that doesn’t actually tell us ANYTHING. On the one hand, I’m glad that Superman actually had the monsters beaten already by the time the deus ex machina showed up, but on the other hand, what the hell, Paul Levitz? A good story with a very frustrating finale.
In Action Comics #577 by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming, Superman faces off with “Caitiff, the first vampire!” The Metropolis Center for Disease Control reports a number of “suspicious deaths.” Seeing a news report promising footage of what’s going on, a creature named Caitiff decides to stop it from airing again on the evening news, which means he’s going to target the WGBS anchor, Clark Kent. Clark, meanwhile, is reluctant to show the footage, which he believes to be the work of a vampire. (Isn’t it refreshing, by the way, that in most of these stories Clark doesn’t waste any time with the whole “vampires aren’t real” nonsense? The man is an alien, his best friend is an Amazon goddess, he frequently does battle with a pint-sized wizard from the fifth dimension – vampire skepticism would be absolutely absurd in the DC Universe.) Caitiff attacks Clark on the air but, as a vampire, his image doesn’t transmit over the broadcast, so he’s visible to the people in the studio. He vanishes into mist and Clark – as Superman – takes after him, further exacerbating the indigestion his frequent disappearances cause his director, Josh Coyne. Superman inhales the mist that makes up the vampire, but Caitiff attacks him psychically, stirring up feelings of immense loneliness and causing Superman to black out long enough for him to escape. He tracks the vampire to a subterranean lair full of desiccated skeletons. At first Superman is horrified, believing them to be Caitiff’s victims, but Caitiff reveals that these are the remains of his own family, his own people, who were exterminated by humans over the years, Catiff is the last of them. He slips away and Superman is left to pity the creature who, like Superman, is the last of his kind.
This is a dark tale, and really genuinely sad. It evokes the feeling of some of the great monster movies like The Wolfman or the original Frankenstein, where the creature comes across less as a demon and more like a victim of circumstance. Caitiff seems to have no true malice within him, only a well-justified fear of humans and their actions towards his kind. The panel where he talks about how human scientists dissected his own child is particularly chilling. This works very well as a sad meditation on humanity, which is something you often get out of good monster stories.
Superman faced a Lord of Darkness yet again in 2002, in Superman #180 by Jeph Loeb, Geoff Johns, and Ian Churchill. Lois, Clark, and Jimmy visit the home of the mysterious Count Rominoff “somewhere in eastern Europe.” Rominoff, an admirer of Lois’s work, has invited them to his castle where he promises a rare interview in light of the recent annexation of a nearby country by General Zod. That night, Lois is roused from her slumber and she roams the grounds, where Superman appears just in time to save her from a werewolf attack, then the appearance of a vampire. She passes out and wakes up in the morning with no memory of the late night excursion, which has Clark understandably worried. That night, as Rominoff’s thrall Elizabeth goes after Jimmy, Rominoff is revealed to be Dracula himself and clashes with Superman over Lois. Dracula reveals that he invited Lois specifically because he wanted to lure Superman to his castle. He uses his magic to hypnotize Superman and bites him, only to find himself suddenly in agonizing pain.
Remember what a vampire’s main weakness is? That’s right, the sun.
Remember Superman’s power source? That’s right. THE SUN.
Biting Superman turns out to be like biting into a solar battery. Dracula howls in pain and disintegrates, and Superman snaps out of it none the worse for the experience. Jimmy, meanwhile, has just managed to escape Elizabeth, but as the Planet staff goes home, we see that Elizabeth has found a new home of her own amongst the Creature Commandos.
The interesting thing about this is that, despite feeling like a mostly one-off story, it’s highly intertwined with plots that were running through the books at the time. The Zod thing is the most obvious part, but we also see that Lois is still bitter at Clark for choosing to save Wonder Woman’s life over that of Lois’s father during the recent Our Worlds at War crossover, and that friction between them persists throughout the issue. On the other hand, even though Superman doesn’t actually “beat” Dracula through his own agency, I absolutely LOVE the way Loeb wraps up the conflict. Connecting Superman’s solar cells to Dracula’s fatal weakness is the sort of little bit of cleverness that makes a story far more enjoyable to me. I’m sure that, in the 23 years since this story was written, Superman MUST have faced another vampire, but I’m not sure if this has come up again. I know it didn’t during the DC Vs. Vampires series, but that’s an Elseworlds. I want to believe this is a canon vampire immunity for the main line.
One last Super-family/Dracula clash came interestingly, in Batgirl #14 from 2010. This issue was part of Bryan Q. Miller’s excellent, underrated Batgirl run, which starred Stephanie Brown and was derailed by the New 52 reboot the following year. But one of the running subplots he had was a friendship between Stephanie and Supergirl. I really enjoyed that, and it’s a shame that they haven’t touched upon it again since Stephanie came back from comic book oblivion a few years ago. In “Terror in the 3rd Dimension,” Kara drops by Gotham City to have a girls’ night with Stephanie. Kara, who was still written as being new to Earth at the time, is in love with Stephanie’s relatively “normal” life, living with her mom and attending college, and she’s hoping to share in some of those experiences. They wind up deciding to take in a 3-D revival of a vampire movie. As they’re watching the film, an experiment at the campus super collider (of COURSE they have a super collider on a college campus in Gotham City) causes several Bela Lugosi-style Draculas to leap from the screen and terrorize the crowd. Batgirl and Supergirl find that the lab’s experiments in “hard light” force fields lasted one second, creating 24 Draculas – one for each frame of the film that played during that second. One of the science students who was behind the experiments gives them a set of control rods that will destabilize them if they, y’know, stake the Draculas through the heart.
It’s the sort of premise that’s so ridiculous that only works if the story KNOWS it’s ridiculous and refuses to take itself seriously. Fortunately, that’s a perfect description of Miller’s run on this book. Sure, it’s a Batman-family book, and sometimes it got dark, but Stephanie herself was kind of the antidote to that. It came out of the time when Bruce Wayne was believed to be dead and Dick Grayson took over as Batman, and the books as a whole were consumed with darkness. This title specifically, and her friendship with Supergirl in particular, made this feel like a light in that darkness. You’ve probably seen Mike Maihack’s delightful Supergirl/Batgirl comics online (how DC has yet to commission this man to do a graphic novel is beyond me). Although that’s the Barbara Gordon Batgirl instead of Stephanie, it’s got a similar tone to this book, and the relationship between our two heroines is lovely. Somebody pass this issue over to Sophie Campbell – I want this dynamic back.
DC’s latest crossover event has also begun, and it’s time to play a little catch-up on DC KO. The time-tossed heroes from the Omega Act special have come with dire news. Darkseid has placed a “Heart of Apokalips” at the center of Earth, something that will overrun the planet with Omega Energy and give Darkseid the power to reshape reality as he wishes. The only hope is for one of the Justice League to take it first – and the only way to get through it is through personal combat with one another, for reasons that writer Scott Snyder explains much better than I can here. Is it a comic book-y type of excuse to have a bunch of heroes fight each other? Heck no! Because the bad guys find out about it and sneak their way into the tournament, so it’s a comic book-y type of excuse to have a bunch of heroes AND villains fight each other!
That’s snarky, I know, because it’s all a little convoluted, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. Snyder does a really good job of selling the stakes and having the heroes prepare to do battle with each other without it seeming out of character. There are even some nice surprises in this one, including one character who doesn’t make it into the first round of the contest, something that’s going to surprise everyone. So far so good.
The spin-offs are hitting as well. In Titans #28, the Titans are tasked with evacuating Earth, assisted by Jonathan Kent. Superman #31, meanwhile, is not only tying into the crossover, but seriously paying off the assorted storylines that have been going on in this title since DC All-In started. Before leaving for the KO tournament, Superman consults the simulation of Jor-El at the Fortress of Solitude for any knowledge Krypton may have had about Darkseid and the Omega Energy. Failing that, he helps coordinate LexCorp’s resources – along with Brainiac’s miniaturization tech – to help facilitate the evacuation of Earth. After he leaves, Lois isn’t satisfied and makes her way to the Fortress to interview Jor-El herself. Her conversation with the Kryptonian archives brings unexpected fruit, and a surprise visitor to the Fortress turns everything on its head. It’s always nice, during these crossover events, when it feels as though the story has been planned out. Ever since the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, events have been plagued by “red skies” crossovers – issues with the event labelling but nothing to do with the story except the color of the sky to indicate something big is happening elsewhere. This feels like the opposite of that – a comic that has told its own story very well, but at the same time, contributes to the overall crossover AND uses it to extend its own storylines. It’s great stuff.
Tues., Oct. 28
Comics: DC’s Zatannic Panic (Cameo), DCU Halloween Special #1 (2008), Taste of Justice #15 (Starring Jimmy Olsen)
Notes: Let’s close off this week with some seasonal stuff, starting with the annual DC Halloween special. This year, the marketing people who come up with the titles for these things continue to earn their paycheck with Zatannic Panic, which – shockingly – has no stories starring anyone from the Superman family. Superman DOES make a brief appearance in the delightful Ambush Bug story that serves as a nice meta-commentary on the Halloween special as a whole, but that ain’t enough for me. So I dipped back into the DC Infinity archives and pulled out the 2008 DCU Halloween Special, a title that would last for three years, then fade away before the annual specials returned in the Rebirth era with a different wild title each year. (My favorite, by the way, is still the 2021 special, Are You Afraid of Darkseid?)
The 2008 special – hosted Cryptkeeper-style by the late Ralph and Sue Dibney – starts off with a Superman story. In “Deadline: Halloween” by Mike Johnson and Tony Shasteen, Clark is working late after the Daily Planet Halloween party, where Perry warns Clark to take it easy before he ends up like “Old Man McCampbell,” an old reporter who died before finishing his last story. Clark hears some odd noises, and when he investigates, he finds himself facing what appear to be ghosts of some of his greatest enemies. After getting knocked around a little, a ghostly Lex Luthor pulls him into a framed newspaper, which changes to a picture of Clark with the headline “Reporter Missing.” With him tapped in the paper, the ghost of McCampbell appears and commandeers Clark’s computer to finally finish his last story. Clark awakens at his computer, believing he finished his story in his sleep, then goes home where he greets a trio of trick-or-treaters dressed like Batman who mock Clark’s fake-looking Superman costume.
The nature of these specials sometimes works against the stories being told. I feel like there’s a good story here, something that would have worked well in a longer tale, but in seven pages there’s not enough buildup, not enough development of the McCampbell ghost to really feel like we’ve got a satisfying payoff. Looks like I will, yet again, have to seek some Super Halloween content elsewhere.
Animated Short: Krypto Saves the Day: Halloween Havoc
Notes: The second of the new DC Studios Krypto shorts just happens to be Halloween-themed, and even though it dropped a few weeks ago, I held off on watching it until this week so I could include it as a seasonally-appropriate addition to the blog. Halloween Havoc, written and directed by David Gemmill, in this one Clark Kent (dressed as Frankenstein) realizes he’s running low on Halloween candy and leaves Krypto in charge while he goes out to get more. This turns out to be a drastic mistake as Krypto is almost immediately distracted by a black cat and goes, once again, on a citywide chase trying to get his quarry, causing havoc (hey, I bet THAT’S where the title comes from!) and potentially ruining Halloween for children everywhere in the process.
Like the first short, “School Bus Scuffle,” this one is really cute and clever. The gags land and there are even a couple of Easter Eggs for DC Comics fans who are paying attention. The final punchline is perfect, and even helped to answer a concern I found myself thinking about as the short went on. And special mention has to go to musical composer Paul Fraser, who I imagine was given the instructions “Make it sound like The Munsters, but not enough to get sued.”
After two chase scene shorts, though, I’m very curious about the other two that haven’t dropped yet. Will they go in a different direction next time, or is Krypto going to be DC Studios’ answer to Tom and Jerry, every episode being a chaotic and futile effort to get his quarry before realizing the error of his ways and proving himself to be a good boy at the very end?
Hope you’ve enjoyed “Superman Meets the Monsters” week, friends. There are still three days left in October as I write this, but the next blog isn’t scheduled to be posted until Nov. 5, so I’m not going to do any more Halloween focus – although you may still get bits and pieces. Hope you all have a fun, safe, and (dare I say it?) SUPER Halloween!
Our descent into darkness continues. Last week, we spent some time in the earliest days of some of Superman’s most dastardly foes, and also the Prankster. This week we’re shifting the focus to Superman himself, looking at Superman’s darkest hours. These are going to be some of the hardest, toughest, most heartbreaking moments the Man of Steel ever went through. Not surprisingly, there aren’t really a lot of early stories here. In the Golden and Silver Ages, the formula of the stories didn’t really allow for the kind of darkness I’m examining. The formula insisted that the heroes always won and the villains got their comeuppance. And to be fair, even in the stories we’re about to talk about, the world didn’t end. Well, except for the one time that it did.
These are all in-continuity stories, by the way. I’m not doing Elseworlds or alternate realities, because that’s a little too easy. There are MUCH darker stories in some of those worlds, because writers sometimes see that Elseworlds label as a license to blow everything up. But I don’t feel bad about excluding them either, because for the most part, I find those ultra-bleak Elseworlds fairly forgettable. And the ones that AREN’T forgettable…well, I’ve either already covered them or I have plans for them somewhere else before the year is out.
Comics: “The Supergirl Saga,” Superman Vol. 2 #21, Adventures of Superman #444, Superman Vol. 2 #22
Notes: We all know that, after the death of Supergirl in Crisis on Infinite Earths and John Byrne’s Man of Steel reboot, the edict from DC Comics was that there were to be no other Kryptonians – Superman was the only one. They even had to do a whole story with the Legion of Super-Heroes involving a pocket universe to explain how Superboy had been a member of the team when, in the main comics, we were told that Superboy never existed. As he was preparing his departure from the Superman titles in 1988, John Byrne gave us a story that played with these ideas and reverberated with the title – and the character – for a very long time.
In Superman #21, Superman finds himself being trailed in the air by a mysterious pursuer. After some midair showmanship, he manages to catch the person who’s been chasing him, shocked to find a woman wearing a variation of his costume. The girl changes her face and turns into Lana Lang, who tells her her powers are different from his, and that they were given to her by Lex Luthor. When he tells her that Luthor is a criminal, Super-Lana gets confused and attacks him with a telekinetic blast. The battle takes them to Lana’s farm in Smallville, where Superman finds the REAL Lana and his parents tied up in the basement. Superman pieces together that this is the Lana from the pocket dimension he once visited with the Legion, and shows her his Metropolis and its version of Lex Luthor to help clear her mind. Slowly she remembers where she came from, and tells Superman that it’s been ten years since he visited her world, even though for him it’s only been a few months. She brings him back to her universe where he meets their greatest hero, the redheaded super-scientist Lex Luthor, who needs Superman’s help to prevent the end of the world.
Shocking stuff in here for the time, although it’s hard to divorce the story from what we now know about the Matrix Supergirl and what happens in this universe. She – and the reader – truly believe she’s that world’s Lana Lang, which makes the story all the sadder in the telling. This issue is also interesting to me personally, in how it ties in to other comics I’ve read recently. Considering the brutal way Lana was treated in Superman #2, her appearance is a real shock before the truth is revealed. And in a subplot, Jimmy Olsen is keen to go to Ireland to continue investigating the mystery of the Silver Banshee, whom we read about just last week. I like these little unplanned moments of synchronicity in my reading, it helps me feel like the whole life of Superman is more of a rich tapestry rather than a hodgepodge of random pieces being thrown together.
The story continues in Adventures of Superman #444, which is neat because this is technically BEFORE the “Triangle Era” in which all three (and later four, and even five) Superman titles were tied together into a neat little serial, although that concept would come soon and really began here. This issue he’s joined by penciler and co-plotter Jerry Ordway for a story that begins with Lex, Pete Ross, and Super-Lana showing him the graves of the Kents of the parallel reality. That’s only the beginning of how bad things are, though, as we soon learn that in this universe Smallville is encased in a force-field, protecting it from the devastation that has destroyed the rest of Earth.
We get a more detailed retelling of how the Time Trapper created the Pocket Universe here, all as part of his trap for the Legion, and clipping out every planet that had intelligent life except for the two he needed: Earth and Krypton. This means that there were no extraterrestrial heroes – no Green Lanterns, no Hawkman, and so forth – nor did the Trapper allow for the origins that created the rest of Earth’s protectors. In this world, the late Superboy was the ONLY superhero. Lex came to Smallville believing he’d found a cure for Kryptonite poisoning, only to learn that Superboy was gone. Pete and Lana took Lex to Superboy’s lab, where he discovered a device that allowed him to communicate with a trio of Kryptonians trapped in what one of them calls the “Survival Zone.” Believing he’s found heroes to replace Superboy, Luthor frees them only to learn that General Zod, Quex-Ul, and Zaora were no heroes at all. Zod declared himself King of the World and, for the next ten years, the Kryptonians brought death and devastation to anyone who opposed them.
Luthor built a resistance base in Smallville and found a way to give Lana powers, but despite that, it wasn’t enough. Hope seemed lost until he found a way to our dimension and our Superman, sending Lana to him for help. At the same time, though, the Kryptonians tired of individual battles and bored straight to the core of the Earth, blasting the atmosphere off the planet. The only life left is the Kryptonians themselves and those under Luthor’s Smallville dome. At the end of the issue, Superman stands with the battered resistance, ready to do anything to stop the terror of Zod.
This is, in essence, an issue-long infodump. It works, it tells us everything we need to know, and it gives us a bit more of this world (including a trio of would-be freedom fighters named Bruce Wayne, Hal Jordan, and Oliver Queen). The plot doesn’t really advance much, though, which makes this feel like kind of an anomaly in this quick three-part story. This is definitely the kind of story that, were it being told today, would take up at least a six-issue miniseries and a dozen spin-off one-shots showing what the other denizens of Earth-Pocket were up to during the Great Zod War. These little time capsules fascinate me.
John Byrne’s Superman run ends with issue #22 and one of the most shocking covers you could hope to see: Superman wearing an executioner’s mask and opening up a box of Kryptonite. The story starts after a time skip, where Superman is standing in the ruins of Smallville on a planet with almost life. A flashback shows us the final, pitched battle between the resistance and the Kryptonians, who made quick work of most of them and destroy Smallville station. They roast Supergirl into a blob of protomatter, and Lex sends Superman on a desperate quest to the ruins of Superboy’s lab in Smallville. Quex-Ul attacks and Superman is reminded that the Trapper made these other Kryptonians more powerful than he is. But he finds his goal in the rubble – a canister of Gold Kryptonite that takes away Quex-Ul’s powers, then he does the same to Zod and Zaora. He finds Luthor dying in the rubble, where he explains that Supergirl isn’t really Lana Lang, but a protoplasmic Matrix that he programmed in the hopes of luring her to this universe. He dies expressing his regret that he didn’t use the Kryptonite sooner.
Then we get one of the most controversial scenes in Superman history. He returns to the powerless villains, but Zod is still defiant, boasting that he will find a way to restore their powers and make their way to Superman’s world and repeat their holocaust. And so, to prevent such a thing, Superman opens a canister of Green Kryptonite and kills them. He finds the burned Matrix being in the rubble and brings her to his universe, to his Smallville, hoping that once again his parents can save the last survivor of a dead world.
This book was shocking as hell when it was published, and it’s a hot button topic even now. Superman killed three people, and not in self-defense. I am firmly, steadfastly in the camp of believing that Superman does not kill. However, I also believe that this story is exactly WHY he should not kill. He doesn’t do it out of anger or malice, but because he sees no other option. And doing so tortures him. Byrne draws so much pain in a panel with a single tear, and at the end of the issue you’re left with the feeling that Superman would never be the same. In fact, he wasn’t for some time. The trauma of what he experienced would lead him to develop a split personality and eventually exile himself from Earth for a time, in one of the first truly protracted storylines of the proto-Triangle Era.
What’s more, and I KNOW I’m gonna piss off some people when I say this, I think this issue justifies the Man of Steel movie. In that film (in case you hadn’t heard) Superman kills Zod in combat. A lot of people were upset about that, and rightly so. But just because a story choice upsets you doesn’t make it the wrong choice. Superman is not a killer, but I think that by doing it ONCE, you SOLIDIFY the fact that it’s wrong for him. It is a pain that nearly destroyed him in the comics, and a pain he can never bring himself to repeat. The films tried to play it the same way. While there are other things about the Snyder movies that I’m willing to debate, I never had an objection to that particular story choice. And the REASON I never objected to that moment of darkness is because I already knew about the darkness from “The Supergirl Saga.”
Thur., Oct. 9
Comic: Adventures of Superman #474, Jon Kent: This Internship is My Kryptonite #14, Batman: Gotham By Gaslight-A League For Justice #3 (Team Member)
Notes: Our tour through the most painful parts of Superman’s past continues with Adventures of Superman #474, a Dan Jurgens story called “Face to Face With Yesterday.” It’s a story that shows us one of the worst moments of Clark Kent’s young life and, paradoxically, it’s also one of my favorite Superman stories of them all.
The story begins on a snow-blanketed New Year’s Eve as Superman returns to Smallville, not to visit his parents, but so that Clark Kent can be at Lowell County Hospital for a bleak, tragic evening. Clark is there to visit a patient named Scott Brubaker, but the head nurse at the desk isn’t happy to see him at all. In fact, as she tells a younger colleague, Clark Kent is one of the people who was involved with the tragedy that caused Scott’s condition in the first place. He enters the hospital room where Scott’s parents are keeping a lonely vigil. They’re upset at first, believing that Clark is there for a story, but Clark assures them that he’s only there to say goodbye.
In flashback, we see ten years in the past, when Clark and Scott – both members of the Smallville High football team – begin to forge a friendship that was bridging the divide between the kids who live in town and farm kids like Clark and Pete Ross. Scott join Clark, Pete, and Lana Lang for a New Year’s Eve party where alcohol is flowing freely. Although reluctant to do so, Clark and his friends join in the drinking. At the end of the night, Scott volunteers to drive the farm kids home, despite having more booze in him than anyone else. The inevitable happens – Scott veers in front of an 18-wheeler and his car smashes into a tree. Clark, naturally unhurt, pulls Lana and Pete from the wreckage, but Scott is too far gone, and has been in a coma ever since.
Back in the present, Scott’s parents have convinced the courts to allow them to pull the plug on their son, having spent a decade in a vegetative state. Clark tells Scott’s parents that he blames himself, that he should have taken the wheel instead, and the Brubakers try to assuage his guilt. After all, Scott’s dad says, Clark had been drinking that night too.
This is what we call dramatic irony, folks. You see, even though Clark’s powers hadn’t kicked in yet, the reader knows fully well that even at 18 he was immune to the effects of alcohol and he was stone-cold sober. And Clark knows it too. As he talks to Scott’s parents, he realizes just how profound that night was on the rest of his life, setting him on a course to always – ALWAYS – do the right thing. He says goodbye and leaves. On the way out of the hospital, he overhears a couple planning to get into their car, a wine bottle in their hands, clearly drunk. But before they can drive away, they realize that somehow, in the midst of a blizzard, their tires have melted into the pavement.
On TV, a story like this would be what they call a “very special episode.” It’s when a character – usually, but not exclusively teenager – is faced with a moral dilemma and the viewer is supposed to infer the correct behavior. And these stories are often pretty schmaltzy. But this comic never felt that way to me. It wasn’t preachy, it wasn’t like some sort of stale Public Service Announcement, despite its very clear statement about drunk driving. Instead, it felt like it was giving us a missing piece of Superman’s life.
Allow me to explain. Unlike most superheroes – Batman, Spider-Man, the Punisher – Superman has no tragic inciting incident in his past. Oh sure, there’s the whole “my planet exploded” thing, but that happened in his infancy. It’s not an event that he remembers, not the thing that compels him to do good. Even in continuities where the Kents are dead before he becomes Superman, those deaths are almost always natural and don’t have a direct relationship to the moral core of the Man of Steel. (Their parenting sure does, but not their deaths.) And to be fair, Superman doesn’t exactly need a tragic backstory either. It is enough – certainly SHOULD be enough – to have a hero who does the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do.
That said, while I don’t think this story is necessary, and it hasn’t become an ingrained part of the character’s backstory like the deaths of the Waynes or Ben Parker, it does help very much to humanize Clark Kent. He’s Superman, yeah, but before that he was a kid. Before that he made a stupid decision that thousands of other kids have made, and like far too many of them, a price was paid for that decision.
I dunno, maybe part of the reason I still think this story is so profound is because I’m a high school teacher. I spend my entire day around other people the same age that Clark Kent was in this story, and I have known more than one in my years who was the victim of a stupid choice like the ones Clark and Scott made. So it’s important to me. It matters to me. And in an odd way, it also does something for the character that we saw in the “Supergirl Saga.” It shows us the consequences of a choice, and how it indelibly etches into the soul of a man determined to never let it happen again.
Fri., Oct. 10
Comic: Superman Vol. 2 #84, 85
Notes: During Villain Debut Week I wrote about the Toyman, and how he was always a relatively minor villain – annoying, but not particularly violent or dangerous. That changed in Superman #84 from 1993, in what was one of the darkest Superman stories I’d ever read. The Toyman has established a lair beneath the streets of Metropolis and he’s begun kidnapping children whose parents he believes are “bad.” His mind has completely snapped, and he believes that by imprisoning these children in his subterranean dungeon he is somehow protecting them from a harsh, cruel world. At the same time Clark – still fresh from his recent resurrection in the “Reign of the Supermen,” – is enjoying life by taking Lois off to Paris for an evening. As the two of them are in Europe, Cat Grant takes her son Adam to a Halloween party where he’s lured away by a promise of a room full of video games. The Toyman brings Adam to his lair, “rescuing” him from his “sick, embarrassing lush of a mother.” But Adam proves to be more willful and defiant than his other captives, and when tries to free the other children, the Toyman decides that he can’t risk Adam telling people about his lair. When Lois and Clark return the next morning, they are horrified at the news that Adam’s body has been identified.
The next three weekly issues of the Superman titles were a short storyline called “Spilled Blood,” in which Superman battled a new version of Bloodsport, among others. Although the Adam story remained an undercurrent, it wasn’t resolved until Superman #85 the following month. Cat approaches Superman in the street, outraged that he hasn’t caught the Toyman yet (the whole “Spilled Blood” thing kept him busy), and he begs her to find help for herself while he seeks the killer. More bodies have been found, and Superman manages to trace the Toyman to the harbor. The once-whimsical villain has gone completely off the deep end, wallowing in an oversized crib and having conversations with his invisible “Mommy,” Norman Bates-style. Superman bursts into the lair in anger, but when he sees how pathetic the Toyman has become, he takes pity on him, capturing him even as the Toyman destroys his own lair.
The story of his capture is told in flashback, though, cutting back to the present, where we see Cat sneaking a gun into the police station where Toyman is being held. Throughout the story, Cat’s running narration shows us the pain, grief, and rage she’s caged up, ready to unleash on her son’s murderer. As the Toyman rebukes Cat, calling her a bad mother and saying she raised a bad boy, she pulls her gun on him. He is defiant at first, until “Mommy” tells him that she really means it, and he’s reduced to pathetic groveling. When Cat pulls the trigger, though, a flag with the word “bang” on it pops out. Superman shows up, telling her she could be in a lot of trouble if he were to tell the police what she did, but Cat walks off, trying to find a way to live her life alone.
Even in 1993, when this story came out, I recognized it as being one of the darkest, bleakest Superman stories I’d ever read. I’m not sure who had the idea of turning the Toyman into a child-murderer or what the hopes of editorial were…was it an attempt to make a “darker,” “grittier” villain out of somebody who had long been a joke? Was it done in the hopes of giving Superman a more grounded, realistic foe than the likes of Doomsday or Brainiac? Or was it just Dan Jurgens feeling a compulsion to show a story where Superman’s power wasn’t enough? Regardless of the impetus behind it, the story that disturbed me when I was young absolutely slices through my guts when I read it now as a parent, with my own son about the same age as Adam Grant. I don’t want to, but I can’t help but think about how I would feel in Cat’s position, what I would do…and the truth is I don’t know. I don’t WANT to know. It’s a nightmare the likes of which I can’t even imagine.
Compared to THIS Toyman…give me Doomsday. Give me the Cyborg. Give me Darkseid. But don’t ever give me what happened to Cat Grant.
Notes: By 2005, the DC Universe was gearing up for a change. A lot of storylines that had been running in assorted titles turned out to be setting pieces in place for the upcoming Infinite Crisis event: the Rock of Eternity was destroyed, sending magic into disarray; Batman’s paranoia led him to create a satellite monitoring system called Brother Eye; and Maxwell Lord had been revealed as the leader of Checkmate, a spy agency that he’d turned into an anti-metahuman organization. His machinations when Ted Kord, the Blue Beetle, discovered that Max had stolen Brother Eye, so Max killed him. In the Superman titles, things had been growing appreciably darker for some time, and the four-part “Sacrifice” storyline was the point that led him into the crossover event.
The graphic novel picks up before the events of the crossover proper, with Superman #218. Superman’s old foe Blackrock is murdered by a new villain who wants to steal the rock that gives him his power. Blackrock 2.0 turns out to be more dangerous, laying waste to a large section of Metropolis before Superman is able to take him out with a heavy application of heat vision. The public sentiment, however, has been turning against superheroes for some time, and the sheer display of power necessary for Superman to take Blackrock down leaves people terrified of him, fleeing from what they perceive as his ferocity.
It gets worse in Part 1 of “Sacrifice” proper, from Superman #219. Following the destruction of the Fortress of Solitude (which happened back in “For Tomorrow”) Superman built a new Fortress in South America. “Sacrifice” begins with him waking up in the new Fortress with blood on his hands. In flashback, he remembers Brainiac in the Daily Planet office with Lois. Clark barges in, but the alien is gone. He tracks down Brainiac, but finds that he’s captured Perry, Lana, Jimmy, and Lois. Superman is forced to watch as Brainiac murders those closest to him and, in a rage, he decides to break his most sacred vow and kill his foe. The flashback ends as he looks at the blood on his hands and realizes it’s human – it can’t be Brainiac’s.
And that’s when the Justice League arrives, demanding answers.
In Action #829, J’onn J’onzz visits Lois – who is very much not dead – to ask for her help, given Superman’s recent “erratic” behavior. At the Fortress, meanwhile, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Black Canary are seeking answers. Superman again remembers the encounter at the Planet office, but this time it isn’t Brainiac with Lois – it’s Darkseid. Again, his enemy has Lois captive, and he forces Superman into personal combat…combat that ends with Lois’s death. Back in the Fortress, Black Canary tells Superman to examine the blood on his hands to see who it REALLY belongs to. In horror, they go to the Justice League Watchtower to see his true victim – Batman, who has been beaten within an inch of his life.
In Adventures #642, as Batman fights for his life, the League shows Superman surveillance footage of how he nearly killed Batman, stopped only at the last second by Wonder Woman. Superman’s memories have changed again – he remembers the fight, but this time it was Ruin he battled. J’onn theorizes that someone has planted some sort of psychotic episode into Superman’s mind. Bringing Wonder Woman with him, the two of them delve into Superman’s psyche and find evidence that Superman is being manipulated by Maxwell Lord. Max has damaged Superman’s mind, using the very mental barriers Superman placed in his own mind after he killed the Phantom Zone criminals. As they plan how to contain him, Max’s conditioning kicks in again: Superman suddenly turns paranoid and attacks the League, fighting through them while believing he’s searching for Max. Diana goes after him, finding Max in his hideaway and learning that his control over Superman appears to be complete.
“Sacrifice” ends in Wonder Woman #219, one of the most controversial comics of the era. Max uses his mind control powers to make Superman believe he’s watching Doomsday kill Lois, revealing he’s spent years subtly manipulating Superman, implanting tendrils of paranoia and terror. He has Superman attack Diana, believing her to be Doomsday. The battle is fierce and global, but she manages to distract him and get back to Max, tying him in her lasso and forcing him to release Superman. Max taunts her, saying that she can’t keep him in her lasso forever, and eventually he’ll set Superman loose again. Diana tells Max – under the power of the Lasso of Truth – to tell her how to free Superman from his control. Max’s answer is simple: “Kill me.”
And she does.
Although that was the end of the issues branded “Sacrifice,” the story wasn’t over. It continues a second later in Wonder Woman #220. Superman is horrified when he realizes what Diana has done, but before he can say anything a pair of disasters in different parts of the world call the two of them apart. As if that weren’t bad enough, when she goes to see Batman and he discovers what she’s done, he tells her to “Get out.” The fallout continued in Adventures of Superman #643 – we see the two issues of Wonder Woman from Clark’s perspective: his imagined fight with Doomsday, watching him kill Lois and countless others, then waking up from a nightmare just in time to watch Diana, his best friend, snap Max’s neck without a hint of remorse. Like Diana, he’s called away, and like Diana, he checks on Bruce. And while he doesn’t tell Superman to go away, his reception is almost as cold. Superman returns to Lois, broken, unsure what to do.
The graphic novel wraps up with Superman #220, in which Superman and Superboy team up to take on the Eradicator, but that issue really has very little to do with the rest of the story and I suspect it was only included because they weren’t sure where else to put it in the assorted paperbacks collecting the stories running up to Infinite Crisis. That’s what this is really about, after all. The conceit behind Infinite Crisis would eventually turn out to be that Alex Luthor of Earth-3, Superman of Earth-2, and Superboy of Earth-Prime had been watching the prime DC Universe ever since the end of the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, and seeing how dark the world had become, Luthor decided to rewrite it. As such the stories before that were intended to amplify that darkness. Batman’s creation of a global spy satellite was enough to put him on everyone’s naughty list, but “Sacrifice” served to shove a wedge between all three members of DC’s Trinity, with Diana’s actions being condemned by both Bruce and Clark, Clark refusing to trust Bruce because of the aforementioned Brother Eye, and Bruce deciding that neither of the other two had gone far enough. Taken in and of themselves, these stories are all hard and bleak. As part of the larger tapestry, though, it really works well. I liked Infinite Crisis at the time and I still enjoy it. And I agreed with the main thesis – the DC universe HAD gotten too dark, and I was happy that the story ended with rays of hope, a promise that the universe would grow better again. The sad thing is that the DC creators themselves seemed to forget that. After a promising start, the stories again took a turn for the darker, and brightness didn’t really start to return until DC Rebirth in 2016. Even then it’s had its ups and downs since then. I’m glad to say that, at the moment, it feels like we’re in an upswing.
Sun., Oct. 12
Comics: Superman: The Man of Steel #16, Superman Vol. 2 #72
Notes: I’ve got a quickie today, the two-part “Crisis at Hand” from 1992 (which may well be the shortest “Crisis” DC ever published). This story hearkens back to some of Superman’s earliest Golden Age stories when Clark’s superhearing picks up the sounds of a man beating a woman. He’s shocked to realize that the assault is happening in his own apartment building – his neighbors Gary and Andrea Johnson. He bursts into the apartment and stops Gary from whipping his wife with a belt, but when the police arrive, Andrea defends her husband and asks the police to throw Superman out. The next morning Clark relates to Lois a story from early in his career, a nice recreation of the infamous “wife-beater” scene from Action Comics #1, when he stopped a similar crime. Louise Simonson and Jon Bogdanove extend the scene, though, showing Clark talking to his father later and questioning if he did the right thing. With the police unable to intervene unless Andrea is willing to press charges, part one of the story ends with Clark clutching his hands over his ears, helpless as he listens to Gary battering his wife yet again.
Part two came in Superman #72 by Dan Jurgens and Brad Vancata. Clark turns to Jonathan for counsel once again, then Lois, telling her the story of how the “wife-beater” episode ENDED all those years ago. Not long after Superman stopped the man from hitting his wife, Clark Kent got sent to cover his first murder case for the Planet only to find that the victim was the woman he’d just saved. When an enraged Superman tracked down the husband, he blamed Superman for not killing him when he stopped him the first time. The absurdity of the situation has resonated with Clark ever since, and he knows that this isn’t a situation Superman can solve. When he and Lois get back to his apartment, though, they hear crashes in the Johnson apartment. Although Clark tries to stay out of it, Lois refuses to do so. They burst in and Andrea tells Gary to leave. Lois stays with Andrea, giving her the number of a woman’s shelter and urging her to seek help (which she does), while Superman winds up finding Gary on a bridge and talks him out of committing suicide, taking him to get the help HE needs as well.
Like “Face to Face With Yesterday,” this story has the earmarks of the “very special episode,” although here it has the added element of it being a story about Superman having to face the fact that there are some problems he can’t solve. In the end, though, it’s a very human story, and as harsh as it is (especially the scene at the murder victim’s funeral, when the killer’s mother begs Superman to spare her son) it ends with an element of hope. As the best Superman stories always should.
Notes: The Geoff Johns/Gary Frank era of Action Comics wasn’t a particularly bleak one, although it did bring us to a heartbreaking conclusion at the end of the five-part Brainiac story, which begins with a flashback to Krypton. Before the destruction of the planet, we see General Zod and his army battling against an invading Skull-shaped spacecraft that seals the city of Kandor in a bottle and miniaturizes it. From there, we shift to the present day Daily Planet, where a few familiar faces are returning to the fold: boorish sports editor Steve Lombard and Cat Grant, who seems to have got down a rabbit hole of reinventing herself for the worse since the death of her son (even reaching the point of throwing herself at the now-married Clark Kent as she used to in the days before he and Lois got together). The conversation is interrupted by the incursion of a Brainiac drone into Metropolis. Superman fights it off with relative ease, but a message is sent to the Skullship in space, where we learn that Brainiac is seeking Kryptonians.
In part two, Johns does a little bit of continuity welding. Y’see, over the years Brainiac had taken on a LOT of forms – alien invader, human possessed by an outside force, robot, etc. Supergirl (who remembers pre-destruction Krypton) tells us that all of these versions are different “probes” created by the REAL Brainiac, and that no one has ever encountered his true form before. On Krypton Brainiac basically became a planetwide boogeyman after Kandor’s abduction, terrifying everyone. After a conversation with the world’s greatest dad, Clark takes a ship into space, planning to bring the fight to Brainiac for once. He finds him attacking yet another world, but is unable to stop him from destroying the sun of an inhabited planet, killing everyone there, and taking Superman captive.
Superman wakes up in Part Three, in the midst of the Skullship surrounded by other aliens in suspended animation, as well as shrunken cities…including Kandor. That’s when Brainiac attacks, of course. And he’s set his sights on Earth. Supergirl shows up at the Planet office, looking for Clark, and is with Lois when the shadow of Brainiac’s ship appears in the sky over Metropolis. In Part Four, Supergirl tries to fight the drones on Earth as Superman battles Brainiac in his ship. Superman manages to make contact with Kandor, including Supergirl’s parents, Zor-El and Allura, but Brainiac has the upper hand. He manages to reduce Metropolis to one of his bottle cities and fires a probe into the sky. On Earth, Jonathan and Martha Kent watch as the probe arcs towards the sun, ready to destroy it just like Brainiac did to the sun of Krypton.
In the final chapter, Superman faces Brainiac as Supergirl races through space to stop the probe. The battle falls to Earth, where Superman manages to disable Brainiac. But as he sets out to restore Kandor to full size, Brainiac sends a probe to strike at Superman’s heart: Smallville. The probe attacks the Kent farm, and Jonathan just barely manages to pull Martha away before the barn is destroyed. Their joy is short-lived, though, as the exertion triggers a heart attack. Superman hears his mother screaming from the other side of the world and races to Smallville just as Jonathan Kent dies.
Generally speaking, I prefer the continuities in which Jonathan and Martha Kent are alive for our adult Superman. There are too few positive portrayals of parents in superhero fiction (or fiction in general, for that matter), and having arguably the two greatest parents in history alive and available gave an added dimension to Superman. It’s probably my favorite single element that John Byrne brought to the table in 1986, and I was elated when Doomsday Clock finally made it clear that, in the DC Rebirth continuity, both Kent parents were alive again (they were both dead in the New 52 era).
All that said, none of those personal feelings of mine take away from the gut punch that Johns delivers at the end of this storyline. The death of a parent is one of the most horrible and most inevitable parts of life (I speak from experience here, friends), and it’s something we’d never really watched Clark Kent deal with before. In Action Comics #1, the Kents were already dead before Clark went to Metropolis, his mourning done away with in a single panel. Although they were considerably fleshed out in the years following via the Superboy comics, there’d never really been a story where we saw Clark Kent grapple with the loss. I also appreciate how Johns accomplished it. Having Jonathan’s death be natural – a heart attack, in most of the continuities where his death is explicitly portrayed – is a good reminder for the character that for all his power, there are some things that even a Superman cannot fight. On the other hand, having that heart attack brought on by an act of heroism is beautifully fitting for the man who raised Superman, and makes his loss all the more tragic.
Up until those last few pages, this story wouldn’t have made the cut for “Superman’s Darkest Hours” week. Most of it is good, but standard for the time. In fact, there are even several bits of light – a lot of humor surrounding Cat Grant and Steve Lombard, Johns and Gary Frank really hammering home their love and inspiration from the Christopher Reeve films, and a particularly inspiring bit with Supergirl where her cousin tells her that it’s okay to be afraid, and that reminder giving her the courage to overcome that same fear and save her adopted world. But no matter how great the victory, how incredible the triumph, the loss at the end makes for a moment that deserves a place in the worst moments of anybody’s life.
Tues., Oct. 14
Comics: Superman/Batman #26
Notes: The last stop on our tour of Superman’s darkest hours comics not from the dark moment itself, but more from its aftermath. Every comic book fan knows that a crisis-level event will, of course, include casualties. And we also know that these casualties, more often than not, turn out to be temporary. Still, if written well, even a comic book death can have an emotional impact. Such was the case with the death of Conner Kent, Superboy, in Infinite Crisis. But that’s not the moment I want to look at today – I want to delve into the aftermath, from Superman/Batman #26. This, frankly, is a comic book with a backstory even more heartbreaking than what’s on the page. Jeph Loeb, who had been the writer of this title since its inception, lost his son Sam to cancer. This book was made in his honor, packaging a plot that Sam himself had written with pages scripted and drawn by 26 of the biggest names in comics – Geoff Johns, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Brad Meltzer, Mike Kunkel, and several others. It’s an all-star lineup that came together for the sake of a young man who left the world entirely too soon.
The story is packaged as Robin (Tim Drake) telling a story of one grand adventure he had with his best friend, who has recently died. Superboy and Robin are tasked with finding the missing Toyman – not Winslow Schott, but the 13-year-old whiz kid named Hiro Okumura who had straddled the line between villain and hero and, at this time, was making gadgets and vehicles for Batman. Superman and Batman know that Hiro is on the edge, and they hope the influence of Robin and Superboy will help keep him on the side of the angels. They arrive at his lair, which seems to have been broken into, and are immediately confronted by the original Toyman, claiming he’s taken care of the pretender. Robin quickly figures out, though, that the Winslow they’re talking to is a robot. The pair battle their way through a series of environments with robot duplicates of their friends and foes, the whole thing feeling like a real-life video game, until they finally find Hiro himself at the heart of it, manipulating the whole thing. When confronted about why he would do such a thing, Robin proves his detective prowess by intuiting that Hiro, simply, is lonely, and he wanted to have fun with some friends. The two of them invite Hiro to hang out with them sometime.
It’s a simple story, really. In any other context, it would be a one-off throwaway – fun, but not particularly memorable. But the circumstances behind its creation and framing story of Robin, in tears, remembering his friend make the entire thing heart-wrenching.
Jeph Loeb takes things one step further, though, with a back-up in which he reteams with his Superman For All Seasons partner Tim Sale to tell “Sam’s Story.” This one, narrated by Jonathan Kent, takes us back to Clark Kent’s school days in Smallville, hanging out with his friends Lana and Pete. But the focus is on neither of them, but on a heretofore unmentioned classmate of Clark’s called – of course – Sam. Sam was the the kid who could make Clark Kent laugh, made him happy in a way that was enough to sometimes even make him forget just how different he was from everybody else. But when Sam starts showing up to school sick – on crutches, losing his hair – and joking it off, Clark’s X-Ray vision immediately spots the culprit: a horrific dark spot in Sam’s bones. When Clark asks Sam what he can do, Sam’s reply is “Be my pal.”
On the day that Sam dies, Clark runs. He runs halfway through the night, finally coming home at 3 am and sitting on the porch with his father, asking “Why?” The story ends with a note written by Sam (Loeb) that feels like the kind of creed a Superman should live by.
When I read this story now, I imagine myself in Jonathan’s role, holding my own son and trying to help him work through his own grief. It hasn’t happened yet, thankfully, but it’s one of those inevitabilities of life. We all know it happens eventually. The one thing I can’t image, though, is being in the place of Jeph Loeb, writing this story as a eulogy for his own son. I can’t imagine it, but I admire him, for taking what must have been his worst nightmare and turning it into something sad and sweet and lovely.
Whoo. Despite the theme I went with this week, I didn’t really expect to finish off the blog with tears in my eyes, but that just goes to show you how powerful this issue actually was. Next week, paradoxically, will be a little less sad, although probably even darker. For the last few years there’s been a real push in the media to tell stories of a “bad” Superman, whether that’s in an Elseworlds-type story featuring Clark Kent or in other universes with a character that the writer is using as a Superman stand-in. Next week we’re gonna look at some of THOSE, examining their characters and what makes them so dark, and compare them to the real Man of Steel. See you in seven days for “Superman Gone Wrong!”
Blake M. Petit 