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The Kryptonian Cybernet Issue 46
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T H E K R Y P T O N I A N C Y B E R N E T
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http://www.ms.uky.edu/~sykes/kc
Issue #46 -- January 1998
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CONTENTS
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Section 1: Superscripts: Notes from the Editor
Ask and Ye Shall Receive!
Ratings At A Glance
Titles Shipped December 1997
News and Notes
The end of the Electri-Kals, upcoming comics specials, 98-99
animated series news, the AMEX commercial, a L&C marathon,
the Junior JLA, and Superman gets cheesy!
Section 2: Superman 1997 -- The Points To Ponder Awards
Simon DelMonte's look back at the Superman year that was
And Who Disguised As...
The Basement Columns, Part II
"The Way It Began," by J.D. Rummel
Origins
Part One: Krypton
Enola Jones begins a series on the origins of Superman
Section 3: New Comic Reviews
The Superman Titles
Superman: The Man of Steel #76, by Mike Smith
Superman Red/Superman Blue, by Shane Travis
Superman #132, by Thomas Deja
Section 4: New Comic Reviews
The Superman Titles (cont)
Adventures of Superman #555, by Dan Radice
Super-Family Titles
Steel #47, by Jeff Sykes
Superboy #48, by Rene' Gobeyn
Superboy and the Ravers #18, by Jeff Sykes
Section 5: New Comic Reviews
Super-Family Titles (cont)
Supergirl #18, by Thomas Deja
Other Superman Titles
JLA #15, by Anatole Wilson
Superman Adventures #16, by Cory Strode
Section 6: New Comic Reviews
Superman Features and Specials
Legends of the DC Universe #1, by Andrew Hudson
Superman: Distant Fires, by Thomas Deja
Superman Adventures Special #1, by Dan Radice
Section 7: New Comic Reviews
New Year's Evil Specials
Gog #1, by Anatole Wilson
Mr. Mxyzptlk #1, by Mike Smith
Teen Titans Double-Shots
Superboy/Risk: Double-Shot #1, by Rene' Gobeyn
Supergirl/Prysm: Double-Shot #1, by Rene' Gobeyn
Section 8: Superman Timeline
David Chappell presents the latest version of his timeline
of events in the life of the post-Crisis Superman
The Phantom Zone
Tales of Earth-One
Together Again For the First Time, by Bob Hughes
Section 9: The Phantom Zone
The One, True, Original Superman!
Lois Lane, The Original Super Girlfriend, by Bob Hughes
Star System Catalogue
Section 10: The Mailbag
STAFF:
------
Jeffery D. Sykes, Editor-in-Chief
Shane Travis, Executive Editor: New Comic Reviews
Neil Ottenstein, Executive Editor: S:TAS section
LEGAL DISCLAIMERS:
-----------------
Superman and all related characters, locations, and events are copyright and
trademark DC Comics. Use of the aforementioned is not intended to challenge
said ownership. We strongly suggest that each reader look to the media
sources mentioned within for further information.
All original material published in The Kryptonian Cybernet, including but not
limited to reviews, articles, and editorials, are copyright 1998 by The
Kryptonian Cybernet and the respective authors. Reprinting in any format is
expressly forbidden without the permission of The Kryptonian Cybernet and the
contributing author.
Opinions presented within this issue belong to the authors of the articles
which contain them. They should in no way be construed as those of any other
particular member of the editorial or contributing staff, unless otherwise
indicated.
This magazine can be distributed, in whole, freely via e-mail. Should you
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_____________________________________________
SUPERSCRIPTS: Notes from the Editor
----------------------------------------
By Jeff Sykes (sykes@ms.uky.edu)
ASK AND YE SHALL RECEIVE!
For over a year, DC has found itself inundated with complaints about the state
of Superman comics. Some don't like the new suit or powers. Some don't like
the creative teams. Some don't like the continuity format. Some just plain
don't like the post-Crisis Supes. And so forth and so on.
Believe it or not, folks, it looks like DC's been listening. DC recently
released information about the Superman titles coming in April, and many of
these complaints appear to have been addressed in some form or another.
Furthermore, I suspect that most of you will at least be intrigued by what
sounds like a wonderful concept.
Enough build up, though. Here are the facts.
The first week in April, DC presents SUPERMAN FOREVER, a triple-sized special
leading directly out of the conclusion of the "Millennium Giants" crossover.
The entire Superman creative team contributes to this massive special, as well
as a host of guest talent. SUPERMAN FOREVER is plotted by Karl Kesel and
written by Kesel, Dan Jurgens, Louise Simonson, and Stuart Immonen. Art for
the special is provided by Jurgens, Immonen, John Byrne, Val Semeiks, Norm
Breyfogle, Kieron Dwyer, Anthony Williams, Dick Giordano, Scot Eaton, Jon
Bogdanove, Steve Yeowell, Paul Ryan, and more! Oh, and did I mention that the
special will feature cover art by Alex Ross, of KINGDOM COME fame!?
There are two editions of SUPERMAN FOREVER, each sporting a painted cover by
Ross. The collector's edition features a 5" x 9 1/2" lenticular cover image
composed of seven Alex Ross paintings, revealing Clark Kent turning into
Superman and then taking flight. The standard edition features a single
painting, chosen from the seven which comprise the lenticular.
I'm not going to reveal any details about the plot just yet, but writer Karl
Kesel confirms that Superman gets back his *original* powers and costume.
Also, indications are that all of the major storylines currently running
through the titles may have come together and been concluded by this point,
and that the primary story in SUPERMAN FOREVER will make a great jumping-on
point for new readers. Just as a hint, as should any classic Superman story,
this one will involve all of Superman's major cast members, as well as his
arch-nemesis Lex Luthor. (There'll be more details in February's Coming
Attractions, once PREVIEWS is released!)
Now, what exactly is meant by Superman's "original powers and costume?" Well,
take your pick! This is where things get *really* interesting!
Each Superman fan has his or her own idea of which Superman is the "best"
Superman. For some it's the Byrne vision of the Man of Steel; for others it's
the Silver Age Superman as portrayed by the legendary Curt Swan; for still
others it's the Golden Age Superman of Siegel and Shuster. Some might even
think we've yet to see the ideal Superman. Beginning in April, we're going to
get a taste of them all, as "seemingly unconnected" time-warping storylines
unfold over three months of the weekly titles!
Silver Age fans? In the second week of April, ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #558
presents the first part of a three-part story in which Superman resumes his
life as protector of Metropolis, but things won't seem quite normal to the
alert reader. Could it be that the Silver Age continuity has been restored!?
Prefer a slightly more modern Superman? In the third week of April, ACTION
COMICS #745 presents the first part of *another* three-part story, in which
Superman battles the Prankster. Wait a minute. We haven't seen the Prankster
in a while, and why is Clark working at WGBS? Didn't this all happen in the
seventies!?
How about the Golden Age? In the fourth week of April, SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF
STEEL #80 presents the first part of yet another three-part story, and yet
another anomaly. Incredible intelligence, Herculean strength, nemesis to
wrong-doers, able to leap an eighth of a mile, and his skin impenetrable to
anything less than a bursting shell? How'd we get back to the 1930s!?
Still looking for the perfect Man of Steel? In the first week of May,
SUPERMAN #136 presents the first part of still another multi-part story.
Perhaps "The Superman of 3000 AD" can figure out what's going on -- assuming
he can defeat the telepathic villain known as Muto.
A Superman there for everyone, no? Perhaps more importantly, notice that each
title appears to be handling its own story! For some time now, many fans have
cried for an end to the weekly "triangle" continuity format, and I myself have
suggested that it might be the best way to increase sales. Could this be just
that? Or maybe an experiment to see how things go? Time will tell...
On the surface, this is almost certainly meant as a tribute to the many
incarnations of Superman that have come before. More importantly, it looks to
me like the creators are trying to inject some more fun into their titles, and
this is what has me so excited! Look at just two specific examples:
1. Karl Kesel is quite well-known for his love of the Silver Age, and for
using references to that era within his stories. Who else would handle a
Silver Age Superman with more loving care?
2. Jon Bogdanove, though often maligned by the fans, has one thing definitely
going for him. Quite a few of the fans have noticed how similar his Superman
is, both in form and in action, to the Man of Steel illustrated long ago by
Joe Shuster. Think it's a coincidence that he'll be writing and drawing the
Golden Age Superman?
Of course, I have no idea where DC is going with these stories, but the basic
concept seems pretty clear. I may be reading things into the announcement,
but I see this as the creators getting a chance to produce stories they *want*
to write, each about a Superman they *want* to work with, and they don't have
to pass off part of the story to a different team! I've just gotta believe
that this is a better situation.
Even if the format change is temporary, perhaps it will at least get the
creative juices flowing a bit more for the current crew. In the end, it's not
really about the continuity format, the creators, or even the incarnation of
the Man of Steel -- what really matters is whether or not we're getting great
stories and art. Once that happens, the sales and the overall mood of the
fans will improve in step.
All in all, everything about this news sounds like a step in the right
direction, and that's certainly cause for excitement. So here's to April and
the return of the true Man of Steel, whichever incarnation that might be to
you!
_____________________________________________
RATINGS AT A GLANCE: Titles shipped December 1997
-----------------------------------------------------
Prepared by Shane Travis (travis@sedsystems.ca)
A whole lotta specials this month -- seven, to be precise. This in addition
to the usual complement of ten titles meant that I was one busy editor!
Unfortunately, it wasn't a great month for Superman; people were lukewarm
in their response to the Red/Blue split, and totally unappreciative of
having their comics-budgets bloated at Christmas by all the extra books.
Aaah well. We're into a new calendar year, and everyone can look forward
to the return of the True Blue Man of Steel...
Key:
----
Issue -- Issue for which 'Current' Rating and Rank are calculated. The
'Previous' columns refer to the issue immediately prior to this.
Rating -- Average Rating, in Shields (maximum rating is 5.0). The number
in () indicates how many people submitted ratings.
Rank -- The relative ranking of the book among the regularly-published
Superman titles.
Average -- Average of the ratings for this title over the indicated number
of months, based on the book's cumulative average. Each month is
weighted equally, regardless of the number of people rating the
book that month. If this book is averaged over fewer months than
the rest, the number of months is displayed in ().
Current Previous Avg (6Mth)
Title Issue Rating Rank Rating Rank Rating Rank
----- ----- ------------ ------------ ------------
Steel 47 4.0(4) 1 3.4(5) 3 3.65 3
NYE: Gog 1 3.9(6) -- -- -- -- --
Superman Adv. 16 3.8(4) 2 3.0(5) 6 3.70 1
Superman/Lobo 1 3.7(2) -- -- -- -- --
Legends of DCU 1 3.6(5) -- -- -- -- --
Supergirl 18 3.5(5) 3 3.4(8) 4 3.35 4
JLA 15 3.3(9) 4 3.7(7) 2 3.68 2
Superboy/Risk 1 3.3(4) -- -- -- -- --
Adv. of Superman 555 2.8(10) 5 2.3(11) 9 2.88 7
Superboy 48 2.8(5) 6 2.5(7) 8 2.82 8
Sup. Red/Sup. Blue 1 2.7(12) -- -- -- -- --
Supergirl/Prysm 1 2.7(6) -- -- -- -- --
Action Comics ** -- 7 2.6(10) 7 3.17 6
Superman 132 2.6(10) 8 4.1(11) 1 3.22 5
Distant Fires 1 2.5(6) -- -- -- -- --
NYE: Mxyzptlk 1 2.3(8) -- -- -- -- --
SB and the Ravers 18 1.9(4) 9 2.0(4) 10 2.37 10
Man of Steel 76 1.9(10) 10 3.3(13) 5 2.67 9
**No issue of _Action Comics_ was published in December due to the _Superman
Red/Superman Blue_ special and the _New Year's Evil_ specials.
Back in the Saddle: STEEL #47 (4.0 Shields, +0.6, 1st this month)
- Priest returns to his complex characterizaation and wins back the approval
of his audience. Steel doesn't show up much, but most people don't miss him
at all. Tell your friends... this is the same guy that writes the newest
hit book _Quantum & Woody_, and maybe they'll get interested!
Shot off his Horse: MAN OF STEEL #76 (1.9 Shields, -1.4, 10th this month)
- People did *not* like the Black and White dimension, and no two ways about
it. Since we haven't seen these guys in almost 8 years, a lot of people were
totally lost on their history, and few markers were provided to help them
out. Besides that, most people felt that this weak story was just marking
time until the SR/SB special.
Good Idea: NEW YEAR'S EVIL: GOG #1 (4.0 Shields)
- While not as beautiful or popular as _Kingdom Come_, people enjoyed Waid's
tale of the only survivor of the Kansas explosion. About the only thing they
didn't like was Gog's treatment of Superman. Note the other high-mark comic
this month (STEEL) also features deep plotlines and rich characters. Are you
guys listening out there, DC?
Bad Idea: NEW YEAR'S EVIL: MXYZPTLK #1 (2.3 Shields)
- Some people gave this high marks, but enough others really hated it to
bring the mean mark down below average. Those who have seen such parodies
before tended to mark it the lowest, while newer comic collectors hadn't
seen such stuff before, and liked the satire.
Information for 'Ratings at a Glance' and the ratings accompanying the
monthly reviews of Superman comics are obtained from KC readers. Anyone
interested in contributing may contact Shane Travis <travis@sedsystems.ca>
and will be added to the monthly mailing-list to receive a Ratings Form.
_____________________________________________
NEWS AND NOTES
--------------
THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN!
In case you missed my editorial for this month, our biggest news is of
the return of the traditional Superman in April! Without repeating
everything here, I'll just point out that Alex Ross and a host of
guest-creators are involved, that the correct costume and powers *will*
return, and that the 60th anniversary storyline to follow will probably
intrigue even the pre-Crisis fans of the Man of Steel. See this month's
Superscripts for all of the details!
A FRENZY OF COMICS
In the recent Coming Attractions, we announced that DC would be
releasing TEAM SUPERMAN SECRET FILES #1 in March. This latest in the
line of SECRET FILES specials focuses on Steel, Superboy, and Supergirl.
Keeping the focus on the Man of Steel's peripheral characters, DC plans
to release SUPERMAN VILLAINS SECRET FILES #1 in April. Related from the
perspective of Lex Luthor, this book will spotlight Superman's extensive
gallery of rogues.
"Girl Frenzy" is the reported title of DC's next fifth-shipping-week
event (ala AMALGAM, TANGENT, NEW YEAR'S EVIL). During the final week
in April, the regular DCU titles will be replaced by seven specials
spotlighting the women of the DC Universe. Of interest to Superman
fans will be SUPERMAN: LOIS LANE and perhaps JLA: TOMORROW WOMAN. By
Barbara Kesel, Amanda Conner, and Jimmy Palmiotti, LOIS LANE is
described as a "James-Bond-ish" type of adventure. TOMORROW WOMAN, by
Tom Peyer and Yannik Paquette, features the android hero introduced in
JLA #5. Leonard Kirk (SUPERGIRL) and Karl Story will provide all of the
"Girl Frenzy" covers.
LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE #6 (May) will feature a team-up of Superman
and Robin, written by Kelly Puckett, with art by Dave Taylor and Kevin
Nowlan.
DC will not be using an overall theme or link for its annuals this year.
Some annuals will be 80-page Giants, some will be 3-D books, and then
there will be a smaller, loosely-linked set of "Ghost Story" annuals.
There will be one 48-page "Ghost Story" annual for each of the 7 core
members of the JLA, as well as a JLA annual to wrap up the series.
A THIRD SEASON OF THE ANIMATED SUPERMAN
The 1998-1999 television season is just beginning to fall in place, as
the networks have begun to announce their new fall lineups of kids
programming. One of the first to share their plans, Warner Brothers
recently revealed that the animated SUPERMAN series will return to the
Kids' WB in the fall for a third season. New episodes of the series
will air on Saturday mornings at 10:30 AM, and reruns of classic
episodes will continue to air on weekday afternoons. Current plans
are to run both a Batman and a Superman episode each weekday.
In additional DC animation news, BATMAN will also return to the Kids' WB
line-up with more new episodes, and will continue to air in reruns with
SUPERMAN on weekday afternoons. In addition, Saturday mornings will
also see the debut of BATMAN TOMORROW, an all-new, Elseworlds type of
animated series, in which a new Dark Knight patrols a Gotham of the
future, mentored by the retired Bruce Wayne.
SUPERMAN AND SEINFELD PREMIERE EARLY
The American Express commercial featuring Jerry Seinfeld and the Man of
Steel, which we mentioned to you a couple of months ago, jumped the gun
on us, debuting during the AFC and NFC championships on January 11 --
instead of during the upcoming Super Bowl, as had been reported.
However, for those of you who haven't yet seen the commercial, it's
available online as a streaming video. If you have the RealPlayer from
Progressive Networks, you can see the commercial by simply pointing
your web browser to
http://www.newstream.com/98-9.shtml
CAN SUPERMAN BEAT THE PACKERS?
Most everyone knows that the Super Bowl generally draws a massive number
of viewers, leaving most of the remaining TV networks and cable channels
with the daunting task of trying to compete. Most tend to give up,
simply scheduling reruns of their normal shows, but some turn to
counter-programming, trying to lure those viewers not so interested in
watching football all evening.
TNT has chosen the latter, scheduling an 8-hour LOIS AND CLARK marathon
to air opposite the NFL championship. TNT has selected two episodes
from each season to comprise the marathon, and these eight episodes will
be aired consecutively and back-to-back between 4:30 PM and 12:30 AM
Eastern on Super Bowl Sunday, January 25. The marathon schedule
follows:
Time Ep# Episode Title
------ --- -------------------------------------
4:30 110 Pheromone, My Lovely
5:30 111 Honeymoon In Metropolis
6:30 218 Tempus Fugitive
7:30 222 And The Answer Is...
8:30 301 We Have A Lot To Talk About
9:30 307 Ultra Woman
10:30 403 Swear To God, This Time We're Not Kidding
11:30 413 Sex, Lies, And Videotape
MORE DETAILS ON THE JUNIOR JUSTICE LEAGUE
On a few occasions, we've mentioned the developing plans at DC for a
new "Junior Justice League" series. Finally, the creative teams have
been set for the introductory miniseries and the ongoing series that
will follow.
Recall that JLA: WORLD WITHOUT GROWNUPS is a two-issue, prestige format
miniseries featuring Superboy, Robin, and Impulse in a story about what
happens when all of the adults on Earth go missing. The miniseries is
written by Todd Dezago and features two art teams. Mike McKone and Mark
McKenna will illustrate the segments of the story which spotlight the
"real world" or the "world without kids," while Humberto Ramos and Wayne
Faucher will illustrate the segments featuring the "world without
grownups."
Dezago will also write the ongoing series, currently with a working
title of JLA JR, and the book will be illustrated by Todd Nauck and
Larry Strucker.
SUPARONI AND CHEESE
In a recent press release, DC and Kraft announced a new licensed product
and promotions agreement in the form of Kraft Macaroni & Cheese DC Super
Heroes Edition. The product, featuring Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman,
Robin, Green Lantern, The Flash, Aquaman, and Batgirl, is scheduled to
launch later this month and to arrive on grocery store shelves beginning
in March.
The product will feature three different packaging graphics. Each
package will feature either Superman, Batman, or Wonder Woman, and each
box will contain pasta shaped in the logos of the eight heroes. Three
sets of super-hero biographies will appear on the backs of the boxes.
Advertising will include two TV commercials, a toy offer, and ads in
major children's publications. There will also be special club 6-packs
and 12-packs of the product. These multi-packs will include a free DC
Adventures-style comic book and a special DC Comics subscription offer.
_____________________________________________
SUPERMAN 1997 -- THE POINTS TO PONDER AWARDS
----------------------------------------------------
By Simon DelMonte (sdelmonte@aol.com)
(Reprinted with permission from alt.comics.superman)
Let's face it. 1997 was a bad year for Superman. He got his Kryptonian legs
knocked out from under him and turned into energy. His TV show had ratings as
low as anyone has ever seen on a network. A new movie about him grew
increasingly controversial without one scene being filmed. And despite being
the newest star of Saturday morning kidvid, he just doesn't seem his old self
at all these days.
This will not be a "10 best" list, as: 1) I'm sick of 10 best lists; and b) I
can't find 10 best of anything around Metropolis. Rather, this will be a list
of sarcastic awards with commentary, looking back on the year Supes stopped
being super.
"What Are They Thinking?" Award to the entire Superman creative team, for the
near complete travesty of Superman Blue. Bad costume, bad writing, and total
inconsistency in terms of what SuperBlue can and cannot do. Not that I ever
expected this to last, but even so, why couldn't they do something worth
reading?
"Not Dead Yet" Award to Dan Jurgens, who surprised many of us with his
Superman annual and his Luthor story. Once upon a time, Dan was among my
favorite writers -- I even liked "Zero Hour," really -- but I had given up
hope that he would even recapture his old talent. I hope that this is the
start of a rebirth and not the last gasp of a career.
"Come Back, Shane!" Award to David Michelinie. OK, so the Great Expositor
never met a caption he didn't like. But he had a consistent grasp of most of
the characters and insight into the man behind Superman. He wasn't perfect,
but David cared about the Man of Steel and reminded us as to why he's a hero.
He was also the only writer who had any idea about how to use SuperBlue's new
powers creatively. I miss him, especially given how flat Stuart Immonen's
stories have grown.
"Bad Writer = Bad Editor" Award to Joey Cavalieri. I didn't like him then, I
don't like him now.
"Lex Luthor" Award to Lex Luthor, as usual, for his contributions to evil in
1997. He was perhaps the only thing that kept me interested the past year.
If a hero is defined by his worst foe, then Supes must still be some hero.
"Kirby Klassics" Award to Karl Kesel, the only Super-writer who even comes
close to keeping me content, for his entertaining uses of Intergang, Cadmus,
and other notions from the King. Also, a "Kirby Komedy" Award to Stuart
Immonen, for all too closely aping Kesel's approach, and overusing and
misusing the same ideas.
"Bogged Down" Award, naturally, to Jon Bogdanove, for his increasingly poor
art. If you are going to write MOS, Jon, pass the pencil to someone else.
"Well, I Liked It" Award to the Fall of Jimmy Olsen, which I nominated for
Best Story Arc but which ended up on the Kaycees list for Worst Story Arc.
Well, you can't please everyone, but at least it pleased me.
"Give That Man a Grant" Award to Grant Morrison, for having a clue. I'm not a
huge fan of his JLA but he still seems to know what to do with Supes, electric
blue or not. All the dignity is still there, and I think he even has a clue
about the new powers, if anyone does.
"Strong Support" Awards to Peter David and Christopher Priest for their work
on Supergirl and Steel respectively. Why is it that DC isn't afraid to make
more than cosmetic changes in the lives of these characters when it can't do
more than that with Supes? A special set of kudos to Priest for putting one
of Steel's metal-booted feet in the real world at a time when Superman is
increasingly removed from it.
"As Long As You Spell My Name Right" Award to DC's publicity efforts for
SuperBlue. Obviously, these people subscribe to the idea that bad publicity
is better than no publicity at all.
"What's on Before 'The Practice'?" Award to ABC, for putting "Lois & Clark" on
Saturday nights, giving it no support, canceling it, and replacing it with a
poorly received, equally unwatched show. Never mind how limp L&C was. The
cancellation of L&C was shameful.
"The King Ain't I" Award to Dean Cain, who apparently backed out of his
Broadway debut in "The King and I" after he no longer had a summer vacation
from TV. I wonder if he would have been any good, and if the former Superman
would have shaved his head and donned a Luthor look.
"Wasted Talent" Award to the producers of L&C, for not properly utilizing the
considerable talents of Eddie Jones and K Callan, a.k.a. Jon and Martha Kent.
After seeing guest appearances by Jones on the short-lived "EZ Streets" and
Callan on "Chicago Hope," I was astonished as to how good they could both be.
"Beehives of Steel" Award to everyone involved in some degree with the
upcoming film. The buzz is amazing given how far away filming actually is. I
suppose they figure that if you get everyone talking about it for two years,
everyone will see it. Well, it's working for "Titanic," but how spectacular
can you make the explosion of Krypton, and can it make Nick Cage a popular
choice for Superman?
"Dorn? I'm Just Getting Started" Award to Michael Dorn, who added John Henry
Irons to his impressive list of cartoon voice-overs. I declare, he's getting
as ubiquitous as James Earl Jones.
"Mix-Yezz-Spit-Lick" Award to Paul Dini, Gilbert Gottfried, and Sandra
Bernhard for their contributions to Mr. Mxyzptlk's S:TAS debut. In a year
that saw many fine comic moments in prime time, this Saturday morning yukfest
topped them all. Who needs Jerry? We got Mxy!
"Garth Ranzz Should Sue" Award to the cartoon character Livewire, an annoying
pastiche of Howard Stern, comic book riot grrrls, and all those electric
heroes and villains drifting around already. Sixty years of Super-foes and
they come up with this?
"Why Didn't Anyone Think Of It Before" Award to Paul Dini, et al., for the
Lois Lane/Bruce Wayne affair in "World's Finest."
"Bad Year? Whaddaya Mean, Bad Year?" Award to Mr. Mxyzptlk. First he ended
1996 played by Howie Mandel without being turned into a campy villain on L&C.
Then he lit up our TV screens. And lastly he skewered everything we no longer
hold sacred in a surprisingly delightful MOS 75. Without a doubt, Mxy enjoyed
the spotlight and may have even earned his "New Year's Evil" special ahead of
all those other villains who didn't get one.
And now, a wish list for 1998: No more gimmicks. No more crossovers between
all five titles. New artists on MOS and Superman. Big-name writers handling
at least two of the books. More Dini stories on TV. More Dini Superman
stories in the comics. Superman vs. Luthor, no holds barred. Kingdom hitting
the newsstands, at last. A good review in the Times Book Review of the Maggin
Kingdom Come novel. Dylan McDermott getting the lead in "Superman Lives." A
respectful TV special celebrating Supes' 60th anniversary. No superbaby. A
Captain America/Superman team-up. More impressive villains. More Lois and
Clark. And the occasional story where Supes takes on a real problem, and
shows us why he is the greatest hero of them all.
_____________________________________________
AND WHO DISGUISED AS...
---------------------------------------------------------
A Column of Opinion by J.D. Rummel (rummel@creighton.edu)
The Basement Columns Part 2: "The Way It Began"
[Deep in the basement, he sits amidst the piles of magazines, the brilliant
colors of the covers all displaying fantastic characters in muscular,
sometimes impossible action poses. The images do much more than foretell a
tale of fantasy, for him they recall his past, the places he read them, the
stages of life he was in.]
It was the dusk of the Silver Age of comics. Superman was king, but his titles
were coasting on reputation. Marvels were on the rise, banging at the gates of
his majesty's realm. Comics were only twelve cents for twenty pages. Eighty
pages of reprints cost twenty-five cents. The times, they were a changin'
My comic buying was something that usually took place on Sunday mornings as
mom and I came home from church. We'd go to the Rexall and while mom had a
sixteen cent coffee and a cigarette at the fountain, I'd pick out a stack of
comics that would last me on the bus home and into the week. Sitting at the
counter with her, reading some of my comics I would watch the folks around me
having their breakfasts. Those eggs and that toast smelled so good and were
all the more desirable for their unattainable quality because we couldn't
afford a breakfast out. Sometimes I'd get a Pepsi mixed before me with syrup
and soda water but usually the comics were the loving gift she could best
afford for her only child.
For hour upon hour I played by surrounding myself with comic books spread out
on my bed. I would make up and act out stories entirely by myself. The stories
always started with the words, "one day." Even in the summers mom used to have
to push me out into the sun to play, because the world I built with those
images was so much better. I could stare at the lines Curt Swan put on the
page as Superman hurtled on one adventure and I would travel far away. One
image, by Al Plastino, has Superman holding and crushing the tentacles of a
mechanical octopus unaware that the Parasite is preparing to attack.
Many nights mom would sit in her chair, I would sit on the broad arm and she
would read aloud to me. She hated stories about the Atom and how he would
travel through the phone lines. The beautiful Gil Kane art did little to chill
her criticisms.
Back then I had my comic buddy, Randy, whose brother David had REALLY cool
comics (Marvels--early sixties FF's, Spider-Man, etc.). I can remember when
we'd get to look at his comics and the Sunday David gave me all of his Tales
to Astonish--several hundred bucks worth of comic books--just out of the
goodness of his heart, maybe to see the joy in a kid's face. It's a debt I
still try to pay.
Some days Randy and I would pretend to be super heroes. Like any comic book
you can think of, when our heroes would meet, they'd fight. I don't know why
heroes whose job it is to lead and inspire insist on fighting, or why we
apparently want it so badly.
Somewhere around junior high comic books started to fade for me. When Stan Lee
stopped writing the Marvels, after Superman beat the sand creature born in the
blast that destroyed Kryptonite, when Dick Grayson went to college and Batman
moved out of Wayne manor, I continued to collect, but less feverishly. As
hormones went wild, I found other pursuits, but, like some primal instinct I
would always return to the comics--using them as a shelter from the harshness
of reality.
By college, mom was gone and comics had become sort of a conditioned response.
I'd read 'em once, maybe twice, then shelve 'em. I remember the long Mondays
when I'd buy comics and read them in the college library. For some reason I
recall reading a Superman or Action with a Ross Andru cover. Supes was using
his chest to block some kind of alien harpoon. The story was drawn by Swan and
Chiarmonte, and had something to do with a giant beast with a neutronium hide
being hunted. Why that fragment stays with me is a mystery.
These days I find myself driving by the old, empty Rexall on my way to work
every morning. Long ago, they tore down the Chief theater and put up a bank. I
haven't seen Randy in many years and the last time we did, the comic book bond
was long gone. If I try, I can still see my mother and me on those Sundays; I
know they weren't all sunny, but that is how I remember them. I'm not ashamed
to say I wish she could read me a story today. I miss her.
Today, as I go through my comics I see covers that I never remember reading,
let alone buying. How did I get so many? Which ones do I keep?
Away!
And Who Disguised As... is copyright 1998 by J. D. Rummel. Its contents may
not be reproduced in any format without the written permission of the author.
_____________________________________________
ORIGINS
-----------------------------------
by Enola Jones (sj1025@gte.net)
Part One: Krypton
Superman's origins have been told so often they are almost a mantra. It has
been repeated over and over that he is from Krypton, blasted to Earth after
that planet was destroyed, landed in Smallville and raised by the Kents, grew
up and moved to Metropolis where he met Lois Lane, etc., etc., etc. What I
would like to do, beginning here and continuing for a few months, is to
explore the people, human and otherwise, that have made Superman the person he
is today.
With any origin story, the logical place to start is at the beginning. With
Superman, that beginning is several light-years away, on a giant planet around
a red sun. Krypton, Superman's homeworld, was reduced under Byrne to a
technologically utopian but emotionally barren society where contact of any
kind was banned. Even conception had become a "hands-off" endeavour, with
children created in a birthing matrix. Though his parents, Jor-El and Lara,
were married, the implication was that they had never even touched
hand-to-hand. Lara expressed horror when Jor-El showed her a human male. When
the planet was destroyed, the birthing matrix was what was shot toward Earth,
with Kal-El only taking his final form when one of the Kents broke open the
birthing matrix. I have *never* liked Post-Crisis Krypton. I find it cold,
heartless, and sterile. Pre-Crisis Krypton was very different. Yes it was a
technological near-utopia, but it was a warm, loving place.
For several years, a series made up of eight-page stories tucked away in the
back of Superman Family books told the history of Krypton's people and
customs. "World of Krypton" began with the story of a crashed spaceman
battling an enemy. They soon realize they are trapped and might as well work
together. The twist to the story is that the spaceman, Kryp, turns out to be
fighting a woman named Tonn! They became Krypton's version of Adam and Eve,
and the planet bore their names as a tribute. (Could you just image explaining
to an alien that we are from Adamev? Makes you appreciate the name Earth,
doesn't it?)
Since Krypton first appeared in the comic record, its male inhabitants have
been shown wearing headbands. The story behind the decorative headgear
appeared in another "World of Krypton" story. A little boy refused to wear his
headband one day, so his mother told him the story of why they wore them. Long
ago, the Kryptonians had been an enslaved people. The captors scanned them
every day as they came into the compound to work, and many were killed trying
to smuggle in weapons. One day, after one too many were killed, the
Kryptonians hatched an ingenious plan. The next morning every Kryptonian --
man, woman, and child -- came in wearing a brightly coloured strip of material
around their heads. They explained that they were in mourning for the fallen.
After the weapons scan, the guards let them through. At a prearranged signal,
the cloths were pulled off and converted into slings. That day the Kryptonians
won their freedom and males wear headbands to remember that fight.
The late seventies or early eighties brought a mini-series also called _World
of Krypton_. These books told the story of the last days of that proud planet,
in the form of a diary that Jor-El had placed in Kal-El's rocket. The diary
focused on the lives of Jor-El and Lara told through Jor-El's eyes.
Jor-El was the product of one of the most prominent families on Krypton: the
Els. He had a genius mind even for a race of what we would term geniuses. But
his diary entries from childhood and adolescence reveal a man who is painfully
shy. After school, he went to work for a rocket company where he met an
astronaut named Lara Lor-Van. It was love at first sight, but his shyness
crippled him so that Lara took the initiative and introduced herself.
To prove his theory of anti-gravity propulsion, he built a rocket entirely out
of gold, the heaviest, but most common, material on Krypton. He attached
anti-gravity motors to it. Lara sneaked aboard and piloted the thing, but her
weight threw it off and it crashed on one of Krypton's moons. Jor-El sneaked
aboard another ship and rescued her himself. This made Lara fall in love with
him, but a computer fell in love with Lara and tried to kill Jor-El so it
could marry Lara. Jor-El defeated it and took Lara as his wife.
As a member of the Science Council, Krypton's ruling body, Jor-El discovered
the Phantom Zone and many other worlds. He also found out something
horrifying: Krypton was going to explode. When he produced his findings,
however, he was laughed to scorn. Jor-El was determined to find a way off the
planet, and he began to research ways of getting off Krypton. He found an old
rocket ship and restored it with Lara and another scientist's help, but the
engines fired prematurely, and the rocket blasted into space without them. It
destroyed one of Krypton's moons, which unfortunately was inhabited. As a
result of this incident, the ruling council declared a ban on *all* space
travel.
Demoralized, Jor-El realized it was the death knell of all on Krypton. He gave
up all hope. Lara tried to rally him, but nothing worked. In fury, she
snapped, "Well, *I'm* not giving up! I want our child to have at least one
parent who won't quit!"
*That* got through to Jor-El. Lara was pregnant! He began work in earnest on a
rocket that would save his entire family. If nobody else would survive, at
least he, his wife, and his child would. Finally the day came. The
two-sentence diary entry gave the date, then:
"Lara owes me two tonzols! I won the bet -- it was a boy!"
Over the next eighteen months, Jor-El worked tirelessly, shooting model after
model into space, and always keeping just one step ahead of the law that kept
trying to arrest him for violating the space ban. Lara's pet monkey, Kal-El's
pet dog... anything small he could find went on prototype rockets. He built
one final prototype that all computer models said would reach a small planet
on the other side of the galaxy known as Earth. Jor-El had just finished the
calculations for what we today would call wormholes -- holes in space to make
the journey shorter -- and was gathering materials to build the full-size
model to evacuate his family.
Then the earthquakes started. The one that would finally rip the planet apart
shook the house as Jor-El and his family lurched toward the rocket. Jor-El
ordered them inside while he made the final calculations. There was room in
the prototype for both Lara and Kal-El. But Lara flatly refused. She told him
that their son would have a better chance without her weight.
In the record, Jor-El's thoughts aren't recorded, but I think he was thinking
that she was an astronaut, and she should know these things. He made one final
diary entry, telling his son good-bye.
Then he launched the rocked and Lara stepped into his arms. They embraced,
watching the ship get smaller and smaller. Did they kiss? Did Lara cry? Did
Jor-El? That is different in every comic I read that shows this scene. But
they do hold one another.
Then Krypton is no more.
*This* Krypton is much more human than the one Byrne created. It is a world
filled with people who love, scheme, deal with bureaucracy, fight to survive
-- in short, people like us. Not human, agreed, but people all the same.
Byrne's Krypton, what I have seen of it, is filled with people as cold and
sterile as the machinery that surrounds them. The only exceptions to the
coldness are Kal-El's parents, who react not as automatons calmly accepting of
their fate, but as loving parents determined to give their child a chance at
life. Their sacrifice is a noble one, as Kal-El becomes a living legacy to
Krypton itself.
After a while, the rocket/birthing matrix does reach Earth, where it is found
and opened. What became of the child then is the stuff of legend -- and of my
next article.
_____________________________________________
NEW COMIC REVIEWS
-------------------------------------------
Comics Arriving In Stores December 1997
Even though you'll find a whopping 17 (!) reviews this month, there were still
five additional titles related to the Superman family that we chose not to
review. Superman appeared briefly in JLA: PARADISE LOST #2; Superman and
Superboy both participated in the DC/Marvel crossover UNLIMITED ACCESS #3;
Superboy, Supergirl, Scorn, and Ashbury Armstrong all appeared at the
recruitment drive of TEEN TITANS #17; the saga of Clark Kent's adopted
ancestors continued in THE KENTS #7; and PROMETHEUS #1 related the origin
of the new villain who will plague the JLA in the coming months.
Ratings Panelists:
-----------------
AHu: Andrew Hudson DWk: Douglas Wolk RG: Rene' Gobeyn
AW: Anatole Wilson EJ: Enola Jones ST: Shane Travis
CoS: Cory Strode JO: Joey Ochoa SDM: Simon DelMonte
DC: David Chappell JSy: Jeff Sykes TD: Thomas Deja
DJ: Derek Jackson LF: Lawrence Faulkner VV: Vic Vitek
DR: Daniel Radice MS: Mike Smith
As always, the first rating given after the average is that of the reviewer.
The average rating given for each book may correspond to a larger sample
of ratings than what is printed following the average.
====================================
THE SUPERMAN TITLES:
-------------------
5. SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #76 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Synergy"
Writer: Louise Simonson
Penciller: Jon Bogdanove
Inker: Dennis Janke
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Colorist: Glen Whitmore
Computer Seps: Digital Chameleon
Monster Maker: Maureen McTigue
Monster: Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Jon Bogdanove, Denis Janke, and Patrick Martin
RATINGS
Average: 1.9/5.0 Shields
MS: 3.0 shields
DC: 2.5 Shields - Entertaining, but poorly connected to long-running plots
DWk: 2.3 Shields - The fake-Kirby b/w sequences are fun to look at, but the
story is half babble, half Deus ex Machina, and makes very little
sense. Seems like it's just marking time until Red/Blue.
EJ: 2.6 Shields - I did like the fact that Ashbury can now see for a few
minutes a day. The Kirby-esque art was a turn-off. Good story though.
JSy: 2.0 Shields - Never cared much for Simyan and Mokkari, never cared much
for the B&W dimension. Guess what? This issue didn't change that
opinion at all.
TD: 0.4 Shields - No plot, no real characterization, just two people who
should've known better basically ruining some of the minor Kirby
creations.
VV: 1.0 Shields - Maybe I was away too long, but this story really did
nothing for me. If there is some history here, I'm unaware of it.
Just another revolving door villain issue to me.
I've been reviewing _Man of Steel_ for two months now, and just realized that
I've yet to introduce myself. Since it'll fit nicely into this review, I'll
do it now. I'm Mike Smith, Superman fan since the "Reign" storyline in 1993.
_Man of Steel_ is my favorite title, and I jumped at the chance to review it
for the KC. I hope you're enjoying it.
That said, I will hasten to add that despite being a recent fan, I have a lot
of back issues. These cheap, quality comics often provide insight on current
stories -- current stories like MOS #76. See, the stars of our little show
are Simyan and Mokkari, two monster making aliens (renegades from Apokolips,
where else?) who gave the Olsen family a hard time a while back. They
eventually got trapped in their own "Black and White Dimension", a sort of
monster storage closet, when Superman finally tracked them down and saved
Jimmy's mom. That all went down in SUPERMAN #53, roughly seven years ago.
While the B&W Dimension has been used since then, Simyan and Mokkari haven't
been seen, so if you don't remember these guys, now you know why.
Our story opens on the monster makers, who've been filling the Dimension with
their monster creations. The place is so crowded they have to escape by--you
guessed it--making a monster capable of interdimensional travel. They begin
work immediately.
Back on Earth, Morgan Edge has been stealing technological doodads from the
Hairies' vault. He decides he'll need Simyan and Mokkari to create an army
to use such powerful weapons. Fortunately, he's got just the man to get them
out of the B&W Dimension: Jimmy Olsen. Jimmy, Misa, Scorn, and Ashbury are on
their way to the vault to check on it for Jude. They beat Edge's men, but on
Morgan's orders these men claim to be working for Simyan and Mokkari.
The gang goes in to investigate the B&W Dimension with their Hairie
Dimension-Hopping Bike, only to find Simyan and Mokkari fleeing from their
own Dimension-Hopping Monster. Before you can say "Reese's" the monster
grabs the bike and they open a dimensional gateway, spilling everyone into...
...midtown Metropolis. Superman (remember him?) beats the monster and gives a
statement to the police in record time. Ashbury is reunited with her father
after saving his life from one of the B&W Dimension's creatures. Jimmy and
Misa discuss teaming up to find the stolen Hairie technology, and Edge, the
culprit finds Simyan and Mokkari in what looks like the beginning of a
beautiful friendship....
Overall, the art was just beautiful on this one. Bogdanove holds nothing
back in this over-the-top tale of monsters and dimensional breaches. The only
complaints I have are Ash's trance-like pose on page 10, panel 1, and Dirk's
disappearing hairline on page 21. Dirk's expression is priceless though.
Think Rush Limbaugh if he had a daughter come home to him with fifty or sixty
Kirby references.
Simonson delivers this month with a tightly plotted story, amusing inter-
action among Olsen and Co., and a new take on Simyan and Mokkari. I never
liked these guys too much, but now I see that past writers took them much
too seriously as the masterminds of the Evil Factory. Simonson makes them
into Ernie and Bert, which really isn't much of a stretch since they already
look the part.
This comic was a ton of fun, but halfway through I had to ask "Where the heck
is Superman?" We only see him on page 5, editorializing with Lois about Dirk
and his daughter (Ahhhhh...Simonson dialogue.), and then the fight with the
monster on pages 17-20. It's getting to the point where the best Superman
stories feature Clark as a supporting character in his own book! Considering
that the "New Powers" story was supposed to be about Clark adjusting to his
new energy form, this isn't encouraging. If the writers won't use the powers,
they may as well drop them. I take points off for the low Kent Kwotient.
One last note, in this issue, Misa gives Ashbury a Hairie visor that gives
her sight for fifteen minutes a day, albeit in black and white. It's a cute
moment, and we'll probably see the visor sometime. Until then I remain...
Mike Smith
<mpsmit0@pop.uky.edu>
====================================
6. SUPERMAN RED/SUPERMAN BLUE Feb 1998 $4.95 US/$6.95 CAN
"Superman Red, Superman Blue"
Plot: Dan Jurgens
Script: Stuart Immonen, Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel,
and Louise Simonson
Art Teams: Stuart Immonen and Jose Marzan Jr. (p. 1-8)
Jon Bogdanove and Jose Marzan Jr. (p. 9-11)
Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein (p. 12-22)
Tom Grummett and Denis Rodier (p. 23-33)
Paul Ryan and Brett Breeding (p. 34-44)
Jon Bogdanove and Dennis Janke (p. 45-54)
Letterer: Albert de Guzman
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Separations: Digital Chameleon
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
Color Blind: Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Dan Jurgens, Brett Breeding, and Patrick Martin (Dir. Sales)
Dan Jurgens, Joe Rubinstein, and Patrick Martin (Newsstand)
RATINGS
Average: 2.7/5.0 Shields
ST: 2.1 Shields
DJ: 3.9 Shields - Great Superman story intermingled with annoying subplots.
Comparing the artwork, Immonen and Kesel draw the best new Superman.
DWk: 2.7 Shields - I'd much rather have seen a new 3-D story, or a reprint of
the original "Superman Red/Superman Blue," than the 3-D reprint.
JSy: 2.5 Shields - As with any group effort, the changes between art teams
was jarring. Most of this was poorly paced, and what actually caused
the split was terribly unclear.
LF: 3.5 Shields - A nice collaboration, but I miss the old Cyborg--the evil
menacing one who uncaringly blew up Coast City.
SDM: 2.5 Shields - Not nearly as bad as it could have been, considering the
hype behind it. Besides -- after reading those vintage 1953 3-D
comics, everything from the present era looks better.
TD: 2.0 Shields - A very lightweight effort for a storyline launching the
next storyline.
VV: 2.0 Shields - Ehhh. I still want to know why Supes wasn't destroyed;
I'm sure it has something to do with Luthor's containment suit, and
when that comes out I'm sure he'll be very happy.
Hrm... This thing is huge -- 54 pages huge. Let's see if we can't break
it down into manageable chunks, shall we?
4 pages of Toyman breaking out of jail.
1 page of Dirk and Ashbury Armstrong doing some father-daughter bonding.
1 page of Toyman collecting toys door-to-door, and Ashbury giving away the
cyborg clay sculpture she created.
2 pages of Scorn getting captured by assailants unknown.
3 pages of overwrought Bogdanove artwork, subdivided into:
1 page of Jimmy quitting WGBS. (Didn't he get fired already?)
1 page of Jimmy's burgled apartment.
1 page of Misa overreacting to the Medallion of the Damned.
2 pages of Toyman's day job.
1 page-sized, bust-a-gut-laughing picture by Grummett of the Cyborg come to
life as a Metallo-like amalgamation of toys.
1 page of Jimmy and Misa being alerted to Scorn's disappearance by Ashbury.
2 pages of Scorn-torturing.
1 page of Lex and Lena Luthor doing some father-daughter bonding.
2 pages of Clark and Lois doing some husband-wife bonding.
11 pages of a Superman/Cyborg fight-scene, including a
2 page spread that wasn't worth $.26 (Canadian) and couldn't even be
dead-centre in the book because that was reserved for SEGA ads.
1 page of Toyman going against the wishes of his 'Mother', and capturing Lois
instead of killing her.
1 page of Dirk and Mayor Sackett ooh-ing and aah-ing over the building plans
for the city's new Hypersector.
1 page of Jimmy and Misa looking for Scorn, and
1 more page of Scorn getting tortured.
4 pages of deathtraps, "You'll never get out alive!", "But I have to, for
Lois' sake...", and Cyborg gloating.
1 page of captured Lois, and Toyman gloating.
1 page of what looks like the end for our hero, and Cyborg gloating.
1 page of Cyborg feeling all empty inside, and Wait! But what's that?
1 page of a red-and-blue explosion destroying the deathtrap.
2 pages of really bad, really dark Bogdanove art, subdivided into:
1 splash page, and
1 page of Superman shaking what's supposed to be Toyman, but looks
like a monkey in a Santa suit, and rescuing Lois.
1 page of Cyborg preparing to beam Superman's energy into space, foiled by
3 pages of Superman-red threatening to kill Cyborg, and Cyborg falling
for it, culminating in
3 pages of Superman Red and Superman Blue mirroring one another's actions,
setting up the big confrontation next issue.
== Total
54 pages of Plot by Jurgens and Comic by Committee.
Special bonus for everyone who forked over the extra dough and bought the
poly-bagged direct-sales version:
32 pages of blurry, unattributed Superman stories that didn't look 3-D to me
at _all_ and which don't seem to fit anywhere into continuity.
(Glasses? Reprints? Pre-Crisis? I don't know *what* you're talking about...)
All kidding aside, let's take a look at the Man... er... Men of Might and
see how they fared in this over-sized, over-priced retelling of the classic.
As you may have already guessed, I was not at all impressed with the price
tag on this book. I suppose I might not have minded so much if the story was
something special -- eye-poppingly, heart-stoppingly gotta-have-this-book
sort of stuff, but what I ended up paying $7 for was not much more than an
extra-large chunk of fluff that started with nothing and went nowhere,
giving us not much along the way.
The first thing that prevented this book from feeling at all special was the
constant intrusion by the long-running plot-lines of Misa, Jimmy, Ashbury and
Scorn. Don't get me wrong; I like sub-plots. They are the sauce on the meat-
and-potatoes weekly fare that is Superman. They strengthen and define the
supporting cast, and it is this cast which makes the Superman Mythos rich and
deep and human. For just one week, however, couldn't we have left them all
aside? I wanted to like this story -- get caught up in the story -- but it's
hard to treat it as anything special or momentous when bit-players and side-
lines take up twelve of our 54 pages.
Speaking of bit players, let's look at who the super-team decided to use as
the crux of this story: Toyman and Cyborg.
Toyman has never been more than a bit-player for most. Winslow P. Schott was
amusing and distracting, in a bumbling sort of way, right up until he went
totally psycho and started kidnapping children and hearing voices. At that
point he ceased even to amuse, and instead became just another grim-and-gritty
villain bent on Superman's destruction. Maybe I'm just too 60s to be saved,
but I still prefer the SA version, or the one from _Superman Adventures_.
Cyborg used to be The Heavy. He has been around a long time, and has done
some truly evil things--but lately he's becoming the whack-a-mole of the
Superman Mythos. No sooner does he pop up than he is struck back down again.
Cyborg appears at The Wall! <whack> Cyborg is Ashbury's teacher! <whack>
Cyborg appears on page 14! <whack> By page 51 and he's gone again. Used like
this, he loses any majesty or malevolence and becomes just another two-bit
thug. Cyborg should have hid in Ashbury's clay sculpture for a lot longer than
he did. Now that he's gone, let him stay buried for at least 18 months, and
maybe by then we'll have gotten over our disinterest.
Speaking of the clay sculpture, let's quickly do a run-down of all the 'huh?'
moments in this book.
- Paper airplanes that take off like jet-engines.
- Ashley giving away her hand-made sculpture of her 'favourite teacher'.
- Cyborg creating organic flesh from Schott's toys.
- Lex not knowing it's Christmas.
- Superman-Red's containment suit -- where did it come from?
- Superman Red threatening to kill the Cyborg.
... And the biggest 'huh?' of all -- Why do we have two Supermen? As Cyborg
himself said, "No leaks in the cables. He didn't escape... There's no way he
can reconstitute himself." Except for one thing... he did! Not only that, but
in doing so he managed to become twice as powerful in the process! (I assume
that each of SR and SB have the same powers as the original.)
It is supremely unsatisfying when even the herodoesn't know how he escaped
from the death-trap. The hero should triumph because he is mighty and
righteous and pure of heart... not for no apparent reason.
In closing, I'd just like to say it would be nice if it wasn't always super-
villains this and super-villains that. I'd think that there would have been
enough opportunities for Superman to split into Red/Blue while having Emil
experiment on him... maybe after some bizarre power surge while fighting the
escaped Toyman, which reminds Clark that he *still* doesn't know why his
powers changed, and maybe he should try finding out.
Hopefully, this serves as a wake-up call.
Shane Travis
<travis@sedsystems.ca>
====================================
7. SUPERMAN #132 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Double Play"
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artists: Ron Frenz and Joe Rubinstein
Letterer: John Costanza
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Ron Frenz, Joe Rubinstein, and Patrick Martin
RATINGS
Average: 2.6/5.0 Shields
TD: 0.8 Shields
DJ: 3.9 Shields - Neat little story. Great job of having the two Supes keep
missing each other although they have the same schedule.
DWk: 2.3 Shields - If you're going to keep the characters apart for an issue
the way Jurgens does here, it has to work as farce, and this just
doesn't. A very awkward story.
EJ: 4.0 Shields - FUNNY FUNNY FUNNY!!!!!! The confusion of two of them is
heating up! I loved the scene where Red told Flash to loosen Batman
up with jokes!
JO: 3.5 Shields - Doesn't Superman ever stop to talk to people??? It's
ALWAYS the Cyborg isn't it? OBSESSION!!!
LF: 2.8 Shields - A fair attempt by Jurgens to keep the colored super-heroes
apart. Turpin's line about the Red Supes being the Flash was cute.
MS: 1.3 Shields - Genetic scanners!? For a guy made of energy wearing
gloves? Jurgens crashes and burns while it's up to Red to save the
day with his snappy banter.
TOP TEN REASONS WHY SUPERMAN #132 BITES THE BIG BANANA:
10: After months of steady improvement, Jurgens reverts like an Overeaters
Anonymous member confronted by the Sizzler All-You-Can-Eat Buffet.
9: The dialogue...oh, the dialogue....
8: It's not so much a story as a string of scenes with very little
connection to each other.
7: Have I mentioned the dialogue, which is rank even for a mediocre
writer like Jurgens?
6: Was there a purpose to the Luthor-tortures-Scorn sub-plot, and if there
was, was it *really* necessary to stretch the scenes out for so long?
5: Josef Rubinstein continues his crusade to make every penciller he works
with look like Sal Buscema.
4: The lamer-than-Tiny-Tim jokes Superman Red spouts...but then,
3: That's a dialogue problem isn't it?
2: The fact that, when all is said and done, this is an issue that does
nothing but tread water, biding its time for the big Millennium Giants
storyline down the road. That's sad because....
1: After showing that he was learning, proving that he was capable of doing
some great things with the character, and getting me all excited about
reading the flagship book again, this story is sub-standard even for the
Jurgens I winced over when I first began reading SUPERMAN.
Everybody--Warren Zevon, Jack Nicholson, Grant Morrison, you name it--
stumbles every once in a while. I am *sincerely* hoping that this is the
case. But GOD, this tale (which is little more than an extended "But...
Superman/Clark...you were just here!" joke) does not bode well for the
remainder of the Superman Red/Superman blue storyline.
Look... I don't want to talk about it....
Thomas Deja
<manciniman@rocketmail.com>
_____________________________________________
THE SUPERMAN TITLES (cont):
--------------------------
8. THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #555 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Face-Off"
Words: Karl Kesel
Layouts: Tom Grummett
Finishes: Denis Rodier
Letters: Albert T. DeGuzman
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
The Chow Yun Fat
of Comics: Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Tom Grummett, Denis Rodier, and Patrick Martin
RATINGS
Average: 2.8/5.0 Shields
DR: 4.0 Shields
DC: 2.7 Shields - Gorgeous art, but the instant, discussionless combat
between Supermen was rather disappointing.
DJ: 3.5 Shields - Great Cover! Inside artwork is above average as well. The
Superman story is inspired, but again ruined by annoying subplots.
Made me look forward to future Red/Blue stories.
LF: 3.0 Shields - Good showing by Kesel and Rodier, but both super-heroes
threw punches a little too quickly for my tastes. Red's line about
not caring if he died as long as he got rid of the Cyborg was
completely out of character.
MS: 2.3 Shields - Well at least they beat each other up. Am I the only one
who thinks these books should be retitled _Jimmy Olsen_?
SDM: 1.8 Shields - Good art and a little plot advance involving Luthor and
his wife can't make up for my feeling that Karl wasted a whole issue
on a having Superman fight himself.
People have been clamoring for Superman to return to his traditional colors
of red, blue and yellow ever since the "change". For those who have, I offer
some relief; Superman is 2-thirds of the way there! And for those who enjoy
Electri-Kal, now you have more of him to love! It's a win-win situation for
EVERYBODY! Unless, of course, you're the one person dying for the return of
Beppo the Supermonkey....
What a confusing conundrum we've gotten ourselves into! Due to the rather
mystifying results of the _Superman Red/Superman Blue_ one-shot we now have
a double dose of the man of energy in the Superman books. Sure, people have
been likening this to the Spider-Clone saga over at Marvel, but I sincerely
disagree. This may be a rehash of a Silver-Age (or is it Golden-Age?) story,
but it's not as if our intelligence is being insulted by something as mind-
numbing as being told that the Cyborg is really Superman and has been for
the past 10 years, and that "our" Superman is actually a life-model decoy
with aspirations of grandeur. Hmm. Sorry to start off on such a bad foot...
The story starts off with Red Kent and Blue Kent facing off against one
another outside Dooley's bar. Thanks to some insane gunman-type action within
the bar, Red Kent leaps into the fray in an attempt to quell the problem.
Unfortunately the perpetrator is wired with a bomb, about to go off. Luckily
Blue Kent transforms into Superman to dispose of the bomb in a rather
ingenious way. No one is hurt -- no one, that is, except for Superman Blue
himself, who is floored when Supes Red crashes into him to wage a battle.
Meanwhile Jimmy Olsen and Misa stumble across the torturing of Scorn in an
old, desolate, seemingly abandoned...barn. (Bet you thought I was gonna say
warehouse, huh?) The terrorizing of that Blue-Guy-Formerly-Known-As-Ceritak
is halted by their arrival, and by the subsequent interruption of the Black
Crucible. In case you don't remember, these guys are the organization Jimmy
fought during _Superman Annual_ #9 (my very first review here! Oh, I'm
feeling nostalgic!). Jimmy is in possession of a medallion sought by them to
further their plans for world domination. It's a pretty good bet that they're
still looking for it.
Blue and Red continue to have at it, each believing the other to be the
Cyborg in disguise. The fight ends in a massive energy explosion in the
middle of a (hopefully) unpopulated area. Nothing like a good "vzrekk-koom"
to brighten up anyone's day. What happens to them, you ask? Well, after a
long hard day at work, what would you do? That's right! Recombine your energy
into your traditional form and appear in your apartment, just as your wife
enters! Of course, you may not have a differently-hued doppleganger, but hey,
we all can't lead lives as interesting as Electri-Kal.
This is one of those days where I'm in a good mood after having read a
Superman issue. For the past little while I've been pretty disappointed with
the quality of _Adventures of Superman_, but it seems that trend towards
mediocrity has ended! Kesel crafts a fun story that actually focuses upon an
aspect of everybody's favorite electrically-charged Kryptonian's life! Sure,
it isn't a poignant character piece, but it's a progression in the storyline,
and it was actually enjoyable! We didn't have to put up with poor Karl
cleaning up the mistakes of others for once!
The lines are all spot on, with all characters speaking utterances completely
true to their persona. Of note is Kesel's handling of the dialogue for
Superman Red and Blue. Jurgens' take on the two characters was more or less
that Superman Red is actually Superboy (or Risk, from his Teen Titans title),
speaking like a cocky teen, and Superman Blue is more like Emil Hamilton,
relating all his dialogue in a verbose and rather boring manner. Thankfully
Kesel doesn't follow Dan's lead. Though Red and Blue are portrayed as having
different verbal demeanors, they are not as cliche-ic and disparate as
Jurgens' incarnations.
So the story was good, right? If you've read my previous _AOS_ reviews,
you might remember that I've been putting down the art as well as the story.
Today, however, will be a different critique. The art in question, as drawn
by Tom Grummett and inked by Denis Rodier, is some of the best that this
title has seen since the forming of this art team. Grummett is still only
credited with "layouts", meaning that Rodier had more of a hand in the final
appearance of the art, but, surprisingly (at least to me) things actually
looked good!
I don't know if the Super-team reads my critiques but I like to think that
Tom and Denis are listening to my suggestions. Thankfully some of them were
implemented! This issue showed better panel flowing and structure, sharper
detail, cleaner inks, and an overall better art effort. I was quite pleased.
Even _AOS_'s coloring, which is usually (and oddly) sub-par in comparison to
the other titles, was a vast improvement on previous issues.
So there you have it! A top-notch issue of _Adventures of Superman_, probably
one of the sharpest issues I've seen in quite a while! I, for one, am looking
forward to the ride that this little saga is offering. Hopefully it will be
handled well, and I won't be disappointed--because if I'm disappointed, bad
things start to happen. Verrrrry bad things. Just ask any teacher that's ever
given me a bad grade. So don't worry, if the next few months of Super-books
just aren't up to par, I'll handle it. In the meantime, enjoy the stories!
_Adventures of Superman_ #555 is a good place to start!
Dan Radice
<dradice@caninet.com>
_____________________________________________
SUPER-FAMILY TITLES:
-------------------
STEEL #47 Feb 1998 $2.50 US/$3.50 CAN
"The Message"
Writer: Priest
Artists: Denys Cowan and Sal Buscema
Letters: Pat Brosseau
Colors: John Kalisz
Separations: Digital Chameleon
Asst. Editor: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Mike McAvennie
Cover: Cowan and Palmer
RATINGS
Average: 4.0/5.0 Shields
JSy: 3.8 Shields
DWk: 4.7 Shields - The supporting cast is _so_ interesting I'd be happy never
to see a costume again in this book. Sam's head-games with Amanda,
her freak-out at the end, Nat's family, Guy knocking some sense into
John, the scene at the jewelry store--is there a better-written
mainstream comic?
JO: 3.7 Shields - Art is improving. Stories always solid. It's about time
Steel made his move.
MS: 4.0 Shields - Hey, clean living _does_ pay off! John gets the girl!
Yayy! Priest does it again.
You Can't Go Home Again:
Since the events immediately prior to Priest's arrival on STEEL, John Irons'
family has been hiding in a sort of witness protection program. Double, the
government agent who is John's only means of contact to his family, secrets
Natasha out of Jersey City for a holiday visit, where she discovers that
things aren't what they used to be.
This was my least favorite part of the story, for the simple reason that I
dislike stories about crumbling families, but the severity of these scenes
aptly illustrate how devastating Steel's identity revelation has been for the
Irons. Grampa Butter, whose wife was killed shortly after the revelation, has
become a paranoid old man, scared out of his senses that the family may have
been discovered. Nat's brother, Jamal (formerly Jemahl), has become overtly
rebellious, smart-mouthed, and violent. Only her mother, Blondell, seems to
be actively trying to keep the family together, but the strain shows in both
her dialogue and her body language.
In short, these people bear very little resemblance to the Irons family as
it existed before Steel's unmasking. Then again, I recall often pointing out
how Priest's Natasha seems much more like a teenager than Louise Simonson's
Natasha. (Keep in mind that Nat worked for a US Senator in Washington, D.C.
at one point.) Even Steel himself is much more somber, perhaps even brooding,
under Priest's development. While I respect the rights of a writer to take
the cast in his own direction, I wish a happy medium could have been found.
It would certainly be refreshing to see a comics family hold itself up,
standing strong through such adverse circumstances.
Shoot-out at the GSMC:
Dr. Sam Ellis, aka Skorpio, is working the ER on Christmas Eve when an
emergency patient is rolled in with a knife stuck in his heart. Only when
Ellis discovers the kid is the son of a childhood friend does he spring into
action, requesting Amanda come down from surgery to assist him. The kid had
been stabbed because he resisted recruitment by a gang, and during the
surgery, the gang storms the hospital intent on finishing the job. Amidst
the chaos of a firefight in the ER, Sam and Amanda save the kid's life.
To be perfectly honest, it's not immediately clear to me what this part of
the story is all about. It says something about Ellis' character that he's
in no hurry to help this young gangbanger until he learns of the personal
connection, but why did he demand that Amanda join him when there's a
perfectly good surgical resident in the ER? Showing off his skill has never
been his style. Besides that, Amanda is clearly the one in charge during the
operation. It could be just a simple desire to spend time with her, as he
does mention that he's missed her -- a clear indication that Amanda has been
avoiding him since they slept together last issue.
It also screams volumes about professional dedication that Amanda and Sam
complete their medical procedure while bullets are whizzing all around them.
I tend to believe there aren't many people in this world who would place the
life of another above their own, regardless of how intense the situation.
Start Spreading The News:
Before returning from his rendezvous with Double, Steel swings by New York--
presumably with a little Christmas shopping in mind. He stops, in full armor,
outside a NY jewelry story, wondering what kind of message an expensive
diamond necklace would send Amanda, and if he even wants to send a message at
all. When he tries to enter the store, however, he finds the doors locked.
The jeweler addresses him only through a speaker, pointing out the expensive
price--and that they don't have layaway. A gathered mob becomes a bit unruly,
threatening to break into the store, but Steel disperses them and flies away.
He later drops by Warriors, where his old college pal (in classic Guy Gardner
fashion) gives him some poignant advice on women: "You're in love with her
and you won't tell her--because LOIS LANE told you not to? LOIS LANE?! Are
ya kidding me?! You see the geek she married?!"
Occurring exactly halfway through this otherwise intense issue, the Warriors
scene is the obvious comedic relief. Of course, Priest pulls it off
wonderfully with a dead-on characterization of Guy Gardner. (Oh, for the
return of Beau Smith and GUY GARDNER: WARRIOR...)
As pleased as I am with the Warriors scene, I simply can't buy the "racist
jeweler". Steel is a known superhero, and it would be obvious to even the
most stupid of people that the man has a *lot* of bucks to play with. He's
standing there in FULL BODY ARMOR, for crying out loud, and you don't pick
that up at the local five-and-dime. There's simply no logical reason that he
wouldn't be allowed into the store--not if money was the issue. Even if the
jeweler is adhering to the "poor black man" stereotype, he or she couldn't
possibly miss the obvious evidence of wealth standing at the front window.
If there's anyone truly *that* stupid, I just don't wanna know it.
Three Little Words:
Later, John finds himself at home with Amanda. (Her place, I think.) As
they sit by the burning Yule log, drinking coffee (or maybe cocoa), Amanda
finally comes to realize that her life was threatened by the gunfight in
the ER. She comes totally unglued--spilling her drink, sobbing and screaming
hysterically, but John is there to comfort her with the admission that he'd
never let anything happen to the people he loves. Finally he utters the
simple phrase she's been wanting to hear for so long, and they embrace in
a passionate kiss. On the roof across the street, Sam Ellis pulls on his
Skorpio mask...
A powerful and emotionally-raw scene here, and Priest and Cowan perform
beautifully. This is truly one of the few times that I've enjoyed Denys
Cowan's art, though I suspect this may have as much to do with the guest
inks of Sal Buscema as anything. Regardless, the emotion displayed through
both dialogue and illustration is exceptionally rendered, and enjoyably real.
Of course, the symbolism of the final scene is fairly obvious, as villainous
Skorpio replaces questionable Sam Ellis. I suspect we'll see quite a change
in behavior from Mr. Skorpio in the coming months.
All in all, yet another fine outing by Priest and Cowan. A few believability
problems, but mostly good storytelling and art. A caveat, however: this would
*not* be a good place for new readers to begin reading STEEL, as much as we
need new readers on this title. Hopefully, with the love triangle seemingly
resolved, the next issue can move on to Crash and his intentions, which might
make a better jumping-on point.
Jeff Sykes
<sykes@ms.uky.edu>
====================================
SUPERBOY #48 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Superboy: The Event"
Words: Barbara Kesel
Pictures: Georges Jeanty
Inks: Doug Hazlewood and Ray Kryssing
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft
Colors: Buzz Setzer
Assists: Maureen McTigue
Edits: Mike McAvennie
Cover: Tom Grummett, Doug Hazlewood and Patrick Martin
RATINGS
Average: 2.8/5.0 Shields
RG: 2.0 Shields (Story)
3.5 Shields (Art)
DC: 2.8 Shields - Nice, fun Superboy story that seems to lead to major
changes.
EJ: 2.0 Shields - Sigh. A snorer of a story. Only the last page intrigued
me, and I can't wait till next issue to find out what happened.
My only regret is it took 31 pages of wasted space to get to that
point!
JO: 3.5 Shields (Story: 4.0, Art: 3.0) - Just when I thought the kid had
gotten away from these sleazy Hollywood deals Rex comes back and
screws things up. Can't wait to see the return of the original
creative team to this book.
JSy: 2.7 Shields - Kamehamayhem! Absolutely the *funniest* villain name I've
ever heard. Wish the rest of the book was as good as the first page,
though.
When Rex pops up in Superboy's life again, you know that disaster has to
be close behind. Sure enough, he has sold the use of the Kid's name for
"Superboy: The Event". Dropping everything in Hawaii, Rex pulls Superboy to
Hollywood, where the publicity machine is going full. What is the event? Well
it's supposed to be the centerpiece attraction for an amusement park which is
being created by a truly second rate movie company. The company turns out to
be even more underhanded than Rex, and that's going some. After having salt
rubbed in his wounds, he flies off not really knowing where he is going when
he is struck by lightning and disappears.
This one isn't quite up to the level of writing and art of the past few
issues. Barbara Kesel doesn't seem to have the same feel for Superboy and
his cast that Ron Marz does. While a good Superboy story, full of the usual
misdirection and fun that I usually enjoy, this one just didn't do it for me.
I don't know if it was the truly uninspired plot, or the lack of supporting
cast interaction that bothered me most. That this book was just a very long
lead in to the next major story line is way too obvious. I don't know if this
was a filler story that had a few panels added on the end to tie it into the
next arc, or if it is a new direction that didn't quite match up with the Ron
Marz arc. Either way, it just didn't work.
The lead-in to the story, however, with a two-bit supervillain-wannabe
calling himself Kamehamayhem, was one of the best I've ever seen. They must
have been hanging on to this one for just the right moment.
The art in the book was up to standards, but was a little sketchy in a few
places. The detailing and perspectives were good, but some of the pages
looked rushed. I don't know if it was the paper, or the separations, but the
colors were muddy as compared to the past few months.
Not a stellar performer, but it could be a good time for a new reader to
jump on board before the next story arc gets up to speed.
Rene Gobeyn
<bedlam@frontiernet.net>
====================================
SUPERBOY AND THE RAVERS #18 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"The Deadliest of the Species"
Writers: Steve Mattsson and Karl Kesel
Pencillers: Josh Hood and Eric Battle
Inker: Dan Davis
Computer Colorist: Stu Chaifetz
Letterer: Kevin Cunningham
Assistant Editor: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Mike McAvennie
Cover: Hood and Davis
RATINGS
Average: 1.9/5.0 Shields
JSy: 1.5 Shields
DC: 2.5 Shields - A busy issue without that tries to do too much and thus
accomplishes too little.
DJ: 1.7 Shields - They are really rushing this story. It's really beginning
to unravel, and the art is AWFUL.
ST: 1.9 Shields (Story: 2.4, Art: 1.0) - Weak story, horrendous art; this
book deserves to be canceled. What bugs me is that when it _was_
canceled, it _didn't_ deserve to be....
Where were we? Oh, yes. Kindred Marx and the Ravers have congregated on
Qward, searching for Kaliber and Kindred Sol. Marx and Rex split off to
look for Sol, but are ambushed by the Red Shift. The Ravers join Kaliber in
battle against the Qwardians, but Half-Life is apparently killed in battle.
And now, "Love is all that Anti-Matters: Part II."
Superboy and friends search for Half-Life, but find only his smoldering boot
and a dying Qwardian Thunderer, who boasts that the Rave has been captured.
They discover that an energy field has been erected around the Rave, and that
the party-goers are being tortured. Sparx begins to leech off all of the
energy, but is interrupted when Marx summons the Ravers to his side.
Superboy, Kaliber, and Grim thrash the Red Shift, while Sparx unleashes the
stolen qwa-power and decimates a mass of newly arrived Qwardian reinforce-
ments. Meanwhile, Hero, big help that he is, has dialed-up Caduceus the
Healer, who proceeds to do little more than heal the beaten Qwardians.
Superboy realizes that Sparx has lost control and attempts to stop her,
only to be fried for his efforts. Luckily, there *is* a healer on hand.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Aura gains revenge on her father by tricking a
Chinese meta-containment squad into thinking that he has powers as well.
As they are both being taken into custody, Twelfth Knight arrives to rescue
Aura from her father's fate.
Amidst this all, Grim has feasted once more on Sol's essence, their powers
merging to create an inter-dimensional rift. Intending to investigate,
InterC.E.P.T. (including Twelfth Knight and Aura) teleports to Qward. All
plots finally merge into one, as the myriad characters discover an army of
Predators pouring from the rift.
Ho hum.
Beg your pardon, but I just don't really care anymore. It's been nothing
short of painful watching what used to be a great title completely fall
apart during its death throes. I realize that the cancellation of the book
inevitably led to the acceleration of the sundry plot lines, and that Kesel
wants to wrap up most of this series' ideas before taking Superboy in a new
direction. Despite this, I simply refuse to believe that this is the best he
and Mattsson could come up with, especially given their stellar work earlier
in the run.
This isn't just about plots, either. Consistent characterization seems to
have been completely abandoned, as most of the players in our little drama
scarcely resemble their earlier selves. The resolution of Aura's past was
accomplished in the sum total of about 7 pages over three issues -- barely
enough to have even warranted bothering. Even the dialogue, which has
normally been quite good, feels forced -- it's just not as natural as it
used to be.
Lest you think I'm blaming everything on the writers, at least half of the
problems with this book over the past months have involved the art. Replacing
Paul Pelletier with Josh Hood was about as bright a move as replacing Tom
Grummett with Ramon Bernado on _Superboy_ -- we all know how *that* turned
out. Once again, Hood's work is distorted. Figures are misproportioned, some
of the layouts don't make it all clear what's happening, and Sparx's costume
seems to undergo regular variations for no apparent reason.
While we're on Hood's problems, I should point out that this issue's events
clarify one of his mistakes from the prior issue. Last month I wondered how
Sparx managed to join the Ravers on Qward, since her hand stamp only carries
her between Earth and the Rave, yet Marx had apparently not taken the Rave
to Qward with him. Quite obviously, the Rave *was* taken to Qward, but Hood
simply failed to illustrate that fact.
Before I go, I should point out that not *everything* about this book is a
total failure. While the art and storytelling have decayed, the colors on
this title have been a pure delight under the talented computer work of Stu
Chaifetz. I hope that DC has some high-profile work planned for him after
_Ravers_ finally disappears next month.
Jeff Sykes
<sykes@ms.uky.edu>
_____________________________________________
SUPER-FAMILY TITLES (cont):
--------------------------
SUPERGIRL #18 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Divine Inspiration"
Writer: Peter David
Penciller: Leonard Kirk
Inker: Cam Smith
Letterer: Pat Prentice
Colorist: Gene D'Angelo
Assistant Ed.: Maureen McTigue
Lost in the Debris: Mike McAvennie
Cover: Gary Frank and Cam Smith
RATINGS
Average: 3.5/5.0 Shields
TD: 3.5 Shields
JO: 3.0 Shields - Look, a maxi...er, Supergirl with wings!!! I like the
idea of that little kid being God. But how many times can we pull
the old bring-the-dead-villain-back-to-life trick?
JSy: 4.3 Shields - Leonard Kirk's art is exceptional this issue, especially
when illustrating Supergirl's new wings of flame. I can't think of
another title which has me so simultaneously intrigued and confused
about where it's headed. Great work, Mr. David.
ST: 3.9 Shields (Story: 3.5, Art: 4.7) - PAD tells an incredibly dense story
filled with plot and character; only a too-long fight slows it down.
This still isn't what I really want from Supergirl, but it certainly
is interesting. Kirk's art is *fantastic* and also very dense; I
counted 137 panels in a 22-page book, and that's including a 2-page
spread. When was the last time you saw that?
VV: 3.0 Shields - I'm not sure I like the "fire wing" Supergirl--it gives
her a lot of powers she never had before. How Peter David runs with
this should be interesting, though. Good touches included Wally and
the death of his grandmother, and Fred Danvers' embracing of his
daughter+.
There's something strange going on in the Superman family books. _Steel_ #48
focused on Crash, making it a better meditation on villain motivation than
any of the New Year's Evil books. Now _Supergirl_ #18 focuses on that weird
little kid Wally, and it's also good -- which is great, because the actual
throughline with the Maid of Might is a mite weak.
You see, Linda is in the streets of Leesburg, fighting against Despero with
her newfound wings. She discovers that these wings are able to drive out and
hurt things of evil intentions--sort of like Ghost Rider's 'penance stare'.
Using it on Despero, she manages to separate and purge the dictator from
L-Ron, all the while experiencing a change in language to something approxi-
mating old English. Back in the hospital, Fred waits for news on Sylvia. He
meets up with Wally's grandfather just as Wally's grandmother dies. Wally
flits from character to character, and may or may not be responsible for both
Fred's ultimate acceptance of Linda and for his grandmother's fate (and not
the fate you think).
I gotta admit, Wally is growing on me. Peter David is still sort of playing
coy, not giving us any real indication one way or another whether Wally is
supernatural or just a nascent meta (I've been around kids long enough to
know they can vanish in a heartbeat), and it's still working for me. His
subtle nudging of Fred, prompting him to question others about Supergirl
seems logical and sly. When Fred does accept his daughter, seeing the two
of them standing in a rain of ash--well, it's kinda sweet.
This is why I preferred that portion of the story to the fight, which seemed
to become turgid and overwritten once Supergirl starts bandying about stuff
about Despero being 'found wanting'. The whole duality theme I detected in
last issue is given short shrift here, and Despero/L-Ron becomes little more
than a bystander in the latter half of the story. Granted, its nice that yet
again our heroine is able to resolve a situation without exacerbating the
property damage, but David has to start defining these abilities soon or its
going to wear thin.
Mention should be made of Cutter, who makes a somewhat pointless appearance
in this issue. It shows signs of our boy David going back to his vaudeville
shtick, and I hope it doesn't happen again. (But with next issue focusing
on--*shudder*--Comet, I guess it will.)
Kirk and Smith continue to mesh fairly well as an art team, and they're
further enhanced at points by colorist D'Angelo, who nicely creates some
interesting shading effects on the scenes in the hospital. Kirk is also
beginning to weave his talent for subtlety into his action scenes--there's a
fluidity to Supergirl's firewings that's quite graceful, and his handling of
their reabsorption on page 11 is nice and unobtrusive.
As with the last two-parter, the ending didn't quite live up to the set-up.
At least here we get a few glimpses into one of the stranger mysteries of the
book so far, and that's not bad. Hopefully, David will resolve this plotline
about Wally, Linda's powers, and their connection (if any) before they begin
to lose their fascination.
Thomas Deja
<manciniman@rocketmail.com>
_____________________________________________
OTHER SUPERMAN TITLES:
---------------------
JLA #15 Feb 1998 $2.95 US/$4.25 CAN
"Stone of Destiny"
Writer: Grant Morrison
Pencillers: Howard Porter, Gary Frank, and Greg Land
Inkers: John Dell and Bob McLeod
Colorist: Pat Garrahy
Letterer: Ken Lopez
Associate Ed.: Peter Tomasi
Editor: Dan Raspler
Cover: Howard Porter and John Dell
RATINGS
Average: 3.3/5.0 Shields
AW: 2.8 Shields
DC: 2.0 Shields - A disappointing, messy ending to an overly complex story.
DWk: 4.3 Shields - Morrison's pacing is bizarre, but there are some extra-
ordinary character touches: Luthor and Superman's dialogues, the
momentarily sane Joker... love it. Nice to look at, too.
JSy: 3.0 Shields - Sorry, but this was a let down. After how *big* each of
the previous five issues were, this *double-sized* issue had the
least story in it.
LF: 3.6 Shields - Another well-written Morrison story. Each hero and villain
had a chance to strut their stuff. I'm disappointed that the amazing
formula of this book has to be disrupted so soon with the apparent
"disbanding" of the JLA.
MS: 3.5 Shields - Coulda made more sense, but a good finish overall. Great
Luthor characterization, Superman is the Eternal Optimist, and the
guy from "Justice Legion A" looks strangely familiar. So why isn't
Grant writing a Superman book?
TD: 3.0 Shields - Plastic Man shows his face and proves he's got the right
stuff, Batman proves he's not one to be messed with, and everybody's
happy. My only complaint was the somewhat gratuitous 'disbanding'
thingie at the end....
I should've known we were in for a confusing time from the first glance at
the cover--a variant of the old '60's tradition where one character restrains
another, with the dire warning, "Don't do the obvious thing! If you do,
we're all doomed!" Those covers promised--and usually delivered--a somewhat
convoluted story that, quite frankly, I usually enjoyed.
I didn't enjoy this, though. After three issues of zooming around time and
space before finally resolving the "corporate takeover" plot that began the
"Rock of Ages," I'm left with even more questions, and the Injustice Gang
attack that seemed so dangerously devious at the beginning just fizzles out.
Pretty anticlimactic compared to last issue's death of Darkseid.
I don't usually give a blow-by-blow summary of a comic, believing that if you
really wanted to know, you'd go read it yourself. This time I think it's the
only way to understand what did and didn't work in this story.
The first disappointment is that Morrison's idea of what is involved in a
corporate takeover seems to be how many "moles" you can place. Batman matches
Luthor's recruitment of Green Arrow and attempted recruitment of Aztek by not
only bribing Mirror Master, but also by planting Plastic Man in the villains'
midst disguised as the Joker. (He knows that Green Arrow really hasn't been
seduced by Circe.) Luthor's secret funding of Aztek's armor might constitute
a leveraged buyout, but the whole "corporate takeover" angle just fizzled due
to this oversimplification. This is probably my biggest disappointment, as I
had originally expected all six issues to deal with an intricate, back-and-
forth battle of wits on several fronts between Luthor and Batman.
When Superman, J'onn J'onzz (believed dead by Luthor) and Batman attack
the Injustice Gang's satellite, the battle that ensues is almost surreal.
The heroes and villains all stand around while Circe battles Plastic Man.
"Plastic Man's down," Batman says calmly, but doesn't move to help him.
For some reason (artist's error?) Luthor tells Green Arrow to deal with the
Revenge Squad holograms. Dr. Light turns Superman into radio waves, and beams
him across the galaxy. J'onn J'onzz telepathically frees J'emm from Luthor's
control, and J'emm knocks the stone from Luthor's hands and distracts Dr.
Light long enough (apparently) for J'onn to capture him. Luthor is defeated,
but the Joker shoots J'emm. Superman is about to destroy the Philosopher's
Stone but Green Lantern contacts J'onn just in time and he protects it. In
perhaps the most shocking moment of the story, AZTEK DOES SOMETHING. He
actually disarms the missiles all by himself. Like the missiles, Luthor's
stratagem was all too quickly disarmed.
Back on the JLA satellite, the Philosopher's Stone is returned to Metron.
But wait! It's a fake! The Joker palmed the real one and sets off planetwide
catastrophes to remake the world in his image. Once again J'onn finds his
telepathic powers the only match for the Joker's insanity. Where in JLA #11,
J'onn had to reorganize his own mind to understand the Joker's maze, this
time he reorganizes the Joker's mind and makes him (gasp!) sane. The Joker,
overwhelmed with the horror of his actions, wants to somehow make amends.
Luthor, thinking quickly, tells him to repair the damage in Star City and
bring everyone who died back to life, thus removing any evidence that the
Injustice Gang did anything wrong and forcing the JLA to let them go. (I
could've sworn that conspiracy to commit murder was also a crime, and the
Joker has to have at least 500 outstanding warrants for his arrest.)
The great wrap-up, the tying together of all the loose ends that I've been
wondering about for the past three issues never happens. In the first
epilogue, Metron takes the Philosopher's Stone and issues a cryptic warning
to the JLA about Gods to come. "Prepare for the fortification of Earth," he
says. He visits Wonderworld and talks to Adam One about the "all-devouring
nature of the threat we face here," then goes to AD 85,271 and presents the
new Hourman with the Philosopher's Stone and explains that the universe is
remade after each of those struggles--the paradox of "if the future changes
the past, would we know about it?" A mysterious caped figure promises us a
future interaction with all the characters mentioned above, saying "I'll
alert the rest of Justice Legion A to prepare for deep time travel." So the
Wonderworld plot, it seems, was just a teaser for a future story! Unanswered
questions include why the destruction of the Philosopher's stone would have
allowed Darkseid to conquer Earth, how Luthor captured J'emm--and I'm sure I
could come up with ten or twelve more questions, if I gave it some thought.
Meanwhile, the founding members of the JLA get together. Aztek plans to quit
now that he knows his suit was funded by LexCorp--but will this make him give
up being a hero? Green Arrow is shaken and also debates quitting, but the
point is made moot when Superman, Batman and Aquaman decide to break up the
League. More suspense as we are introduced to a new line-up of heroes next
issue. I'm not too enthusiastic about two of the rumored newcomers, Plastic
Man and Zauriel; I'm afraid they'll add a second-string, "We don't know what
to do with these characters," feel to the comic, just when I was getting used
to having the big guns back on the team.
So what, if anything, makes this issue worth reading? As usual, it's
the attention Morrison gives to characterization. While Plastic Man was
incredibly annoying, there were some interesting scenes between Luthor
and Superman.
Morrison sees Luthor as a ruthless, contradictory character. At one point,
Luthor's grudge against Superman is about more than just who gets to be the
Big Man in Metropolis. Luthor instead sees Superman as a tyrant imposing his
morality on others, and sees himself as the underdog.
"Once again," he tells Superman, "you've ensured that everything gets done
your way. What a clever conqueror you are."
"Not all of us want to rule the world, Luthor," Superman replies.
"Only because some of us already do."
But is this just another one of Luthor's mindgames to make Superman feel
guilty and questions his own actions? Later, Superman confronts Luthor in
his office. Superman tells Luthor that he prefers to think Luthor brought
back the dead people of Star City because he regretted his actions.
"There's a good man in there somewhere," says Superman, the eternal optimist.
Luthor mutters, "You think so, do you?" Perhaps he doesn't see himself as the
underdog after all. Contradictory characterization or a more subtle portrayal
of Luthor's inner psyche? You be the judge.
Finally, I was a little disappointed by the art. It looks like they chose to
compensate for the different styles of the three artists by simplifying the
layouts and making them less visually interesting. The art was competent, but
it didn't have the same dynamic tension as previous issues.
In the end, was "Rock of Ages" worth six issues? I don't think so. Morrison
successfully introduced some interesting concepts and foundations for future
stories, but only at the cost of the main story, which promised much more
than it eventually delivered.
Anatole Wilson
<awilson@us.oracle.com>
====================================
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES #16 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Clark Kent, You're A Nobody!"
Writer: Mark Millar
Penciller: Aluir Amancio
Inker: Terry Austin
Letterer: Lois Buhalis
Colorist: Rick Taylor
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Mike McAvennie
RATINGS
Average: 3.8/5.0 Shields
CoS: 4.0 Shields - A nice puzzle story in which Clark Kent finds out he never
was Superman. What's going on? That's the fun part of the story.
Interesting and nostalgic all at once.
DWk: 3.7 Shields - Cute, charming, pleasant, and somehow I didn't manage to
figure out what was going on until it was explained. A fine kids'
comic.
JSy: 3.4 Shields - A solid outing, but not as good as this book's first
Mxyzptlk story. I don't care for the return to the "say his name
backwards" trick, be it slightly revised, because Mxy always looks
like a moron.
ST: 4.0 Shields - *This* is the Mxyzptlk I remember and love. Compare the
sophistication level of this story with that of the New Year's Evil
tale, or _Man of Steel_ #75, and tell me this doesn't come off better.
It's a typical day at the Daily Planet; the computer systems are down and
Clark, Lois and Jimmy are sitting around the office. As a plane is in need of
an emergency landing, Clark Kent goes into action as Superman. He pulls open
his shirt and jumps out the window -- but all he has under his clothes is an
undershirt, and it's a long fall down from the top story of the Daily Planet
Building! Superman swings by and saves Clark on his way to stop the plane
from crashing into the streets of Metropolis. What in the flaming blue hootie
is going on?!? That's the tease the story starts with, and I'll be blunt with
you; if you haven't read this issue, quit reading this review because you'll
ruin what I think is the best puzzler the Superman comics have had for a long
time.
Clark, understandably shaken up by the event of the morning, goes with Lois
to hear Professor Hamilton give a speech on the properties of Kryptonite.
After the lecture, Clark asks to see if touching it has any effect on "Normal
humans". As he grabs the hunk of green, glowing rock, he is amazed and
annoyed to find it has no effect on him.
Superman continues to save people, avert disasters etc. -- all the things
that Clark remembers doing as Superman -- but Clark is mugged and beaten up
while on his way home. Clark goes home to Smallville, and talks to Ma and Pa
Kent, trying to figure out what has happened to him, but they have no idea
what he's talking about. He asks them about the spaceship that brought him
and about his superfeats growing up; they think he's just been working too
hard and is having delusions that he once was Superman. In the middle of
their conversation, a tornado blows in. Superman arrives and saves both
Clark and the farm, using the techniques that Clark would once have used.
Clark heads back to Metropolis, promising to seek professional help if he
can't straighten things out on his own. When he gets back to the Planet, the
computer systems are up, and Clark gets an e-mail that says "Today's the day"
which is automatically generated every 90 days. Have you figured out what's
going on? Clark has, and is ready to put an end to the whole thing.
Using a silent dog whistle to bring Superman to his apartment, Clark says
that he can prove that he is the real Superman. Superman pities Clark and his
delusions, but Clark says he wants proof that the guy in the long underwear
is Superman. Superman demonstrated flight and super-strength, but Clark says
that lots of super-heroes have these powers: only Superman has X-Ray vision.
If he really is Superman, he would be able to read the letter that Clark has
in his pocket. Superman complies and reads out, "Brainiac. Luthor. Kltpzyxm.
Kltpzyxm.... oops!" With that, the 5th dimensional imp is banished for
another 90 days, but not before Clark gloats about the auto-reminder on his
e-mail system so he would be prepared when Mxyzptlk is able to return. The
story ends with Clark responding to the call of danger, with passers-by
shouting "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!"
And for the first time in the story, it is.
One of the things that was both a downfall and a strength of the old Superman
stories under Mort Weisinger was that most of them relied on a gimmick of
some kind. The current Superman team is doing their own variations on these
stories with new versions of "The Death Of Superman" and "Superman Red/
Superman Blue", but the days of "gimmick" story seems to be all but dead.
Mark Millar (who I only know as a co-writer with Grant Morrison) shows that
there is life left in the old formula, especially if you aren't expecting it.
Much like the backward issue of SA by Scott McCloud, I had to read this story
as fast as I could, trying to figure out what was going on. Amancio does a
solid job on the pencils, handling a lot of scenes of people sitting around
and talking without letting the story get bogged down. This issue is as
highly recommended for kids, who will like the puzzle aspect, almost as much
as it is for nostalgic adults. It is the best non-Scott McCloud issue of the
series so far.
Cory Strode
<Solitaire.Rose@worldnet.att.net>
_____________________________________________
SUPERMAN FEATURES AND SPECIALS:
------------------------------
LEGENDS OF THE DC UNIVERSE #1 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Madness and Science"
Writer: James Robinson
Penciller: Val Semeiks
Inker: Paul Neary
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Kevin Somers
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover Painting: Glen Orbik
RATINGS
Average: 3.6/5.0 Shields
AHu: 4.1 Shields (Average rating: see review for explanation.)
EJ: 4.0 Shields - Wonderful lead-in to a promising series. I loved having
the story told from Lois's POV. The scene with the dead woman we
could have done without; we were told about it, we didn't have to
see it too.
JSy: 3.7 Shields - Loved the Semeiks/Neary art, which was very reminiscent
of Byrne's early Superman work. As for the story, characterizations
of Superman and Luthor were well-handled, but we'll have to wait to
pass judgment on the plot.
SDM: 2.5 Shields - James Robinson understands a little bit about Superman,
Lois and Luthor, but not much of note happens in this flashback. I
know James can do better, but he could also do worse. So-so artwork
doesn't help.
TD: 3.5 Shields - Still a bit sparse, but features Superman Flesh in action
as you like 'em!
Spawned by the popularity of _Legends of the Dark Knight_, we now have
_Legends of the DC Universe_. In a similar way, this book looks at past
adventures of whichever Superhero is featuring. DC has chosen to open this
new monthly with arguably their jewel in the crown, Superman.
It came as some relief when I saw that the adventure to be told would be about
a Superman in the familiar Red, Blue and Yellow. Not that I don't enjoy the
present 'Blueperman', just that I kind of miss the 'classic' Superman.
Reading through the book, I have to say that I cannot really place this
adventure into the Superman time-line. Lex still has hair, yet Thaddeus
Killgrave gives us the impression that he and Superman have fought frequently
before. That doesn't concern me too much, though; I am more worried about
whether or not the Superman presented in LOTDCU is in the same vein as the
Superman during John Byrne's reign and just following that.
As the book opens, Lois Lane is writing an article on the rising number of
super-powered heroes and villains. The artist has perfectly captured what she
looked like in 1987 perfectly, even down to the hair-style! She pays a brief
tribute to the heroes of yesterday (JSA) and goes on to say that this new
breed of super-heroes seems to be bolder, brighter, more alien and more
exotic. This fits with established time-lines; Superman was one of the first
of the New Age super-heroes, and others followed suit. Noting that Metropolis
has been relatively untouched until recently by super-villains, she smirks at
the thought that they have Superman to combat any threat posed.
High above Metropolis, Superman holds a brief battle with Professor Thaddeus
Killgrave, ending when Superman disables Killgrave's craft. A squadron of men
in flying suits (forerunner to Team Luthor) appears and tries to take over the
situation. Superman is obviously not impressed; he believes that this is a
police matter, but is told that since Luthor pays for the police the lines are
blurred. While the two parties argue, Killgrave launches an escape pod and
rockets away. The Lex Security Team hasn't got the speed to follow Killgrave,
and Superman is quick to soar off after the escapee.
Lexcorp Tower. Lex is holding a meeting, and a young woman sits on a sofa
watching TV. Her program choice (some sort of Entertainment Tonight) annoys
Lex--so much so that he hurls a statuette at the screen, smashing it. He
*apologizes* to her, explaining that Superman has been weighing on his mind.
She offers to put a smile back on his face, but is given a rain-check until
Lex can finish his meeting. As the woman leaves, Lex resumes his gruff
demeanor and continues his meeting. They talk a little about the construction
of Luthor Towers, Lex threatening dire consequences if it is held up. One aide
mentions a scientist named Morgan Wilde whose research into the electrical
field surrounding the human body could have good (and profitable) uses, as a
way to repair broken synapses and neural transmitters. Lex shows an interest
in this, and orders Wilde to be bought out.
Switch to a laboratory setting. Lois has come to interview Dr. Wilde about his
research. She asks if his 'energy field' could correspond to the human soul,
but he prefers to use scientific terms. They are interrupted by Mrs. Wilde,
who tells her husband that he has visitors. Even without turning the page, it
is plainly obvious who these 'visitors' are... Three of Luthor's men try
(again?) to intimidate Wilde into selling his research. They eventually give
up and go away--but not without an evil grin and a veiled threat. Returning to
the laboratory, Wilde asks Lois if they can postpone the interview, as the
visit has obviously upset him. He then gives Lois a gift of a portrait of
himself with his wife 'At a happier time and place'. Obviously this is going
to play a role in the story yet to come.
Swooping down from the sky, Superman confronts an odd-looking thief who calls
himself Madness. Madness has the power to instill irrational, crazy madness in
his victims, and he turns it on the passers-by. The now-crazed mob crowds
around Superman, clawing and grabbing him. The Luthor Security force arrives
on the scene, but they too fall under the influence of Madness and start
blazing away at each other. Eventually, Superman uses a tarpaulin to contain
the crowds just as everyone is released from their mania and left shaken and
understandably confused.
We leave Superman to pick up the pieces from Madness' attack and wonder at his
disappearance, and we return to Wilde's Laboratory, where a battered Wilde is
crawling along the floor, with two of Luthor's Heavies in the background.
Managing to make his way over to a desk he hits a self-destruct button sending
his home into flames. Just before the explosion he says that Luthor's men will
certainly die, but that he.......
Given the amount of things that have happened to Superman since his rebirth in
1986/87, I was looking forward to seeing the early, inexperienced Superman
again. Was I disappointed? Well, not entirely. The book as a whole was a
little jumpy for my liking. They didn't spend enough time in certain areas,
for instance the Madness pages. Also, I felt that they were bombarding me with
a lot of information! After all, they introduce the forerunners to Team
Luthor, they introduce Madness (who I don't believe we've met before), they
introduce this Professor and his research. It seems like they are trying to
cram an awful lot into one book.
The photograph is obviously going to be important to the story. I'm putting my
money on it being used to persuade whatever the Professor becomes that he is
really Human after all, a la Brawl from 1996.
I only hope that issues 2 and 3 will be a little more exciting than this one.
Generally speaking, the book was good. I loved the front cover. It's rare to
see a good painting of Superman, and I think that this one is very good. It
almost looks like a throwback to the pre-crisis days, which pleased me. The
art inside was also quite good, and Semeiks managed to bring back the early
days of Superman. Unfortunately, Semeiks seems to draw Superman with a bit of
a 'block head'. Examples of this are pages 9, 18 and 20. Apart from this
factor I have no real complaints. I'll just settle down and wait for the next
issue.
I'm going to give this book two ratings.
- As a LOTDCU story, I give it 4.5 Shields, as it really does take you back
to a Year One situation.
- As a Superman story, I give it 3.7 Shields, as it seems a fairly run-of-
the-mill romp for Superman. There is nothing in this story that would make me
remember it vividly three months down the line--at least, nothing yet.
Andrew Hudson
<Scotsman19@aol.com>
====================================
SUPERMAN: DISTANT FIRES 1998 $5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
Writer: Howard Chaykin
Pencils: Gil Kane
Inks: Kevin Nowlan
Colors and Seps: Matt Hollingsworth
Cover: Kane, Nowlan and Hollingsworth
RATINGS
Average: 2.5/5.0 Shields
TD: 3.2 Shields
DJ: 2.1 Shields - There were too many characters whose existence in the
story didn't make any sense; the enlarged cat was made an essential
character then forgotten, and what the hell did Metallo have to do
with anything? I did like the idea of Captain Marvel as a bad guy.
DWk: 1.8 Shields - Raised a few notches for the lovely artwork, and then
knocked way back down for the writing. Chaykin is great with his
own creations, and simply cannot handle other continuity. The
"Twilight" allusions were pretty gratuitous, too.
JO: 4.5 Shields - WOW! Besides killing off Batman this book did great
things with every character used. Always good to see Supes gettin'
some from Wonder Woman.
JSy: 2.2 Shields - Nice artwork, but Chaykin breaks the cardinal Superman
rule: the Man of Steel does *not* kill. Period. In the end, the
entire book simply felt like an excuse to get to the last page.
ST: 1.7 Shields -- Except for the last scene, there is no reason for this to
be a Superman Elseworlds and not a Batman one. Batson is not treated
well by Chaykin: this is the guy who defeated Neron because his heart
was pure, remember? Gil Kane's art, however, has never looked better.
For some reason, Howard Chaykin is not as notorious as he deserves to be.
His fame seems to be more of a cultish thing, with people like me flocking
to every dark, sexually perverse tale he tosses up. From the two year long
proto-cyberpunk _American Flag_, to the futuristic self-referential horror
comedy _Cyberella_, to his position as story editor on the late lamented TV
series _The Flash_, he rarely disappoints.
A large portion of his fan base are other comic professionals; he was one of
the people invited to submit a proposal for the DC reboot of Superman many
years ago. (Picture Supes as Michael J. Fox in Family Ties, judging from the
outline I've heard about.) Now he's back with a dark, post-apocalyptic piece
reminiscent of his insanely satisfying take on DC science fiction heroes,
_Twilight_. Unfortunately, _Distant Fires_ is a bit lightweight, and does
not play up to Chaykin's strengths.
We begin after the world has been wiped out by nuclear catastrophe. Superman
is literally all alone in Metropolis, disturbed by the "silence of the empty,
dead city." The landscape is now littered with oversized rats and ape-like
'mutants', and Superman is trying to adjust to being wholly mortal. His
mind is troubled by hallucinogenic visions of his family and friends, so
he decides to go west, riding an oversized cat. What he finds is a lonely
outpost of other heroes trying to build a civilization. Getting together
with Wonder Woman and coming into conflict with a surprisingly immature
Billy Batson, Superman finds himself beginning to witness the destruction
of his adopted planet, helpless as Batson recklessly calls down the magical
lightning and tears the Earth apart.
There are some lovely things in _Distant Fires_, but there are also a lot
of problems. Chaykin's strength has always been his complex and elaborate
backgrounds; in _American Flag_ or _Cyberella_ (which postulates the
question, "What if Bill Gates was taken over by the devil?"), these make even
the weirdest developments plausible. Chaykin doesn't lay down that history in
this tale, and thus some of the story's developments come seem to come out of
the blue. The worst is his portrayal of Billy Batson as an immature brat;
it just makes no sense in the context of past history. Even the smaller
elements--like the Joker becoming a sane genius after the holocaust, and the
enlarged animals--smack of the kind of 'magic radiation' that made for bad
horror films. The ending involves the Deus ex Machina introduction of the
Green Lantern power battery, a development that comes out of left field.
The other thing that makes _Distant Fires_ an unsatisfying experience for
fans like me is that most of Chaykin's thematic obsessions are left by the
wayside. High-tech is non-existent (albeit logically so), commercialism is
non-applicable, immortality isn't touched on (except in the most abstract
sense), and his peculiar love of Russian design is nowhere to be seen. Of
course, the patented Chaykin tone--subdued, earthy and morbid--is there in
full force, as is his fascination for sexual perversion. (I suspect that the
main reason he decided to take on this assignment is to write an after-sex
scene between Supes and Wonder Woman.)
Art is supplied by Gil Kane, an artist I admire but also find unintentionally
weird. His 'men without flesh' style of figurework, whilevery anatomically
accurate, is strange to behold. Thankfully, Kevin Nowlan's inks compliment
him perfectly. Nowlan softens the harshness of Kane's pen-strokes while never
letting you forget that Kane is in charge. There are some moments that just
take your breath away visually: it is difficult to look at the two-page
sequence of Superman 'taming' the cat that would be his mount (pg. 18-19) or
at the all-too-mortal Man of Steel trying to preserve his sanity by creating
a garden amidst the destruction (p.9) and not be awed. Best of all, take a
look at Kane's Captain Marvel on page 40; *that* is the way the Big Red
Cheese should be drawn, period.
I suspect Chaykin expected _Distant Fires_ to be a tribute to the sort of
DC SF stuff as displayed in such classic titles as _Strange Adventures_ --
which would explain the giant animals. In doing so, however, he seems to have
forgotten what makes Chaykin Chaykin. Maybe if he was given an extra book to
work in some of that patented dense background, or if had taken the time to
*explain* how some of the stranger elements appeared, this would have rocked.
Instead, it's just a pale shadow of a man's best work. It's fun in its way,
especially since it features some of the best art in years from a comic
legend, but it's fun without the sheer breathtaking impact of a man on top
of his form.
This should have been a thrill ride. Instead, _Distant Fires_ is a leisurely
ride through a particularly cheesy, implausible theme park.
Thomas Deja
<manciniman@rocketmail.com>
====================================
SUPERMAN ADVENTURES SPECIAL #1 Feb 1988 $2.95 US/$4.25 CAN
"Superman vs. Lobo: Misery in Space!"
Writer: David Michelinie
Penciller: John Delaney
Inker: Mike Manley
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Computer Colorist: Stuart Chaifetz
Assistant Ed.: Frank Berrios
Editor: KC Carlson
Cover: Delaney and Manley
RATINGS
Average: 3.7/5.0 Shields
DR: 4.5 Shields
JSy: 3.0 Shields - All in all, an average story, except for one very
important thing. Superman here is willing to give up his only hope
of returning to Earth in order to save another galaxy. *That's*
the kind of selfless heroism which Superman should be about.
I must admit that before I picked this book up, I was quite worried it would
be an utter waste of my time, much like the _Superman Adventures Annual_.
This _Superman Adventures Special_ had all the earmarks of a failure: a $2.95
price tag ($4.25 in Canada!), weak _Adventures in the DCU_ penciller John
Delaney, and non-fan-favorite _Action Comics_ writer, David Michelinie. Being
the die-hard Superman fan that I am, however, I decided to give it a try.
I'm glad that I did.
Beneath the cover featuring a stare-down between the Big Blue Boy Scout and
the animated, "Shovel-chin" Lobo, lies a story filled with action, adventure,
intrigue and pure entertainment. The story begins with a very simple premise:
Superman is infected with a plague, harmful to humans, but not to him. He
needs a cure. Oddly enough, the cure that Superman is searching for is the
exact same thing that Lobo is trying to find! Mayhem ensues!
Lobo and Superman each begin their journey from their respective starting
places, and we see the difference in their characters. Superman's departure
holds a foreboding overtone; we can tell that, deep down he's worried.
Precautions are taken and Superman even goes so far as to say a last good-bye
to Lois at the Daily Planet. Touching, really. Lobo, meanwhile, smashes,
bashes and crashes his way off the planet Smir. It's always enjoyable to
watch Lobo beat people up!
The Man of Steel and the Man who's Main meet on a planet within the Maracot
system and begin their search for what is known as the Nirvana Crystal. The
Crystal is worth a lot of money, which is why Lobo is after it, and could
also cure Superman's contamination. Now, I'm not going to spoil the ending,
but ask yourself this, do you REALLY think that Superman is going to die?
Now what exactly was so outstanding about this book? Why did I enjoy it so
much? Let's start at the top and work our way down. First off, the story.
Sure, it's been done before, but it was a nice catalyst to bring the two
characters together, and it was even better seeing them on the same side!
Together they're an unstoppable team! If only the real DCU Lobo were this
nice. David Michelinie writes great dialogue, and actually puts together a
tale that would have worked nicely within Action Comics during his run.
I was quite pleased with the effort.
The art: John Delaney hasn't really been a favorite penciller of mine over on
_Adventures of the DCU_, but I suspect that due to the addition of inker Mike
Manley, his work managed to improve. What a perfect pairing! Great shadows
and defining strokes on characters give them a more 3-dimensional shape than
any of his previous work. Oh, and a beautiful splash page of Superman at
the beginning of the book on page 7.
If I'm talking about the art, I can't leave out the colorist! Stu Chaifetz
is probably my favorite colorist out there right now. I enjoy the work that
Heroic Age does on JLA, and I really like Liquid Graphics and their work for
the Marvelous competition, but Stu beats them all hands down. Why isn't this
man doing more high-profile stuff? I know he used to color _Steel_, then
moved onto _Superboy and the Ravers_, but why waste him on books that aren't
going anywhere? Put him on the Supertitles, or Green Lantern, or Flash --
something that's colorful where he can flex his rainbow-talents. Sigh. At
least DC listened to me and put him on a Super-book.... (Read one of my older
reviews where I call for this.)
Suffice it to say, this book is excellent! Just what the Superman books
should be right now. Fun stories. Entertaining stories! Strong art! Strong
scripting! Beautiful computer coloring! PERFECT, I SAY! PERFECT!
Well, not perfect. There is one thing I didn't like. Lobo was just too darn
big. What was he, 10 feet tall? Nope, not on my watch! Superman is 6'3",
Lobo is 6'5" TOPS. I'm a stickler for height consistency, dagnabbit! Lobo
shouldn't be that tall, ok? You hear me DC? I want a written apology stating
that you're wrong and I'm right! I won't buy another DC comic until you do!
(And I buy just about every DC comic that comes out...)
You heard what I had to say about this book, now make your decision (BUY THIS
BOOK). Don't let me sway you in any way (BUY THIS BOOK), but I think it would
be a good idea (BUY THIS BOOK) to at least pick it up (BUY THIS BOOK) and take
a look at it. Well written (BUY!), good art (THIS!), and just an overall good
(BOOK!) effort... how can you refuse? Besides, would I lie?
Dan Radice
<dradice@caninet.com>
_____________________________________________
NEW YEAR'S EVIL SPECIALS:
------------------------
GOG #1 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"The Road to Hell"
Writer: Mark Waid
Penciller: Jerry Ordway
Inker: Denis Janke
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Colorist: John Kalisz
Associate Ed.: Peter Tomasi
Editor: Dan Raspler
Cover: Jason Pearson
RATINGS
Average: 3.9/5.0 Shields
AW: 4.2 Shields
DWk: 3.7 Shields - Clark is dead-on in character, and the dialogue and art
are super-fine, but this isn't a story, it's a set-up. Five bucks
says it ends with Superman et al preventing Kansas from happening.
The Super-religion was way overwrought.
JO: 4.0 Shields - Loved the continuation of KINGDOM COME.
JSy: 4.2 Shields - Gorgeous Ordway/Janke art. Why doesn't Janke complement
Bogdanove this well? Fascinating story, but it appears that this
will lead to KINGDOM COME becoming an alternate future, changed by
one of its own -- which sounds a lot like ARMAGEDDON 2001.
SDM: 3.5 Shields - Despite my qualms about an ongoing KINGDOM series and
about Mark Waid's handling of Superman, Mark and Jerry Ordway hook
me enough to get me to look forward to the upcoming series. No one
tells a story like Mark, and no one can twist a tale better, either.
ST: 3.8 Shields - Marks off for killing Superman, but otherwise a scary and
fascinating tale. This is the guy that survived a nuclear explosion,
is immune to kryptonite, and is at 'the peak of his invulnerability.'
If Gog can get through all that... <shiver>
I've read that it has been decided--by whomever it is that decides these
things--that _Kingdom Come_ will become, over the next few years, the
accepted future of the DC Universe. If that is so, GOG is a disturbing
portent of the stories to come. In GOG, Mark Waid asks questions and
presents us with events that I can only hope never come to pass.
For those who have not read _Kingdom Come_, the story occurs ten years after
Superman retires from herodom, replaced by a younger, brasher hero named
Magog who does not hesitate to take a life in the name of justice. Magog's
ruthless pursuit of super-villains culminates in a battle with the Parasite,
who in desperation slices open Captain Atom causing a nuclear explosion that
wipes out most of Kansas. Superman gathers some of his old compatriots and
vows to return order to a world overrun by metahumans.
In _Kingdom Come_, Mark Waid and Alex Ross asked some pretty big questions:
What if the "metahumans" of the future continued the trends in comics today?
Violent, nihilistic, amoral beings concerned only with their own survival
(and you can insert the name of almost any comic "hero" created since the
early 1980's), they would consider themselves above the law and spend most
of their time creating random destruction and chaos.
What if the current trend of killing villains instead of handing them over
for justice became the accepted way of doing things instead of an aberration?
Even those heroes dedicated to justice would become ruthless vigilantes.
What if the metahumans who still worked towards the betterment of all
humanity felt unappreciated, unwanted? Like the gods of ancient societies--
the Greeks, the Egyptians--they would retire and fade into obscurity, no
longer concerned with the affairs of mortals.
What if some cataclysm occurred that brought them out of retirement? Detached
from the "normal" humans for so long, they would finally cross that fine line
and make themselves gods. And an even greater cataclysm would follow.
For all those familiar with the Old Testament, another question came to mind:
"there's Magog, but where's Gog?" Gog, it seems, is the forerunner of Magog,
and will play some part in Magog's origin.
Gog's story takes place in the future, some years after _Kingdom Come_ and
in the "age of the New Enlightenment," as a young reporter named Olsen puts
it. A group of elder gods--The Phantom Stranger, Ganthet, Shazam, Zeus, and
Izaya--contrive to give powers to Minister William, who as a boy was the sole
survivor of the atomic blast that leveled much of Kansas and triggered the
events of _Kingdom Come_.
William is about to start the church of Superman. He believes Superman to be
a divine being who saved William from the Kansas disaster in order to perform
a greater purpose in life--to be Superman's greatest apostle. Superman--or
rather Clark Kent, for he has given up the costume and now lives among the
people--dissuades him from opening the church. He tells William that contrary
to William's beliefs, the Kansas disaster wasn't Superman's will, it was
Superman's fault for failing to live up to his responsibilities. After this
revelation, William is lost. He burns down his church and looks for meaning.
The Phantom Stranger approaches him with a scroll of knowledge that shows him
history--some familiar scenes, such as a rocket leaving Krypton, and some I
hope never to see, such as Luthor snapping Dr. Sivana's neck and Lois Lane
lying dead, an obvious victim of the Joker.
William then gets a costume, complete with horns and a staff, and his new
knowledge drives him mad--not the outcome the Phantom Stranger had hoped for.
He blames Superman for the Kansas catastrophe. (The gods should have known
that if you give a guy horns and a staff, he's going to be a villain!)
In the scene I found most painful, Gog then slays Clark Kent. The idea
of Superman, after all his great works, being slain because of a madman's
misunderstanding of a good deed is a tragic end that I hope does not become
Superman's ultimate fate. I can only plead with future comics writers not to
dwell on this scene and treat it as gospel, as was done with Jonah Hex after
they revealed that his death would be futile and his corpse stuffed and
mounted for show.
Gog plans to go back in time and cause the Kansas atrocity to occur earlier,
before Superman retires, so that Superman will be "exposed." "You escaped
blame for the horror of Kansas only because it happened after you retired.
That, Superman, can be changed."
He is apparently planning to go back in time and accelerate the disaster in
Kansas. The Phantom Stranger is shocked, but this apparently is exactly what
the other beings of the circle intended all along. Need I say, "To be
continued..."?
Is this the now and forever gospel of DC? Is Superman's life irrevocably
fated to end in such a tragic manner? I hope not, and I'm willing to bet that
in a few years this too will become just another "possible future." It would
sadden me too much to believe otherwise.
_Kingdom Come_ intrigued me because it really examined the question of
balance--is he more "Super" than "man," or vice versa? As Elliot S! Maggin
said in an online interview, Superman's most interesting conflicts are not
over how powerful or omnipotent he might be, but over the issues of right
and wrong, over the dilemmas that we all must face at one time or another
regardless of our personal power or lack thereof. The conflict in _Kingdom
Come_, Superman eventually realized, was not one of super-powered beings
versus non-superpowered beings, but of life versus death.
Similarly, I think the controversy that has raged the past ten years or
so--is Superman too powerful? Not powerful enough? Is he more Clark Kent
than Superman?--is also the wrong controversy. Perhaps we should be asking
ourselves what makes a man like Clark Kent into a Superman? It isn't the
muscles or the cape. It is how a man with the powers of a god keeps himself
from actually becoming a god, in his mind and in the mind of others. I've
always favored the immensely powerful Superman because it heightened the
conflict between his all-powerful persona and the meek and mild persona he
took refuge in, and prevented the writers from wasting his time battling
villains whose only challenge is the size of their guns.
In _Gog_, this moral struggle is elevated to an even higher level. We see
a council of gods who have decided their own omnipotence makes them the
proper guardians of Earth's past, present, and future. They are willing to
manipulate innocents and risk the destruction of everything to do what they
believe is right. (I'm still wondering how the Phantom Stranger got mixed
up in this--he usually knows better.)
We also see Gog, who has been taken from the heights of revelatory, religious
bliss to the depths of a damning, meaningless existence, then granted the
power to create his own purpose in life.
Mark Waid, intentionally or unintentionally, has given us a lot of questions
to think about, and in _Gog_, continues that trend. Admittedly, this story is
made weaker by Jerry Ordway's artwork and Dennis Janke's scratchy inking--
which while competent, does not convey the impact of Alex Ross' reality-based
works--but it is a fine continuation of the tradition _Marvels_ and _Kingdom
Come_ have established.
Maybe I'm reading too much in this and maybe a comic book is just a comic
book, but I prefer to think that Mark Waid meant to achieve more than this.
I think he asks at least some of the questions that more comics writers
should ask before they sit down to write the next great American comic, the
chief one being, "Am I asking the right questions?"
Anatole Wilson
<awilson@us.oracle.com>
====================================
MR. MXYZPTLK #1 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Invader from the 10th Dimension!"
Writer: Alan Grant
Penciller: Tom Morgan
Inker: Scott Koblish
Letterer: Janice Chiang
Colorist: Glenn Whitmore
Assistant: Maureen McTigue
Editor: Joey Cavalieri
Cover: Jason Pearson
RATINGS
Average: 2.3/5.0 Shields
MS: 2.9 Shields
DC: 2.8 Shields - Fun in the old-fashioned style.
DJ: 0.3 Shields - A waste of $1.95.
DWk: 3.2 Shields - Terribly drawn, but funny. I laughed out loud at the
"Logjam Of Super-Heroes"--Butler-Eater Lad indeed. Wouldn't want to
see a regular series, though, much as Grant is plumping for it.
JSy: 3.8 Shields - Great parody cover, hilarious DCU spoofs, and nice use of
varying art-styles to represent different books. Love the cartoonish,
comedic approach to Mxy that's been used in the past few years.
ST: 0.8 Shields - Should have known from the first page that this wasn't
worth my time. Buy a series? I'm sorry I bought this one!
TD: 0.9 Shields - Yawn. nothing impresses me less than bad satire.
VV: 4.0 Shields - I *like* funny books, and the "Logjam of Super Heroes"
role call was just about worth the price of admission itself. Great
parodies of comics and names of TPTB.
Well, we all know why I was asked to review this one! Yeah, that's right--
I'm the only one who's willing to write "Mxyzptlk" over and over again.
So here we go...
At first I wondered why Alan Grant was writing this "New Year's Evil"
(Get it?) Special. Then I remembered that this is the man who gave us the
Post-Crisis Bat-Mite some time back. If Louise Simonson isn't available, I
guess he's the man for the job.
Similar to his MITEFALL Special a few years back, an awesome threat has
descended upon the 5th Dimension: Ultimator, of the 10th Dimension! Seems the
10th Dimension is supposed to absorb the first nine into itself, and Mxy's
stomping grounds are next on the list. What follows is an orgy of carnage
and destruction chillingly reminiscent of Gargamel's frequent attacks on the
Smurfs' village. Desperate to stop this omnipotent person/reality, Mxyzptlk
turns to his vaunted comic collection for help.
Diving into comic after comic, Mxy recruits the Logjam of Super-Heroes
("97 characters-- each one with a phenomenally stupid power!"), the Just-Us
League of America (in a far flung future where everyone but them is dead;
"Who provides Justice? Just-us!") The Young Heroes Unloved, Jack Kirbptlk's
Farce World, and Lobo's Nephews (The Fragtastic Four) in his battle against
Ultimator. All of them fail, forcing Mxyzptlk to devise his own unbeatable
plan...
A sign that says NOISNEMIDHT01EHT FOROTAMITLU.
Anyway, Mxy gets knocked into his issue of ZZZZANDMAN, and as Mopius, the
Lord of zzz's tells his tale, the 10th Dimension falls into a deep sleep.
Mxy leaves the comic and polybags it, trapping Ultimator forever.
It's a great idea for a story, and Mxyzptlk is insulted that Lois and Clark
have fallen asleep while he tells it. He pops out of their apartment in a
huff and the puny 3-Ders celebrate their successful ruse.
This was fun, but this farce doesn't really cover any new ground. The Legion
parody was hilarious the first time, when Sergio Aragones Destroyed DC in
1996. Exactly _why_ is the JLA parody fighting Brainiac in a post-apocalyptic
future? Why did Alan poke fun at Lobo _yet again_ when there are so many new
targets out there like FOURTH WORLD? Still, I give Grant points for original
bits like the whole 10th Dimension as the villain, and Mxy's inventive
strategies.
The artwork was adequate. Morgan apes Howard Porter's style pretty well, and
the scene in the Kent apartment was all right, but the cartoony 5th Dimension
looks like a pale shadow of what Bogdanove would do. Yeah, Bog does a great
take on the character, but I'd rather have seen Morgan come up with his own
bold vision of Mxyzptlk. It worked for Jon, right?
This is a funny story but much of it has been done before by Simonson,
Bogdanove, Sergio, even Grant himself. If DC is serious about their regular
Mxyzptlk series (and I doubt they are), they'll need fresher material than
this.
Mike Smith
<mpsmit0@pop.uky.edu>
_____________________________________________
TEEN TITANS DOUBLE-SHOTS:
------------------------
SUPERBOY/RISK: DOUBLE-SHOT #1 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Bad Times at Montridge High"
Plot: Dan Jurgens
Dialogue: Karl Kesel
Pencils: Joe Phillips
Inks: Jason Rodriguez
Colors: Jason Wright
Letters: Richard Starkings and Comicraft/AD
Associate Ed.: Dana Kurtin
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover: Phillips and Rodriguez
RATINGS
Average: 3.3 Shields
RG: 4.0 Shields (Story)
4.5 Shields (Art)
DC: 2.0 Shields - Disappointing story wherein neither main hero seems to
act in-character.
JO: 4.0 Shields - Nice to see that super heroes can lead human lives with
human feelings.
JSy: 3.1 Shields - Passable art, and Kesel scripting dialogue for Jurgens
turns out to be a pretty good combination. I still wish there was
some way to write these without all the references to current pop
culture.
Last month, after the death of one of its members, the new Teen Titans team
was disbanded by its founder and backer Mr. Jupiter. The remaining Titans,
at loose ends and really having no where else to go, have tried to go home.
So far it hasn't worked well. They have found that they have all changed too
much, and that the old saying is true--you can't go home again. The question
remains, what will they do?
Argent went to Gotham City to find Robin and ask him to train her as a hero
(see the _Robin/Argent: Double-Shot_ last month). Prysm, who had no home to
which she could return, has gone to Leesburg (see review elsewhere in this
issue), and Risk has tried to go home but finds that his past is about to
catch up with him. Atom and Impulse mix it up later on.
Superboy is asked by NORAD to go under-cover at a high school to see if he
can find out which student broke in and out of NORAD. He doesn't have a clue
as to who he is looking for. If you have *ever* wanted to see Superboy in a
secret identity, this is for you. It goes against everything he knows and
identifies with, but he tries to pull off the old mild-mannered geek image.
He actually does a half-way decent job of it. Thankfully it is a very small
part of the story, but it just made the book for me.
When Cody Driscoll (Risk) shows up, the fun starts. That neither knows
who the other really is when they first meet causes the expected fight to
start. It is mercifully short, but well done. Superboy ends it in a totally
unexpected non-violent manner, and goes off to report a failure to NORAD.
Meanwhile Cody does some serious thinking, and decides to turn himself in and
face the consequences of his earlier actions. This leaves Superboy less than
thrilled, and I suspect that this will have some repercussions later.
I've got to hand it to DC. The company has found a way of making major
changes in teams and making the changes fit into continuity. They do this
not by having some mega cross-over that everyone will forget about by next
month, but by publishing a series of specials that focus on the changes in
the individual characters. In the long run these are the only changes that
really matter.
Dan Jurgens, regular writer of the Teen Titans, is one of my favorite comic
writers. That he had a hand in all of the Double-Shot books is more than
expected, as it is supposed to help bring about the next incarnation of the
team. If that book is even half as good as I expect, it may well become one
of the most fun titles in the DCU.
The art here was just short of wonderful. The inking was a bit heavy in
places, and there were a few too many `floating head' panels, but the overall
level of detail and perspectives was very good. The production values on all
of the Double-Shot books has been great, and they are well worth the money.
The line of Double-Shot and Plus books have been great so far. If you don't
want to follow the story, then you don't need to pick them up. If you only
want to follow one character, you only need to pick up that title. It doesn't
hurt that the one shots are usually team-ups with some of the DCU's hottest
heroes. Rumor (OK, Previews, so it's more than a rumor) has it that when the
Titans reform, it will consist of the remains of the new team, plus some of
the hottest young talent in the DCU. If you haven't been reading the title up
to now, jump on. The book is about to explode.
Rene Gobeyn
<bedlam@frontiernet.net>
====================================
SUPERGIRL/PRYSM: DOUBLE-SHOT #1 Feb 1998 $1.95 US/$2.75 CAN
"Coming Home"
Story: Dan Jurgens
Art: Tom Grindberg and Chris Ivy
Lettering: John Workman
Coloring: Jason Wright
Associate: Dana Kurtin
Editor: Eddie Berganza
Cover: Tom Grindberg
RATINGS
Average: 2.7/5.0 Shields
RG: 4.5 Shields
DC: 3.0 Shields - Crowded story with a nice (yet brief) message and ending.
DWk: 1.3 Shields - Is it just me, or did this story make no sense _at all_?
Or is it just that I couldn't bring myself to care about a single one
of the characters?
JO: 4.0 Shields - This one and the Risk Double Shot make me want to follow
up on the Titans. I didn't know they were this interesting.
JSy: 1.8 Shields - Plot and dialogue were lacking, and the characters were
very rigid -- especially the obvious and stereotyped religious folk.
Comparing the cover to the interior, it's clear that Chris Ivy is
*not* the inker for Tom Grindberg...
TD: 1.5 Shields - Can we cancel the TITANS already? If this is the sort
of thing Jurgens in doing in the main book, it doesn't deserve to
continue. Supergirl is a cardboard cut-out here.
For an explanation of what has been going on in the _Teen Titans_ title,
and a few comments on the DC Double-Shot books, please see the review
of _Superboy/Risk_ elsewhere in this issue.
When Mr. Jupiter disbanded the Titans, one member had no home to which she
could go: Prysm. Raised by aliens in a virtual reality chamber, her family
was made up of characters from old sit-coms. When she entered the Teen
Titans, she left that artificial environment for good--leaving her with no
roots and no one to whom she could turn. There was only one person who Prysm
felt she knew well enough to contact, and that was Supergirl (who is having
her own family problems right now).
Prysm journeys to Leesburg to find Supergirl, and when she does, she finds
Fringe there as well, searching for his parents. Throw in some alien bounty
hunters working for the H'san Natal, and the story pulls together nicely.
This story has just about everything that I want in a book: short, well
focused fight scenes, a good reason for happening, a consistent plot, and
good character interaction. It's too much to hope for there to be any major
changes in a character's life in every issue, but this one even managed to
do that well.
The art in the book is some of the nicest I've seen of late. Interesting
viewing angles, excellent use of perspectives, finely-detailed establishing
shots and backgrounds, and well-detailed figures. I don't ask for much more.
It's been interesting reading the Double-Shot stories and seeing which
characters are being teamed together. Robin and Argent are both rich kids
looking for direction, discipline and purpose. Supergirl and Prysm are both
orphans (of a sort) neither of whom have a real family (though the Kents did
try), and both of whom are lonely and looking to belong. Superboy and Risk
are both ultra-independent and tend to act without thinking. Atom and Impulse
are both kids out of time (Impulse is from the far future, and Atom was a 30+
year old physicist that got de-aged during Zero Hour). I know that Jurgens
paired these people deliberately, but it's fun anyway.
The sum of all of these Double-Shots is to bring together the core of the
characters who will become the next team of Titans. How many of them will
stay and how active they will be remains to be seen, but if you want to get
in on the ground floor of what may be the best DCU team book, start picking
up the _Teen Titans_.
Rene Gobeyn
<bedlam@frontiernet.net>
_____________________________________________
SUPERMAN TIMELINE
A List of Major Superman Events
Version 1.40 January 1998
INTRODUCTION: This document contains a timeline of major events in
Superman's life that fit into the current continuity. Ever since the 1986
revamp that restarted Superman from square one, the Superman comic books have
fit into a tightly-woven continuity. Events from one story often lead into
another, and subplots carry over from one major story line to the next. When
a character re-appears after a long absence, he will recall and may have been
affected by the events of the story in which he last appeared. Due to this
tight integration, all previous stories (in the current continuity) are "real
history" and thus possibly relevant to any other Superman story. I have
included few events from the current comic story lines since they are
recorded in the books themselves as well as my Superman Comic List. Although
this timeline does not perfectly match that in SUPERMAN: SECRET FILES, the
author believes that the SECRET FILES timeline is inaccurate and ignores the
existence of several stories and facts about time relationships.
LEGAL DISCLAIMER: Superman and all related characters are trademarks of DC
Comics. Mention of these characters in this document is without permission
of DC Comics, but said use is not intended to challenge DC's trademark rights
or copyrights. Readers who want to learn more about Superman are encouraged
to purchase the comic books. The author strongly suggests that this document
be distributed free of charge.
AUTHORSHIP: This list was compiled by David T. Chappell, and it was his
opinion alone that determined whether a Superman story was worthy of
inclusion in this document. It is based on the Superman comic books that he
possesses. Comments, suggestions, and corrections may be sent via Internet
e-mail to d.chappell@ieee.org.
AVAILABILITY: This file is available on Internet via anonymous ftp at
ftp.hiof.no (numeric address 158.36.33.3) in the file
/pub/Comics/Superman/Superman.TimeLine. Mosaic users can access the above
site via the WWW page ftp://ftp.hiof.no/pub/Comics/Superman. The Superman
FAQ is available at the same site in /pub/Comics/FAQs.
TITLE ABBREVIATIONS: The following abbreviations are used within the list to
indicate the titles of the various comic books.
Abbreviation Title
==========================================
ACTION ACTION COMICS
ADVENTURES THE ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN
MAN O'STEEL SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL
S:TMOS THE MAN OF STEEL mini-series
SUPERMAN SUPERMAN (Volume 2)
ZH ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME
ZERO HOUR ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME
TIMELINE: Below is a general timeline showing events in the life of
Superman. References are given where appropriate from both the comics
stories and the ZERO HOUR #0 timeline.
~15 Billion Years Ago (the Big Bang)
Superman and other heroes present for start of the universe (ZERO HOUR #0)
100 Million Years Ago (Cretaceous Period):
Superman in prehistoric times; dinosaurs and Chronos (Time and Time Again)
500 Thousand Years Ago (Pleistocene Period):
Superman visits city-state of A'r'ven (Time and Time Again)
Dark Ages:
Superman visits Camelot, fights Morgaine Le Fey (Time and Time Again)
1938 A.D.:
Planet Krypton explodes; Kal-El's birthing matrix launched towards Earth
1943 A.D.:
Superman joins circus, saves FDR, stops Mr. Z (Time and Time Again)
<-----S----->
Age 0:
Winter: Kal-El born on Earth (MAN OF STEEL #1)
Kal-El arrives on Earth, landing near Smallville (ZH*33 ya)
Age 5:
Clark enrolled at Eisenhower Elementary School; met Lana Lang and Pete Ross
(ACTION #655)
Age 8:
Bull trampled Clark; Jonathan Kent saw that Clark is unharmed
(MAN OF STEEL #1)
Clark lifts pickup truck; Martha Kent witnesses (MAN OF STEEL #1)
Age 9:
Clark takes lead role in 3rd grade class play: "Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves" (SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL #0)
Age 17:
Junior Year in High School
Clark voted Most Likely to Succeed; Clark is class president (SUPERMAN #0)
Clark wins race at state high school track meet (SUPERMAN #0)
Clark and Lana go to prom; elected prom king & queen (SUPERMAN #0)
Summer: Clark learns he can fly (MAN OF STEEL #1)
Age 18:
Senior Year in High School
Fall: Father reveals Clark's rocket-ship origin; Clark immediately leaves
home (MAN OF STEEL #1)
Clark Kent leaves Smallville for Metropolis (ZH*15 ya)
Ages 18-22 (5-year period):
Clark secretly averts disasters and saves people; acts as hero in secret;
wanders the globe as a "free agent"
Age 23:
Clark settles in Metropolis as his adopted "home town"
Clark enrolls at the University of Metropolis as a journalism major
Clark continues to act as secret hero
Age 24:
Clark meets Lori Lemaris at the University of Metropolis (SUPERMAN #12)
Age 25:
Clark graduates from college after just two years
(THE WORLD OF METROPOLIS #3)
Clark studies journalism in Europe (ADVENTURES #0)
Clark saves Spaceplane over Metropolis;
Lois Lane writes article about "Superman"; Pa Kent designs costume;
Superman goes public (MAN OF STEEL #1)
Superman makes his debut, inspiring a new heroic ago (ZH*10 ya)
Intergang forms in Metropolis (ADVENTURES Annual #7)
Superman meets Lois Lane; Clark gets job at Daily Planet
(MAN OF STEEL #2; THE WORLD OF METROPOLIS #3)
Superman's first encounter with magic & Dr. Occult (SUPERMAN Annual #7)
Superman's first trip to outer space (ACTION Annual #7)
Superman first meets Batman (8 mos. after first Superman appearance)
(MAN OF STEEL #3)
Superman meets rest of original JLA (S:TMOS Annual #4)
Superman's first Christmas in Metropolis (DCU HOLIDAY BASH #1 [1997])
Age 26:
The Cadmus Project begins (ZH*9 ya)
Metropolis Police Department organizes Special Crimes Unit
Luthor offers to hire Superman; intense rivalry begins
(1.5 years after first Superman appearance) (MAN OF STEEL #4)
Age 28:
First Bizarro created by Luthor (2 years after rivalry begins)
(MAN OF STEEL #5)
The Universal Crisis (CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS; ZH*4 ya)
Clark learns about Krypton (10 years after left Smallville)
(MAN OF STEEL #6)
Modern, post-Crisis Superman stories begin
(3 mos. after Clark learns about Krypton) (SUPERMAN #1)
Bloodsport (SUPERMAN #4 [Apr 87])
Age 31:
Millennium (MILLENNIUM)
Gangbuster
He Only Laughs When I Hurt (SUPERMAN #16 [Apr 88])
Age 32:
The Supergirl Saga
Invasion
Exiled in Space
Homeless for the Holidays (ADVENTURES #462 [Jan 90])
Age 33:
Clark Kent proposes to Lois Lane (SUPERMAN #50 [Dec 90])
War of the Gods
ARMAGEDDON 2001
Existence of the Linear Men revealed
Metropolis Mailbag (SUPERMAN #64 [Feb 92])
Age 34:
Panic in the Sky
Superman joins JLA as leader
Superman killed by Doomsday (SUPERMAN #75)
Metropolis Mailbag II (SUPERMAN #76 [Feb 93])
Age 35:
Reign of the Supermen: Superboy, Steel, the Eradicator
Superman revived from death
Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey
The Fall of Metropolis
Worlds Collide
Zero Hour (ZERO HOUR)
Dead Again
Christmas Thieves (ADVENTURES #520 [Feb 95])
Age 36:
The Death of Clark Kent
The Trial of Superman
Underworld Unleashed
Kill Fee (SUPERMAN #109 [Feb 96])
Age 37:
Lois breaks off engagement with Clark (ACTION #720)
The Bottle City
Superman joins new JLA
The Final Night
Lois and Clark get married (WEDDING ALBUM #1)
Superman Blue -- new powers and new costume
Genesis
Superman Red / Superman Blue -- Superman splits in two
<-----S----->
30th century:
Superman meets Legion of Super-Heroes (Time and Time Again)
_____________________________________________
THE PHANTOM ZONE: Reviews of the pre-Crisis Man of Steel
------------------------------------------------------------------
Due to an inadvertent truncation, only about half of Bob Hughes' "Tales of
Earth-One" column was printed in last month's Kryptonian Cybernet. Instead of
providing just the missing material, that column is printed this month in its
entirety, along with his latest edition of "The One, True, Original Superman!"
TALES OF EARTH-ONE
--------------------------------------
by Bob Hughes (rhughes3@ix.netcom.com)
Together Again for the First Time, or
How Clark Kent Met Lois Lane
Once the powers that be at DC comics had decided that Superboy (a feature that
was almost necessary due to the need to protect their trademark) would be
about the adventures of Superman as a boy, time paradoxes set in. The
original Superman stories had never presumed a boyhood Super role, or left
room for one. Superman first appeared in _Action_ #1. No one had ever seen
him before. For there to be a Superboy, the writers had to ignore established
history. The earlier stories were retroactively declared inaccurate.
Once that pill had been swallowed by the readership, it became harder for
writers stuck for plots (and editors stuck for cover sales gimmicks) to resist
going back to the same well, in some cases over and over again. If Clark was
a super-hero as a boy, then when did he first meet Lois Lane? It was
inevitable that such a story be written. Given the nature of comic marketing
in those days, it was inevitable that it be written many, many times.
Thus it was that the May 1948 issue of _Adventure Comics_ (#128) cover
featured "How Clark Kent Met Lois Lane". Although the cover, featuring
Superboy flying Lois high above a burning house, is by Win Mortimer, the
inside art is by that bete noire of Golden Age comic fans: "Artist Unknown".
"Artist Unknown" appears to have drawn all the Superboy stories from mid-1947
through mid-1949, the period during which John Sikela left to work on Funnyman
with Siegel and Shuster. The fact that this artist's name has escaped us is
rendered doubly annoying because he was pretty good! Working firmly in the
Shuster/Sikela tradition, he still managed to produce his own exciting take on
the dynamic Superboy, producing aerial shots that were breathtaking and
serving up non-standard "camera" angles throughout that kept the art from
becoming stale and repetitive. DC workhorse Win Mortimer helped out by inking
this story, making sure that all characters stayed on model.
Mortimer had just come to the US from Canada at this time and needed full-time
employment to satisfy the immigration officials. Therefore he asked
permission to work out of the DC offices. Soon the editors were taking
advantage of his presence to draw (or redraw) the majority of the Superman and
Batman covers for the next five years. consequently Mortimer pencilled very
few stories at this time. His career at DC lasted for decades, however,
including a stint pencilling the _Legion of Super-Heroes_, and he even
pencilled some of the early John Byrne "new Superman" mini-series!
It was writer Bill Finger, however, who had to come up with a way for Clark
and Lois to meet while still in high school. And to figure out something for
them to do!
With almost the first line of text he hit upon the formula that all these
stories would follow for years to come: "Young Clark has to go through a
routine he will repeat as a man!" As the story opens, a letter arrives for
small town boy Clark Kent from the Daily Planet in the nearby city of
Metropolis. He has been chosen one of the two winners of an annual contest to
honor the best high school reporters with a chance to work at the Daily Planet
for a week! The other winner? Lois Lane, of course.
Daily Planet editor, Mr. Morton soon introduces our two protagonists with
pretty much the same results as the previous "first" meeting in _Action_ #1.
"Golly! She's so pretty!" thinks Clark. "Golly! He's so unexciting!" thinks
Lois.
Soon the decade-old game is afoot. Young Clark and Lois compete to see who can
get a byline story into the paper, but Clark is handicapped by having to
change to Superboy all the time. Lois gets the scoops, is awed by seeing
Superboy in Action, and totally unimpressed with Clark.
Lois, as usual, is plenty smart. She figures out who's using construction
equipment to pull robberies by putting clues together in the newspaper morgue.
She's also just as foolhardy, sneaking into the gang's hideout, getting caught
and rescued by Superboy just before being smashed with a wrecking ball.
Superboy is impressed with her courage and coolness under fire. "You've got
plenty of nerve! Any other girl would have fainted!"
Clark has less luck, finally having to buy Lois an ice cream sundae as payment
of their wager as to who would get the better scoop!
The story was successful enough that the editors followed it up with a Clark
meets Perry White story in _Adventure_ 152. Then they left it alone for
awhile. But in April 1955, secure in the knowledge that most of the people
who had read _Adventure_ 128 were no longer reading comics, the editors came
up with another "First" meeting between Clark and Lois. _Adventure_ 211
headlined "Superboy's Most Amazing Dream!"
The Win Mortimer cover pretty much sums up this entire story. As Superboy
sleeps at the bottom right hand corner, the rest of the cover features a dream
sequence in which an adult Lois Lane and Lana Lang both confront Superman,
telling him: "Greetings, Clark Kent, Lois and I both know your secret
identity, Superman!" The sleeping Superboy moans, "Oh, no! When I grow up,
I'm going to have Lois Lane as well as Lana Lang in my hair.!"
Inside, Otto Binder, Curt Swan and Stan Kaye produce one of those
stereotypical Superman stories of the Fifties. It begins with Lana Lang
trying to prove that Clark is Superboy. After foiling her latest annoying
scheme, he returns to Jonathan Kent's general store, where he finds his father
working on his will. Shocked, Clark wonders who he will have to confide in
when his parents are gone and wonders if he should finally break down and tell
Lana he's Superboy. Lying on the couch, he then dozes off and dreams of being
Superman. In this version, Clark gets a job at the Metropolis Museum working
in the archaeology department with Lana. Then he dreams Lois Lane is a Planet
reporter assigned to cover the arrival of Superman in Metropolis. Confronted
with a new snoop in his life, Clark finally tells Lana his secret identity,
thinking she can help him protect it from Lois. Lana is not very good at it
though and Lois finds out in one day! Fortunately, Clark wakes up from his
dream and resolves never to tell Lana -- or Lois either, if he ever meets her
again. He states that he had once met Lois Lane before at a convention of
school reporters thereby resolving the puzzle that Otto Binder had presented
to the readers at the beginning of the story. How can Clark dream about
someone he's never met?
As the difference between these two tales shows, the Superman franchise
suffered greatly in the mid-fifties. Lois, who had once been a fascinating
multi-faceted character admired by Superman is now a snoop, a pest, who is
constantly "in my hair". Whether this change is due to a deliberate aiming of
the stories at a younger readership, or to a change in American attitudes in
the decade following World War II is unclear. The result is a narrowing of
story possibilities however. The art also suffers as DC apparently was
working at eliminating anything representing excitement from their books.
Clark met Lois yet again for the first time in _Superboy_ #63, March 1958, in
a story called "Clark Kent Cub Reporter." Otto Binder and John Sikela did the
honors this time. Clark applies for a summer job at the Daily Planet to see
how he'd like being a reporter. Editor Perry White picks Clark over a girl
named Lois Lane. For some reason, Clark thinks she reminds him of Lana Lang,
"my curious neighbor back home who is always trying to prove I'm Superboy."
This is at first sight, mind you! Lois only appears in one panel in this
story. This is a trend in the super-titles throughout the Mort Weisinger
years when so many supporting characters were added to the Superman Family
that some stories consisted entirely of one walk-on after another without even
room for a rudimentary plot.
In the remainder of the tale, Clark fails to get one scoop after another,
because his Superboy duties interfere with his filing stories on time.
Finally, White fires Clark for being a do-nothing dummy! Clark resolves to
try again at a later date after Perry has forgotten who he is! (Which
shouldn't take long, since White never got his name right once in the story,
any way.)
The rivalry between Lana and Lois, annoying from the beginning, would get
worse as time went on. So would the time paradoxes! In "Superboy Meets Lois
Lane!" in _Adventure_ #261 in June 1959, Otto Binder would once again have
young Clark and Lois meet. Maybe he forgot he wrote the two previous stories!
In this George Papp drawn tale, Lois signs up for Camp Hiawatha in Smallville
because it may be her only chance to meet Superboy. There she bunks with Lana
Lang. Clark is at the boys' camp across the lake. Lana then inducts Lois
into the fine art of spying on Superboy. Lois is shocked at the very idea of
trying to discover Superboy's identity and does her best to sabotage Lana's
tricks! When Lana "traps" Lois and herself in a cave in order to expose
Clark's identity, Lois shows her fearlessness by working cryptogram puzzles to
while away the time while the air runs out. (Lana actually knows of another
exit.) Lois's cryptograms cause Clark's super brain to work (for once) and he
calls Krypto (Krypto, cryptogram, get it? Of course you do. Yuchh!) to
rescue them, thus preserving his secret identity once again. Finally as
payback for their continual hounding, Superboy promises each of them a date to
the camp dance. They're furious when they find out about his two-timing.
Superboy is let off the hook, however, when they both come down with poison
ivy and can't go. The rat lets the readers in on the fact that he knew they
had poison ivy all along, so there was no harm in his promising to take both
of them to the dance because he knew he wouldn't have to fulfill either
promise. Of course, once the two of them found out he was double-timing them,
as was inevitable -- they were roommates remember -- the fact that he ended up
taking neither certainly wouldn't clear his name in either of their minds.
The niceties of etiquette always seemed to escape the fifties Superboy.
As Lois departs on the train back to Pittsdale she tells Lana, "What a lonely
life that would be, married to the busiest man on Earth. I'm sensible! I'll
never want to be Mrs. Superman!" May have been the last intelligent thought
she ever had under Weisinger's editorship.
Don't go away, there's more. In July 1961, a story called "The Girl Who Saw
the Future Superboy" by Jerry Coleman and Al Plastino appeared in _Superboy_
#90. While straightening up Dr. Wilton's lab, Lana accidentally gets his
experimental time viewer to work. It shows her a vision of Superman and Lois
Lane kissing. Jealous, Lana resolves to keep them from ever meeting!
Figuring out that Lois is from Pittsdale, Lana conveniently realizes she has a
cousin she's been dying to visit in the same town. Also conveniently, school
in Pittsdale starts a week earlier than it does in Smallville, so Lana can spy
on Lois when she's in school and try to sabotage her school work. Lana's plan
is to force Lois into any career except journalism. She replaces Lois's
journalism essay with one of her own concoction. Unfortunately for Lana, her
essay is blown out the window. Fortunately, for Lois, she's made a carbon
copy of the original which she hands in to the teacher. The girl definitely
has the makings of a journalist! Lana then tries to get Lois interested in a
career in science or art, but Superboy and Krypto inadvertently sabotage her
plans. Frustrated, Lana returns to Smallville but vows to try again in the
future. (This promised sequel never appeared). Interestingly, Lois, Lana,
and Superboy never meet face to face in this story.
For some reason in these three confrontations between Lois and Lana, all of
which take place in a Superboy story, Lois, the guest star, comes out on top.
Seems the editors knew all along that Lois was the real deal and Lana was just
a diversion.
So far Clark and Lois have met for the first time, 4 times. In July 1961
Superman creator Jerry Siegel decided to up the ante! How about a meeting
between baby Lois and baby Kal? Well, almost. _Superman's Girl Friend, Lois
Lane_ #26 featured "Lois Lane's Childhood" by Jerry Siegel and Kurt
Schaffenberger. Set in Lois' babyhood, some time in the 1920's by the look of
the automobiles, Lois is being raised by Sam and Ella Lane in Pittsdale. Lois
is crawling. Lucy appears to be just able to sit up! (One wonders what this
means about the relative ages of Lucy Lane and Planet Cub-reporter Jimmy
Olsen.) Meanwhile, Kal-El is still on Krypton where Jor-El whines and moans
about the coming cataclysm!
Baby Lois sneaks off and tries to drive the family car but is rescued by a
young boy dressed as Peter Pan, who courageously leaps in and applies the
brakes. Thus Lois is proven to have been born daring and foolhardy and
destined to be saved by flying boys all her life.
Meanwhile, Young Kal drops his rainbow twirler rattle into one of Jor-El's
model rockets. The rocket, which is supposed to orbit Krypton, accidentally
breaks free and zips through space, landing on Earth right next to Lois, just
in time for Lois to use Kal's Rainbow twirler to scare away an attacking
rattlesnake. There are rattlesnakes in Pittsdale!
Now I like a good coincidence as much as the next gullible comics fan, but
this story exceeds the limit. How far is it from Krypton to Earth? Why would
a rocket break free from Krypton's orbit and land on Earth? (Krypto's ship
had already done the same thing. So did Beppo's.) Even if it did land on
Earth, why would it land near Lois Lane? And why should she just happen to be
being attacked by a rattlesnake when it did? If Lois was so accident prone,
how did she manage to survive the next twenty years before she met Superman?
_Lois Lane_ #26 came out the same month as the above _Adventure Comics_ story.
These "untold tales" were starting to get a little too close for comfort for
even the most accepting reader. Maybe the Superman factory was just running
out of ideas. Maybe the time was ripe for another company with new ideas to
come along and usher in a new era in comics.
Next: a look at the adult Lois in the Forties. And perhaps an answer to the
age-old question, who started this discover the hero's identity shtick anyway?
_____________________________________________
THE ONE, TRUE, ORIGINAL SUPERMAN!
---------------------------------------
by Bob Hughes (rhughes3@ix.netcom.com)
Episode 4
Lois Lane, The Original Super Girlfriend
Last month, I regaled you with tales of how the Earth-One Superboy (the one
without the sunglasses) may have met Lois Lane for the first time. Some were
pretty good stories, some, to be perfectly honest, stunk. The list was by no
means complete. It was just all that I could remember at the moment. I did
think of another pretty clever one after I finished the article. Maybe I'll
get around to it someday soon....
Of course, whenever you have comic stories which return over and over again to
the same event, the question of continuity comes up. The Superman editors at
DC didn't pay much attention to continuity before the introduction of letters
pages in 1958. As far as Mort Weisinger was concerned, no stories before that
point were part of continuity unless he reprinted them (and often rewrote
them) in a Superman Annual. Just read 'em. Don't think about 'em.
We turn now, to the original Lois Lane of the Forties, the character later
relegated to Earth-2 (which for some reason came first). This Lois was a very
different character from the shallow, selfish secret-identity-sleuthing female
of the fifties. Let's take a look at some of her many feature stories.
First up is "Lois Lane -- Superwoman" in _Action Comics_ #60 from May 1943.
This story appeared only three months before Jerry Siegel's uninterrupted
string of Superman stories was broken by the World War II draft. The decision
to feature Lois as a super-heroine was part of DC's campaign to trademark all
variations of the Superman name. They had reason to be cautious, as there
were already a Super Comics, a Super Duck, and a Superboy character being put
out by other companies. (Archie's Roy the Superboy appeared in several
magazines from 1941 through 1944. Interestingly, the character was revived in
the mid-sixties as part of the Archie Mighty Crusaders group by writer...
Jerry Siegel. This time he was called Roy the Wonder Boy. I doubt DC thought
that was an improvement.)
The art is definitely by John Sikela featuring the famous Sikela "S" design
with equal top, middle, and bottom bars, resembling the number 8 as much as it
did an S. The splash features the first female version of the Superman
costume. Lois wears a sleeveless blue Super blouse, with a short blue skirt
and blue leggings. She also wears red gloves and high-heeled boots both of
which are flared at the top. In the splash, Lois is dismantling some cosmic
weapon or other while Superman is trussed up in the background. Machine gun
bullets fly all around her. "But YOU can't save ME!!" moans the Man of Steel.
"Oh, NO? Guess Again!!" retorts Superwoman.
The story starts with Lois and Clark in one of their usual contretemps about
why she won't date him. Angrily, Lois dashes unheedingly into a busy street
and is promptly hit by a truck. Only one surgeon can save her, Dr.
Michaelson, who has (conveniently) mysteriously disappeared. This is a job
for Superman. "Up-- up-- and awa-aaAAY!" (He actually says that, one of the
rare occurrences in a comic book story.)
When Lois awakes, she finds that Superman has given her a blood transfusion.
(No explanation as to how.) Invigorated by the super blood coursing through
her veins, Lois leaves the hospital against doctor's orders and returns to
work at the Planet. Strange things begin to happen. First she accidentally
shatters her typewriter, then she moves a giant file cabinet single-handedly.
"I am a Superwoman!" she proclaims in astonishment, "My strength is beyond all
belief-- and my courage, limitless!" Her pronouncement is sabotaged when a
mouse running by her desk startles her and she jumps on to the desk top. The
Planet employees laugh off her behavior and Lois decides the news of her new
powers would best be kept a secret. She goes home and fashions her own super
costume and zips out onto her maiden patrol of Metropolis. Her first attempt
at a super deed is a disaster when she interrupts a domestic argument and both
parties turn on her, but her second attempt comes out much better as she foils
a kidnapping attempt, only to find the intended victim is... Clark Kent!
Clark immediately recognizes her and demands an explanation. Lois zips him to
the top of one of Metropolis's highest spires for a private conversation. She
explains the origin of her new powers and attempts to swear Clark to secrecy.
Clark refuses. He is a newspaper man and this is a great story. Angrily,
Lois takes Clark on a dizzying flight between city buildings, demanding a
promise of secrecy or else. Sikela is feeling his oats here. The Metropolis
skyline is astonishingly detailed and dazzling, especially considering there
are seven panels on this page! Modern comics artists could learn a number of
lessons studying this story! Shortly thereafter Lois is captured by the evil
Dr. Skowl. Disappointed to find his captive is not Superman, he is overjoyed
when the real Man of Tomorrow shows up to rescue her. Skowl stuns him with an
electric blast. Lois regains consciousness first and saves Superman from the
mad doctor.
Then Lois corners Superman and lets him have it: "For five long years you've
led me on a dizzy chase on a romantic merry-go-round my fine-feathered friend.
Well that's all changed. I've got some super powers of my own and now you're
going to listen to me!" Lois proposes. Lois accepts(!) Superman stammers
"Ulp!- What chance has a mere Superman got??" They clinch in a torrid
embrace, only to be interrupted by a newsboy screaming about Clark Kent's
story exposing Lois's Superwoman identity. Angrily, Lois screams "That awful
Clark Kent!"
Then she wakes up! It was all a dream! (but you knew that.) Superman has
found the missing surgeon and departed. The operation has been performed.
Lois is recovering and only Clark Kent is left, standing faithfully at her
bedside with a bouquet of flowers.
Of course being her dream, this story is told totally from Lois' point of
view, but it still clearly illustrates her original character as envisioned by
Jerry Siegel. Her ruthless reaction to Clark's threat to reveal her secret is
in startling contrast to Superman's generally restrained and passive nature
(at least in 1943, See the new _Action Comics Archives_ volume for a picture
of a very different Superman.) Lois is tough, a hardened career woman who
will let nothing stand in her way. She is attracted to Superman because only
he, of all the men she's met, is tougher than she. Clark Kent, and the rest
of the human male population for that matter, hasn't got a chance.
Fortunately for the villains of the world, Lois doesn't really gain super
powers. But she has something more dangerous-- a typewriter!
Our second snapshot is "Lois Lane, Globe Trotter" from November-December
1947's _Superman_ #49. John Sikela once again does the art, and Superman's
number two writer Don Cameron probably provides the story. In this tale, Lois
is in her natural element, danger, fighting for her own true love-- the Daily
Planet. The spectacular symbolic splash page shows Superman carrying a globe
of the Earth on his shoulders while Lois rides a camel on top of it. The
caption explains that Lois is attempting to beat Nellie Bly's around the world
record "against terrific odds, escaping the pitfalls of villainous ill-wishers
without a bit of help from Superman-- (she thinks!)".
As the story opens, the Planet is engaged in a circulation war with the
Examiner, which is trying all sorts of fake scoops and phony stunts to attract
sales. Lois comes up with the idea of duplicating Nellie Bly's around the
world trip, using forms of transportationnative to each country she visits,
and then bets Clark Kent that she can do it all without Superman's help!
Meanwhile, the Examiner's publisher vows to stop her any way he can!
Newspapering is a dirty business! Clark, who has bet Lois that she'll need
Superman's help, thinks "What some people don't know doesn't hurt them!" and
resolves to take off around the world after her. His actions throughout this
story barely skirt the issue of cheating and can probably only be justified by
the fact that the Examiner's employees are trying to kill Lois! Hardly fair
conditions under which to attempt an around-the-world trip!
The Examiner's first trick is to force Lois to bail out of a plane while
crossing the Pacific, to keep from crossing the international date line (and
thus using the same mode of transportation on two different days, which is
against the rules). Superman surreptitiously tows her life raft to shore,
while disguised as a shark. Next he stops a cable car from crashing in the
mountains after her unscrupulous enemies have weakened the cables with acid.
Later, Lois rides on a flying carpet, is almost trampled by an elephant, and
is fire bombed in Egypt. Meanwhile editor Perry White puzzles over Lois's
crazy dispatches. If it wasn't for the accompanying photos, he'd swear the
girl was crazy. Frustrated at their inability to stop the indomitable
reporter, the Examiner's thugs finally resort to sabotaging the trans-Atlantic
telephone cable so that Lois can't file any more stories. But Superman, who
is following along behind, secretly makes everything right again.
After being ship-wrecked in the Atlantic, Lois finally arrives in Metropolis
by canoe, then roller skates into town, where she crashes head on into Ryall,
the Examiner reporter who's been the cause of all her misery. The mishap
knocks him through a jewelry store window setting off the alarm. By the time
the cops have arrived, Ryall has lost it totally, screaming about Lois being a
jinx and telling the cops how often he's tried to kill her, but she keeps
pulling off one impossible escape after another.
Finally Lois collects on her bet from Clark. "Now do you admit I can take
care of myself without always calling on Superman?" she asks. "I always told
you you'd be better off ignoring him and paying attention to me!" Clark
replies.
This story could be (and probably was) a model for half the stories which
appeared in Lois' own comic in the Sixties). Lois steps out on her own to
prove she doesn't need Superman, but he secretly rescues her and never tells
her, thus allowing her to keep her ego intact. The fact of Lois's courage
remains however. Nothing that happens to her fazes her. She never loses her
aplomb. The reader is left with the feeling that if Superman hadn't helped,
she would have figured a way out of her predicament anyway.
For our last exhibit, we have "Lois Lane Loves Clark Kent" from the May-June
1949 issue of _Superman_ (#58). To my great chagrin, I have no idea who
wrote this story. My notes say Bill Finger, but reading it over again, I
haven't a clue as to why I thought that. It could just as easily be William
Woolfolk or any of the unidentified writers who tried out for the vacancy left
by Jerry Siegel in this period. The Superman crew was being totally realigned
at this time as Shuster, Sikela, and Yarbrough all left in the wake of the
Siegel/Shuster lawsuit against DC. Wayne Boring, who hadn't touched the
inside of a Superman comic since 1941, added those duties to his already heavy
comic strip workload. Ably inked by Stan Kaye, Wayne established the
definitive Superman look for the next 11 years early on. The rest of the
artists tried vainly to match the master, but rarely succeeded.
In the splash, Lois, in a green dress with matching hat and a fur wrap, walks
down the street as Superman flies over head. This is Boring's signature pose,
Superman with right leg extended, left tucked up under his butt, and both
hands over his head; a brooding look on his face like he was carrying the fate
of the human race. (Well, he was.) "Don't bother me Superman! I've got
someone else on my mind! (SIGH)." says Lois, looking equally distracted.
Meanwhile little kids scrawl "Lois Lane loves Clark Kent" graffiti all over
the walls.
As the story begins, Clark is looking out of his office window and finds Lois
fainting in the middle of traffic. Quickly changing to Superman, he zips out
"like a plunging comet" and lifts an approaching truck over her head.
Superman then takes the dazed and confused reporter to a doctor for a checkup.
Unable to find anything wrong with her, the doctor gives her a word
association test to test her mental state. To his astonishment, everything he
says reminds her of Superman! The doctor tells Lois that she has a Superman
fixation. "You must transfer your love to a normal man! Perhaps someone in
your office!" Lois quickly runs down the available candidates and settles on
Clark. "He's kind and he means well, but he's so meek! How can a girl love a
washout like him?" she protests. "Force yourself!" the doctor replies. "Ten
dollars, please!"
Soon Lois asks Clark on a date, where he surprises her by actually using his
ingenuity to catch a purse snatcher. This Clark character isn't so bad after
all, she thinks, and finds herself genuinely interested in him. Clark,
however, finds Lois's constant doting an impediment. When he tries to get
away to stop a theater robbery, Lois won't let go of his hand. Fortunately
she's distracted by a Superman newsreel long enough for him to go into action.
Soon Clark is trying to figure out ways to get Lois to pay attention to
Superman again. "I can't marry Lois because it would interfere with
Superman's freedom... and Superman must remain free to fight crime!"
The answer to his dilemma comes in the form of a cattle stampede in the middle
of downtown Metropolis (!). Seeing Lois rush to file the story, Superman has
an idea. He speedily zips back to the Planet and hands the same story in as
Clark before Lois can finish dialing the phone. Furious that Clark has stolen
her story, Lois dumps him cold. "Newspaper reporting is my first love..." she
says, "Superman was my second, but you're only third!" In the last panel Lois
is back to mooning over Superman's portrait.
Lois's fierce independence would soon be sacrificed on the sitcom altar of the
Fifties. The new writers decided there was no place for such an indomitable
creature in the comfortable suburban decade that was to come. In the Fifties,
Lois' entire personality was to change. But that's a story for Tales From
Earth One. Next month.
_____________________________________________
STAR SYSTEM CATALOGUE
---------------------
Diamond Comic Distributors provides a backlist service known as the Star
System, which stocks hundreds of trade paperbacks, graphic novels, trading
cards, and more. If not already available at your local comic shop, items
available through the Star System can be shipped to them within a matter of
days. To purchase or order any of the products listed below, contact your
local comic shop owner/employee for details!
The following only lists Superman and Superman-related items available through
the Star System, as provided in the January 1998 issue of PREVIEWS. For
information on other Star System products, or for a more up to date listing,
again ask your local comic shop.
I list the Justice League of America and Legion of Super-Heroes Archives
because of their intimate links with the pre-Crisis Superman family.
Superman Trade Paperbacks/Graphic Novels
----------------------------------------
BATMAN & SUPERMAN ADVENTURES: WORLD'S FINEST
Prestige Format
Written by Paul Dini, Art by Joe Staton and Terry Beatty
$6.95 US/$9.95 CAN
THE DEATH OF SUPERMAN
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
ELSEWORLDS' FINEST #1-2
Prestige Format
Written by John Francis Moore, Art by Kieron Dwyer and Hilary Barta
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN (per issue)
THE GREATEST SUPERMAN STORIES EVER TOLD
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$15.95 US/$19.95 CAN
LEGENDS OF THE WORLD'S FINEST
Trade Paperback
Written by Walt Simonson, Art by Dan Brereton
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
LOIS AND CLARK: THE NEW ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$9.95 US/$13.50 CAN
THE MAN OF STEEL
Trade Paperback
Written by John Byrne, Art by John Byrne and Dick Giordano
$7.50 US/$9.95 CAN
THE RETURN OF SUPERMAN
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$19.95 CAN
SUPERMAN/BATMAN: ALTERNATE HISTORIES
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
SUPERMAN/DOOMSDAY: HUNTER/PREY
Trade Paperback
Written by Dan Jurgens, Art by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: BIZARRO'S WORLD
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$9.95 US/$13.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: THE DEATH OF CLARK KENT
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$19.95 US/$27.95
SUPERMAN: ERADICATION! THE ORIGIN OF THE ERADICATOR
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$12.95 US/$17.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: KRISIS OF THE KRIMSON KRYPTONITE
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$12.95 US/$17.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: PANIC IN THE SKY
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$9.95 US/$12.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: SPEEDING BULLETS
Prestige Format
Written by J.M. DeMatteis, Art by Eduardo Barreto
$4.95 US/$6.50 CAN
SUPERMAN: THE WEDDING ALBUM
Prestige Format
Written by various, Art by various
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: THE WEDDING AND BEYOND
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
SUPERMAN: WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE MAN OF TOMORROW?
Prestige Format
Written by Alan Moore
Art by Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, and George Perez
$5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
SUPERMAN SECRET FILES #1
Miraweb Format
Written by various, Art by various
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN
SUPERMAN'S METROPOLIS
Prestige Format
Written by R.J.M. Lofficier and Roy Thomas, Art by Ted McKeever
$5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
SUPERMAN VERSUS ALIENS
Trade Paperback
Written by Dan Jurgens, Art by Dan Jurgens and Kevin Nowlan
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
THE TRIAL OF SUPERMAN
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
WORLD WITHOUT A SUPERMAN
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$7.50 US/$9.95 CAN
WORLD'S FINEST
Trade Paperback
Written by Dave Gibbons, Art by Steve Rude and Karl Kesel
$19.95 US/$24.95 CAN
Superman-Related Trade Paperbacks/Graphic Novels
------------------------------------------------
THE AMALGAM AGE OF COMICS: THE DC COMICS COLLECTION
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$12.95 US/$17.95 CAN
DC/MARVEL: CROSSOVER CLASSICS II
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
DC VERSUS MARVEL/MARVEL VERSUS DC
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$12.95 US/$17.95 CAN
THE GREATEST 1950s STORIES EVER TOLD
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$17.50 CAN
THE GREATEST TEAM-UP STORIES EVER TOLD
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$14.95 US/$19.95 CAN
JLA: AMERICAN DREAMS
Trade Paperback
Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Howard Porter, John Dell, and various
$7.95 US/$10.95 CAN
JLA: NEW WORLD ORDER
Trade Paperback
Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Howard Porter and John Dell
$5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
JLA SECRET FILES #1 -- COLLECTOR'S EDITION
Miraweb Format
Written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, Art by various
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN
JLA/WILDC.A.T.S.
Prestige Format
Written by Grant Morrison, Art by Val Semeiks and Kevin Conrad
$5.95 US/$8.50 CAN
JUSTICE LEAGUE: A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE
Trade Paperback
Written by Mark Waid and Fabian Nicieza, Art by various
$8.95 US/$12.75 CAN
KINGDOM COME
Trade Paperback
Written by Mark Waid, Art by Alex Ross
$14.95 US/$20.95 CAN
LEAGUE OF JUSTICE #1-2
Prestige Format
Written by Ed Hannigan, Art by Ed Hannigan and Dick Giordano
$5.95 US/$8.95 CAN (per issue)
LEGENDS: THE COLLECTED EDITION
Trade Paperback
Written by John Ostrander and Len Wein, Art by John Byrne and Karl Kesel
$9.95 US/$12.95 CAN
RETURN TO THE AMALGAM AGE OF COMICS: THE DC COMICS COLLECTION
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$12.95 US/$17.95 CAN
SERGIO ARAGONES DESTROYS DC
Ons Shot
Written by Mark Evanier, Art by Sergio Aragones
$3.50 US/$4.95 CAN
STEEL: THE FORGING OF A HERO
Trade Paperback
Written by various, Art by various
$19.95 US/$27.95 CAN
STEEL: THE MOVIE ADAPTATION
Prestige Format
Written by Louise Simonson, Art by Jon Bogdanove and Dick Giordano
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN
WORLD'S FINEST 3: SUPERBOY/ROBIN #1-2
Prestige Format
Written by Chuck Dixon and Karl Kesel, Art by Tom Grummett and Scott Hanna
$4.95 US/$6.95 CAN (per issue)
ZERO HOUR: CRISIS IN TIME
Trade Paperback
Written by Dan Jurgens, Art by Dan Jurgens and Jerry Ordway
$9.95 US/$13.95 CAN
DC Archives
-----------
SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 1
Hardcover Book
Written by Jerry Siegel, Art by Joe Shuster
$49.95 US/$63.95 CAN
SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 2
Hardcover Book
Written by Jerry Siegel, Art by Joe Shuster
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 3
Hardcover Book
Written by and Art by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and various
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
SUPERMAN ARCHIVES VOL 4
Hardcover Book
Written by and Art by Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, and various
$49.95 US/$67.95 CAN
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARCHIVES VOL 1
Hardcover Book
Written by various, Art by various
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARCHIVES VOL 2
Hardcover Book
Written by various, Art by various
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA ARCHIVES VOL 3
Hardcover Book
Written by various, Art by various
$49.95 US/$69.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 1
Hardcover Book
Written by various, Art by various
$49.95 US/$67.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 2
Hardcover Book
Written by various, Art by various
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 3
Hardcover Book
Written by E. Hamilton and various, Art by Curt Swan and various
$39.95 US/$47.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 4
Hardcover Book
Written by Jerry Siegel and various, Art by various
$39.95 US/$51.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 5
Hardcover Book
Written by Jim Shooter and various, Art by Curt Swan and various
$49.95 US/$69.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 6
Hardcover Book
Written by Jim Shooter and various, Art by Curt Swan and various
$49.95 US/$70.95 CAN
LEGION OF SUPER-HEROES ARCHIVES VOL 7
Hardcover Book
Written by Jim Shooter, Art by Curt Swan and various
$49.95 US/$69.95 CAN
_____________________________________________
THE MAILBAG
-------------------------------------
(sykes@ms.uky.edu, KryptonCN@aol.com)
KC Responses are indented and begun with ****
=====================================================================
From: Gerry Alanguilan (coconuts@mindless.com)
I agree to a lot of what Jeff wrote in the last KC. There are 2 main reasons
why Superman does not sell as well as it should. First is that fans need to
buy all 4 issues to get a whole story. This interconnection of 4 titles
prevents individual writers from developing stories on their own and this can
be very limiting. It's no wonder a lot of the writers jumped ship. New
readers, I figure, would be confused that a story started, say, in _Action_
would be continued in another book... and then continued in *another* book.
It's too much to get, especially if one collects other comics that are good
too. I for one would like to see a stand-alone Superman book developed by
only one writer and one artist. Consistency is, I feel, the keyword here.
Secondly, I also agree that Superman would sell better if the editors could
entice big name creators to handle the books. Unfortunately, the better
writers would steer clear of the interconnecting stories between 4 books.
Alan Moore was irritated when _Swamp Thing_ had to crossover with _Crisis_.
Warren Ellis ditched _Wolverine_ because events in the book had to be in step
with what's been happening to the main X-Books. Separate the 4 books and get
the creators. I think continuity doesn't have to be as tight as it is. A
four-issue arc in _Superman_ could occur after a four-story arc in _Action_.
That way creators can develop a whole story on their own without worrying how
it would fit that week with the other 3 books.
Anyway, *creators*. Frank Miller has expressed desire to write a Superman
story in the past, so that is something to look forward to. Alex Ross also
mentioned doing a Superman book after _Uncle Sam_, so in that regard,
Superman's future is indeed promising. For regular creators, James Robinson
would be a good choice. Artists could include Adam Hughes. Get *any*
penciller and get Kevin Nowlan to ink it. Anything Kevin inks comes out
great! Getting him to pencil may be too much to ask, knowing how slow he is.
**** The possibility of simply having one title which doesn't follow the
weekly continuity has been mentioned to me on several occasions, and
seems like a reasonable possibility for those not wanting to sacrifice
the weekly flow of the current format. Perhaps, though, instead of
adding another title, one of the existing titles could just be removed
from the format to serve as the stand-alone. The flagship, _Action
Comics_, perhaps...
=====================================================================
**** The following letter is addressed to Enola Jones, concerning her article
last month. It contains several bits of additional information which
many of the fans may find interesting.
From: Jim Lesher (jlesher@npr.org)
I liked your article "Rising Above Limitations." That Superboy story you
mentioned was one of my favorite stories from the mid-1980's _Superboy_
series. I remember that I had a subscription to _Superboy_ back then, and it
arrived in the mail on a Friday afternoon, and I read and re-read it again and
again, it was such a good story. I still treasure it, and secretly hope that
they bring back that Superboy [i.e., the 'real' Superboy] one day...
As for the Superman story in which Clark has to pretend to be blind, I
remember reading that in one of the digests also, and I was able to find it
when I checked my collection. It was a two-part story, and [according to the
credits], it was drawn by Curt Swan and George Klein, and written by none
other than Jerry Siegel!!
In reading it, I made notes of additional information from the story that I'd
like to share with you: the blinding radiation actually came from 'the
ultimate terror,' a weapon that Superman confiscated from "a freedom-hating
dictator." He then turned over the weapon to the Pentagon for testing, in
hopes that they could persuade the U.N. to outlaw it.
It's interesting to note at this point how some things change, and how some
things don't change. In today's world, I don't think that even Superman would
feel comfortable turning over a new weapon of mass destruction to the
Pentagon, in hopes that they could be completely trustworthy with it.
However, the need for the U.N. to step in and curtail the proliferation of
such weapons is a problem that is still very much with us...
Anyway, back to the story: Superman then adopted 2 new secret identities. The
first was as a butler [i.e., 'the butler did it'], and the second was as an
English disc-jockey called [and so help me, I'm not making this up] 'Clark the
K, England's answer to Murray the K!' Instead of glasses, Clark wore a
monocle, and said things like "Tally Ho" and "That's A Bit of All Right!"
Needless to say, this story contains some of the worst would-be British
dialogue I have ever read.
You asked about Lana and Jimmy being handicapped. Well, I don't know about
Lana, but there was a post-Crisis, post-Byrne storyline in the Superman books
in which Superman, following his return from his exile in space, accidentally
infected Jimmy with an alien virus that caused his body to become pliable, not
unlike 'Elastic Lad,' but it was no fun for Jimmy. Of course, there are those
who say that being Jimmy Olsen is enough of a handicap in and of itself...
There was also Lucy Lane, Lois' sister, who had been blinded by a terrorist,
but whose blindness was cured by the first 'Bizarro' in John Byrne's "Man of
Steel" #5. Jose Delgado had his back broken when he was Gangbuster, and Emil
Hamilton lost an arm and had it replaced by an artificial arm a while back, if
memory serves. And don't forget when Lex Luthor lost a hand to Kryptonite
poisoning...
=====================================================================
From: Yosef Shoemaker (Mail relayed through sykes@ms.uky.edu)
Once again, congratulations on a job well done.
As for your comments that began,
"Is it possible that our society has become so cynical and jaded that it won't
support a moral, ethically-driven hero?"
and ended,
"I truly hope not, for it would be a sad commentary on 'how far we've come,'"
I can only say to you what Luthor said to Superman in the 1978 movie when
Superman described to him the nature of the San Andreas Fault:
"Wonderful. Couldn't have said it better myself."
I would also like to apologize for one error that crept into my piece.
Apparently, I did not distinguish clearly enough between what my summaries
were and what were quotes from Jerry Siegel himself. *I* should have made
clear that the following sentences were MY words:
"These included Superman's birth on Krypton, his being sent to Earth, and his
being raised to help people."
"These included Superman's dual identity."
The purist in me asks you to address my mistake in next issue's "Mailbag," if
you wouldn't mind.
**** Not at all. Mind you, though, the mistake is mine. My responsibility
as editor is to verify attributions, and I failed to do so in this
case. I will endeavor to make certain it does not happen again.
=====================================================================
From: Jay Mampel (jaymampel@aol.com)
I have read your editorial and I agree. Superman is as poorly written and
drawn now as I have ever seen him. I have been a Superman fan since 1958. I
think the problem, or one of the problems, in the writing dept. is that most
of the writers are obsessed with the Kirby stuff of the 70s. This stuff
didn't work then and it doesn't work now. Luthor does not do the damage and
is not the villain that he was as a mad scientist. Why can't he be both rich
man and mad scientist? Forget Brainiac -- what a mess they have made of him
as a villain for Superman. Superman is more than a bunch of super-villains
and battle scenes each issue. That is what is wrong with the Batman movies.
You have to have a good story along with the fight scenes. DC must hire some
good writers for the character (some of your suggestions are excellent). What
the current team should do is look at some of the great stories of the past.
You can't go back in time, I know, but to not look at what Superman was in his
great periods and adjust this to the 90s, I think, is a mistake. Good
creative writing and art never goes out of style. John Byrne started out
good, in my opinion, but when he left his successors didn't have a clue. One
suggestion might to bring back Elliott Maggin, who seems to be expressing a
desire to get back into comics. Another suggestion might be to bring back
Jerry Ordway for the art or at least for some covers. I really do not believe
that Superman is out of style or washed up but he sure needs a blood
transfusion. I do not even want to think about Nicolas Cage- what could
Warner Bros be thinking?
**** Ooh! Howsabout Jerry Ordway producing a painted cover for one of the
Superman titles each month, as he does for _Power of Shazam!_ I *like*
it!
It appears, in retrospect, that the post-Crisis incarnation of Superman
has had his ups and downs, much (I suspect) like the pre-Crisis Man of
Steel did. Aside from some die-hard pre-Crisis fans, most liked
Byrne's early work after the revamp, but then the titles slumped a bit.
However, by the early 1990s, much of the industry considered the
Superman titles to be among the best super-hero books in publication.
Then, after "Reign," yet another slump. I'd guess we're about due for
another high period, no?
=====================================================================
From: David Joseph Young, Jr. (dayoung@luna.cas.usf.edu)
I was looking through my files and all the back issues of KC which I have
saved on my computer, and I started to think that I might one day like to
print out hard copies to read at a later time and as "archives." One reason
is because I find that I usually just skim my favorite sections and don't
necessarily read the rest because I don't like to read large bodies of
material off a computer screen.
Then I started to wonder if this would infringe on your copyright disclaimers.
I would hate to do something which would infringe on your rights. The
portions of KC's "legal disclaimers" which I felt were relevant to this are as
follows--
"All original material published in The Kryptonian Cybernet, including but not
limited to reviews, articles, and editorials, are copyright 1997 by The
Kryptonian Cybernet and the respective authors. Reprinting in any format is
expressly forbidden without the permission of The Kryptonian Cybernet and the
contributing author.
"This magazine can be distributed, in whole, freely via e-mail. Should you
desire to share this publication with other on-line services, please contact
me at sykes@ms.uky.edu for permission. Feel free to advertise subscription
information on other on-line services which have internet mail availability."
Now I realize printing off copies and then selling them at my local comic shop
would obviously infringe on your rights. Could you clear up a couple of other
scenarios for me though?
First, the one I mentioned above. Would printing off a copy for more
comfortable reading or "archiving" be a violation of your rights and/or do we
have your permission to do so.
**** Printing a hard copy of KC is somewhat akin to making a backup copy of
a software installation program, which is a standard allowance on
almost all software license agreements. Printing a copy for personal
use is certainly permissible.
Second, how about if I wanted to advertise to customers at my shop what a
great e-mail magazine you have. Could I print out copies of one particular
issue and distribute them (for free) to demonstrate? This might get you some
more readers, but it may also be infringing on your rights. (I don't know if
I'd necessarily do this since it'd be a lot of paper and copying, but I'm
curious nonetheless.)
**** December's issue was approximately 3200 lines of 80-column text. With
a 12-point monospaced font, you can get about 65 lines of text per page.
That comes to about 50 pages, though it could certainly be printed more
efficiently. Regardless, that's a lot of paper and ink! :)
I would consider free distribution of printed copies to fall in the
same category of sharing the publication with other on-line services.
While I have no problem with such distribution, I would prefer to be
asked for permission, primarily so I know how far the magazine is
reaching.
In general, our main concern is that our intellectual property be
respected. As a matter of respect, one should always ask for
permission before reproducing another's work, and credit should
always be given to the original author and publication. As long as
these courtesies are observed, I'm not likely to refuse permission.
For reprinting of individual articles, the contributing author should
be contacted, as I will always defer to their preference.
=====================================================================
From: Rich Morrissey (RMorris306@aol.com)
As always, I greatly enjoyed the new KC. I agree with a lot of your ideas on
how things might be improved on the Superman books.
"...isn't it suspicious that in looking for writers, we keep turning not just
to artists, but to artists already a part of the Super-team? Why aren't
established writers being brought into the fold?"
Very true! This seems to be strictly a post-Crisis phenomenon: we never saw
Joe Shuster or Wayne Boring or Al Plastino or Curt Swan trying to write any of
the books. But from the very outset of the relaunch (by John Byrne, who first
rose to fame as the artist who drew Chris Claremont's X-Men stories), the vast
majority of stories have been by artists already on the team. Maybe it shows
that they can think visually, but, as a pre-Crisis fan, I think the plotting
has suffered immensely.
"GO AFTER SOME BIG GUNS. With a fervor. Try to rope in some big name writers
-- Morrison, Waid, Busiek, etc."
Ironically enough, Waid got his start in the industry writing Superman
stories...just *before* the Byrne revamp! Nobody was paying any attention,
but I said all along this might be a writer to watch. He loves Superman, and
would be an excellent choice...as would either of the other two.
I was going to suggest essentially the same thing as ShutUpRob did this time
in terms of the triangles...that it would make a lot more sense to let each
writer (and perhaps artist) see a single story arc through from beginning to
end than to continue with the rather pointless practice of assigning one
regular writer and artist to every *title,* as opposed to every story. (This,
too, only became standard at DC around 1976, apparently following Marvel's
lead. Except for the first few years, when Jerry Siegel wrote all the stories
in all the titles, Superman had never had a single regular writer.)
Speaking of which, I liked David's suggestions about the Archives...where,
once again, we run into continuity of title rather than continuity of
character, with even the titles of the Archives collections being
inconsistent. The _Superman Archives_ are reprints from _Superman_, but the
_Batman Archives_ was used as a title for reprints from _Detective Comics_, so
the reprints from the _Batman_ title had to be called _Dark Knight Archives_.
(I haven't got the new _Action_ collection; I'd thought it was to be called
something like _Man of Steel Archives_.) Yes, there are stories missing from
_World's Finest Comics_ and other miscellaneous giveaways and the like, but
some people might assume a title called _World's Finest Archives_ to feature
stories about Superman teaming up with Batman (which _World's Finest_ actually
didn't carry until #71, in 1954). I might suggest a single _World's Finest
Archive_ with both the Superman *and* Batman stories from each issue (and
there are some good ones in there...origin stories ranging from the original
Scarecrow and Metallo to the giant penny in the Batcave), if that wouldn't be
fragmenting the audience too much. (And, speaking as an immense fan of the
regular Golden Age Superman, I don't think SUPERMAN-TIM's stories...not
produced by the regular DC people...were all that good.)
=====================================================================
From: George Leventhal (gllspl@erols.com)
I completely agree with Jeffery Sykes' comments regarding the archives. I
would love to read them but don't want to spend more than $30 for a single
volume. I would buy them in softcover, or I would be fascinated in the
concept of archives on CD-ROM. Perhaps DC doesn't want to put its comics on
CD because of the ease of copying and printing the material?
**** There's certainly that risk, but there's probably not much more risk
than there is for the reproduction of printed material via color
copiers. Besides, I think that DC could probably find a software
company capable of encrypting the material sufficiently enough to
effectively eliminate that risk. Realistically, this isn't the kind
of thing that pirates would be spending a lot of time and resources
to crack.
=====================================================================
From: Kumanan (kwilson@fhs.csu.mcmaster.ca)
I just thought I'd give you my opinion on improving Superman.
I agreed with most of what you had to say, especially the last bit about how
society's values have changed. However, I believe there is one aspect of
Superman that will still have appeal to many readers. Ironically, it's the
aspect that was discarded in the Byrne version of Superman.
The pre-Byrne Superman was a tragic hero of sorts. Here was someone who lost
his parents not once but twice. He had very few close friends, no
girlfriends, and had to act as a klutz to maintain his secret identity. The
new Superman is more popular, has his parents, and is married.
Now, not to make generalizations, but many of the comic-buying public would
fall into the former category, particularly in the popularity area. Superman
represents to them that we are more than what we appear on the surface, that
despite our superficial appearance we are capable of great accomplishments. I
also believe many could identify with the pain the old Superman must have
carried around with him, being all alone, and yet continuing on nonetheless.
So if I wrote Superman comics I would kill his parents (that would make for a
great comic series if handled properly) and have his marriage break up. In
both circumstances it should happen as a result of his being a superhero. I
would also tone down the new "cool" Clark Kent.
A Superman all alone yet continuing to maintain his ideals would truly be an
inspirational figure.
**** Inspirational? Certainly. Would he sell? I don't know.
I think having Clark's parents survive was one of the best aspects of
the Byrne revamp, as it allowed for continued guidance when he met with
problems during his adult life. That said, I think the death of one or
both of his parents could be an exceptional story -- but not if done
anytime soon. It would almost certainly be one of those incredibly-
hyped stories accused of being a gimmick, regardless of the creators'
intentions. Plus, there have been quite enough death epics in the DCU
in recent years.
Having Clark's marriage break-up sounds to me like a horrible idea.
The only way I can imagine accepting it is through some sort of retcon.
I *hate* the idea of either Lois dying or Superman divorcing. Lois is
too integral a part of the myth to kill her, and Clark accepting a
divorce is just too far outside the moral character and personality
that's been developed in the past 60 years. Divorce would be giving
up, and Superman just doesn't do that.
=====================================================================
From: Derek Jackson (djackson@concentra.com)
Excellent article [on "Selling Superman"]! I agreed with most of your points.
I would just like to add something.
DC also needs to realize the power of the Internet as a selling and
advertisement tool. There are numerous things they can do, such as:
1) Put their comic books on line; Maybe put one triangle title a month online
for new readers; most people who currently read Superman also collect the
issues, so they would still retain that. If a lot of people began reading
online, they could put more advertising in. They could even put all the titles
on-line, and collectors would still buy the book. Or charge people; say $5.00
a month to read all the Superman titles and $20.00 to read all the DC titles.
2) Make their web site better. Their current site kind of stinks, although I
understand they hired someone to spruce it up. Make some interactive stuff.
3) Ask that in exchange for displaying art, web sites should have a link to
the DC web site. Let's face it, having Superman art on your web site is cool,
but a copyright violation without DC's permission. While DC (unlike a lot of
companies) hasn't pressed this issue, they could instead exploit it without
being jerks about it. Simply ask anyone using art copyrighted by them to have
their logo link on the main page. This is a reasonable request and allows
them exposure.
There is probably more stuff they could do in the Internet that I haven't
though of, but it is definitely a medium they need to explore to boost sales.
**** I foresee a day when publishing is done almost exclusively sans paper,
and the internet certainly seems to be the direction in which publishing
is headed. For the moment, however, I think it's just seen as another
way to advertise products -- this seems to me to be DC's primary
approach at the moment. Certainly there's the release of news and
information, but there's no product available.
The problem with online comics right now is the lack of speed on the
net. To make a readable image, there's a good bit of size involved,
which would tie up most modems. Hopefully, the new standard about to
be launched will help make this more viable.
As for copyright issues, I simply do not understand the corporate
mentality out there. Why the big boys are clamping down on fan
pages -- which do *nothing* more than provide *free* promotion for
the show and an opportunity for fans around the world to communicate
with each other -- is beyond me. As for DC, it's my understanding
that their primary concern is that their characters are not misused,
which is a reasonable approach.
By the way, using DC's art may or may not be copyright violation, as
it all depends upon the way in which that art is used. For example,
I've been instructed that use of an image as part of a critical review
falls under the fair use laws, and is why we can provide cover scans
of the titles that we review. Copyright law, I'm told, is about as
complex an area of law as one can find...
-- Jeff Sykes
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End of Section 10/Issue #46
