World’s Finest

Year of Superman Week Eight: Some New, Some Classics, and Some Just Weird

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Week eight of my Year of Superman was another one that kind of went all over the place. I revisited a few classic stories, checked in on a couple of “imaginary” tales, and looked at some of the more recent releases as well…then there’s that Christmas podcast. Don’t worry, I make it make sense.

Wed., Feb. 19

Comics: Power Girl Vol. 3 #16-17

New costume! Ish!

Notes: After a busy day without much time to read, I went to my bag of recent comics that I haven’t gotten around to reading yet to see if there was any Superman-related content to include this week. Not surprisingly, there wasn’t much, but I found that I hadn’t yet read issues #16 and 17 of the current Power Girl series. This is a Superman family book, of course, but it comes to Superman via a sort of tangent. Power Girl (for those who may not know) was the Kara Zor-L of the old Earth-2, from the pre-Crisis DC Universe. She made her way to the current DCU, after various multiversal crises and reboots, and for years they’ve struggled a little to figure out exactly where she fits in. In essence, she’s an older version of Supergirl from an alternate reality – part of the family, but with trouble finding her identity. 

Issue #16, the first of the two that I read, is the end of a recent storyline where Power Girl is facing someone called Ejecta. Ejecta, as a villain, hasn’t really grabbed me, but I do like the end of the fight where Power Girl takes her to the Fortress of Solitude and makes a point of what it takes for a Kryptonian like her to fight the good fight, that it’s actually harder NOT to kill their enemies. It’s a concept that makes so much logical sense, but doesn’t really come up all that often.

I like issue #17 better. It kicks off a new storyline, beginning with Power Girl and her best friend Lilith (aka Omen of the Titans) moving into a new place along with Natasha Irons, niece of my old buddy John Henry, who happens to share his Steel identity. Also on board is Streaky the Super-Cat and Power Girl’s boyfriend, Axel, who happens to be from Asgard. That would be a really weird sentence if I was writing about anything but a superhero universe, but there you go. While I’ve found this series to be somewhat uneven at points, I’ve enjoyed the way Leah Williams has assembled a solid supporting cast for Power Girl that feels pretty organic for the most part. I know why these characters are all together, and I like it.

The one thing I’m really NOT wild about is how Power Girl has abandoned her old identity of Karen Starr in favor of a new name, Paige Stetler, but call her Peej. Get it? “Peej?” P.G.? AAAAAH? I dunno, the book has never done a good job of convincing us that the switch was necessary or based on anything other than the internet not liking the name “Karen,” and the whole “P.G.” thing is just a bit too twee for my tastes. 

Thur., Feb. 20

As birthday presents go, this is way better than a necktie.

Comic: Superman #411

Notes: Another busy day and another somewhat random choice, I decided to read the classic Superman #411 today. This is an odd little issue that I’ve always found rather charming. Perry White’s old friend, the incredible editor Julius Schwartz, is in trouble, and his only salvation may come from Earth-Prime.

Julie Schwartz was, of course, one of the most prominent comic book editors of all time, with runs on various books that lasted years and even decades, including a long tenure on the Superman comics. This comic was produced as a surprise for Schwartz on the occasion of his 70th birthday, created behind his back and released as a surprise, even splitting up a three-part storyline to do it. The story in and of itself is standard for the time, even if it was not – as promised – “The Last Earth-Prime” story, but I’ve always appreciated this comic for the backstory behind it. 

Fri., Feb. 21

Comic: Action Comics #314, Superman #149

The most embarrassing dry cleaner mix-up in DC history.

Notes: When I was doing my research to prepare for “Superman Vs. the Flash” week, Action Comics #314 kept turning up in my searches. And although it didn’t really fit into the criteria of what I was looking for in that project, it was such a bizarre story that I kept it on my list of books to read when I’m looking for a random Superman comic, because it’s just so strange. And I LIKE strange.

First of all, despite the cover, this is NOT an issue about Superman ONLY becoming the Flash, but rather about alternate worlds in which he became five different members of the Justice League…sort of. While swimming around the bottom of the ocean – y’know, like you do – Aquaman uncovers a message for Superman sent to Earth from his father, Jor-El. On the recorded message (it’s interesting to note that the vastly advanced civilization of Krypton still used magnetic tape to record things) Jor-El tells his son that he originally considered several different worlds to send him to before choosing Earth, and presents him with a computer simulation of what his life would have been like on each of those five worlds. I’ll save you from the suspense: on these different worlds he would have grown up to be their versions of the Atom, Aquaman, Green Arrow, Batman, and finally, the Flash. 

Each of these different lives has its charm, although I think my favorite has to be the first one, where he’s an Atom expy. In this version, Jor-El sent him to a planet of giants where he lived among them as what appears to be a three-inch visitor from another world. He’s still got powers, though, and he uses them to fight crime, wearing a mask. WEARING A MASK. SO THAT NO ONE WILL SUSPECT HE’S THE ONLY OTHER THREE-INCH PERSON ON THE PLANET. It’s such a hellaciously preposterous idea that it could only have worked in the Silver Age – and make no mistake, it worked. One person actually says, “He’s as small as Kal-El…but it can’t be Kal-El, for this one has terrific powers!” 

For real. 

This is a silly story, but a fun one. There was a point where DC did lots of stories like this, “what if X happened?”, with the conceit usually being that the heroes were told the stories of their other lives by computer simulations or some other means. (There was a whole series of stories about Dick Grayson growing up to become Batman II and taking Bruce Wayne Jr. as his Robin, which eventually turned out to be fanfiction written by Alfred.) Later these would become “imaginary” stories, and eventually the concept evolved into Elseworlds. If this story were told today, each of these different lives would be assigned a different number and said to take place somewhere in the DC Multiverse, and while I do like a good Multiverse story, there’s a charm about the old days, where the stories were a bit simpler. It does, however, give me a thirst to read more such tales. I think it’s safe to say that more Elseworlds and Imaginary Stories will be coming to the Year of Superman in the future.

The back-up story in this issue – as was usually the case at the time – starred Supergirl. Her Kryptonian parents, Zor-El and Allura, had been revealed at this point to be alive and sent to live in the bottled city of Kandor, but Allura is growing ill with heartbreak over the separation from her daughter. You’d think Kara could visit more often. Anyway, they send word of Allura’s condition to Kara, but she’s away on a mission and it is instead received by her foster parents, the Danvers, who decide that the only thing to do is make their adopted daughter decide to leave them and go back to her original parents in Kandor by acting like jerks.

WHY DIDN’T ANYBODY IN THE SILVER AGE JUST HAVE A CONVERSATION?

If you look at other stories from this time period, it’s not really that out of place. Watch virtually any comedy (and a good number of the dramas) from the 30s to the 50s and you see one cascade of misunderstandings after another, dozens of catastrophes that could have been averted and hearts that would have been left unbroken if only people were straightforward with one another instead of coming up with ridiculously convoluted schemes to manipulate their loved ones into doing things “for their own good.” I get WHY the stories were like this – a comic book where someone tells somebody the truth and the dilemma is resolved in a page and a half would be kind of boring. But I am very glad that – for the most part – we’ve moved beyond this kind of storytelling crutch. Ridiculous misunderstandings should remain the providence of Shakespeare and Fawlty Towers reruns. For anybody else, it’s just frustrating. 

The story ends with Kara’s Earth parents and her Kryptonian parents swapping places, then a cliffhanger where we the readers are forced to question if this will be a permanent change. Once again, I’ll spare you the angst of wondering: it was not. Status quo was the king in comic books of the time, and permanent changes were as rare as diamond. Supergirl had already used hers up for the entire decade when she was adopted by the Danvers, putting an end to the stories of her life in Midvale Orphanage.

The weird thing is, this was covered by his insurance.

The main story, though, got me thinking about one of the two most famous “Imaginary” stories of all time…both of which, coincidentally, became “real” stories in the 90s (albeit in very different forms). Like I’ve said, I’ve pledged to read only two of the extended 90s storylines during this year, and the first of those is actually next on my list of 90s stories to revisit. So before I move on to the “real” Death of Superman, I thought today I would look back at the ORIGINAL Death of Superman, the “Imaginary Story” from Superman #149 in 1961.

The setup for this one is simplicity itself: prison inmate Lex Luthor discovers an element from outer space that allows him to invent a cure for cancer. Providing that cure to the world, he convinces everyone that he’s gone straight, including Superman. It’s all a ruse, though, and instead he sets up a trap for the Man of Steel. And for the first time, that trap succeeds, with Luthor slaying Superman with green kryptonite. 

I’ve always liked this story and, revisiting it today, I’m struck by how unique it really is for Superman stories of the time. In an era where most stories were a bit silly and often overdramatic, this takes the opposite track. It still uses all the tropes of a Silver Age story, including misdirection and secrets kept when there’s really no reason to do so (Supergirl disguising herself as Superman for all of 12 seconds at the end, for example) but they’re put together in a somewhat bleak configuration. Unlike Marvel’s What If? comics, it was pretty rare for even DC’s imaginary stories to end in so dark a place. There’s no lie, no secret hidden from the audience, no last-minute reprieve that saves Superman: when this story ends he is most assuredly dead, and even though Luthor will spend the rest of eternity in the Phantom Zone for his crime, nothing is bringing him back. It’s unlike any other such story of the time, and that makes it remarkable.

Other Comics: World’s Finest Comics #304, Legion of Super-Heroes Vol. 2 #312 (Clark as Superboy)

Sat., Feb. 22

Oh yeah…they still make NEW comics, too.

Comics: Absolute Superman #4, Action Comics #1083, Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #36

Notes: It’s been a few weeks since I made it into the comic shop to pick up my pulls, so today I’m hitting the new Superman comics that have come out since then. Absolute Superman #4 is more of a spotlight issue on Lois Lane, who in this new Absolute Universe is an agent of Lazarus rather than a reporter, although she’s still got her investigative skills, as in this issue we see her tracking down the elusive “Superman.” Good issue, and I’ve really enjoyed the Absolute stuff so far. Action Comics #1083 continues the Major Distaster/Atomic Skull storyline from last issue, which still isn’t a favorite of mine, but I do really like the scenes where Superman wakes up in the Batcave, where Bruce has brought him to recuperate after a fight with someone who could negate his powers knocks him for a loop. Mostly, though, I’m really looking forward to Mark Waid taking over this book full time this summer, as was recently announced. 

Speaking of Waid, he also writes Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #36. It’s a grand story set in the past, including a team-up with Aquaman and Swamp Thing, plus Clark’s old girlfriend, Lori Lemaris. Lotta LL names in Superman’s life. I should go back and read her first story soon, it’s a good one. 

Sun. Feb. 23

Frankly, I don’t think he looks anything like Tom Cruise.

Comic: Superman: War of the Worlds #1

Notes: Still searching for random comics to fill in the gaps before I begin the next BIG project next week, my recent reading of “The Death of Superman” gave me a taste for more Elseworlds, and that led me back to this gem from 1998. Written by Roy Thomas with art by Michael Lark, Superman: War of the Worlds is a mashup of the original Golden Age Superman with the alien invaders from H.G. Welles’s classic novel.

Roy Thomas is probably the greatest Golden Age comic book writer who didn’t actually work in the Golden Age. But through his long and illustrious career, he turned out one story after another that paid tribute to that era, including DC’s All-Star Squadron and Marvel’s Invaders, among countless other projects. This one-shot is not only a quintessential Elseworlds, it’s also quintessential Thomas. The story plays out pretty much exactly like the Golden Age Superman we all know and love right up until the day he arrives in Metropolis and tries to land himself a job at the Daily Star (where Clark Kent originally worked before the Daily Planet became the home of our favorite reporters). On that same day, though, what is believed to be a meteor strike unleashes an invasion of tripod-piloting aliens from the planet Mars, here to devastate and take over our world. 

Thomas simply does a perfect job of blending the two stories. The characters feel absolutely true to their Golden Age incarnations, while reacting to the story that adheres as closely to the Welles original as is practical. Lois Lane, for instance, is introduced when Clark gets to the Star, furious that the editor is about to give this newcomer off the street a chance at a major story while she’s been stuck scribbling a “Miss Lonelyhearts” type of column just because she’s a woman. Even in the Golden Age, Lois was someone who would always stand up for herself and never tolerate that kind of nonsense, and Thomas plays her up perfectly. I also really like the way they depict Lex Luthor, initially just a scientist investigating the alien meteor strike, but then turning collaborator when it seems that the aliens’ victory is inevitable. 

Thomas layers in World War II parallels that fit perfectly with both of the properties that he marries in this book, and the end – although heartbreaking – is compelling and appropriate for the story being told. When we talk about Elseworlds, everybody points to books like Kingdom Come and Superman: Red Son, and with good reason. Those books are classics. But there are a lot of other gems that were produced as a result of that line that we don’t remember nearly as well, and that’s a shame. I’m definitely going to pepper the rest of this Year of Superman with visits to some of the ones that we’ve forgotten about. 

Mon., Feb. 24

He’s a guy who refuses to kill. She’s an alien queen who refuses to do anything else.

Comics: Superman Vs. Aliens #1-3

Notes: A few days ago at ComicsPro, it was announced that Marvel and DC Comics are planning two new crossover one-shots later this year, DC/Marvel and Marvel/DC. Stale naming conventions aside, I’m excited. There hasn’t been any crossover between the two publishers since JLA/Avengers twenty years ago, except for the collected omnibi that were released last year. I finished up reading the first one early in January, although I didn’t talk about them much here in the blog, and the knowledge that there’s more coming makes me want to hurry up and pencil in the second omnibus into my reading rotation soon.

But not today. Today I decided to look at a different Superman crossover, one with Dark Horse Comics, back when they had the Aliens license and were pairing them off with everybody and their cousin, like Ocean Spray finding new flavors to mix with cranberry. Superman Vs. Aliens was the first such story featuring our own Man of Steel, and written as it was by Dan Jurgens, it fit into the Superman comics of the time better than a lot of these crossovers do. This is the era when Lex Luthor isn’t running LexCorp anymore, when Lois and Clark are engaged but not married yet, and when Supergirl was not a Kryptonian, but rather the Matrix shapeshifter from an alternate Earth. 

The story kicks off when an alien probe plummets to Earth, a craft with markings that Superman recognizes as being Kryptonian. The probe leads Superman to a distant city floating through space under a dome. Once there, the distance from a yellow sun causes his powers to begin to dwindle, even as he finds himself partnered with one of the city’s few remaining survivors, a girl named Kara, as they face the menace of the Xenomorphs. The story was so deliberately reminiscent of the original Supergirl that it was almost as if Dan Jurgens and DC were trolling us, and for years after this book was released there were rumors that Kara would return to the regular Superman titles, but it never happened. As it turned out in the end, this Argo wasn’t actually a Kryptonian city after all, but from another planet which suffered a similar fate as Krypton and learned about its language and culture from the Cleric, a character from the earlier Exile storyline. 

Jurgens finds a few ways to really make the story an interesting character piece for Superman. First of all, they need to reduce his powers to actually make the Xenomorphs a threat. Second, he treats Kara like long-lost family, and in a time where there were no other surviving Kryptonians in the DC Universe, it’s an impactful event, even if it only lasted for three issues. We’ve also got Dr. Kimble on the LexCorp station doing a darn good impression of Paul Reiser’s character from Aliens, while Xenomorphs are running wild on the station and Lois is trying to hold them off. 

But I think the best thing about this story, the thing that really shows the contrast between the two franchises, is how heavily Jurgens leans on Superman’s no-killing policy. It was a policy he broke exactly once, in the pocket universe that Matrix originally came from, and doing so nearly destroyed him. (I’ll have to look at that story before this year is over.) Having him face off against the Xenomorphs is fun – they are literally killing machines. They have no function other than death, and historically speaking, the only way to stop them is to kill them FIRST. But Superman refuses to do that. If there’s even a chance that these creatures may be sentient, he refuses to use lethal force. Some people would call that naive, but it’s a fundamental element of the character, and it’s the thing that makes this so different from so many other Aliens stories where the focus is to nuke them all from orbit. (It’s the only way to be sure.)

I remember when this story came out, how excited I was for it, and although the status quo of Superman’s universe has changed a lot over the years, I’m glad to see that it still holds up. 

Other Comics: Superman #7

Podcast: Totally Rad Christmas, Episode, “Superman (w/Tim Babb)”

Notes: A few years ago, my brother introduced me to the Totally Rad Christmas podcast, a podcast that is – in the words of host Gerry D – “about all things Christmas in the 80s.” However, Gerry isn’t particularly strict about that requirement. They often have episodes about Christmas movies and specials from outside of the 80s, as well as other things that Gerry associates with Christmas and just feels like waxing nostalgic. For instance, Superman was released on Dec. 15, 1978, and that’s enough to get it on the show. This episode was released back in 2020, but I’d never listened to it before, so this seemed like a good excuse to dust it off. Gerry and his guest for the episode, Tim Babb, discuss the film itself and – as is common for this podcast – their personal memories surrounding the film from childhood. As someone who has watched this movie countless times and who lives, eats, and breathes Superman, it’s actually nice to listen to a couple of guys who are FANS, but perhaps not the fanatic that I can be in my more eager moments. I don’t know if I would hunt this episode down as a Superman fan if I weren’t already a listener of this podcast, but as someone who’s already a fan, the overlap on this particular Venn Diagram is pleasing to me.

Tues., Feb. 25

Wait, WHY is Superman in the forest with a couple of kids?

Comic: Superman #257

Notes: Sometimes you just choose by cover. You scroll through the DC app, looking at the issues available and, for one reason or another, something jumps out at you. This one, for instance – Superman in the woods with two children. He’s calming them down, assuring him that there’s nobody around to harm them, but in a cutaway view underground we see a guy in armor with green skin and what looks like some sort of science fiction bazooka about to blast the ground right out from underneath him. They say you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, and that’s probably true, but a good one is sure as hell more likely to get you to pick it up.

The story in question isn’t quite as engaging. An alien has come to Earth hoping to steal our nitrogen using the “bazooka” from the cover – which he calls a war-horn – to create a variety of effects. Superman fights him, as per usual, but the alien’s military code refuses to allow him to concede defeat unless killed in battle. Superman winds up tricking the war-horn into leaving the planet by attempting to strike a fatal blow, which it automatically avoids and retreats, which to me seems antithetical to the whole military code aforementioned.

The main story isn’t great, but the back-up in this issue IS. The story begins on the planet Oa, home of the Green Lantern Corps, where Lantern Tomar-Re is about to retire from active duty and join the Corps’ honor guard. Before he does so, though, the Guardians must reconcile the one failure on his record. Fans have long asked why the Green Lanterns didn’t do something to prevent the destruction of Krypton, and this issue answers that question: Krypton was in Tomar-Re’s sector, and the then-rookie GL failed to stop the planet’s doom. Tomar was tasked with collecting a rare element that would delay (but not stop) Krypton’s destruction, but a burst of yellow radiation left him blind and unable to save the world in time. His sight was restored just in time to witness Krypton’s explosion. The Guardians had been watching Krypton for some time, suspecting that the offspring of their scientist Jor-El and his wife Lara would create someone exceptional, a “titan among the stars.” Now, years later, the existence of Superman has proven their suspicion correct, and Tomar’s failure is forgiven.

Man, can you imagine being so important that they decide your existence is more important than your entire planet? That’d be a lot to live up to. Fortunately, Superman doesn’t have an ego about this sort of thing. 

Okay, I’ve waited long enough. Tomorrow I’m going to start the big one, the saga that defined this character for so many. Be back next week for my thoughts on – at least the first stages of – The Death and Return of Superman. 

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!

Year of Superman Week Seven: Superman Vs. the Flash

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After the chaos of the last couple of weeks, I wanted to stabilize things a little bit, so it’s time for another theme week. He’s called the fastest man alive, but he’s often been forced to defend that title against the Man of Steel, so for the next seven days I’m going to put my attention on the competitions between Superman and the scarlet speedster himself. Yes, it’s Superman Vs. the Flash Week!

(Superman versus the) FLASH! (Bum bum bum bum bum) AAAH-AAAAAH!!!

Okay, I think I should make one thing clear here: in a straight-up foot race between Superman and the Flash, the Flash should win every time. Whether we’re talking about Barry Allen or Wally West, it doesn’t matter. The Flash’s entire job description is the fact that there’s nobody faster than him, and if you take that away it diminishes the character. Even Superman shouldn’t be allowed to do that.

That said, there have been many stories over the years that pit them against each other, and some of them are an awful lot of fun. 

Wed., Feb. 12

Comics: Superman #199, Flash #175

Literally, the starting line for this whole thing.

Notes: The first-ever Superman/Flash race, at least as far as I can tell, is Superman #199 from 1967. The United Nations recruit Superman and Flash to race for one another to raise funds for charity, a basic enough premise that reasonably pits the two of them against each other without some sort of contrived misunderstanding, which I greatly appreciate. Unfortunately, a pair of major crime syndicates also bet a fortune on the outcome of the race, one on Superman and one on the Flash, and so they both hatch schemes to make sure their chosen hero is the winner. After uncovering the schemes and beating the gangsters, Superman and Flash conspire to end the race in a precise tie so that neither crime syndicate can cash in on their winnings and, conveniently, so that DC Comics doesn’t have to definitively answer the question of which of the two men is the faster. 

What I find funny about this story is that, even though the story is contrived in such a way that the race ends in a tie, writer Jim Shooter almost seems to do so grudgingly. There are several times that we see the Flash doing things that seem to demonstrate that, as far as foot speed goes, he’s superior. As they race across the ocean, Flash is running on top of the water, whereas Superman has to swim at superspeed. Similarly, Supes has to burrow through sand dunes and climb over pyramids in the desert, while the Flash is simply vibrating right through them. At one point, Flash even employs a super-speed trick to rescue Superman from a random chunk of Kryptonite vomited up by a volcano without Superman even noticing. The only times Superman has an advantage is when his invulnerability or other non-speed powers give him an edge – in freezing cold, diving down a waterfall, or maintaining his balance across a frozen lake. Every task shows that the Flash’s super-speed tricks are superior, even if the story itself has to skirt the issue at the end. This would be a running theme through future competitions between Superman and Barry Allen.  

It’s covers like this, Superman. Covers like this are why some people call you a jerk.

Only a few months later, they got together for a rematch in Flash #175. It starts when the two heroes wind up muscling in on each other’s territory, each of them getting an emergency alert from the other on their Justice League signal devices that their teammate denies sending out. When the JLA assembles, it turns out the signal was sent by a pair of aliens Superman and Batman have encountered before. The aliens had placed a wager on the first race and, as it ended in a tie, insist on a rematch. Instead of lapping the Earth this time, though, they’re going to force the heroes to race across the Milky Way. Oh, and just in case they need a little added incentive, they promise to annihilate Central City if the Flash loses and Metropolis if Superman is the loser. So as sports commissioners, they’re still slightly less evil than Roger Goodell. 

The aliens throw lots of traps and obstacles in front of our heroes, each of whom independently finds evidence that the race isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But it’s the Silver Age, so neither of them ever thinks to just TELL his teammate that the race is a fake, they make vague statements about things being “off” until they beat the aliens on the last two pages, with the race once again not having any definitive winner. 

As snarky as I sound, I actually did enjoy this issue. It was a pretty decent follow-up to the first race, and it gets bonus points for the last panel, where Flash and Superman look directly at the reader and invite them to go back to the finish line on Page 21 and decide for themselves who they think won. You can’t get away with stuff like that these days.

Thur., Feb. 13

Comics: World’s Finest Comics #198-199

“Okay, we’re ACTUALLY gonna declare a winner this time, right? No more cop-outs?

Notes: Three years after the first two races, DC decided to try it again. Although World’s Finest has, historically, been the Superman/Batman team-up book, there was a period in which it was a Superman team-up title, with Superman as the anchor and different guest-stars for each issue, so it was here that they staged the next installment in this saga. And THIS time, the cover of issue #198 proclaims, “There MUST be a winner!”

Race #3 has the wildest conceit yet – the Guardians of the Universe (the little blue guys who sponsor the Green Lantern Corps) have detected an incursion of “Arachronids,” faster-than-light lifeforms that are disrupting space and time. The only way to save the universe is for two people to race in a path opposite that of the Arachronids, and the only ones speedy enough to do the job are Superman and the Flash. (This is in the days before the “Flash Family,” of course, there was only Barry and Wally West as Kid Flash. If this were to happen today there are roughly a dozen speedsters more qualified than Superman to handle this deal.) Anyway, the Guardians provide the Flash with an amulet that will allow him to race in space and he suggests – since we never actually settled the question of who’s faster – why not make this another race? 

Things are going swimmingly until the Arachronids destroy a sun, knocking our heroes off-track on a planet where the sunlight keeps shifting from yellow to red, which negates Superman’s powers. Oh, and did I mention that the time-disruptions have chucked Jimmy Olsen back to ancient Rome, where he’s about to get executed by a firing squad of archers? 

Part two of the story reveals the truth: the Arachronids were created by General Zod and a group of Phantom Zone escapees, and they’ve got Superman and the Flash captured on a planet that straddles the line between dimensions. They wind up on a world where the red sun is draining Superman’s powers and the Flash has his swiftness curtailed when the baddies steal the amulet given to him by the Guardians, leaving them to crawl towards the device that’s causing all the chaos. WHO WILL MAKE IT FIRST?

This is the first time I’ve read this particular two-parter and, I’ve gotta say, I really enjoyed it. It’s a different angle on the Superman/Flash race, one that’s apart from the usual “racing for charity” conceit or the other various contrivances that have pit them against one another. No, this time it’s a totally original contrivance, and I appreciate that. I also appreciate the fact that they TECHNICALLY declare a winner of the race this time (it’s the Flash, spoiler alert), but they do so on a world where both heroes are virtually powerless and are literally crawling towards their destination, so the question as to who’s really faster when they’re at normal power is still left up in the air. I’m sure that was the mandate at the time. I’m glad that they eventually got over that mandate, though, as some of the later stories we’re going to get around to reading will demonstrate. 

Other Comics: Jenny Sparks #6 (Superman appearance), Black Lightning Vol. 4 #3 (Steel II appearance), The Question: All Along the Watchtower #3 (Superman Cameo), Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #10

Fri., Feb. 14

Comics: DC Comics Presents #1-2

“Barry? Clark. Hey, wanna be the first guest in my new team-up book? Noooo…not a race this time…I wouldn’t do that to you…”

Notes: Eventually, World’s Finest went back to being a Superman/Batman book, and while Batman had his own team-up series (The Brave and the Bold), Superman was given his own with DC Comics Presents. In the first two issues of this series, published in 1978, we got the next installment of the friendly rivalry between Superman and the Flash – and, in fact, I’m pretty sure this was the last such story before Barry’s death in Crisis on Infinite Earths. (If I’m wrong, by all means, correct me in the comments.) 

This time around, our heroes are captured by a pair of warring alien races, one of whom has sent an agent forward in time to go through the “cosmic curtain” that separates the end of the timeline to the beginning. (Time, you see, is evidently a giant loop, but their time machines only go FORWARD, so they have to take the long way around, as if they were flying across Europe and Asia to get to California from Florida. Flat-timers hate this issue.) Since the Flash “won” the previous race, they send him to help their agent in the future, with the consequence for failure being the destruction of Earth. The other aliens, though, force Superman’s hand by telling him that if their enemy succeeds in changing time, Krypton will explode SOONER than it was supposed to, and Superman will never exist. 

The major difference between this two-parter and the previous three races between Superman and the Flash is that the race is across time, rather than space, and it’s a significant enough change to really make this one stand out. Superman’s actions seem a bit out of character, of course – he’s risking the destruction of Earth to save his own life, a task even the VILLAINS are surprised to see him willingly take. Naturally, it turns out to all be part of the plan.

This one, unlike the other three races we’ve seen, doesn’t even really try to address the issue of who “wins.” Once Superman’s plan is unveiled, the heroes work together (as it should be) to thwart BOTH sects of warring aliens and fix all the timey-wimey chaos before anyone is killed, especially Jimmy Olsen. The conclusion, then, is satisfying, but leaves the central question essentially unanswered. In fact, the first time we get anything resembling a true answer, it would have to come from Barry’s protege, Wally West, another 12 years later.

Other Comics: Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen #135, Justice League of America #16, Action Comics #372

Podcast: DC Studios Showcase Episode 1 (Discussion of documentary film Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story)

Valentine’s Day Stuff: Today is, in case you forgot, Valentine’s Day. (And if you DID forget, this isn’t going to be posted until February 19th, so you are SERIOUSLY out of luck.) But I couldn’t let the day pass without noting my darling wife, Erin, and how she indulged my quest for the Year of Superman today.

Pictured: Love. And personal hygiene products.

She got me the McFarlane Toys Super Powers Fleischer-style Superman, a figure I’ve been hunting for ever since I found out it existed, but have been resisting paying eBay prices. If I won the lottery, I would build an entire toy display room in my palatial mansion, and one full wall would be dedicated to a collection of Super Powers figures, Marvel Secret Wars figures, and figures from comparable toy lines like the Archie Mighty Crusaders and Defenders of the Earth series of my youth. She also got me a set of the new Superman-branded Old Spice body wash and deodorant, which I first saw in an ad a week or two ago where it was being promoted along with Batman-branded products, prompting me to ask her, “Who do you think smells better? Superman or Batman? I bet Batman sweats a lot.”

And yet, she’s been married to me for over 10 years now. Get you one who understands you like mine understands me, friends. 

Sat., Feb. 15

Comic Books: Adventures of Superman #463, Flash Vol. 2 #53

“On your marks! Get se–wait a second, haven’t we done this before?”

Notes: The next time the Man of Steel and the Scarlet Speedster would face off against one another wouldn’t come until 1990, at which point both of them had experienced some drastic changes. Superman had gone through the post-Crisis John Byrne reboot, whereas Barry Allen had died in Crisis on Infinite Earths and been replaced by his protege, former Kid Flash Wally West. Like a lot of Superman history, it’s unclear if any of the previous races with Barry were canon to Superman at this time, but the story makes it quite clear that it’s the first time he’s faced off against Wally, at least, and it’s a distinction that Superman takes pretty seriously.

This story involves our old pal from the Fifth Dimension, Mr. Mxyzptlk, who shows up on Earth this time restructuring Mount Rushmore to include his own face. The Flash happens to get there first and, when Mxy finds out that he’s supposedly the “fastest man alive,” he decides to put that claim to a test. If Superman can beat the Flash in a race around the world, he says, he’ll pop out of our dimension for the usual 90 days. Superman notes, rather dismissively, that Wally hasn’t been the Flash that long and strongly implies that beating KID Flash won’t be too difficult, and Wally does his best impression of Michael Jordan in that meme. The race is on. 

From here out, the story is actually pretty straightforward. Unlike most of the races we don’t have to deal with any shady stipulations, misdirects for the reader, or bad guys trying to fix the outcome of the race, except for your typical Mxy shenanigans. There is a nice little scene I’d forgotten about, where Mxyzptlk tries to offer Lex Luthor a hunk of red Kryptonite but Lex turns him down, which actually makes this story a stealth prequel to the Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite story we read last month. But as far as the actual RACE goes, it’s pretty cut and dried, with both heroes putting the pedal to the metal until, in the final stretch, Wally reaches out and beats Superman by a nose. 

Totally saving the day! As it turns out, Mxy had learned about deception from Lex in a previous visit and so he was trying it out. Although he SAID he was only going to leave Earth if Superman won, he had always REALLY planned to leave if the FLASH won. It never occurs to him to simply lie again, which is actually kind of a silly, charming hat to put on this dude in his silly, charming hat.

This was the first Superman/Flash race I ever read, and as such it’s always held a place of esteem in my personal pantheon of Superman stories, but I think it’s important to note which versions of the characters we’re looking at. Superman was only a few years post-Byrne, an era in which his power had been scaled down dramatically to make him less “godlike.” Over the years his powers would slowly creep up in strength again until today he’s more powerful than ever before, but as Supermen go, the one in this story was relatively slow. However, this was also early in Wally’s tenure as the Flash, a period during which he was much slower than Barry ever was. When Mark Waid took over Wally’s series a few years later he established that Wally had a subconscious fear of overshadowing his predecessor and had a self-imposed mental block limiting his speed. Once he got over that, he became the fastest Flash there ever was. The point is that if you took the current versions of either Superman OR the Flash and popped them into the race during this era, either of them could smoke the two characters we watched race today.

This time it’s a METAPHORICAL race! The greatest kind of race there is!

I also read issue #53 of Wally’s first solo title, a story which was NOT actually a race, despite what the cover promised. In this one, Jimmy Olsen has gotten himself captured by some South American warlord (because that’s what Jimmy Olsen DOES) and Superman decides to recruit the only person alive faster than him (as established in the previous race) to help find Jimmy before he’s unalived. This is a typical superhero team-up story: good, not special, but enjoyable. I think the most interesting thing about it, the thing that gives it a spot of interest in superhero history, is that this happens to be the issue in which Wally’s pal the Pied Piper (former villain, now reformed) comes out to him as gay. I don’t know if this is the FIRST openly gay character in mainstream comics, but he’s certainly ONE of the first, and while it’s no big deal in today’s comic book landscape, for 1991 it was a pretty surprising revelation. There ya go, ya learned something today. 

Sun., Feb. 16

Comic Book: DC First: Superman/Flash #1

Big Good Vs. Big Good.

Notes: I’ve got a sick kid to take care of this afternoon and, as a parent, that has to take precedence over pretty much everything. But in-between far too frequent trips to the bathroom and a larger-than-average number of baths, I made it a point to squeeze in the next story in the Superman/Flash pantheon. This time we leap ahead to 2002 for DC First: Superman/Flash. This was a series of one-shots DC did that showed the first meetings between various characters – but as Superman’s first races between Barry Allen and Wally West were already pretty well documented, for this special they did something a little different and very cool: they showed Superman’s first race with Jay Garrick, the original Golden Age Flash. 

This issue reads more as a special issue of the then-current Flash run. It’s written by Geoff Johns, who was writing that book at the time, and it deals with subplots involving Pied Piper and Jay’s wife, Joan, with Superman’s involvement coming in coincidentally. Wally and Jay head to Metropolis to a bookshop where they’ve sourced a rare book as a gift for Joan, only to run afoul of the old Flash rogue Abra Kadabra. The faux wizard of the 64th century casts a spell that begins causing Wally to age rapidly, then tells Superman and Jay they can save him if they can catch him in a race – with the caveat that whoever touches Wally first will take the curse upon themselves. What you’ve got, then, is perhaps the greatest conceit for a Superman/Flash race of them all. They aren’t racing for charity, they aren’t racing for ego, they aren’t even racing with the fate of the world at stake. They are literally racing one another for the RIGHT TO SACRIFICE THEMSELVES TO SAVE WALLY. There is no better motivation for these two heroes.

I know I read this book when it first came out. It’s in my collection, and I was an avid reader of both the Superman comics (duh) and Flash, so I am 100 percent certain I read it. But it came out 23 years ago, and I didn’t really remember the story at all until I sat down to read it this afternoon, and it honestly blew me away. Even though it’s more of a Flash story than a Superman story, it really exemplifies the values of Superman in a way that a lot of these other races failed to do. It may be my favorite read for this week to date.  

Mon., Feb. 17

Comics: Flash: Rebirth #3, Superman #709

This issue, as far as I’m concerned, is the final word on the whole thing.

Notes: I actually struggled with whether to include this issue of Flash: Rebirth from 2009 in my Year of Superman reading. It’s the middle of a storyline, and Superman’s appearance is barely a cameo, but that one sequence in which he appears is significant enough that I felt it warranted inclusion. Barry Allen, having returned from the dead in the terribly inaccurately named Final Crisis event, is being transformed into a new Black Flash, essentially the spirit of death for speedsters such as himself. To protect Wally, his grandson Bart, and everyone else he loves, he decides he’s going to rush back into the Speed Force before the transformation can happen, and Superman takes off after him. At this point, the League had gone through its share of recent tragedies, and both Aquaman and the Martian Manhunter were dead (they got better), so Clark isn’t about to let Barry die again. 

This leads to one of my favorite pages that Geoff Johns ever wrote, as the two of them are racing each other up the Daily Planet building and Superman says, “I’ve raced you before, Barry. I even won some of those races.”*

Barry simply says, “Those were for charity, Clark.”

And then he leaves him in the dust.

Like I keep saying, the Flash SHOULD be faster than Superman. This issue is the best evidence of that ever.

(*By the way, despite what he says, I don’t actually recall Superman ever winning one of those races. There were a few ties, but every time a victor was declared it was the guy in red. I’m going to assume, from the way Clark talks, that there may have been other charity races off-panel that we didn’t get to watch. And now that I’ve said it, it’s going to manifest in the universe as a seven-part time-travel crossover event, coming this fall.) 

“You’re GROUNDED young man! That means no disrupting the time stream! Just do your homework and straight to bed!”

The final Superman/Flash face-off I could find in comics came in Superman #709 from 2011, part of J. Michael Straczynski’s “Grounded” storyline. In this arc, Superman decides he needs to reconnect with the ordinary people he is sworn to protect, so he commits himself to walk across the United States. It’s an interesting concept, to be certain, and Straczynski is an excellent writer, but the general consensus on this storyline is that it sort of fell flat. I think the problem is that it went on for far too long (who wants an entire year of Superman just…walking?) and even Straczynski himself seemed to lose interest in it, as evidenced by the fact that he bowed out before the story was over and it was completed by Chris Roberson. 

The “race” part of this issue is over fairly quickly. While walking through Boulder, Colorado, the entire town is suddenly transformed into a Kryptonian city. Superman soon figures out that the transformation is the work of the Flash, who has been overtaken by a Kryptonian artifact and he needs Superman to set him free. After he does so, they have a cup of coffee and talk about legacy. This is what I mean, by the way, when I say that the “Grounded” story went on too long. The story of this issue is perfectly fine, in and of itself, but when you read it in the context of the entire year-long storyline, it was too much of the same thing over and over: Superman walking somewhere, doubting himself, having a significant encounter with various characters (both new and previously established) and coming to a peaceful resolution. That’s great ONCE, but do you really want to read it twelve issues in a row?

The most interesting thing to me about this issue is that it happens concurrently with that month’s issue of Superboy, in which the Kid of Steel races KID Flash for the first time, and which Clark and Barry catch a glimpse of on a diner television. I’ll take a look at that issue tomorrow when I look at the few races I could find between members of the Superman and Flash families other than the patriarchs. 

TV Episode: Superman: The Animated Series, Season Two, Episode 4, “Speed Demons”

“Loved you on Wings, by the way.”

Notes: That’s all the comic book Superman/Flash races I could find, but there’s still this episode of Superman: The Animated Series, the first appearance of the Flash in the DC Animated Universe. In this episode he’s voiced by Charlie Schlatter, although Michael Rosenbaum would take over the character for the Justice League cartoons. (Tim Daly would be replaced as Superman by George Newburn too. I guess not everyone can be Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill.) In this episode, Superman and the Flash are pitted against each other in, as per their first-ever encounter, a charity race. This time the rules are a bit more sensible for the two of them: the winner will be the first to complete 100 laps around the globe. Of course, just like many of their races in the comics, there’s a catch – the arm bands they’re wearing to track their progress are, in truth, using them to build up ionic energy to power a plot by the Weather Wizard. (Weather Wizard, by the way, was voiced by the late Miguel Ferrer in a delightfully dastardly way.)

This episode never makes it clear which Flash we’re watching, Barry or Wally. In terms of attitude and personality, it’s definitely influenced by the early days of Wally’s solo title. He’s slick, he’s cocky, and he relentlessly flirts with Lois Lane, none of which are things you could ever imagine Barry doing. It takes plenty of cues from the classic comics, though, such as the race itself being derailed halfway through when Superman and the Flash catch wind (rimshot) of the Weather Wizard’s plan and call it off to get around to some good ol’ fashioned thwartin’. It’s easy to forget that the Batman cartoon almost never had guest-stars from outside the Batman family, so this was one of the first times we really started to see an animated universe begin to form in the Paul Dini/Bruce Timm era. It was a real delight to revisit this episode again. 

There is ONE other Superman/Flash race that I haven’t covered here, but for what I consider a good reason. It’s part of Tom King’s Superman: Up in the Sky series, which is a magnificent comic in its own right, and I intend to cover it in its entirety at some point this year. Plus, looking at the issue with the race on its own wouldn’t really make a ton of sense, absent of the context. I’m bringing it up here mainly so that nobody thinks I forgot about it.

Tues., Feb. 18

Comics: Superboy Vol. 4 #5, Supergirl: The Fastest Women Alive #1

“I don’t know why Barry and Clark always make such a big deal about this.”

Notes: I had one day left in “Superman Vs. The Flash Week,” but I had run out of actual Superman/Flash races, so I decided to close it out with a pair of comics featuring other members of the respective Super- and Flash-Families strapping on their jogging shoes to see who’s swiftest. First was Superboy Vol. 4 #5 from 2011, the first ever Superboy/Kid Flash race (this Kid Flash being Bart Allen, Barry’s grandson, who previously had gone by “Impulse” and since has retaken that name). In this era, Superboy was living in Smallville, and his presence had rocked the town with a few supervillain attacks that resulted in some pretty major damage. This time around, the race is scheduled to raise money to rebuild the town. As the two old friends zip across the globe, though, Bart can tell that Conner Kent’s mind is elsewhere.

This issue is part of Jeff Lemire’s run on the title, a tenure that was cut tragically short by the New 52 reboot later that year. Lemire was doing a great job at grounding Superboy in a way that this version of the character so rarely is, giving him a home and a family in Smallville to contend with, and making his adventures a mix of the cosmic and the mundane, something Lemire is exceptionally good at. (And if you don’t believe me, check out his series Black Hammer.) Despite the race being a backdrop, the mundane part is the focus of the issue, with nary a supervillain plot or alien invader to disrupt things. Instead, in the midst of a race across the globe, Conner just confides in his friend about his pain over his recent breakup with Wonder Girl.

The ending of the race is a cop-out, which we’ve all come to expect, but this may be the biggest one yet. (Spoiler: somehow, Krypto crosses the finish line first and everyone accepts it, even though it feels as legit as Harry Potter’s name being tossed in the Goblet of Fire.) Still, if you’re thinking of reading this book, the Lemire run is extremely worthy of your time – it’s just that this issue, by itself, may not be quite so satisfying without the context of the rest of the run.

Finally, we’ve got the bizarre little one-shot Supergirl: The Fastest Women Alive, a special comic from 2019 presented by Snickers. Very, very much by Snickers. There is Snickers branding on nearly every page, and even the captions that tell you where the racers are at the moment are branded in the Snickers logo font. The message, just in case you missed it, is: Snickers.

Did we mention it’s presented by Snickers?

For the first half of the issue, though, this is actually a decent enough race between Supergirl and Jesse Quick. It uses most of the tropes of the previous races, such as it being a charity race, Supergirl not being allowed to fly, and so forth. The turn comes halfway through, though, when the racers discover that the Parasite has attacked the arena where the race began and will end, and he’s already got Superman and the Flash on the ropes. The lightning ladies rush back to save the day, but how can they possibly get the energy they need to overload and defeat the energy-sucking Parasite?

HOW CAN THEY FIND THE NECESSARY ENERGY?

SNICKERS? GOT A SUGGESTION?

This story is a full-issue equivalent of the delightfully goofy old Hostess comic book ads, only way less subtle. 

I kinda love it.

And thus, friends, concludes Superman Vs. The Flash week. My feelings haven’t really changed, I must say. In any contest of speed between a Super of any stripe and a Flash by any name, the Flashes should always be the ones to come out on top. Sorry, Superman, but it’s their whole entire deal. You can’t really compete.

But this week has proven it’s fun to watch you try anyway.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His most recent writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, volume one of which is now available on Amazon. You can subscribe to his newsletter by clicking right here. You can join in the Kryptonian Konversation every day in the Year of Superman Facebook Group!

Geek Punditry #52: The 2023 Pundie Awards!

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In the first week of January, 2023, I was in a funk. You see, I realized that I’m happier – in general – when I’m spending time talking about those things I enjoy, an itch I used to be able to scratch through various online outlets. But the rise of Facebook had strangled the forum-based websites I used to write for, the demands of parenting had forced a retirement of my podcast, and none of the alternatives I had tried since then seemed to stick. Then, like a miracle, a voice from above spoke to me:

Hey, dumbass, you have a blog. 

So I challenged myself to spend 2023 writing a new piece once a week about something in the world of pop culture that I loved: comic books, movies, television and more. And I’m proud to say that as of this week, Geek Punditry #52, I will have successfully met that goal. And I enjoy doing it, and I have every intention of continuing it in 2024. But the question, then, was how to tie off my first year of blogging about those things I enjoy? The answer was obvious. I’d end the year by talking about my favorites from that year. So this week, my friends, get ready for the inaugural edition of the PUNDIE AWARDS!

Yeeeeeas, that’s right, the Pundie Awards, my hopefully-annual review of those things in pop culture that brought me the most joy over the past 12 months. The categories are entirely decided by what will allow me to talk about what I want to talk about. The winners are determined by a democratically-administered voting process including an electoral body consisting of myself. This ain’t fair or unbiased – this is just me talking about the things that came out in 2023 that I loved the most. 

Ready? Let’s do movies first!

Blake’s Favorite Superhero Movie: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

As much as I loved Into the Spider-Verse, I couldn’t believe how much better the sequel turned out to be. An incredible team of writers, animators, and performers managed to elevate the story of Miles Morales by opening up the multiverse concept from the first film to incorporate not just a handful of Spider-people, but hundreds of them from remarkably disparate worlds. Not only that, but the different worlds often had wildly different animation styles from one another, all of which somehow managed to mesh perfectly.

None of that would have mattered, however, if the movie didn’t have a worthwhile story to go with it. Miles Morales has been somewhat lonely since his last adventure with the Spiders of other worlds, and when he encounters them again it seems as though his dreams are being answered, but the discoveries he makes in this film call into question his entire role in the Spider-Verse. There’s serious character drama mixed up with the superhero action in this movie, and it’s all as compelling as anything I saw on the screen this year. The tragedy is that the writer and actor strikes delayed production on the third film in the trilogy, Beyond the Spider-Verse, and we’re all left dangling from the film’s cliffhanger with no idea how long it’ll be before it is resolved.

Blake’s Favorite Horror Movie: No One Will Save You

I’ve gotta preface this by saying there are several horror movies that I wanted to see this year that I haven’t gotten around to yet, including Evil Dead Rise, The Boogeyman, Saw X, and several others. Out of those I have seen, however, No One Will Save You takes the top spot for the innovative way writer/director Brian Duffield told his story. The movie (a Hulu original, if you haven’t seen it) stars Kaitlyn Dever in a home invasion film where the invaders turn out to be from another world. What makes the film stand out though, is that it is told with almost no dialogue. The film relies on the visuals and the performances of the actors – Dever in particular – to tell the story, including unraveling the secret of why she is separated from the town in which she lives. The reveals in this movie are handled really well, and the ending is one of those conclusions that seriously screws with your brain. If that’s the kind of movie you’re looking for, look no further.

Blake’s Favorite Comedy: Renfield

Some may argue that this should have been included in the “horror” category, but my response to this would be that it’s honestly NOT that scary, it’s VERY funny, and these are MY awards, you jackass, and if you don’t like it, go write your own blog. 

Anyway, Renfield. Future Lex Luthor Nicholas Hoult plays the titular character, long-suffering assistant to the king of darkness, Dracula himself (played by Nicolas Cage in a performance that chews so much scenery they must have had to reinforce the walls in the set). The concept of making a comedy about Dracula’s human minion set in modern-day New Orleans is funny in and of itself, but what elevates it is the way it handles the material. The script – written by Ryan Ridley and Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman – takes the story of Dracula and Renfield and uses it as a metaphor for people trapped in an abusive relationship. Not to say that abusive relationships are funny, of course, but it’s one of those stories that uses humor to shed light on a serious situation by making it seem absurd. Looking at the dynamic between Renfield and Dracula is actually helpful in exploring how someone may need to deal with their abusers, and perhaps help the audience find their way to sympathize with victims of such a situation. 

I feel like I’m not making it clear how funny this movie is. Trust me. It’s really funny. It just has a serious point to make in-between the laughs and the vampire shenanigans. 

Blake’s Favorite Drama: The Holdovers

Paul Giamatti plays a teacher at a prestigious boys school in 1970. Stuck on the wrong side of the headmaster, Giamatti is forced to spend Christmas with a group of “holdovers” – students who, for one reason or another, are unable to return home during Christmas break. The movie turns into a pretty deep character study between three leads. Giamatti plays a bitter and heavily-disliked teacher, Dominic Sessa is one of the students that is justifiably outraged at being left behind so his mother and her new husband can take an unexpected honeymoon, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph is the school’s head cook, a grieving mother who herself is spending Christmas alone.

Each of these three, at the beginning of the film, seems to be a fairly stock character: the nasty teacher, the troubled student, the above-the-nonsense side character. But the forced proximity between the three of them slowly reveals depths to each, and by the time the movie ends we’re left feeling like we have watched three real, fully-developed people. Each of them is flawed, each of them has problems, but we understand them in a way that is undeniable and makes us love each of them just a little bit. Each of the three actors I mentioned here give a master’s performance in this movie, and it’s absolutely something worth watching.

The Most Delightful Surprise of 2023: Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. 

This is the fourth attempt at a live-action Dungeons and Dragons film, and the problem with the previous three efforts is that they have all – and here I’m going to use a term from the Book of Leviticus – blown chunks. There was no real reason to expect Take Four to be any different.

And yet…damned if it wasn’t a really fun movie. Chris Pine plays the same kind of charming but slightly rough edged character he usually does, although this time it’s a new character instead of James T. Kirk or Steve Trevor, and he leads a group of ne’er-do-wells including Michelle Rodriguez, Justice Smith, and Sophia Lillis in a quest to steal an ancient and powerful relic. If you’ve ever played Dungeons and Dragons (which I have, although it has been a very long time since I was in a campaign), the plot feels pretty standard. What makes the movie work, though, is the humor, the characters, and the way they react to the fantasy situations that surround them. Their behavior, frankly, feels very authentic to the way that people playing the game would really behave in those situations, and while the movie doesn’t really go meta in the way that description may imply, it still delivers on pretty much every level. I wouldn’t necessarily place this on any “best of 2023” lists, but in terms of expectation versus reality, there’s not a single movie this year that over-delivered more than this one. 

Let’s shift gears a bit now and talk about some of my favorite comic books of the year. I know that not everybody reading this is necessarily into comics, but y’know, maybe pay attention anyway. You might find something worth looking into. And if not, skip down to the bottom where I talk about television, by which I mean a lot of Star Trek.

Blake’s Favorite Ongoing DC Comic: Batman/Superman: World’s Finest 

Written by Mark Waid with art by Dan Mora (who I said last week is probably the best Superman artist working in comic books right now), this is the most entertaining ongoing series DC is putting out, and they’ve been on a pretty big upswing this year. Set in the early days of the characters’ friendship, this story explores not only Batman and Superman themselves, but also the characters that surround them. Over the course of this year we’ve seen Superman lose a sidekick we never knew about, a murder mystery in which the primary suspect was Bruce Wayne himself, a return to the world of Waid’s classic Kingdom Come, and a fantastically entertaining one-off story about the original Robin (Dick Grayson) going on a date with Supergirl and pretty much everything going wrong.

The book is often funny, always entertaining, and takes characters we have loved for decades and makes them fresh and fun again. And that’s just Waid’s writing. The artwork is also top-notch, with Mora handling most issues and drawing the characters in a way that feels classic and powerful. I keep harping on his Superman, but there’s a reason for that: it’s so damned good. When you see a Superman by Dan Mora, you see a guy that you would find equally believable going toe-to-toe with Darkseid and then turning around and getting a cat unstuck from a tree.

It’s already spun off another book, World’s Finest: Teen Titans, featuring the early days of Robin’s own superhero team, and also written by Waid. This is a brand that DC absolutely needs to run with, because it’s as good as it gets.

But like I said, DC has really upped their game this year, so without getting into detail, I also wanna hand out some honorable mentions. Also worth reading this year from DC are Shazam! (another Waid book), Superman, Nightwing, Green Lantern, Titans, and the recently-rebooted Wonder Woman. 

Blake’s Favorite Ongoing Marvel Comic: Fantastic Four

Admittedly, I am biased here. Everybody knows that the Thing is my favorite Marvel character and my second-favorite superhero of them all, right after Superman, so any book with him in it gets at least another two points on a scale of one to ten automatically. So with his bonus two points, Ryan North’s run on Fantastic Four gets, roughly, an eleven.

North’s run began in November of 2022, so most of his story came out in 2023. In the first few issues of the book, we see a Fantastic Four that has been run out of New York City and dispersed to the four winds (pun intended), and perhaps most horrifyingly of all, are without their children. The book launches with a mystery; we are not told immediately what happened to place them in this situation. But unlike certain other Marvel comics I could mention (I’m callin’ you out, Amazing Spider-Man) the mystery was revealed in issue FOUR, and was done in a way that was very satisfying and very in-character. Without getting into any spoilers, I want to say that the reason the FF left New York and the reason the kids are all missing makes perfect sense (unlike another certain book where the long-delayed revelation went against not only years of characterization but also just common freaking sense). At the same time, it changed the status quo in a way that is inherently temporary, but still paved the way for a year of very old-school sci-fi adventures. In other words, Ryan North found a way to take the FF back to the kind of crazy stories the book featured in the early days without getting rid of the modern trappings entirely or invalidating the feelings of the fans who enjoy those trappings. And now that we’re at a point where that storyline is being resolved, I’m really anxious and excited to see what North has planned next.

Blake’s Favorite Ongoing Image Comic: Radiant Black

This isn’t the first time this year I’ve mentioned how much I love Radiant Black, written by Kyle Higgins with art by Marcelo Costa. The title that launched Image’s “Massive-Verse” line (which also includes entertaining books such as Rogue Sun, No/One, and The Dead Lucky) is a superhero story about a young man, Nathan, who finds an alien artifact that gives him incredible power…until he’s hurt and put into a coma, with his best friend Marshall taking over. When Nathan wakes up, the two friends share the power until they’re forced to choose which of them gets to keep it. 

Aside from just being a well-written comic with great art, Higgins and Costa do really interesting and innovative things with how the story is told. In one issue, in which Radiant Black encounters a crew making a fanfilm about him, we’re given a QR code that takes us to YouTube and shows us the actual film. Issue #25 though, the issue in which Nathan and Marshall are given their choice is the one that really elevates things when the readers are instructed to vote for which of the two of them becomes the permanent Radiant Black. The BIG shock, however, came when fans walked into comic shops to pick up issue #26 only to find two different versions: one in which Nathan took over and one in which Marshall got the job. During the currently-running “Catalyst War” storyline, there are two versions of the story, and it’s NOT just a case of penciling in a different face for each version. The two of them are different people, make different choices, and have different consequences, and it’s not until the story ends that the result of the fan vote will be revealed and one of the two timelines will be declared the “real” one. 

I like good art and I love great writing, but if you REALLY want to make me go to bat for your comic book, pull some risky moves with how you tell the story and you’ll have me on your side for life. 

Blake’s Favorite Comic Book Reboot: Skybound’s Energon Universe

Robert Kirkman, mentioned back in the Renfield entry, loves to surprise his audience. He didn’t announce ahead of time that issue #193 of The Walking Dead would be the last issue of the series. He didn’t tell anyone that there would be an Atom Eve special for his Invincible cartoon until it appeared on Prime Video. And earlier this year he launched a new comic, a sci-fi space opera, called Void Rivals. Nobody was really talking about this book much until the day the first issue reached the stands and, towards the end, fans were shocked to find an appearance by the Autobot Jetfire. This is how we learned that Void Rivals was not merely a new series, but the launch for a new shared universe including Void Rivals and the two classic Hasbro properties TransFormers and G.I. Joe. 

There have been a lot of crossovers between TransFormers and G.I. Joe over the years, and the previous license holder IDW Publishing even tried to create a shared universe including those two and other Hasbro properties like M.A.S.K., ROM, and Micronauts. None of those efforts have ever really worked, though, because once these properties are already established, it’s too difficult to mesh them together. If the G.I. Joe team has already been around for 75 issues, why the hell have they never before referenced the giant robots that turn into oil tankers that have been fighting in downtown Las Vegas? You can’t explain it. What Kirkman and his team have done is the only real way to make a shared universe from these properties: tie them together from the inception. 

So Void Rivals launched this “Energon Universe,” and it’s exploring space and some of the other alien races classic to the TransFormers franchise. The line continued with a new TransFormers book by Daniel Warren Johnson, which begins the story of how the war between the Autobots and Decepticons first spills over onto Earth. This is being followed up by two miniseries written by Joshua Williamson, Duke and Cobra Commander, which show the origins of the respective hero and villain teams of the G.I. Joe corner of the universe, and link those origins to the appearance of robot aliens on planet Earth. Void Rivals is pretty good, but TransFormers has been great, and the first issue of Duke – which came out this week – really blew me away. I’m totally on board for this universe, and I’m so happy with what Kirkman has put together.

Side note: Kirkman also gets bonus points for continuing Larry Hama’s G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero, the original series that was started by Marvel Comics back in the 80s and resurrected by IDW. It’s the classic G.I. Joe continuity, still in the hands of the man who basically created the incarnation of the franchise that we all grew up with, and I couldn’t be happier that it’s still out there.

Well that was a fun dip into the world of comic books. Let’s wrap up this look back at 2023 by discussing some of my favorite TV shows of the year, shall we?

Blake’s Favorite Star Trek Series: Lower Decks

I have made no secret of my love of Star Trek: Lower Decks. I wrote a whole column about it not too long ago, so I don’t want to spend a lot of space rehashing what I said then, but it would be disingenuous of me to write about my favorites of the year and NOT bring it up again. You can go back and look at that previous column if you want details, but it’s a show that is not only outrageously funny, but incredibly clever and truly loving towards the history behind the franchise. If you’re a fan of any incarnation of Trek and you haven’t been watching it, you’re making a mistake.

Blake’s Favorite Star Trek Series that isn’t Lower Decks: Picard, Season Three

With all due respect to Strange New Worlds – which had a phenomenal second season – the final season of Star Trek: Picard told a story we’ve been waiting to see for two decades now. The first two seasons of that show were no great shakes, it’s true, but the last season brought back the entire main crew from Star Trek: The Next Generation and gave them one last, grand adventure together, which they never really had. The finale of the TV show was never intended as their final story, since they were immediately rolling into production of the movies. The last movie in that franchise was not intended to be the last movie, and so it didn’t really give us closure either. But this story brought back everybody we loved and told a story that was exciting, heartfelt, and absolutely engaging from the first episode to the last. What’s more, it also laid the groundwork for a new generation of Trek, bringing in a new crew with a mixture of familiar and brand-new characters that fans warmly embraced. The executives at Paramount are absolute fools if they don’t capitalize on this and bring this crew back together again for more adventures.

Blake’s Favorite Comedy Series that isn’t Lower Decks: Abbott Elementary

Sometimes I need to remind myself that there are TV shows with live actors that aren’t set in outer space. Abbott Elementary is a wonderful way to do so – it’s a fantastically funny show that, at the same time, is really down-to-Earth and realistic in certain ways. The quick pitch behind this show is to call it “The Office, but in an elementary school.” It carries over the same sort of mockumentary style, and a lot of the characters seem to fit similar templates, such as the ridiculously inept boss (the principal, played by Ava Coleman), the hardass veteran (fantastically played by Barbara Howard) and the young, adorkable “will they/won’t they” couple (played by Tyler James Williams and show creator Quinta Brunson). 

The thing about this show is that, while it IS very funny and the characters ARE very compelling, it also works very well as a look into the working of a real elementary school. Not ALL of it, of course – it’s a comedy and like many comedies it will often sacrifice realism for the sake of a joke. But the show deals with issues that, as a teacher, I see every day: funding difficulties, student behavior issues, intrusive parents and so forth. There are a lot of movies and TV shows set in schools, but this is the first time I’ve ever watched a show about a school that actually makes me believe that someone in the writing room might actually have been a teacher at one point.

It’s a great show with no weak links, and every time I hear about it getting an award in writing, directing, acting, or anything else, I just nod and say, “Yep. Nailed it.” 

Blake’s Favorite Horror Series: Fall of the House of Usher

Writer/director Mike Flanagan has produced several films and TV shows for Netflix, and he finished up his contract this year with a miniseries kinda-sorta based on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Kinda-sorta. Truth be told, when I watched Fall of the House of Usher, I described it to people as “Mike Flanagan bought all of the Edgar Allan Poe LEGO kits, threw away the instructions, and then built his own brand new thing out of all the pieces.”

This is not a criticism. The show is great.

The framing sequence features Bruce Greenwood as Roderick Usher, telling inspector C. Auguste Dupin (another Poe character played by Carl Lumbly) about the tragic deaths of his adult children, all of which happened in the past few weeks. What follows is a long, winding, generational tragedy, beginning in Usher’s childhood and leading up to the moments before the series actually begins. The cast is amazing, including several of Flangan’s usual troupe of actors like Carla Guigno, Henry Thomas, Kyliegh Curran, and Kate Siegel, and giving Mark Hamill perhaps the best dramatic turn of his entire career. The stories that unfold also tie into not just “Fall of the House of Usher,” but several other works of Poe as well. Episode titles, to give you an idea of what I’m talking about, include “The Masque of the Red Death,” “Murder in the Rue Morgue,” “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and “The Raven.” 

If you go into this show expecting a faithful adaptation of the works of Edgar Allan Poe, you’re going to be disappointed. But if you look at it as someone using Poe as inspiration to create something entirely new, it’s a fantastic, engaging, and really disturbing series that goes right up there with the best horror on TV. 

Flanagan is currently working on an adaptation of Stephen King’s epic The Dark Tower series, which previously fell flat in a movie in 2017. If there’s anyone out there who I feel has the skill and vision to make that book series – one of my favorites of all time – into a SUCCESSFUL show, it’s Mike Flanagan. 

And that’s about all, guys. Out of all the new stories I read or watched in 2023, these are the ones I enjoyed the most. This isn’t comprehensive, of course: there are hundreds of movies, TV shows, and comic books that I never got around to this year. So if one of your favorites wasn’t included in this little retrospective, just comfort yourself by saying, “Well, Blake obviously didn’t watch Oppenheimer yet, so he couldn’t include it.” Because it’s either that or I DID see it and I didn’t like it as much as you, which is especially the case if your favorite movie of the year was Flamin’ Hot. Ugh.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this glimpse back at 2023, and furthermore, I hope you’ve enjoyed spending a year with me talking about the stories and storytelling that I love. That’s what Geek Punditry has really been about since day one, a chance for me to get out there and talk about these things again. And while I may not have TMZ knocking down my door begging to do commentary for them, writing this column every week has made me feel good and I’ve enjoyed doing it. So come back on the first Friday in January, and we’ll begin Geek Punditry Year Two.

Blake M. Petit is a writer, teacher, and dad from Ama, Louisiana. His current writing project is the superhero adventure series Other People’s Heroes: Little Stars, a new episode of which is available every Wednesday on Amazon’s Kindle Vella platform. He’s trying to remember: in “Year Two,” is that the one where he finally tracks down the mugger who killed his parents in an alley, or is he thinking of something else?