superman

Superman Stuff #21: Review Roundup for May 13 through 27

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Thaaaat’s right, once again, it’s time to take a look at some of the recent Superman-related comics that DC has turned out for us. Including another heapin’ helpin’ of Mark Waid, a dash of dandy Dan Mora, more-a of those Superboys reignin’, and Superman’s return to Elseworlds!

Action Comics #1098
Title: Future Shock Part Two (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Mark Waid
Artists: Skylar Patridge and Patricia Delpeche
Main Cover: Ryan Sook

The time-tossed team of Martian Manhunter, Booster Gold, and Mary Marvel are in Smallville with Clark Kent early in his career as Superboy, and it’s not looking good when they learn that the villain they chased into the past, Epoch, has stolen the rocket that brought baby Kal-El to Earth in the first place. There’s a fight and a face-off, which of course is to be expected in a superhero comic book, but none of that is where this issue really shines. The heart of the book comes in the middle section, as Jonathan and Martha recount the story of how they found the baby to the time-travelers. Waid, of course, recently cleaned up DC’s timeline with his New History of the DC Universe series, so if there’s anybody we can consider an expert on what’s currently canon and what isn’t, it’s probably him. Seeing the current version of Superman’s origin presented answers a few questions and clarifies things, and leads to a surprisingly sweet moment between J’onn and the Kents. 

As with last issue, though, I’m absolutely loving the Mary/Clark dynamic. I really like the characterization of Mary as the older sibling of the Marvel family, and she carries that over here to her interactions with Clark, leading to a delightful scene where she decides to play wingwoman for him in his relationship with Lana. It’s a highly entertaining moment, although I do very much wonder if we’ll ever see a scene after Superman returns in the present timeline where the two of them talk about this.

Strong artwork by Skylar Patridge and Patricia Delpeche give the issue a sort of finishing touch. With issue #1100 coming up, it seems as though the time-missing Superman storyline is about to come to an end, but I hope that doesn’t mean an end to Waid’s time in Smallville, because these stories have been a lot of fun. 

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #51
Title: Warlords Part One
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Adrian Gutierrez
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Over in World’s Finest, which is ALSO set in the past (early in the partnership of Superman, Batman, and the Dick Grayson Robin), it’s time for a trip to the Arctic. Our heroes are tracking the flight path of a missing Air Force pilot, one who vanished on the same trajectory as another missing pilot, one Travis Morgan. Of course, the world’s finest get zapped to the out-of-time world of Skartaris and find themselves fighting alongside Morgan, the Warlord, in battle against the mysterious Tyrant Rex. Robin, of course, is wild about the dinosaurs. Superman is less wild about the magic flying around this little corner of the DC Universe.

I’ve never gotten super into Warlord. Its heyday was before my time as a comic book reader, and the various attempts to bring him back over the years have never quite landed. That said, I do enjoy watching Waid play with all the toys available in the DC Universe, and this is no exception. He used the time differential between the “normal” world and Skartaris to good effect here, changing things up for our heroes almost immediately upon entering the lost land, and Batman and Robin are thrust into rescue mode fairly early. 

Gutierrez draws some wildly fun dinosaurs, and he really sells the “acting” with the characters’ faces, particularly Robin, whom we are reminded time and again is pretty young in this series. He behaves like a younger version of the Dick Grayson we know – a little more impulsive, a little less confident, but still with the same solid heart.

This remains one of my favorite series that DC is putting out. 

Superman Unlimited #13
Title: Primal Fears (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Lucas Meyer
Main Cover: Taurin Clarke

This issue starts with the greatest character in comics, Bibbo Bibbowski, taking care of the monkey he found last issue. Some goons from the lab the monkey escaped show up trying to get him back, and things get much rougher than they expected. The time-tossed younger version of Jon Kent, meanwhile, is having nightmares about the torture he endured at the hands of Ultraman, while the older Jon – now calling himself Tomorrow Man – finds that a masked hero in Metropolis doesn’t necessarily enjoy the same kind of trust from the public that he may be used to. The two Jons are called into action when the super-monkey starts tearing it up. 

I’m not going to keep playing coy here – the story works great as a reintroduction of Beppo the Super-Monkey into the DC Universe, although the origin that Slott chooses for him here has a lot of 90s flavor to it, bringing back the long-missing Dabney Donovan character. I also like the dynamic he’s playing with the two Jons and Lois, who is far too smart not to figure out what the deal is with Tomorrow Man, and Slott seems to be leaning into that. I really don’t know what the endgame of this particular storyline is going to be, and that’s a nice feeling in a day and age where everything gets spoiled yesterday. It’s a longshot, but I think that if things shook out with young Jon/Superboy and old Jon/Tomorrow Man coexisted in the DCU long-term, I’d be okay with it.

Of course, Jon is still wearing the “S” over in New Titans, so that’s probably not going to happen.

Supergirl #13
Title: Hero of Kandor Part Three (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer, Artist, & Main Cover: Sophie Campbell

Kara’s adventure in Kandor continues. With Black Flame causing chaos, Supergirl – now stuck with some cyborg parts, in case you missed last issue – tracks down Lesla-Lar to try to get her help. Lesla, meanwhile, has something very, very important to show our heroine, and it might just change things for Kara Zor-El for good.

It really feels like Campbell has been building up to this story since issue #1, and that’s a great thing. All of the stuff with Lesla and Lena and Kara showing her constant compassion and trust in people who were once her enemies is paying off in really interesting and unexpected ways. Ultimately, we still aren’t 100 percent sure what side Lesla is going to land on once all of this is over, and Campbell has set it up in such a way that either choice would be conceivably in-character. That’s quite a trick, and it’s pulled off impressively. 

If there’s anything to complain about, it’s that the whole “Reign of the Superboys” tie-in feels more tacked on than ever. Conner finally makes it into Kandor in this issue, but he’s only around for a couple of frankly unnecessary pages before the story moves back to Kara. It really feels as though Campbell had the story planned and in the works when editorial put out an edict that Conner Kent had to feature into these post-DC KO issues somehow, then she just kind of crowbarred him in where she could while causing minimal disruption to the narrative. If that’s the case, then it’s a failure on editorial’s part, not Campbell’s, and the pages without Conner at all work just fine at telling an interesting, gripping story that only really could be told with Kara Zor-El. 

Superman #38
Title: Prime Time Part Three (A Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist and Main Cover: Dan Mora

I didn’t have a Superboy-Prime/Witchfire pairing on my 2026 wish list, but here we are. Witchfire, a magic user from Kurt Busiek’s fun and forgotten series Power Company, is looking for an innocent soul to use in a spell she needs. Unfortunately, she has TOTALLY misread the aura of that cute guy at the comic shop. All is not lost, though – Superboy-Prime IS in the midst of a redemption arc, after all, and this seems like just the way to do it.

Williamson is clearly having fun with this. He leans more into the meta nature of Prime in this issue, and the last act of the book dives into it headfirst, with the return of this arc’s true villain and Prime being thrust into what is possibly his own worst nightmare. But the amazing, encouraging thing here is that we never feel like his attempts at redemption are fake or forced or cheap. Williamson has successfully convinced us that Prime sincerely wants to reform and become a hero like he always wanted, and despite the horrific crimes he committed in the past (some of which we are specifically reminded of in this issue), the reader finds themselves rooting for him. It’s an odd feeling, to look at someone who once casually slaughtered Teen Titans like they were nothing and find yourself pulling for him. But the whole thing kind of plays into a personal philosophy of redemption that I subscribe to. I’ve got to believe – hell, for the good of the WORLD I’ve got to believe – that redemption is possible. And that if someone truly wants to become a better person today than they were yesterday, at the very least they deserve the opportunity to TRY.

Admittedly, applying that philosophy to a murderer is totally on the extreme end, but just ask yourself how many bad guys joined the heroes on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and tell me if what’s going on with Prime here is really all that different.

Dan Mora’s artwork, as usual, is wonderful. I’ve talked before about how some artists are good at “acting” with their characters, and this issue is a fantastic example of that – the sweet, nervous flirtation between C.K. and Rebecca is written not only on their faces, but in their body language as well. It’s such a small thing, but it adds so much to the story. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I almost don’t want the real Superman to come back to this title just yet, because I’m not ready for this story to end. 

Justice League Unlimited #19
Title: Amnesty Part One
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist and Main Cover Dan Mora

Speaking of redemption, why don’t we peek in on what the Justice League is doing, shall we? Lex Luthor went public with the League’s plan to offer amnesty to certain super villains as part of their larger plan to fortify the defenses against the darkness they know is coming (that’s what DC All In is all about, Charlie Brown), and as you might have expected, public perception is NOT what the League may have hoped for. Meanwhile, Guy Gardner’s team is en route to Oa to hide the Power Bank with backups of the Leaguers’ respective super-powers, and Superboy (Conner) and Steel (Natasha) get a nasty surprise when they’re hanging out with Air Wave.

I mentioned this last issue, but I love the way that Mark Waid is juggling so many storylines at once. The “main” story, the one with Lex Luthor working with the League’s big guns and (in this issue, at least) rounding up villains who are falsely claiming amnesty, is really fascinating. Luthor, as a character, is the sort who always has something up his sleeve and you can never actually trust him, but considering what he and the other participants in the KO tournament know about the future, this is a case where it’s possible that he really is being genuine, even his motives are ultimately selfish. The fun here is trying to figure out just exactly HOW much is self-interest and self-preservation.

The other storylines are looked at quickly, but progress as well. Guy Gardner and the Justice Gang (if you’re gonna use the characters from the movie I’m gonna use the name from the movie) naturally run into some problems in the course of their mission, and just when you thought poor Air Wave’s troubles were over, they get worse. I’m looking forward to seeing them take the forefront next issue.

Dan Mora – have I mentioned that Dan Mora is really, really freaking good at what he does? And he’s doing it TWICE A MONTH. Plus about a billion covers. Dude is a machine. 

Superman: Father of Tomorrow #1
Title: Planetfall
Writer: Kenny Porter
Artist and Main Cover: Danny Earl

I’ve been waiting for this ever since DC announced they were bringing back the Elseworlds imprint. While alternate versions of Superman have featured in some of the books like Dark Knights of Steel or the Gotham By Gaslight sequels, this is the first of the new Elseworlds to explicitly be a Superman comic.

Not Kal-El, mind you, but I’ll take what I can get.

In Father of Tomorrow, the catch is that rather than Kal-El, it was JOR-El who escaped Krypton’s destruction and came to Earth, Similarly to what happened to his son in the main universe, he crashes to Earth in Smallville, Kansas, and is taken in by the Kents, who pass him off as Jonathan’s younger brother, Jordan. Jordan lives with the Kents, hiding the truth of his alien ancestry for years, until something happens that spurs him to come out of hiding and use his power and advanced Kryptonian technology to make the Earth a better place.

This first issue is intriguing. Porter uses a lot of familiar Superman elements, characters, and even standard plot points from various versions of Superman’s origin to put together this story, but the fact that it’s about an adult Jor-El instead of baby Kal-El twists things in curious ways. Jor-El is well-meaning, to be certain, but by the end of the first issue we start to get an ominous feeling that perhaps his good intentions are going to lead him down a dark path.

I don’t want this to be yet another “evil Superman” story by the end of it, but let’s be honest here. It’s an Elseworlds, and an awful lot of the classic Elseworlds stories had tragic endings. It wouldn’t be out of character for that to happen here.

I like Danny Earls’ artwork. His designs for Jor-El’s costume and the Kryptonian technology are unique and exciting, and contrast the idyllic small-town feel of Smallville in just the right way.

So far so good, folks. Let’s see if you can keep it going. 

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 #20: Blake’s Superman Shelves, LEGO Edition

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As you may have heard, I’m a bit of a nerd. And also a bit of a collector. I like toys and figures and knicknacks. I like cool stuff. And of course, I also like Superman. These are a pair of passions that, as you can imagine, collide frequently. 

At some point I decided to build a little spot in my classroom where I’d showcase my love of the Man of Steel. The Superman Shelves have grown over the years, and every year at about this time when I’m packing up the classroom for the summer I start to ponder things like whether I should cut back on what I have on display or just buy more shelves for the fall. This year, though, as I started to put things away, I decided to do a little visual documentation of the various and sundry Superman-related items I had on the shelves. Then, because I am in fact that kind of nerd, I decided to do the same with the various and sundry Superman-related items I have at home. 

And then, because it’s 2026 and nothing is real unless it’s preserved on the internet, I decided to share some of the collection with you. 

There are frankly ENTIRELY too many of these things for me to share them all in one blog entry, so I’m going to break them up into many different ones. Or maybe it’ll just be this first post and it’ll turn out to be a dud so I never try something like this again. That’s the fun of the thing – not to know.

I’m going to start our journey through Blake’s Superman Shelves with the LEGO section. Among the many things I’m nerdy about is LEGO. I love LEGO. I love building, because it’s a kind of nice mental break – the fun of creation without the stress of doing it from whole cloth. I love collecting the figures, because I love the idea of mixing and matching characters from different worlds all in the same style. I’m even enough of a dork that I insist on capitalizing all of the letters in LEGO just like you’re officially supposed to do, and I know that LEGO is the name of the system, whereas the individual pieces are NOT called “Legos” but, more appropriately, LEGO bricks. If anybody is still reading after all that, you’re my kinda people.

Some of the figures I’m about to show you are from actual, official LEGO sets. Others are figures that I bought from customizers, people who print on blank figures to create characters or versions of characters that don’t have an official release. You can find these guys at most conventions, and I always check out their selection when I see them. It’s an awesome way to build out your world. 

In this first collage, we see the figures of Superman himself that I’ve got on display. At the top left is a Superman from the sadly-defunct LEGO Dimensions video game. I’m not a gamer, but when I heard about this game that allowed you to mix and match characters from dozens of different universes in LEGO form, I was sorely tempted. I never took the plunge, though. This figure was actually given to me by a student, and it came with the base that I used to take the pictures with the rest of these figures. Next to him you’ve got a DC Rebirth-era Superman and a Superman from the 2025 movie, which inexplicably had no LEGO sets.

In the next row you’ve got another fairly standard Superman, although this one has a rubber cape, a black suit Superman from Zack Snyder’s Justice League, and Superman in his Santa Claus outfit along with a sack of toys, unless he’s going to Lex Luthor’s house, in which case it is undoubtedly coal. 

The next collage are members of the Superman family or Superman-adjacent characters. At the top we’ve got two versions of Supergirl, one from the Melissa Benoist TV show and one of Supergirl going to the same Christmas party as her cousin. On the bottom row is a 2025 Krypto, who I got at the same convention where I got the 2025 Superman. Next to him is Lex Luthor in his Superman armor, which was an official LEGO release that came in a minibag by itself. And on the end is Sloth from Goonies, another LEGO Dimensions figure, who I include among the Superman shelves because…I mean, come on.

The last image is a couple of extras that don’t go with the other figures on their usual board. Superman in his mech suit came from a release that came out many years ago, which also had a Lex Luthor and Wonder Woman figure. Next to him is a Superman keychain with a flashlight in his foot – this guy was a gift from my wife’s best friend (and maid of honor at our wedding) Natalie, who also gave Erin a similar Harley Quinn figure at the same time.

There we are, guys, the first glimpse at Blake’s Superman Shelves. I’ve got a LOT more where this came from, so if you enjoyed this peek and want to see more, let me know!

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 #175: Something For the Kids

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It’s the end of the school year, and as a teacher, that means that I’m hip-deep in data and swimming in a pool of number crunching, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that I teach English specifically to avoid math. But as such, I’ve got my hands full, so let’s have just a quick chat in this week’s Geek Punditry, shall we?

Earlier this week, I was sent an invitation to participate in a survey regarding DC Comics’ Absolute Universe. It seems a little silly to make that the focus of any serious scrutiny, as they’re currently selling comics faster than Taylor Swift could sell out a 75-seat Black Box theater, but I’m always happy to share my two cents. It’s actually the last question in the survey that got me thinking today: they asked the ever-classic, open-ended, “Is there anything else about DC Comics or the Absolute Universe you would like us to know?”

Seriously, does this seem like a program that requires notes of any kind?

Now, I have no illusions that my words will actually make it to the ears of the people who have the power to do anything. I honestly would be surprised if they make it to human ears at all – I’ve got a horrible suspicion that these surveys are crunched by some AI algorithm that summarizes the responses and hallucinates an added suggestion that Superman’s mermaid ex-girlfriend Lori Lemaris should start dating Detective Chimp, which I’m pretty sure would be illegal in at least 17 states. But I thought about it anyway, and I told ‘em what I think is the biggest problem I have at the moment with DC – a company that is currently on a wild upswing that I’ve been enjoying very much.

Where’s the DC Universe stuff for the kids?

People who don’t read comic books regularly may find this question surprising. After all, aren’t superheroes inherently for kids? And the answer is, no, they’re not, especially since 1985. Sure, since in the early days of the genre, children have been attracted to superhero comics, but although there have been certain specific titles geared towards them, the genre as a whole has largely targeted a broader audience. Then, as that audience aged, so did the genre’s target. The result is that the DC Universe doesn’t currently have any regular comics that are appropriate for a younger audience. 

Okay, I guess there’s ONE.

This problem isn’t exclusive to DC by any means – Marvel, Image, none of the major players really have a ton of stuff in their main line that’s child-friendly. And that’s not to say that there are no DC Comics for younger readers. There’s a robust line of Young Adult graphic novels, and other books geared towards children. If my 8-year-old son came up and asked me to read a Superman comic book, I could get Rob Justus’s charming Superman’s Good Guy Gang and give it to him. And my oldest niece, who was just at the right age to get into the DC Super Hero Girls when they first hit about a decade ago, is also at the right age for the upcoming DC Super Hero Girls Class Reunion graphic novel they’re about to drop, as well as dozens of other solid books. There’s stuff out there.

But the vast majority of them are not part of the DC Universe proper. Books like these aren’t part of the tapestry of the story that’s been unravelling across the pages of the monthly Superman, Justice League, Green Lantern, Flash, Batman, and Wonder Woman titles for the past couple of years now. These graphic novels are good introductions to the characters, but it’s not quite as easy for these young readers to find a way into the world, because by and large the main DC books aren’t being written for them. That may seem insignificant, but I think it matters. Readers may pick up an original graphic novel, but that attachment to the larger narrative makes it feel like books have consequence. Even the Absolute Universe probably wouldn’t be as popular if the titles were all self-contained, but they are specifically earmarked as their own universe, which is interacting (slowly but surely) with the main DCU through their multiverse. That matters.

Even the comics about younger characters don’t feel like they’re being aimed at younger readers. The current New Titans run is only two issues deep, but it’s full of time travel and mind manipulation and other things that would confuse the heck out of a younger kid trying to read it. Firestorm is one of DC’s younger heroes (in terms of the characters’ age in-universe, although he’s been around since the late 70s), and while his new series started off with a bang, it’s the kind of bang that makes it clear this is a series that’s going to delve into deep psychological issues regarding power and trauma, and that’s not what I’m looking for here.

Nuclear holocausts make for great playground reading.

Marvel has the same trouble, but the way. If you pick up recent issues of Miles Morales: Spider-Man (probably the youngest character with his own title) you’d get a lot of dense stories and characters that would push away a newcomer. Even Gail Simone’s excellent Uncanny X-Men, which features Rogue leading a team of veteran X-Men as they try to shepherd a group of new teenage mutants just coming into their powers, is a great book for an audience of teens and above. But there’s nothing “below” that comes from the main Marvel Universe any more than DC.

And look, none of this is to complain about any of the books that I’ve mentioned. I certainly don’t think Gail Simone should shift her focus to make a book that’s appropriate for 8-year-olds, and doing such a thing with the Absolute Universe would be like finding a machine that dispenses unlimited chicken nuggets and then kicking it to pieces because it doesn’t also give you french fries. I need to stop writing these columns before lunch. I’m just saying that I wish there were more comics in addition to those that I could share with the likes of my son, my nieces and nephews, or students. 

FOR EXAMPLE…

In the 80s, one of Marvel’s most acclaimed (if not best-selling) comics was Power Pack by Louise Simonson and June Brigman, then later Jon Bogdanove. It was a book about a group of four brothers and sisters – actual children, I think the oldest was around 12 when the series started – who were given powers by a dying alien to help save Earth from an invader. Once the job was done, they kept the powers and became superheroes. This book hit almost EXACTLY at the same time that I started reading comic books, and it quickly became a favorite of mine. It still is, honestly, because Simonson had an astonishing talent for writing characters who felt, behaved, and talked like actual children, while at the same time, demonstrating true courage and heroism. And it was firmly entrenched in the Marvel Universe, with the kids frequently running into the likes of Spider-Man and the X-Men, even inviting Wolverine and Kitty Pryde to their house for Thanksgiving. Later in the run, the kids added Franklin Richards – son of Reed and Sue of the Fantastic Four – as an official member of the team. They even participated in crossover events like Secret Wars II and occasionally guest star in other titles, just like real superheroes do.

And I think it’s important to note that Power Pack was about children, but it wasn’t exclusively FOR children. Even at the time, adult readers enjoyed it quite a bit, with it being nominated for awards and placed on lots of “best of the year” lists for the first few years of the run. But that acclaim didn’t come at the expense of telling a story that kids COULD enjoy.

It’s been a very long time since there was a comic book series that fit that description that was set in one of the mainstream shared comic book universes. 

And with comics on an upswing – a wonderful, glorious upswing – wouldn’t this be a great time to put out some stuff that opens doors at the beginning of the reading spectrum instead of just having stuff for those of us who have been reading for a while?

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. Something something Captain Carrot. 

Superman Stuff #19: Review Roundup-April 18 Through May 6

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Another roundup of reviews, starting with some of the comics that were dropped on Superman Day back on April 18. I didn’t bother reviewing the reprint books (many of which I’ve covered before during the Year of Superman), but there are a couple with new material that I wanted to showcase, both featuring Supergirl. Let’s dig in!

Supergirl: The World (Superman Day Special Edition)
Title: (Story 1) Supergirl Y La Maliciosa, (Story 2) The Extraction
Writer/Artist: (Story 1) Aneke
Writer: (Story 2) Yann Krehl
Artist: (Story 2) Marie Sann
Main Cover: Joelle Jones

DC’s line of The World anthologies is an interesting concept. Round up comic book creators from different parts of…well…it’s the title. And then have them do a story about that book’s star set in their home country. The first three featured Batman, the Joker, and Superman (which I reviewed last year), and this summer it’s going to be Kara’s turn. This Superman Day special previews two of the stories from that book.

In the first story, by Aneke, Supergirl visits an art museum in Spain and overhears a conversation about a mountain featured in one of the paintings, one that is supposedly the home of a witch. Curious, she sets out to visit the mountain, “La Maliciosa,” and finds a climber with a bit of a secret. It’s a simple story that kind of has a Bronze Age feel to it, echoing the kind of things that we’d get from the Supergirl comics of the era. The art is really quite lovely. Whether it was intentional or not, Aneke invokes the same feel as Bilquis Evely’s work on Woman of Tomorrow, which is nicely appropriate. The second story is “The Extraction,” by Yann Krehl and Marie Sann. In this one, after the Justice League liberates a group of aliens that were being held captive and subject to experiments in Germany, Supergirl is sent undercover to try to locate one lost extraterrestrial that managed to escape before its comrades were freed. It’s a fun story, with gorgeous art by Sann preventing it from feeling as dark as the premise would suggest. The pages look like art from a modern Disney movie more than your average superhero comic, and that works exceptionally well.

No doubt when the full anthology drops on June 2, there will be a mixture of hits and misses. These two are a nice appetizer, and I’m looking forward to reading the book.

Supergirl’s Zoo-Per Heroes: Krypto’s Big Break (Superman Day Special Edition)
Writer, Artist, AND Cover: Rob Justus

Last year cartoonist Rob Justus brought us the early reader’s graphic novel Superman’s Good Guy Gang, featuring Hawkgirl and Guy Gardner, who you may have heard were in a movie with Big Blue last summer. This year he comes back with a new book that also seems poised to whet the appetite of the kiddies anticipating this year’s cinematic adventure. An accident somehow transfers the powers of the Justice League to a group of zoo animals, and it’s up to Supergirl and Krypto to fix things. The book also includes a preview of the sequel to Good Guy Gang, Follow the Leader, in which the one character who was bafflingly missing from last year’s book joins the fun. I like Justus’s sensibility a lot. It reminds me of Art Baltazar and Franco’s Tiny Titans, albeit lighter on the inside jokes for longtime readers. But these two previews promise a pair of silly, fun books that seem like they’ll be perfect for the superhero fan who’s just learning to read. 

Superman Unlimited #12
Title: Besides Myself (a Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Dan Slott
Artist: Lucas Meyer
Main Cover: Taurin Clarke

Last issue Jon Kent met Master Txyn, a more malevolent imp than our usual pal Mxyzptlk, whose taunting of the young Kryptonian prompted him to take on a new identity, Tomorrow Man. But before the sewing needle on his costume had time to cool Jon found a whole new complication dropping in his lap: a time-displaced version of himself from one of the most traumatic parts of his past. 

This issue, he decides to take young Jon to Lois, who just happens to be getting a visit from Batman and Robin (checking in on her in Superman’s continued absence). Adult-Jon decide to keep his own identity a secret, although Slott at least lampshades the fact that he’s got an uphill battle trying to keep a secret in a room that includes the world’s greatest detective, the world’s greatest investigative journalist, and his own best friend. Meanwhile, the El Cadero storyline moves along a little big as well, with the Kryptonite-rich nation announcing plans to use it as an energy source. However, more nefarious purposes seem to be in the works as well, and an escapee of an experiment makes a new friend.

Part of me almost wishes that this book was setting up a new status quo for the Superman titles. I’ve never liked the fact that we lost the child Jonathan in lieu of a teenage version (you may have heard me mention this once or twice), and the idea of having Young Jon living with Lois and Clark again while still having Grown-Up Jon doing his thing wouldn’t be the worst compromise. However, the Jon we have in this issue isn’t the one that I miss. This is a kid who has already undergone some horrific stuff, and grappling to deal with it looks like it’s going to be part of the character arc here. 

Slott has a little fun with the other characters here as well. Damian Wayne’s highly paranoid nature comes right into play, as it probably should, and one of my favorite supporting characters in the whole Superman family shows up in the B-plot, making for a delightfully absurd exchange right out of a Looney Tunes short.

I’m really not sure where Slott is going with this story, but I’m interested in it, which hopefully comes across as the compliment that it’s intended as. 

Superman #37
Title: Prime Time Part Two (a Reign of the Superboys tie-in)
Writer: Joshua Williamson
Artist: Dan Mora
Main Cover: Dan Mora

The Superboy-Prime saga continues this issue. Having settled in to his new life in Metropolis, Prime seems to be doing okay. He’s helping people, beating villains, and despite his tardiness he’s even making ground at his new job at the comic book store. But his past hangs over his head, with the Justice League tracking him down when he goes for a simple dinner with the Kents in Smallville. An encounter in Gotham City doesn’t go much better. What’s a reformed mass murderer with fourth wall awareness to do?

I’m really quite surprised to see this issue pull back from the “main” storyline for what is mostly 20 pages of character building…surprised, but not at all disappointed. Williamson’s re-casting of Prime into someone trying to atone for his past is working surprisingly well. What’s more, he’s even carving out a fairly unique place for the character but putting together bits and pieces of various other characters. Sure, he’s got Superman’s powers, but he’s got an awareness of his comic book origins that’s playing with in a different way than characters like Deadpool or She-Hulk. And now it seems like Williamson is adding on a healthy dollop of what can only be termed “the ol’ Parker luck.” Somehow, all of this is coming together to make for a really entertaining character. 

Dan Mora’s work is as phenomenal as ever, and he’s got a LOT going on in this issue. Despite the fact that the action is relatively low, he still manages to deliver a great (if brief) fight scene in the sewers of Gotham and some really excellent “acting” on the faces of the characters, particularly Jonathan and Martha Kent. All of the Superman books are solid right now, but I would never have believed a year ago that a title starring Superboy-Prime would be the gem of the line.

Absolute Superman #19
Title: Red Steel in the Hour of Chaos (Reign of the Superman Part Two)
Writer: Jason Aaron
Artist: Rafa Sandoval
Main Cover: Rafa Sandoval

Last issue Superman, Lois, and a newcomer with a hammer named John Henry Irons broke into Lazarus only to find a captive who’s been off the board for millennia: Teth-Adam, alias King Shazam. This issue is a lot of fight and a little backstory, filling in some of the history of this Absolute Universe. It’s a good reminder that this isn’t just a “What If?” scenario, where there’s a single point of divergence that separates this universe from the DCU that we know, but rather a universe that was shaped in the image of Darkseid from its very inception.

To me, to a guy whose favorite Superman side-character is Steel, I’m really happy to see their version of him show up. Like the mainstream version, we’re presented with a man blessed with a great mind and great compassion, cursed to live in a world where it seems like neither of those things are valued. Like Superman himself, he seems to be the kind of person that’s clinging to hope in this world where such a thing is more of a liability than an asset.

Sandoval’s artwork is sharp as heck. Any time you pit a Kryptonian against somebody with the power of Shazam, you’re going to have to be ready to bring the scale that such a face-off demands, and Sandoval does a great job really selling this as a conflict that reaches a global scale.

Every time I think I can’t find enough good things to say about this series, I find more.

Adventures of Superman: House of El #8
Title: The Wizard and the Queen
Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson
Artist: Cian Tormey
Main Cover: Scott Godlewski

As Superman heads to Tamaran, he finds yet another descendant (because apparently in this future the sentient population of the universe is roughly 57 percent House of El) coming under fire. Meanwhile, Ronan and Rowan Kent face off against Pyrrhos the Red and learn the shocking (yawn) truth about his origins.

I’d hoped that the return of Rowan Kent would help this series pick up, as she’s been the element that I’ve been most interested in so far, but alas. We don’t explore her corner of the universe, but rather delve back into all of the Els that are running around, apparently reproducing like Kardashians on a bad day. Johnson just keeps throwing more and more things at the reader, and it’s not sticking. The story is trying to be Dune and it’s trying to be Game of Thrones and there’s a healthy chunk taken from Arthurian Legend, and when you put it all together you’ve got something that’s just not working for me.

There are a thousand characters running around here and, despite the fact that it seems like they’re all related to Superman, I don’t care enough about any of them to keep track of who they are. When this series is over, I’m going to have to go back and try reading the whole thing in one go. I’m just not getting into it, and I don’t know if that’s because there’s not enough to keep my interest alive from one month to the next or if it’s really just as big a mess as it feels like.

DC X Sonic the Hedgehog: Metal Legion #1
Title: Metal Legion Part One
Writer: Ian Flynn
Artist: Adam Bryce Thomas
Main Cover: Pablo M. Collar

The first DC/Sonic crossover last year was a lot of silly fun, so I wasn’t surprised when this sequel was announced. I was a little surprised, though, when the book jumps right into a massive status quo change: portals have appeared all over the globe, seemingly stable portals that connect the Justice League’s Earth to Sonic’s world. With travel between the two worlds now simple and safe, the heroes of both universes reconnect with their old friends. Of course, the more paranoid amongst them (Batman and Shadow, obviously) are in the business of investigating the portals, finding clues that point to some old foes.

Most of this issue is just showing the heroes bouncing back and forth between worlds and partnering up with the friends they made last time: Flash and Sonic having a race, Amy joining Wonder Woman and the rest of the Amazons in battle against Hades, and Knuckles and Superman introducing Supergirl and Krypto to someone they know will get along with them famously. I like the fact that the story seems to be expanding in scope this time as well. Besides Supergirl and Krypto, it seems like this time the Titans are joining in on the fun, and the last page promises to bring in more of the DC’s less savory elements as well. This is one of those first issues that feels more prologue than actual beginning, with only the scene in Gotham and the last few pages where we meet our villains actually seeming to progress the plot. That doesn’t bother me much, but it does suggest that this is a story that’s been paced for the inevitable collected edition.

New Titans #34
Title: The Future is Tomorrow Part Two
Writer: Tate Brombal
Artist: Sami Basri
Main Cover: Taurin Clarke

I gave the first issue for this new direction of Titans a lot of grace, because it was a new writer that was just beginning to set up a new path for the team. This issue we’re starting to see the shape a little bit, and while there are things that I like, others have me skeptical.

Part One of this story showed up the classic Titans line-up trapped in some sort of time bubble, bouncing around to different parts of their history and seemingly unaware of what was going on. It wasn’t until the last-page incursion of a new group of younger heroes (including Jonathan Kent, which is why I’m including it in “Superman Stuff”) that the spell started to crack. This issue we learn more: the pocket reality the Titans have been existing in was created by an aftermath of what happened in the whole DC KO extravaganza, and the newbies are apparently young heroes the Titans have had their eyes on as potential recruits.

All of that is perfectly fine. What’s bothering me here is more the way these new Titans are introduced. We get a few pages of narration explaining that these folks were selected because they’re the FUTURE and they’re gonna be SO AWESOME and dear GOD, do I hate that. The old writing adage of “show, don’t tell” isn’t always true – sometimes, you’ve GOTTA tell to get the point across. But when it comes to convincing the reader how great a character is, telling is perhaps the worst thing you can do. If a writer starts expounding upon how wonderful a character is without actually doing the work of crafting a story that allows them to demonstrate their awesomeness, that’s an immediate turn-off to me. And often, it’s a black mark against the character that takes some writing rehab to escape.

That said, it’s a relatively short sequence in this issue that bothers me. If it was just a one-off thing and the rest of the story works, I can be forgiving of it. It’ll all come down to what else Brombal does in this arc, I think, as to whether this newest iteration of the Titans is going to be able to stand on its own.

Justice League Unlimited #18
Title: Aftermath Part Two
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Clayton Henry
Main Cover: Dan Mora

Superman is still missing, and does not appear in this issue. In fact, as far as actual members of the family go, only Supergirl makes a (one-panel) appearance. But the thumbprint of our boy blue is all over this issue, so I really want to talk about it, and it’s my blog, so nyeah.

In the aftermath (hence the title) of DC KO, the participants were each given a glimpse of the future, including a dire warning about an upcoming battle that will make their struggle against Darkseid pale in comparison. In recognition of the threat, something that goes beyond normal concepts of “good” and “evil,” the Justice League is implementing an amnesty program, inviting supervillains who promise to be on their best behavior to join them – including Lex Luthor. Lex being Lex, of course, he’s got his own agenda, but at the very least it doesn’t seem to run COUNTER to the whole “saving the entirety of creation” thing the Justice League has going on, so we’re gonna cross our fingers for the moment.

It’s not the first time, by any means, that we’ve seen the toy with Lex playing hero, but they’ve always found different ways to go about it, which I rather enjoy. Waid also has done good work selecting which characters to feature here (Giganta is another one who joins the amnesty program, and one for whom rehabilitation seems far more possible than, say, the Joker). And they even get to show us what failsafes they’ve put in place to make sure the bad guys trying to break good remain on their best behavior. In fact, Waid is really embracing the “unlimited” part of the title here, expanding the cast even beyond its already-impressive roster and running multiple storylines that all weave in and out of each other. In addition to the Lex Luthor story, we also get to see a mission to Oa comprised of Guy Gardner, Mr. Terrific, Hawkgirl, and Metamorpho (wait…where have I seen THAT group together before?), as well as the beginning of the time-travel mission starring J’onn J’onzz, Mary Marvel, and Booster Gold that Waid is exploring over in the pages of Action Comics.

While the larger “All In” storyline is playing out across the DC Universe, this title really feels like the core of the whole thing, and I certainly hope anybody who’s following this is paying attention.

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 #18: Superboy #1

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The end of the school year is approaching. Tomorrow is the last day for my 12th grade students, and my 10th graders will be wrapping it all up in about two weeks. So I’ve been busy tying up all the loose ends that come with being a teacher in May. That in mind, looking for something to read, I kind of drifted to stories of the younger heroes, and I decided this week to check in on the first issue of Superboy from 1949. 

In the first story, “The Man Who Could See Tomorrow” (written by Don C. Cameron with art by John Sikela), Superboy encounters Brandar the Great, a mystic whose jewel stolen from an idol gives him the power to peer into the future. The story actually begins, though, in Metropolis, with an adult Clark Kent ducking out on Lois Lane after a movie date to check in on nearby gunfire. Superman finds an injured police officer and rushes him to a hospital where he encounters a nurse, Margo Griffiths, whom he knew when they were kids in Smallville. His mind drifts back to the day they each gave a report on what they wanted to be when they grew up (Margo and Clark each got their wishes, by the way), a day that ended with a party at Margo’s house. There they saw the mystic Brandar, who predicted that some day Clark Kent would be world famous (and you can’t tell him that he was wrong), but that Margo would “cease to exist” on her 21st birthday. 

Of course, these distant predictions wouldn’t prove much, so Brandar uses his magic jewel to make three predictions for the next day: “1. Dr. Jekyll will turn into Mr. Hyde! 2. The first lady of the town will lose her crown! 3. East will meet west at sundown!” Clark brushes it off until the next day, when the newspaper reports that the mayor, whom everyone had thought was an honest man, had stolen funds from the town and fled. Worried about the rest of the predictions, Superboy checks in on a ship called the Queen Felice, also known as the “first lady” of the town. The crooked mayor nearly crushes the ship with a drawbridge in an effort to escape, but Superboy saves the Queen Felice and brings the mayor to justice. 

With one prediction fulfilled and the second thwarted only by Superboy’s intervention, he seeks out Brandar to find the secret of his jewel. Brandar confesses that he stole the jewel and was given a prediction that he would meet an untimely death because of it. In fear, he leaves the jewel and runs into the street, where he’s promptly hit by a car and killed. That’s the thing about predictions, friends, if you try to prevent them from coming true you usually cause their fulfillment. Dude should have read MacBeth.

Superboy, meanwhile, finds his third prediction about to come true – an eastbound and westbound train on a collision course! He knocks down enough of a forest to build a second track and diverts one of them just in time. Then, returning Brandar’s jewel to its point of origin, the flashback ends. In the “present,” Superman reflects on the final prediction that hasn’t been fulfilled – that Margo would “cease to exist” when she turns 21, and she must be almost that age. He, of course, helps her figure that one out as well, giving her a happy ending. It begs the question, though – if Clark and Margo were in the same class, does that mean that the Superman of 1949 was only 20 or 21 years old? That seems awfully young for him to be an established reporter at the Daily Planet, much less have such an established career as Superman.

Of course, continuity wasn’t that big a deal back in the day, and people got out in the world younger than they do now. Still, it feels so odd that the writer would lock him in to such a tender age when all it would have taken to make it more plausible is to set the prediction for the day Margo turned THIRTY-one. Even a later year in her mid-twenties would have made more sense.

The second story, “The Boy Vandals” (written by Edmond Hamilton with art by Ed Dobrotka), abandons the flashback framing sequence and just takes us to times past to view a quick and unremarkable story about Superboy teaching a young gang the consequences of vandalism. The interesting thing here is that this is the story where I realized, at this point, they hadn’t actually established Superboy’s home town as Smallville yet. In fact, this story seems to imply that young Clark Kent was a student in a school in Metropolis. It always interests me when we see these older stories playing fast and loose with details that seem concrete to us, but that wouldn’t be codified until much later. 

This issue also gives us “Superboy Meets Mighty Boy,” a William Woolfolk/George Roussos joint, in which our favorite boy of tomorrow seems to meet his match. A farmboy named Reuben is recruited for a scientific experiment to try to transform him into the strongest boy in the world. Reluctant at first, he goes along with it at the urging of his parents, whose farm is suffering and who could use the windfall if it works. The experiment is a success, granting Reuben remarkable power, and the recruiters challenge Superboy to a contest. At the circus, the two of them compete in various feats of strength, and as impressive as Superboy’s powers are, Mighty Boy outclasses him time and again. Returning to his tent, Mighty Boy overhears the promoters saying that the experiment was a fake and that they rigged all of the feats of strength to make it seem as though he had powers, fooling even Mighty Boy himself, as part of a criminal scheme. Superboy saves him just in time and together, they put the crooks under glass. Superboy brings Reuben back home and helps his family get their farm back on its feet, because that’s just what Superboy does. This was my favorite of the three stories in this one.

I haven’t read a lot of Super-stories from this particular era, that Post World War II time before the silliness of the Silver Age really kicked into gear. I enjoyed these stories, though, showing an interesting kind of prototype of the original Superboy that I’m far more familiar with. I’ll need to look out more stories from this period in the future. 

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 #17: Spider-Man/Superman #1

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It’s time again, friends – the crossover gods have descended upon us for the second of the two crossover specials featuring the Man of Tomorrow and the Friendly Neighborhood Arachnid. And I almost hate to say it, but this one may even be better than the first.

Marvel/DC: Superman/Spider-Man #1

Main Cover: Pepe Larraz. Like the last one, though, this issue was released with over forty different covers, which is absolutely absurd, but I once again would totally be willing to buy a special that collected all of the various covers of the two volumes. Maybe a charity special or something? Pay attention, people. 

Title: Our Kryptonite
Writer: Brad Meltzer
Art: Pepe Larraz

In the first book in this series, Mark Waid gave us a tale of a Superman and Spider-Man who were clearly old friends. This issue seems to greet the two of them relatively early in their association, picking up in the middle of a story that has trapped the two of them in a building collapse that includes a dose of Kryptonite, forcing Spider-Man to try to keep them alive as Superman struggles against the radiation. 

And that’s just how it starts.

The story, ostensibly, is about the two heroes in combat with their respective arch-foes, Lex Luthor and the Green Goblin. But honestly the identity of the villains couldn’t matter less. The bulk of the story is built up around these two heroes trapped together in a harrowing situation and just…talking. Getting to know one another. Learning who each other are. The supervillain plot wraps up with several pages left, and we follow Clark and Peter into their respective civilian lives as well, including a final sequence that should touch the hearts of anybody who loves these two characters.

Meltzer knows Superman so incredibly well, and the way he plays Superman’s strengths into Spider-Man’s inherent insecurities builds up BOTH characters and makes them better, stronger, and more inspiring. I’ve seen articles online drooling over a few panels where the Venom symbiote snares Superman as if that’s what this story is about. It’s a perfectly good sequence, but Peter taking his Aunt May for dinner at the Kent farm is where the soul of this story is, and that soul is utterly beautiful. 

Title: Spider-Man Noir and Superman in “Metropolis Marvels
Writer: Dan Slott
Pencils: Marcos Martin

The first backup in this issue dives into the world of Spider-Man Noir, where the friendly fedora’d webslinger is targeting the kingpin of crime: Lex Luthor. But Noir’s more violent tactics bring him into conflict with a Superman pulled from the pages of Fleischer cartoons. The story is fun, and Martin’s artwork is fantastic (especially a page where Superman ‘38 gives us a quick homage to Amazing Fantasy #15), but as turned out to be the case with many of these back-ups, it was over too quickly and felt somewhat rushed.

Title: Gwen Stacy and Lana Lang in “Sweethearts”
Writer: Joe Kelly
Art: Humberto Ramos

A college-age Lana Lang and Gwen Stacy meet up on campus and strike up a quick friendship, fueled at least in part as the two of them talk about the mysterious goody two-shoes men in their lives that they just can’t seem to shake. This bite-size story is actually pretty perfect, showing the two women as foils to one another in a way that feels surprisingly natural. There have been many different incarnations of Lana Lang over the years, and Kelly seems to have created one who’s kind of a gestalt of different ones. She’s not the nosey mini-Lois that plagued Superboy in the Silver Age, nor is she the tragic, heartbroken wreck that John Byrne left behind, but rather a woman who is strong enough in her own right but still besmitten with the boy back home. Gwen, on the other hand, is pretty much Gwen, although (thankfully) not the angelic simulacrum that many contemporary writers have cast her as. The knowledge that each of these women are in doomed relationships – doomed for very different reasons but doomed nonetheless – gives the whole story a bittersweet edge that concludes things on a note of joy that is tempered by the fact that the reader knows it won’t last. 

Title: The Thing and Superman in “Identity War”
Writer: Geoff Johns
Artist: Gary Frank

Frequent collaborators Geoff Johns and Gary Frank reunite for this story in which Mysterio has teamed with the Legion of Super-Villains and, using the power of a Red Lantern, set the Hulk out on a rampage fueled by even greater rage than he’s ever felt before. But that isn’t what this story is about. It’s actually about the Thing, one of the few people immune to the rage that is infecting the world, watching Superman tussle with his frequent green-skinned sparring partner and seeing how he handles the situation in a very, very different way than Ben ever would.

The description, I admit, doesn’t sound that exciting, but this story is a masterpiece of character work. Johns knows Superman, obviously, but casting him in this story is just perfect. The story about rage and division is a clear allegory for the real world, but Johns pulls it off without getting heavy-handed or pointing fingers, but rather by using Ben Grimm to draw conclusions that far too many people in the real world need to understand. 

Title: Hobgoblin Vs. Steel in “Ghosting!”
Writer: Louise Simonson
Art: Todd Nauck

Steel’s co-creator Louise Simonson gives us this quick tale about him going into battle against the Hobgoblin, with a special surprise guest that’s wonderfully appropriate. But like the aforementioned Slott/Martin story, this feels rushed and over too quickly. Great art by Todd Nauck, and I would love to see him draw Steel more often, but it left me wanting more.

Title: Ghost-Spider and Supergirl in “Remarkable”
Writer: Stephanie Phillips
Art: Phil Noto

Ghost-Spider visits Metropolis only to find herself teaming up with Supergirl in combat with Live Wire. It would be a great team-up, if only Supergirl had any idea who she was. This is a really funny little story, and a strong character piece from Phillips (who has a lot of experience writing Gwen, but does a dandy Supergirl as well). This story really works well with the short format. In fact, I find that for the most part the stronger backup stories in this issue are the ones that tell a quick character study of the two characters rather than the ones that try to squeeze in an adventure in the limited page count.

Title: Miles Morales, Spider-Man and Superman in “The One Thing…”
Writer: Brian Michael Bendis
Art: Sara Pichelli

Miles Morales’ creators reunite for this one, in which Mile sees something crash to the Earth, only to find Superman trapped by a strange alien artifact. This story tries to split the difference between character piece and adventure story. It ends on a kind of cliffhanger (not unlike the Superboy/Spider-Man 2099 story from the previous book), but in the middle we get Superman talking to Miles and sort of propping him up as a hero. It’s not bad, and that’s coming from someone who didn’t like any of Bendis’s Superman run, but it also covers a lot of the same ground that the Meltzer story does at the beginning of the issue, only better. I feel like this was a wasted opportunity, honestly – it may have been more interesting to see Bendis write Miles and Jonathan dealing with legacy.

Title: Thor and Wonder Woman in “The Wondrous and the Worthy”
Writer: Jason Aaron
Art: Russell Dauterman

Jason Aaron, the writer behind the Jane Foster era of Thor, returns to that version of the character for this story. The most interesting thing about this one, honestly, is the setting. Aaron seems to be placing this story as an encounter between the two heroes in the midst of the War of the Realms event Aaron wrote back in 2019. In this version, however, it looks like Darkseid and the New Gods were tossed into the mix as well. It’s another “inexperienced hero gets a boost from the older one” story, and while I’m curious about the backstory, the character stuff feels a little incomplete. 

Title: Spider-Man and Superman in “One of Those Days”
Writer: Jeph Loeb
Art: Jim Cheung

Loeb and Cheung wrap up this issue with a two-pager of…well, it’s Superman giving Spider-Man a pep talk again. It’s fine for what it is, really, but we get a LOT of that kind of thing in this book. I’m all for Loeb and Cheung doing a quickie about the two heroes, but it feels like the editors should have kept a closer eye on the back-ups to make sure they weren’t all retreating the same ground.

To be fair, I loved this issue. The main story and the Johns story are both without peer. The Gwen/Lana and Gwen (the other one)/Kara stories are both excellent. The rest range between “good” and “would be better if it wasn’t the same thing we’ve already read.” But the thing I’m taking away from this is that there’s so much ground to cover in bringing these characters and their respective worlds together. These two one-shots, wonderful as they are, only seem to hint at a larger connection that I would love to explore. 

Marvel. DC. There is so much ground to cover here. Don’t wait another 50 years before you do this 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 #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.