superman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superman Stuff #15: The Superman Experience

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Since Superman was released last summer, we’ve been working under the assumption that we would have to wait until 2027 and the release of Man of Tomorrow to once again glimpse that corner of James Gunn’s new DC Universe. Turns out, though, that for the lucky among us, that next glimpse is going to come as early as this Saturday, with the debut of the new “Superman Experience: Defenders Unite” exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios in Hollywood.

Described as a “live walkthrough and gameplay experience,” the event will supposedly utilize motion capture technology and 3D effects to place visitors into an adventure where they will travel to the Fortress of Solitude, be given Kryptonian powers, and fight alongside Superman himself against one of DC’s vilest villains. After the main event, there will be a secondary attraction where guests get to look at different exhibits and play mini-games at their own pace. And although the press release I read doesn’t mention it specifically, I have no doubt that the experience will also include a gift shop where visitors will be highly encouraged to exchange specific amounts of American money for “Superman Experience”-branded merchandise.

I’m sure you can imagine the conversation I had with my wife when I saw the trailer for the exhibit.

“It’s only $39 a person,” I said.

“Mmm-hmm,” she said.

“Ages five and up. I bet Eddie would love it.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“Plus, you know, the cost of a Warner Bros. studio tour.”

“Uh-huuuuuh.”

“And whatever it would cost to travel to California.”

“Theeeeere it is.”

So needless to say, this is not an experience that the Petit family will be participating in any time in the near future.

That said, I find stuff like this infinitely cool. Back when Las Vegas was still fun, before Erin and I were even married, we visited the sadly-defunct Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton, an attraction where you could hang out on the Deep Space Nine Promenade, drink a Romulan Ale at Quark’s bar, fight the Borg with the USS Voyager, or actually get beamed onto the Enterprise-D. I will never forget Erin looking at me when the lights came up to reveal that we were standing on a transporter pad, like a parent watching their kids opening Christmas presents. The fact that she still agreed to marry me after witnessing my childlike glee at this attraction is the evidence of our bond.

But I really like these kinds of experiences. I’m the nerd who enjoys escape rooms. Every time I see a video about a Meow Wolf instillation, I feel a pulse of envy rush through my body over the fact that none of them are within driving distance. The Museum of Illusion recently opened a new exhibit in the Jax Brewery building in New Orleans, and if I don’t do anything else on my summer vacation this year (besides watch Supergirl, of course) I want to take my son there.

I love movies and books and comic books. But this kind of interactive storytelling speaks to me in the same way it did when I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. Seeing the trailer for the Superman Experience hit me that way too. Will I make it there to experience it myself? Absolutely not. Does the fact of its existence make me happy?

It sure does.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At least until Big Blue himself comes back. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

No, not that one. The other one.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mad About DC #1
Main Cover: Dan Panosian

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

Geek Punditry #169: You Can’t Make It Make Sense

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Despite the fact that it’s April already, I’ve only read a handful of novels so far this year. The reason for this, I should point out, is that I spent a good two months on a trio of absolute doorstoppers: first Stephen King’s It, followed by the first two books in Scott Sigler’s Crypt series, both of which are sizable in their own right. After these satisfying – but weighty – tomes, I wanted to tackle something quicker and lighter next. And the choice I made has me laughing in all the ways the writer did not intend.

SpongeBob already did the “ghost ship” thing anyway.

I’ve written before about “Extended Universes,” those non-canonical stories that are set in the fictional universes that we know and love. These are things like the comic book or novel series that spin out of popular movies and TV shows (Star Wars perhaps being the most famous of these), but it also works the other way around – movies and TV shows that adapt or spin out of comics and novels. Looking for a quick read, I decided to go old-school and enjoy the 1988 novel Ghost Ship by Diane Carey, a quaint little historical curiosity in that it was the first novel ever published based on the then-new TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation. And while I can’t necessarily blame Carey for the novel, holy CRAP, is this one a doozy.

The story – set during the first season of the TV show – regards an alien creature that absorbed the life-essences of the crew of a Soviet aircraft carrier 300 years earlier, and who is now endangering the Enterprise. Complicating the matter is that Deanna Troi, the ship’s empathic counselor, can sense the tortured spirits of the Russians inside the alien beast. It’s a perfectly reasonable sci-fi concept, the kind of stuff that we’ve seen in various Star Trek series several times. And it certainly isn’t Carey’s fault that the Soviet Union collapsed prior to 1995, when the sailors in her book were attacked by the alien. The book even tackles some heavy concepts like the nature of life and spirituality, with an interesting side-conversation about whether releasing the “essences” of the sailors from the beast would count as euthanizing them and, if so, if that would be morally acceptable. 

But it’s really hard to take any of that seriously, because the characters in this novel are so far removed from those that we know from the TV series that it’s like reading about an entirely different crew. Captain Picard is stern, overbearing, foul-tempered, and expresses constant regret over the fact that he allowed Wesley Crusher to become an acting ensign. Data’s concerns about his own humanity (or lack thereof) are taken to a nearly pathological level. Troi calls William Riker “Bill.” Perhaps the most egregious line in the novel is a point where Riker glances at Tasha Yar and thinks that her soft features and wide eyes make her look like a “Disney drawing.”

Remember the time Snow White dressed like this?

For people who love the TV show, the whole thing comes across as patently absurd. But again, I don’t think that this is necessarily Carey’s fault, but rather a consequence of the way that books like this are written…or at least, the way they were written back then. In order to get novels like this one in bookstores at the same time that the TV series made it to the airwaves, writers had to start working from early drafts of the screenplays. Even though Carey was telling an original story rather than adapting a specific episode, she had to base her characterizations and mannerisms on what was written in the series bible and early scripts. It’s likely that there were no episodes of the show available for her to watch yet as she wrote the book – hell, it’s possible that none had even been filmed yet. She had to make assumptions based on what she was given. But characters in an ongoing serial like a TV series change and evolve over time, especially in the early seasons. There would have been no way for her to know how they would wind up being played when she started working on this first book. Because of all this, Ghost Ship is even harder to reconcile with TV canon than many of the other novels, not because it blatantly contradicts any plot or world-building elements, but just because the characters are so unrecognizable. 

This sort of thing tends to happen a lot when you’re creating extended universe material based on “official” works that aren’t finished yet. At least one early novel from the Star Trek: Voyager series, for example, refers to the holographic doctor on the ship as “Zimmerman.” People who know the canon of the series know that Zimmerman was the name of the doctor who programed the Emergency Medical Hologram and based its appearance on his own, but may NOT know that at one point in the planning stage of the series the plan was for the holographic doctor to adopt his “father’s” name. That plan was dropped in favor of a sort of running character arc about him trying to choose his own name, but eventually, even that went away and he just went by “The Doctor” for the entirety of the series. 

It also happens in comic book adaptations. DC released a Next Generation miniseries to coincide with the first season of the show, and it featured some wildly out-of-character moments. There’s a scene where Geordi LaForge is (mistakenly, of course) presumed to be killed by Q, and Data flies into a violent rage. Data. The character who is famously emotionless. Now I’ve always believed that even Season One Data isn’t TRULY emotionless – there’s just no way to reconcile a lot of the character beats with someone who genuinely has no emotions, let alone the fact that his dominant character trait is that he WANTS emotions. (Desire, itself, is an emotion, in case you don’t understand the contradiction.) I think it’s better to think of Data as somebody who does not UNDERSTAND his emotions or how to process them, and therefore mistakenly believes he does not have them at all. All that said, Data’s willingness to throw hands just simply does not jive with the character he was in Season One. Hell, it wouldn’t even match who he became by the last season of Star Trek: Picard. 

Again, this is a character defined by his LACK of emotion.

Sometimes, especially with comic books, the differences are visual. One of the most famous examples comes from the Marvel Comics adaptation of The Empire Strikes Back. After adapting the original Star Wars movie, Marvel continued the comic book as an ongoing series, which itself would cause several continuity snarls when the sequels came around, such as encounters with Darth Vader that don’t really make sense in later canon, or scenes that hinted at a romance blossoming between Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia that would later turn out to be particularly squicky for…obvious reasons. But one of the most hilarious of these changes is Yoda, whose first appearance was in Empire. When the Star Wars comic adapted that storyline, artists Al Williamson and Carlos Garzon either weren’t given a photo reference of Yoda to work from or the design of the puppet was changed later. I’m not sure which, but either way the result was a short little goblin with blue skin and long, flowing white hair, a far cry from the Yoda that fans who bought the comic book could see in the movie that was in theaters at the same time that the comic was being published. For later reprintings of the comic, Yoda was re-drawn to more closely match his cinematic appearance, but it’s not hard to find the original panels online for the sake of comparison and – let’s be honest here – mockery.

Including this picture just in case anybody was worried about sleeping too well tonight.

Movie novelizations are typically based on early drafts of the script, which can make it fun to read them and find things that were cut out of the film, then try to determine WHY they were left out. The Goonies novelization, for example, contains a long sequence in which the kids take a ride on a raft along an underground river, making it more plausible just how far away their final destination is from their point of origin. There are a lot of really good character moments in this scene, as the kids talk and discuss their various fears and anxieties, but you can totally understand why such a relatively slow sequence was never filmed for the lighthearted adventure film that the final Goonies became. Similarly, we all remember the scene in Ghostbusters in which Ray Stantz talks about having to mortgage his family home in order to afford the iconic Ghostbusters Firehouse. If you ever want to get into the intricacies of the Stantz family and just how he came to inherit the property in the first place, there’s a whole sequence in the novelization that details just that information, and it would have been boring as hell to relate on screen.

But will audiences understand this if we don’t go over how escrow works?

You don’t see as many of these adaptational oddities as you used to. The lead time for producing movies and TV shows gets ever longer, and not only are there fewer novelizations and comic book adaptations than there used to be, but there seems to be less of an urgency to get them onto the shelves at the same time as the movie or TV show is released. You still have tonal problems at times, of course. Last year David Newton released Welcome to Metropolis, a “prequel” novel to the new James Gunn Superman movie, and although it doesn’t have any glaring contradictions to the finished film, the characters and world just feel “off,” as though they were written by somebody who knew ABOUT the movie, but didn’t actually KNOW the movie.

Kinda like the Diane Carey novel that started this whole thing in the first place, actually.

But although I suppose having these books – when they happen – fit the canon a little better is TECHNICALLY a good thing, I kind of miss the days of wild inaccuracies and scenes where the cold, emotionless Data goes into a blind rage. It was weird, but it was also fun. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. He’s also started putting his LitReel videos on TikTok. After Ghost Ship, based on the recommendations of several friends, he has moved on to begin reading Dungeon Crawler Carl. You people are deranged. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Title: Bias
Writer: Greg Rucka
Art: Nicola Scott

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Superman Stuff #11: Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #16

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A recurring theme during the original “Year of Superman” was just how awful so many of the silver age comics made Lois look over the years. I’m sorry to tell you, friends, that Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane is another prime example of this kind of bold storytelling. 

The first story is “Lois Lane’s Signal-Watch” with art by Kurt Schaffenberger with an unknown writer — although frankly, I wouldn’t want credit for this one either. Lois asks Superman a fairly reasonable question: why hasn’t he ever given her a signal watch like Jimmy Olsen’s, seeing as how she’s even more likely to get into trouble than Jimmy is. Superman initially balks at the idea, but softens and gives her a watch for her birthday. Almost immediately, Lois starts using it for ridiculously frivolous reasons: fixing the broken heel of her shoe, loosening a zipper that’s gotten stuck, and helping her out of a revolving door that won’t turn. Superman is understandably frustrated and warns her not to use the watch again unless it’s an emergency, an admonition that she takes so seriously that when she is later kidnapped by bank robbers (it must have been Tuesday) who are going to blow her to smithereens with a bomb, she STILL refuses to call for help.

This story is seemingly fashioned for the sole purpose of making Lois look like an idiot. Even the synopsis on the DC Universe Infinite app seems to recognize it: “Superman gives Lois a signal watch, and she drives him crazy calling about stupid things.” That’s the official synopsis.

“The Mystery of Skull Island” (Schaffenberger again, with art by Robert Bernstein) is a little better. Perry White sends Lois and Clark undercover, pretending to be a maid and butler for a reclusive horror movie actor who, recently having returned from his honeymoon with a wealthy heiress, has shunned any attempts at an interview by the press. Ethics aside, at least Lois doesn’t seem like a total moron in this story, as she and Clark find it increasingly odd that the wife doesn’t appear to be around in the mansion. Lois starts to suspect the actor is a modern-day Bluebeard, having murdered his wife for her money, and disguises himself as his wife’s ghost to shock him into confessing his crime. This may be one of the best stories Lois has in this era of the comics. She’s still headstrong and foolhardy, but at least she doesn’t come across as vapid or stupid like she does so often.

“The Kryptonite Girl” wraps this one up with yet another story of Lois not listening to Superman, written by Jerry Siegel himself with art by ol’ reliable Kurt Schaffenberger. He brings by a collection of alien artifacts for Jimmy and Lois to photograph for a Planet article, but warns them not to touch any of them, a warning that Lois heeds exactly as well as any three-year-old listens when you tell them to stop licking the floor. Something in the artifacts seems to give Lois the ability to emit Kryptonite rays from her eyes, an ability she is unable to turn off. When Superman discovers this, he treats Lois with the kind of dignity and respect we’ve come to expect from the Man of Steel. 

The end of this story is one of the absolute WORST tropes of the era: when it is revealed that Superman actually orchestrated the whole thing to “teach Lois a lesson.” It’s the kind of story that makes BOTH characters look terrible. These are the stories that the Superdickery website was built upon, and you can’t really blame ‘em. 

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!

Geek Punditry #165: I Like What I Like

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

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

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

DC KO

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

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

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

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

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

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

Pluribus

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

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

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

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

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

Miracle: The Boys of ‘80

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Superman Stuff #8: Digital MIA

blakemp Superman Stuff , , , ,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And it’s time DC did something about it.

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!