Category: Batman

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Vixen: Return of the Lion


By G. Willow Wilson & CAFU, with Bit, Josh Middleton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2512-4 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Welcome to Black History Month UK 2025. The theme this year is “Standing Firm in Power and Pride” and nobody ever accused us of being subtle…

In 1978 fashion model Mari Jiwe McCabe nearly became the first black woman to star in her own American comic book. Sadly, the infamous “DC Implosion” of that year saw the Vixen series cancelled before release. She eventually premiered three years later in Action Comics #521’s ‘The Deadly Rampage of the Lady Fox’ (by creator Gerry Conway and Superman mainstays Curt Swan & Frank Chiaramonte) and thereafter remained, lurking around the DC Universe until she joined a re-booted JLA (latterly dubbed “JLA Detroit”) in Justice League of America Annual #2.

A classic team-player, over intervening decades working within assorted JLA rosters, Suicide Squad, Ultramarine Corps, Checkmate and the Birds of Prey, Vixen’s origin has changed a lot less than most. It even remained mostly un-meddled-with when she made the jump to TV as part of the DC Legends of Tomorrow show.

Mari Jiwe comes from a line of warriors blessed by animist Trickster god Kwaku Anansi. The mythical creator of all stories claims to have designed her abilities – and those of fellow bestial hero Animal Man – allowing Vixen, through use of an arcane artefact dubbed the Tantu Totem, to channel the attributes and signature abilities of every animal that has ever lived.

As a child in M’Changa Province, Zambesi, Mari’s mother was killed by poachers and her missionary father murdered by his own brother over possession of the Totem. To thwart her uncle, the orphan moved to America, eventually becoming a fashion model to provide funding and cover for her mission of revenge…

At first a reluctant superhero, Vixen became one of the most effective crusaders on the international scene and was a key member of the Justice League (the one just before the New 52 Reboot). Previously, when her powers began to malfunction she was forced to confront Anansi himself (for which tales see Justice League of America: Sanctuary and Justice League of America: Second Coming).

Scripted by author, essayist, journalist and comics scribe G. Willow Wilson (Cairo, Air, Ms. Marvel, Wonder Woman) and illustrated by Carlos Alberto Fernandez Urbano AKA CAFU (Action Comics, T.H.U.N.D.E.R. Agents, Imperium, Unity), Vixen: Return of the Lion was originally seen as a 5-part miniseries in 2009. We open here with ‘Predators’ wherein a League operation uncovers a plot by techno-thugs Intergang to fund a revolution in troubled African nation Zambesi.

Amongst impounded files is a record “proving” that 15 years earlier, Vixen’s mother was actually killed by Aku Kwesi, a local warlord working with the American criminal organisation. When Mari learns this truth, not even Superman can stop her from heading straight to her old village to find the man responsible. Africa is not America, however, and the lawless settlement has no time for a woman who does not know her place – even if she does have superpowers. When Kwesi appears, Vixen’s abilities are useless against him and she escapes with her life only because the warlord’s lieutenant Sia intervenes…

In ‘Prey’, broken, gravely wounded Mari is dumped in the veldt by Sia and staggers her way across the war-ravaged plain, battling beasts and hallucinating – or maybe meeting real ghosts – until she is attacked by a young lion and rescued by a holy man.

Alarmed at Vixen’s disappearance and further discoveries connecting Kwesi to Intergang, the JLA mobilise in ‘Sanctuary’ as lost Vixen slowly recuperates in a place where the constant conflicts of fang & claw survival are suspended. Here, saintly Brother Tabo offers Mari new perspective and greater understanding of her abilities. Her JLA colleagues, meanwhile, have exposed Intergang’s infiltration but fallen to a power even Superman could not resist…

As the League struggles against overwhelming odds, ‘Risen’ sees a transcendent Vixen flying to the rescue, and picking up some unexpected allies before facing her greatest challenge in shocking conclusion ‘Idols’, wherein more hidden truths are revealed and a greater mystery begins to unfold…

Featuring a gallery of stunning covers by Josh Middleton, this is an exceptional and moodily exotic piece of Fights ‘n’ Tights fluff to delight devotees of the genre and casual readers alike, and one long overdue for re-release and inclusion in the growing library of environmentally-beneficial digital comics and books. This gem isn’t even available digitally and that’s just a crime against comics consuming nature…
© 2006, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1940 was the birthday of groundbreaking comics auteur Richard Corben, creator of Den, although we rather liked his Haunt of Horror: Lovecraft. It also marks the first appearance of Zack Mosely’s Smilin’ Jack newspaper strip, and the passing of Golden Age great Bob Powell, who we most recently lauded via Bob Powell’s Complete Cave Girl.

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DC Finest: The Spectre – The Wrath of the Spectre


By Gardner F. Fox, Bob Haney, Mike Friedrich, Steve Skeates, Dennis J. O’Neil, Mark Hanerfeld, Jack Miller, Michael L. Fleisher, Paul Kupperberg, Mike W. Barr, Roy Thomas, Murphy Anderson, Carmine Infantino, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Neal Adams, Jerry Grandenetti, Jack Sparling, Bernie Wrightson, José Delbo, Jim Aparo, Frank Thorne, Ernie Chan, Michael R. Adams, Rick Hoberg, Jerry Ordway, Richard Howell, Larry Houston, Gerald Forton & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3417-1 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is another long-awaited full colour chronolgically curated compilation delivering “affordably priced, large- paperback collections” highlighting DC’s past glories. Sadly, none are yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Win’s Christmas Gift Recommendation: Sublime Seasonal Spookfest for Comics Addicts… 10/10

Created by Jerry Siegel & Bernard Baily in 1940 and debuting via a 2-part origin epic in More Fun Comics #52 & 53, The Spectre is one of the oldest characters in DC’s vast character stable. Crucially, just like Siegel’s other iconic creation, the Ghostly Guardian soon began suffering from a basic design flaw: he was just too darn powerful. However, unlike Superman this relentless champion of justice is already dead, so he can’t really be logically or dramatically imperilled. Moreover, in those far off early days that wasn’t nearly as important as sheer spectacle: forcibly grabbing the reader’s utter attention and keeping it stoked to a fantastic fever pitch.

Starting as a virtually omnipotent phantom, the Astral Avenger evolved over various revivals, refits and reboots into a tormented mortal soul bonded inescapably to the actual embodiment of the biblical Wrath of God…

The story is a genuinely gruesome one: police detective Jim Corrigan is callously executed by gangsters before being called back to the land of the living. Commanded to fight crime and evil by a glowing light and disembodied voice, he was indisputably the most formidable hero of the Golden Age. He has been revamped many times, and in the 1990s was revealed to be God’s own Spirit of Vengeance wedded to a human conscience. When Corrigan was finally laid to rest, Hal (Green Lantern) Jordan and murdered Gotham City cop Crispus Allen replaced him as the mitigating conscience of the unstoppable, easily irked force of Divine Retribution. Last time I looked, Corrigan had the job again…

However, the true start of that radically revitalised career began in the superhero-saturated mid-1960s when, hot on the heels of feverish fan-interest in the alternate world of the Justice Society of America and Earth-2 (where all their WWII heroes retroactively resided), DC began trying out solo revivals of 1940’s characters, as a counterpoint to such wildly successful Silver Age reconfigurations as Flash, Green Lantern, Atom and Hawkman…

This colossal compilation documents the almighty Man of Darkness’ resurrection in the Swinging Sixties, his landmark reinterpretation in the horror-soaked, brutalised 1970s and even finds room for some later appearances before the character was fully de-powered and retrofitted for the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths DC Universe. As such, this Spectre-acular tome of terror (660 subtly sinister peril-packed pages!) re-presents material from Showcase #60, 61 & 64; team-up tales from The Brave and the Bold #72, 75, 116, 180 & 199; The Spectre #1-10; lead strips from Adventure Comics #431-440: a tryptich serial from horror-anthology Ghosts #97-99 and a wartime-set saga from JSA retro hit All-Star Squadron #27-28: cumulatively channelling January/February 1966 to December 1983.

Back in the Sixties DC had attempted a number of Earth-2 team-iterations (Starman & Black Canary – with Wildcat – in The Brave and the Bold #61-62, whilst Showcase #55 & 56 spotlighted Doctor Fate & Hourman, with a cameo from the original Green Lantern), but inspirational editor Julie Schwartz & scripter Gardner F. Fox only finally achieved their ambition to relaunch a Golden Age hero into his own title with the revival of the Ghostly Guardian in Showcase. It had been hard going and perhaps ultimately happened only thanks to a growing general public taste for supernatural stories…

After three full length appearances and many guest-shots, The Spectre won his own solo series at the end of 1967, just as the superhero craze went into steep decline, but arguably Showcase #60 (cover-dated January/February 1966 but actually on sale from Novenember 25th 1965) anticipated the rise of supernatural comics by re-introducing Corrigan and his phantom passenger in ‘War That Shook the Universe’ by Earth-2 team supreme Fox & illustrator Murphy Anderson. This spectacular saga reveals why the Heroic Haunt had vanished two decades previously, leaving fundamentally human (but dead) Corrigan to pursue his war against evil on merely mortal terms – until a chance encounter with a psychic investigator frees the spirit buried deep within him. A diligent search reveals that, 20 years previously, a supernal astral invader broke into the Earth plane and possessed a mortal, but was so inimical to our laws of reality that both it and the Grim Ghost were locked into their meat shells until now…

Thus began a truly Spectre-acular (feel free to groan, but that’s what they called it back then) clash with devilish diabolical Azmodus that spans all creation and blew the minds of us gobsmacked kids…

Showcase #61 (March/April) upped the ante as even more satanic Shathan the Eternal subsequently insinuates himself into our realm from ‘Beyond the Sinister Barrier’: stealing mortal men’s shadows until he is powerful enough to conquer the physical universe. This time The Spectre treats us to an exploration of the universe’s creation before narrowly defeating the source of all evil…

The Sentinel Spirit paused before re-manifesting in Showcase #64 (September/October 1966) for a marginally more mundane but no less thrilling case after ‘The Ghost of Ace Chance’ takes up residence in Jim’s body. By this time, it was established that ghosts need a mortal anchor to recharge their ectoplasmic “batteries”, with this unscrupulous crooked gambler determined to inhabit the best frame available…

Try-out run concluded, the editors sat back and waited for sales figures to dictate the next move. When they proved inconclusive, Schwartz orchestrated a concerted publicity campaign to further promote Earth-2’s Ethereal Adventurer. Thus The Brave and the Bold #72 (June/ July 1967) saw the Sentinel Spook clash with Earth-1’s Scarlet Speedster in ‘Phantom Flash, Cosmic Traitor’ (by Bob Haney, Carmine Infantino & Charles “Chuck” Cuidera). This sinister saga sees the mortal meteor arcanely transformed into a sinister spirit-force and power-focus for expired but unquiet American aviator Luther Jarvis who returns from his death in 1918 to wreak vengeance on the survivors of his squadron – until the Spectre intervenes…

Due to the vagaries of comic book scheduling, B&B #75 (December 1967/January 1968) appeared at around the same time as The Spectre #1, although the latter had a cover-date of November/December 1967. In this edition it follows the debut of the haunted hero in his own title…

‘The Sinister Lives of Captain Skull’, by Fox & Anderson, divulges how the botched assassination of American Ambassador Joseph Clanton and an experimental surgical procedure allows one of the diplomat’s earlier incarnations to seize control of his body and, armed with mysterious eldritch energies, run amok on Earth. These “megacyclic energy” abilities enable the revenant to harm and potentially destroy the Grim Ghost, compelling the Spectre to pursue the piratical Skull through a line of previous lives until he can find their source and purge the peril from all time and space. Meanwhile over in the Batman team-up tale – scripted by Haney and limned by Ross Andru & Mike Esposito – Ghostly Guardian joins Dark Knight to liberate Earth-One Gotham City’s Chinatown from ‘The Grasp of Shahn-Zi!’: an ancient oriental sorcerer determined to prolong his reign of terror at the expense of an entire community and through the sacrifice of an innocent child, after which the Astral Avenger proceeded on Earth-Two in his own title…

With #2 (January/February 1968) artistic iconoclast Neal Adams came aboard for Fox-scripted mystery ‘Die Spectre – Again’ wherein crooked magician Dirk Rawley accidentally manifests his etheric self and severely tests both Corrigan and his phantom lodger as they seek to end the double-menace’s string of crimes, mundane and magical. At this time, the first inklings of a distinct separation and individual identities began. The two halves of the formerly sole soul of Corrigan were beginning to disagree and even squabble…

Neophyte scripter Mike Friedrich joined Adams for #3’s ‘Menace of the Mystic Mastermind’ wherein pugilistic paragon Wildcat faces the inevitable prospect of age and infirmity even as an inconceivable force from another universe possesses petty thug Sad Jack Dold, turning him into a nigh-unstoppable force of cosmic chaos.

Next, ‘Stop that Kid… Before He Wrecks the World’ was written & illustrated by Adams with a similar trans-universal malignity deliberately empowering a young boy as a prelude to its ultimate conquest, whilst #5’s ‘The Spectre Means Death?’ (all Adams again) appears to show the Astral Adept transformed into a pariah and deadly menace to society, until Corrigan’s investigations uncover emotion-controlling villain Psycho Pirate at the root of the Heroic Haunt’s problems…

Despite the incredible talent and effort lavished upon it, The Spectre simply wasn’t finding a big enough audience. Adams left for superhero glory elsewhere and a hint of changing tastes emerged as veteran horror comics illustrator Jerry Grandenetti came aboard. Issue #6 (September/October 1968) saw his eccentric, manic cartooning adding raw wildness to the returning Fox’s moody thriller ‘Pilgrims of Peril!’ Anderson also re-enlisted, applying a solid ink grounding to the story of a sinister quartet of phantom Puritans who invade the slums of Gateway City, driving out the poor and hopeless as they hunt long-lost arcane treasures. These would allow demon lord Nawor of Giempo access to Earth unless Spectre can win his unlife or death duel with the trans-dimensional horror…

As the back of #7 was dedicated to a solo strip starring Hourman (not included here), The Spectre saga here – by Fox, Grandenetti & Anderson – was a half-length tale following the drastic steps necessary to convince the soul of bank-robber Frankie Barron to move on. As he was killed during a heist, the astral form of aversion therapy used to cure ‘The Ghost That Haunted Money!’ proves not only ectoplasmically effective but outrageously entertaining…

Issue #8 (January/February 1969) was scripted by Steve Skeates and began a last-ditch and obviously desperate attempt to turn The Spectre into something the new wave of anthology horror readers would buy.

As a twisted, time-lost apprentice wizard struggles to return to Earth after murdering his master and stealing cosmic might from the void, on our mundane plane an exhausted Ghostly Guardian neglects his duties and is taken to task by his celestial creator. As a reminder of his error, the Penitent Phantasm is burdened by a fluctuating weakness – which would change without warning – to keep him honest and earnest. What a moment then, for desperate disciple Narkran to return, determined to secure an elevated god-like existence by securing ‘The Parchment of Power Perilous!’…

The Spectre #9 completed the transition, opening with an untitled short from Friedrich (illustrated by Grandenetti & Bill Draut) finding the Man of Darkness again overstepping his bounds by executing a criminal. This prompts Corrigan to refuse the weary wraith the shelter of his reinvigorating form and when the Grim Ghost then assaults his own host form, the Heavenly Voice punishes the spirit by chaining him to the dreadful Journal of Judgment: demanding he atone by investigating the lives inscribed therein in a trial designed to teach him again the value of mercy.

The now anthologised issue continued with ‘Abraca-Doom!’ (Dennis J. O’Neil & Bernie Wrightson) as The Spectre attempts to stop a greedy carnival conjurer signing a contract with the Devil, whilst ‘Shadow Show’ – by Mark Hanerfeld & Jack Sparling – details the fate of a cheap mugger who thinks he can outrun the consequences of a capital crime. The Spectre gave up the ghost, folding with #10 (May/June 1969), but not before a quartet of tantalising tales shows what might have been. ‘Footsteps of Disaster’ (Friedrich, Grandenetti & George Roussos) follow a man from cradle to early grave, revealing the true wages of sin, whilst ‘Hit and Run’ (Steve Skeates & Jose Delbo) proves again that the Spirit of Judgment is not infallible and even human scum might be redeemed. Jacks Miller & Sparling asked ‘How Much Can a Guy Take?’ with a shoeshine boy pushed almost too far by an arrogant mobster before the series closed with a cunning murder mystery involving what appeared to be a killer ventriloquist’s doll in Miller, Grandenetti & Roussos’ ‘Will the Real Killer Please Rise?’ With that the Astral Avenger returned to comic book limbo for nearly half a decade until changing tastes and another liberalising of the Comics Code saw him arise as lead feature in Adventure Comics #431 (January/February 1974) for a shocking run of macabre, ultra-violent tales from Michael L. Fleisher, Jim Aparo and friends

‘The Wrath of… The Spectre’ offered a far more stark, unforgiving take on the Sentinel Spirit; reflecting the increasingly violent tone of the times. Here, a gang of murderous thieves slaughter the crew of a security truck and are tracked down by a harsh, uncompromising police lieutenant named Corrigan. When the bandits are exposed, the cop unleashes a horrific green and white apparition from his body which inflicts ghastly punishments horrendously fitting their crimes.

With art continuity (and no, I’m not sure what that means either) from Russell Carley, the draconian encounters continue in #432 as in ‘The Anguish of… The Spectre’ assassins murder millionaire Adrian Sterling and Corrigan meets the victim’s daughter. Although the now-infallible Wrathful Wraith soon exposes and excises the culprits, the dead detective has to reveal his true nature to grieving Gwen. Moreover, Corrigan begins to feel the stirring of impossible, unattainable yearnings…

Adventure #433 exposed ‘The Swami and… The Spectre’ with Gwen seeking spiritual guidance from a ruthless charlatan who promptly pays an appalling price when he finally encounters an actual ghost, whilst #434’s ‘The Nightmare Dummies and… The Spectre’ (with additional pencils by Frank Thorne), reveals a plague of department store mannequins running wild in a killing spree at the behest of a crazed artisan who believes in magic – but cannot imagine the cost of his dabbling. AC #435 introduces journalist Earl Crawford who tracks ghastly fallout of the vengeful spirit’s anti-crime campaign in ‘The Man Who Stalked The Spectre!’ Of course, once he sees the ghost in grisly action, Crawford realises the impossibility of publishing this scoop…

Adventure #436 finds Crawford still trying to sell his implausible story as ‘The Gasmen and… The Spectre’ sets the Spectral Slaughterman on the trail of a gang who kill everyone at a car show as a simple demonstration of intent before blackmailing the city. Their gorily inescapable fate only puts Crawford closer to exposing Corrigan…

Meanwhile elsewhere, Haney & Aparo reunite Batman, Detective Corrigan and a far kinder Spectre for Brave and the Bold #116’s ‘Grasp of the Killer Cult’, as the heroes hunt WWII veterans targetted by the spirits of dead Kali worshippers on a murder spree to generate enough arcane energy to resurrect their goddess, before Adventure #437’s ‘The Human Bombs and… The Spectre’ (pencilled by Ernie Chan with Aparo inks) sees a kidnapper abduct prominent persons – including Gwen – to further a mad scheme to amass untold wealth… until the Astral Avenger ends both financial aspirations and deadly depredations forever.

Despite critical acclaim – and popular controversy – the weird writing was on the wall for the grimmest ghost ever and AC #438 heralded the beginning of the end in Fleischer, Chan & Aparo’s ‘The Spectre Haunts the Museum of Fear’. Here a deranged taxidermist turns people into unique dioramas until the original spirit of vengeance intervenes. The end was in sight again for the Savage Shade and #439’s ‘The Voice that Doomed… The Spectre’ (all Aparo art) turns the wheel of death full circle, as the Heavenly Presence who created him allows Corrigan to fully live again so that he can marry Gwen. Sadly, it’s only to have the joyous hero succumb to ‘The Second Death of The… Spectre’ in the next, last issue (#440, July/ August 1975) before tragically resuming his never-ending mission. This milestone serial set a stunning new tone and style for the Ghostly Guardian which has informed each iteration ever since…

By the early 1980s, the latest horror boom had exhausted itself and DC’s anthology comics were disappearing. As part of the effort to keep them alive, Ghosts featured a 3-part serial starring “Ghost-Breaker” and inveterate sceptic Dr. Terry 13 who at last encounters ‘The Spectre’ in issue #97 (February 1981, by Paul Kupperberg, Michael R. Adams & Tex Blaisdell). Here, terrorists invade a high society séance and are summarily dispatched by the inhuman poetic justice of a freshly-manifested Astral Avenger. Resolved to destroy the sadistic revenant vigilante, recently converted true beliver Dr. 13 returns in #98 when‘The Haunted House and The Spectre’ finds the Ghost-Breaker interviewing Earl Crawford and subsequently discovering the long-sought killer of his own father. Before 13 can act, however, the Spectre appears to hijack his justifiable retribution…

The drama ends in Ghosts #99 as ‘Death… and The Spectre’ (inked by Tony DeZuñiga) sees scientist and spirit locked in one final furious confrontation. Then more team-up classics from Brave and the Bold follow, beginning with ‘The Scepter of the Dragon God’ (by Fleisher & Aparo from #180, November 1980). Although Chinese wizard Wa’an-Zen steals enough mystic artefacts to conquer Earth and destroy The Spectre, he gravely underestimates the skill and bravery of merely mortal Batman, before #199’s ‘The Body-napping of Jim Corrigan’ (June 1983 by Mike W. Barr, Andru & Rick Hoberg), depicts the undead investigator baffled by the abduction and disappearance of his mortal host. Even though he cannot trace his own body, the Spectre knows where the World’s Greatest Detective hangs out…

This staggering compendium of supernatural thrillers concludes with a two-part saga from revivalist treat All-Star Squadron #27 & 28 as Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Richard Howell, Larry Houston & Gerald Forton take us back to embattled 1942 where America’s greatest superheroes strive against the last outbreak of fascist tendencies.

Here the Golden Age Superman, Batman and Robin join Doctor Fate, Tarantula, Firebrand, The Atom, Hawkman, Phantom Lady, Amazing Man, Commander Steel, Dr. Mid-nite, Starman, Sandman, Flash, The Guardian, Johnny Thunder, Green Lantern, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle and Wonder Woman go in search of a missing ghostly Guardian only to learn ‘A Spectre is Hanting the Multiverse!’ with the mightiest being in creation enslaved to pan-dimensional tyrant Kulak, High Priest of Brztal and facilitating a long-anticipated scheme to eradicate Earth, it’s no small mercy that humanity has other uncanny defenders – such as Sargon the Sorceror – to call upon…

Although an incongruously superhero-heavy tale to end on this compilation covers much of the darlest corners of DC legend and fable. With covers by Anderson, Infantino, Jack Adler, Adams, Grandenetti, Nick Cardy, Aparo, Tatjana Wood, George Tuska, Anthony Tollin & Jerry Ordway, and ranging from fabulously fantastical to darkly, violently enthralling, these comic masterpieces perfectly encapsulate the way superheroes changed over a brief 20-year span, but remain throughout some of the most beguiling and exciting tales of the company’s canon. If you love comic books you’d be crazy to ignore this one.
© 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1975, 1981, 1983, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

On this day in 1867 strip pioneer Winsor McCay was born. Check out Daydreams and Nightmares – The Fantastic Visions of Winsor McCay for more.

Today in 1938 Belgian giant Raoul Cauvin was born. Bluecoats volume 18: Duel in the Channel was the last book of his we covered, whilst in 1946, the first issue of Le Journal de Tintin went on sale. Stuff from there like Blake and Mortimer is all over this site. Just use the search box and see…

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Superman: Phantom Zone


By Steve Gerber, Gene Colan, Rick Veitch, Tony DeZuñiga & Bob Smith (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-4051-6 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Today would have been Steve Gerber’s 78th birthday. For no appreciable reason, he would have found that to be quite funny. You should go read more comics by him. Here’s some many people don’t immediately think of when listing his so-many sublime star turns…

Once upon a time for fans and comics creators alike continuity could be a harsh mistress. When maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for made-up worlds we inhabited was paramount, the greatest casualty of semi-regular reboots and sweeping changes, often meant some terrific tales suddenly never happened. Everything goes now of course, thanks to parallel world-ery, but way back whenever, it was a most painful time for me…

Many examples of this wholesale binning of entire charm-drenched mythologies happened but the convergent growth of graphic novels fortunately provided a sanctuary of sorts, such as this paean of pictorial praise for the mythology had evolved around Superman in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986.

Thankfully DC has always understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This slim, trim spectral selection gathers superb 4-issue miniseries The Phantom Zone (originally appearing from January to April 1982) and includes the very last pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths Zone yarn as first seen in DC Comics Presents #97 (September 1986). It also simultaneously celebrates the stylish and enthralling scripting of unique comics voice Steve Gerber and his most ardent collaborator Gene (Howard the Duck, Stewart the Rat) Colan.

Gerber was a uniquely gifted writer who combined a deep love of comic book continuity minutiae with dark, irrepressible wit, incisive introspection, barbed socio-cultural criticism, a barely reigned-in imagination and boundless bizarre surrealism. His stories were always at the extreme edge of any mainstream company’s intellectual canon and never failed to deliver surprise and satisfaction, especially when he couched his sardonic sorties as thinly-veiled attacks on burgeoning cultural homogenisation and commercial barbarity.

This riotous recapitulation of all that lost Man of Tomorrow ficto-history begins in ‘The Haunting of Charlie Kweskill!’ as the eponymous Daily Planet paste-up artist collapses at work. The solitary little dweeb has been sleeping badly, plagued by nightmares of a life on long-gone planet Krypton. His dreams detail how brilliant scientist Jor-El devised a non-lethal way to deal with Krypton’s most incorrigible criminals: human monsters such as Jax-Ur, Professor Va-Kox, Dr. Xadu, sadistic psycho-killer Faora Hu-Ul, potential dictator General Dru-Zod, and even Jor’s own bad & crazy cousin Kru-El…

Many lesser menaces like psionic aberrants Az-Rel and Nadira were also banished to the misty twilit realm, as well as stranger outcasts like callous biological experimenter Nam-Ek, but the one who most catches Charlie’s attention is fraudster Quex-Ul; a Kryptonian who appears to be Charlie’s doppelganger…

Of course, the dreams are all true: telepathic broadcasts beamed at Charlie by Zone inmates from within the plane of timeless intangibility. Quex-Ul had been one of them, surviving long after Krypton died, but was innocent of his crimes. He had been framed and mind-controlled by a mastermind who had deservedly perished when the Red Sun world detonated. Once Superman corrected the injustice and released the poor dupe, Qwex-Ul had saved the Man of Steel from a Gold Kryptonite trap, thereby losing his inherent Kryptonian abilities and memory in the process. The grateful, heartsick Action Ace had found the amnesiac a job at the Planet and almost forgot his alien origins in the years since. Charlie’s former fellow inmates had not…

Their telepathic onslaught turns Kweskill into a somnambulistic slave, unknowingly spending his nights breaking into labs and stealing high-tech components. Superman, slowly putting the puzzle pieces together, is just too late to thwart the stealthy scheme, and as he bursts into Charlie’s apartment a hastily cobbled together Phantom Zone projector hurls him and the hapless mind-slave into the ghostly region, whilst simultaneously freeing a legion of the cruellest and most bored criminals in existence…

The saga expands with ‘Earth Under Siege!’ as Superman and Charlie helplessly watch Zod, Jax-Ur, Va-Kox, Faora and Kru-El immediately undertake the next stage of their plan, leaving passively nihilistic Az-Rel and Nadira to negligently torture monstrous Nam-Ek with their psychic talents when not mocking the ranting liturgies of religious zealot Jer-Em, whose manic bigotry and fundamentalist isolationism caused the death of every person in Argo City…

Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El had been born on the city-sized fragment of Krypton, hurled intact into space when the doomed world detonated. Eventually, Argo turned to Green Kryptonite like most of Krypton’s detonated debris, and her dying parents, observing Earth through their scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished. On Earth, the teenager met the Man of Steel who created for her the identities of Linda Lee and Supergirl, concealing her from the wider world whilst she learned all about her new home… and how to use her astounding new abilities in secrecy and safety.

As the emotionally disconnected, disaffected and doubly alienated youths laconically saunter through Metropolis; casually slaughtering cops and citizens, Zod’s more motivated cronies have reached Superman’s Fortress of Solitude and destroyed the only means of returning them to their extra-dimensional dungeon.

The next move is attacking the Justice League satellite, hurling it and occupants Flash, Red Tornado, Zatanna, Black Canary, Elongated Man, Firestorm & Aquaman on a non-stop trajectory out of the Solar System. Rampant Kryptonians destroy Earth’s communications satellites and trigger a mass launch of nuclear missiles, leaving Wonder Woman and Supergirl to narrowly avert atomic Armageddon whilst the frantic Man of Tomorrow can only watch in horror…

Not every Zone inhabitant is a criminal. For instance, Daxamite Mon-El was exposed to common lead in ‘Superboy’s Big Brother’ (by Robert Bernstein & Papp in June 1961’s Superboy #89) when his lingering, inexorable death was only forestalled by depositing the dying alien in the Zone until a cure could be found. Now, as Green Lantern faces the Zod Squad on Earth only to be soundly beaten and have his Power Battery stolen, Mon-El informs Charlie and Superman of a possible back way out of the realm of hellish nullity…

On Earth, as Wonder Woman subdues Nam-Ek, Supergirl checks in with Batman, desperately trying to ascertain where Superman has gone. As the Dark Knight heads to Metropolis to investigate, Kara returns to the Fortress and is ambushed by Kryptonian escapees and beaten near to death…

With no other choice, Charlie and Superman reluctantly pass through a dimensional portal even the obsessed villains were too scared to risk, encountering surreal madness in ‘The Terror Beyond Twilight!’…

Back in the physical world of touch and time, Supergirl saves herself from ghastly atomic disintegration as Charlie and Superman pass through stormy turbulence and a tedious waiting-room-realm before arriving on a peculiar plane where they are confronted by luscious sirens with impossible riddles and exploding heads. Their narrow escape from the Priestesses of the Crimson Sun only leads to Kryptonian wizard Thul-Kar who magicked himself into the Zone in ages past and now slavishly serves an erratic, malevolent sentient universe named Aethyr. It wants to consume Charlie and Superman but only by passing through it can they reach the physical world again…

On Earth, chaos reigns. Batman is utterly unable to pacify extremist Jer-Em, who deems the planet impure, unclean and unholy. He would rather die than soil his Kryptonian purity here.

… And high above the world, other freed villains have their own plan to fix the situation: a gigantic Phantom Zone Cannon to inexorably and eternally banish Earth into the twilight dimension in the course of one full rotation…

The drama comes to a tragic conclusion in ‘The Phantom Planet!’ as Az-Rel and Nadira, having found kindred spirits amongst Metropolis’ disenfranchised Punk Rock counterculture – before killing them – encounter Jer-Em in martyr mode. The now-suicidal cleric is quite keen on taking the rest of the apostate Kryptonians with him…

As the world turns into intangibility, in France, Faora has briefly resumed her passion for murdering males (before they’re all gone) whilst in Aethyr’s universe an appalling sacrifice enables Superman to return to physicality just in time to lead a last desperate charge, saving the day and putting the villains back where they belong… those still alive, that is…

The remainder of this fantastic collection recounts the tying up of all those intriguing concepts and loose ends in a spectacular sidebar to the end of DC’s original universe.

In 1986 the company celebrated its 50th year with groundbreaking Crisis on Infinite Earths: radically overhauling a convoluted multiversal continuity and starting afresh. All Superman titles were cancelled or suspended pending a back-to-basics reboot courtesy of John Byrne, allowing for a number of very special farewells to the old mythology. One of the most intriguing and challenging came in the last issue of DC Comics Presents (#97) wherein ‘Phantom Zone: the Final Chapter’ by Gerber, Rick Veitch & Bob Smith offered a creepy adieu to a number of Superman’s greatest foes.

Tracing Jor-El’s discovery of the Phantom Zone through to imminent multiversal annihilation, this dark yarn built on Gerber’s landmark miniseries and revealed that the dread region of nothingness was in fact a sentient echo of a dead universe which had always regarded the creatures deposited within it as irritants and agonising intruders.

Now as cosmic carnage reigns Aethyr, still served by Kryptonian mage Thul-Kar, causes the destruction of the Bizarro World “Htrae” and the deification/corruption of Fifth Dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk, as well as the subsequent crashing of Argo City on Metropolis. As a result Zod and fellow immaterial inmates are freed to wreak havoc upon Earth – but only until the now-crystalline pocket dimension merges with and absorbs the felons, before implausibly abandoning Superman to face his uncertain future as the very Last Son of Krypton…

Superman has proven to be all things to all fans over his decades of existence and Gerber’s takes on these timeless tales of charm, joy and wholesome wit are unique and more necessary than ever: not just as a reminder of great tales of the past but as an all-ages primer of wonders still to come…
© 1982, 1986, 2013 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superboy: A Celebration of 75 Years


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Bill Finger, Otto Binder, Robert Bernstein, Jim Shooter, Paul Levitz, Gerry Conway, Elliot S! Maggin, Geoff Johns, Karl Kesel, Brian Michael Bendis, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, John Sikela, Curt Swan, Al Plastino, George Papp, James Sherman, Joe Staton, Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, Tom Grummett, Dusty Abell, Matthew Clark, Francis Manapul, Viktor Bogdanovic, Jonathan Glapion & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-9951-4 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Superman was the initiating spark that created the superhero genre. Without him we would have no modern gods to worship. However, within a decade of his launch, creators Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster had evolved a revised a concept nearly as powerful and persistent: the sheer delight of a child no adult could dominate or control…

Ever-innovating DC’s Universe has hosted many key entertainment concepts that have done much to bring about the vibrant comics industry of today. This stunning compilation – part of a series reintroducing and exploiting the comics pedigree of veteran DC icons and concepts – is available in hardback and digital formats and offers an all-too-brief sequence of snapshots detailing how one of the most beguiling came to be, and be and be again.

Gathering material from More Fun Comics #101; Superboy #10, 89; Adventure Comics #210, 247, 271, 369-370; DC Comics Presents #87; Infinite Crisis #6; Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233, 259; Adventures of Superman #501; Superboy (volume 2) #59; Teen Titans (vol. 3) #24, Adventure Comics (vol. 2) #2; Young Justice (vol. 3) #3 and Superman (vol. 4) #6, 10-11, it reintroduces the many heroes – and villains – who have earned the soubriquet of the Boy of Steel,. Moreover, the landmark moments are all preceded by brief critical analyses by Karl Kesel, outlining the significant stages in their development.

It begins with Part I – 1945-1961: A Boy and His Dog…

After the Man of Tomorrow made his mark as Earth’s premier champion, his originators took a long look and reasoned that a different tone could offer a fresh look. What would it be like for a fun-loving lad who could do literally anything?

The answer came in More Fun Comics #101 (cover-dated January/February 1945 but on sale from November 18th 1944) wherein Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster shared ‘The Origin of Superboy!’ This fleshed out fabled and fabulous doomed Krypton and baby Kal-El’s flight: thereby giving him accessible foster parents and a childhood full of fun and incident…

The experiment was a monster hit. The lad swiftly claimed the lead slot of Adventure Comics and – in 1949 – his own title, living a life locked 20 years behind his adult counterpart. Cover-dated October 1950, Superboy #10 originated ‘The Girl in Superboy’s Life’, with Bill Finger & John Sikela introducing Smallville newcomer Lana Lang, who instantly sees resemblances between Clark Kent and the Boy of Steel and sets out to confirm her suspicions…

Despite battling crooks, monsters, aliens, scandal and the girl next door, Superboy enjoyed a charmed and wonderful life which only got better in Adventure Comics #210 (March 1955), as Otto Binder, Curt Swan & Sy Barry introduced ‘The Super-Dog from Krypton!’ Although waywardly mischievous and dangerously playful, Krypto heralded a wave of survivors from the dead world and made the Kid From Krypton feel less lonely and unique. Every boy needs a dog…

The next tale is a certified landmark. Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958) was at the cusp of the Silver Age costumed character revival, when Otto Binder & Al Plastino introduced a concept that would reshape comics fandom: ‘The Legion of Super-Heroes!’ The many-handed mob of juvenile universe-savers debuted in a Superboy tale wherein three mysterious kids invited the Smallville Sensation to the future to join a team of metahuman champions inspired by his historic feats. The throwaway concept inflamed public imagination and after a slew of further appearances throughout Superman Family titles, the LSH eventually took over Superboy’s lead spot in Adventure for their own far-flung, quirkily future-set escapades, with the Caped Kryptonian reduced to one of the crowd…

Before then, though, Adventure Comics #271 (April 1960) revealed ‘How Luthor Met Superboy!’ as Siegel & Plastino united to depict how teenaged scientist Lex Luthor and Superboy became fast friends, before the genius became deranged after a laboratory fire extinguished by the Boy of Steel caused Lex to lose his hair. Enraged beyond limit, the youthful inventor turned his talents to crime, evil and vengeance…

Robert Bernstein & George Papp introduced ‘Superboy’s Big Brother!’ in Superboy #89 (June 1961) in which an amnesiac, super-powered space traveller crashes in Smallville, speaking Kryptonese and carrying star-maps written by the Boy of Steel’s long-dead father Jor-El…

Jubilant, baffled and suspicious in equal amounts, Superboy eventually, tragically discovers ‘The Secret of Mon-El’ by accidentally exposing the stranger to a lingering, inexorable death, before desperately providing critical life-support by depositing the dying alien in the Phantom Zone until a cure could be found.

Anybody who regularly reads these reviews know how crotchety and hard-to-please I can be. Brace yourself…

The following section – Part II – 1968-1980: The Space Age – concentrates on Superboy’s Legion career. That’s not the problem because those are great stories, well deserving of their own book, but they’re wasted here while the Boy of Steel’s adventures from this period are completely neglected. That’s work by the likes of Frank Robbins, Binder, Jim Shooter, Curt Swan, Bob Brown, Wally Wood and others we don’t get to see. Poor editorial decision, that…

Calm again, so let’s see how the Boy of Tomorrow fares one thousand years from now. During this period the youthful, generally fun-loving and carefree Club of Champions peaked; having only just evolved into a dedicated and driven dramatic action series starring a grittily realistic combat force in constant, galaxy-threatening peril. Although now an overwhelming force of valiant warriors ready and willing to pay the ultimate price for their courage and dedication, science itself, science fiction and costumed crusaders all increasingly struggled against a global resurgence in spiritual questioning and supernatural fiction…

The main architect of the transformation was teenaged sensation Jim Shooter, whose Legion of Super-Heroes scripts and layouts (generally finished and pencilled by the astoundingly talented and understated Curt Swan) made the series accessible to a generation of fans growing up with their heads in the Future. Ultimately, however, as tastes and fashions shifted, the series was unceremoniously ousted from its ancestral home and full-length adventures to become a truncated back-up feature in Action Comics. Typically, that shift occurred just as the stories were getting really, really good and truly mature…

Here, tense suspense begins with Adventure Comics #369’s (June 1968) and ‘Mordru the Merciless!’ (Shooter, Swan & Jack Abel) as the Legion are attacked by their most powerful enemy, a nigh-omnipotent sorcerer the entire assemblage only narrowly defeated once before.

A sneak attack shatters the team and only four escape, using a time bubble to flee to the remote and archaic time-period where Superboy lived. With him come Mon-El (freed from the Phantom Zone after 1,000 years to become a Legion stalwart), Shadow Lass and Duo Damsel – the last remnants of a once-unbeatable team.

Mordru’s magic is stronger, though, and even the time-barrier cannot daunt him…

Disguised as mere mortals, the fugitive Legionnaires’ courage shines through. When petty gangsters take over Smallville, the teen heroes quash the parochial plunderers and opt to return to the 30th century and confront Mordru, only to discover he’s found them first. The saga concludes in #370 with ‘The Devil’s Jury!’ wherein the kids escape and hide in plain sight by temporarily wiping their own memories to thwart the Dark Lord’s probes. Against appalling odds and with only Clark’s best friend Pete Ross and Insect Queen Lana Lang to aid them, the heroes’ doomed last stand only succeeds because Mordru’s overbearing arrogance causes his own downfall. Then, when the exhausted fugitives got back to the future, they joyously learn Dream Girl and benign sorceress White Witch have undone the deluded Dark Lord’s worst atrocities…

Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and overwritten, retconned and rebooted over and over again to comply with editorial diktat and popular fashion. After disappearing from the newsstands, the team returned as Guests in Superboy, before eventually taking over the title. Deju Vu, much?

November 1977’s Superboy and the Legion of Super-Heroes #233 sees the Krypton Kid join his teammates to thwart ‘The Infinite Man Who Conquered the Legion!’: an extra-long blockbuster battle by Paul Levitz, James Sherman & Bob Wiacek, after which issue #259 (January 1980) drops Superboy and the… to become Legion of Super-Heroes #259, subsequently ending an era. ‘Psycho War!’ by Gerry Conway, Joe Staton & Dave Hunt then sees the time-lost teen targeted by a deranged war veteran using futuristic trauma weapons, forcing his legion chums to mindwipe Kal-El and return him to his original time forever…

In the mid-1980s, DC’s editorial hierarchy felt their vast 50-year continuity was stopping them winning new readers. The solution was a colossal braided-mega series to streamline, redefine and even add new characters to the mix.

The worlds-shattering, reality-altering bombast of Crisis on Infinite Earths resulted in such spectacular commercial success, those movers-&-shakers must have felt more than justified in revamping a number of their hoariest icons for their next 50 years of publishing. As well as Superman, Flash, & Wonder Woman, many moribund and directionless titles were reconsidered for a radical revision. It didn’t all go to plan…

The background on a new Boy of Steel is covered in the essay and stories comprising Part III 1985-2006: Dark Reflection, opening with twinned tales from DC Comics Presents #87 (November 1985) by Elliot S! Maggin, Swan & Al Williamson. In ‘Year of the Comet’ Superman of Earth-1 meets and mentors teen Clark from an alternate world: one previously devoid of superheroes and alien invaders, after which ‘The Origin of Superboy-Prime’ exposes crucial differences that would make Earth Prime’s Last Son of Krypton so memorable. Events culminated in ‘Touchdown’ by Geoff Johns, Phil Jimenez, Jerry Ordway, George Pérez, Ivan Reis, inkers Andy Lanning, Oclair Albert Marc Campos, Drew Geraci, Sean Parsons, Norm Rapmund & Art Thibert, from #6 of Infinite Crisis (May 2006). Teen Clark had evolved into Superboy-Prime: one of the most sadistic, unstoppable monsters in DCU history… but here he met his end battling another kid calling himself Superboy.

That hero gets his own out-of-chronology section: Part IV 1993-2019: The New Kid detailing how he grew out of another different publishing landmark. Post-Crisis on Infinite Earths, Superman was stripped-down and pared back to basics, grittily re-imagined by John Byrne, and marvellously built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen, resulted in some genuine comics classics. Most significant was a 3-pronged story-arc which saw the martyrdom, loss, replacement and inevitable resurrection of the World’s Greatest Superhero in a stellar saga which broke all records and proved that a jaded general public still cared about the venerable, veteran icon of Truth, Justice and the American Way.

The dramatic events also provided a spectacular springboard for a resurgent burst of new characters who revitalised and reinvigorated more than one ailing franchise over the next decade, all exploding from braided mega-saga “Reign of the Supermen” which introduced a quartet of heroes each claiming the mantle of Superman (Don’t panic: the Real Deal Man of Steel returned too!).

The final contender for the S-shield cropped up in Adventures of Superman #501. ‘…When He Was a Boy!’ (by Kesel, Tom Grummett & Doug Hazlewood) reveals the secret history of a brash, cocky kid wearing an adaptation of the Man of Tomorrow’s outfit and claiming to be the deceased hero’s clone, recently escaped from top secret bio-factory Cadmus. After alienating everybody at the Daily Planet, the horny, inexperienced juvenile latches onto ambitious young journalist Tana Moon and falls under the spell of corrupt media mogul Vinnie Edge. Soon the kid is fighting crime live on TV to boost ratings…

Blending fast action with smart sassy humour, the clone Superboy was a breakout hit that ran for years, even infiltrating the established Superman Family. A key moment came in Superboy (volume 2) #59 by Kesel, Dusty Abell, Dexter Vines as a virtual ‘Mission to Krypton’ results in the clone finally earning a family name as Kon-El of the House of El…

In the build-up to DC’s Infinite Crisis crossover event, many long-running story-threads were pulled together ready for the big bang. Crafted by Geoff Johns, Matthew Clark & Art Thibert, ‘The Insiders Part 1’ (Teen Titans #24, July 2005) reveals how Kon-El’s belief that he was Superman’s clone is shattered after learning that half of his DNA comes courtesy of Luthor. Just as the traumatised kid is about to share the revelation with his Teen Titan team-mates, Lex activates deep psychological programming to override Superboy’s consciousness and make him evil and murderous…

From November 2009, ‘The Boy of Steel Part Two’ (Adventure Comics vol 2 #2, by Johns & Francis Manapul) offers a gentler moment as Kon-El, now living in Smallville as Conner Kent, enjoys a potentially romantic interlude with team mate Wonder Girl before jumping to May 2019 and ‘Seven Crises Part Three’ from Young Justice volume 3 #3, by Brian Michael Bendis, Patrick Gleason, Viktor Bogdanovic & Jonathan Glapion. Having skipped two universe-altering events (Flashpoint and Rebirth) the formerly erased-from-continuity Impulse has found old friend Conner living in a mystic realm as part of his quest to put his old band back together. It’s fast, furious, heart-warming and hilarious. You should really get all of this tale in its own compilation – Young Justice: Gemworld – even before I review it next year…

Wrapping up this saunter in Super-kids’ shoes is the freshest take on the concept in decades. Part V 2016 and Beyond: Like Father, Like Son offers a too short glimpse at Jon Kent, the child of Superman and Lois Lane, inserted into mainstream continuity after the New 52 Superman died. If this is making your brain hurt, don’t fret. It’s only unnecessary background for some truly exemplary comics yarns…

Superman (volume 4) #6, 10, 11 are by Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, Mark Morales & Christian Alamy, and firstly depict the ‘Son of Superman’ helping Dad defeat evil Kryptonian mechanoid The Eradicator before settling into outrageous action comedy beside, with and frequently against Damian Wayne: son of Bruce and the latest, most psychotic Robin yet. ‘In the Name of the Father: World’s Smallest Parts One and Two’ pits the junior odd couple against aliens, monsters and girls, but mostly each other. It’s unmissable stuff and you should expect me to wax delirious about the new Super Sons in the New Year…

Adding immeasurably to the wonderment is a superb gallery of covers by Swan with Stan Kaye & Abel, Neal Adams, Mike Grell, Dick Giordano, Eduardo Barreto, Jim Lee & Sandra Hope, Grummett, Kesel & Hazlewood, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza, Manapul, Doug Mahnke & Wil Quintana & Gleason with Alejandro Sanchez, Gray & John Kalisz.

Superboy has a long, proud history of shaking things up and providing off-kilter fun to offset the general angst level of superhero storytelling. Even with my petty caveats, this compelling primer of snapshots is staggeringly entertaining and a monolithic testament to the inestimable value of a strong core concept matured over decades of innovation.
© 1960, 1964, 1969, 1977, 1982, 1984, 1987, 1997, 2000, 2006, 2005, 2011, 2018, 2020 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

Today in 1945 Go Nagai was born. You can meet him in our truly ancient review of Mazinger.

In 1956 Alex Raymond died today. We covered Flash Gordon on the Planet Mongo volume 1: Sundays 1934-1937 recently, but this master also triumphed with Secret Agent X-9, Jungle Jim, Blondie and Rip Kirby.

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Superman: The Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude


By Jerry Siegel, Jerry Coleman, Roy Thomas, Jerry Ordway, Roger Stern, Mark Schultz, Geoff Johns & Richard Donner, John Sikela, Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Curt Swan, Brett Breeding, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3423-2 (TPB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

Superman is comics’ champion crusader: the hero who heralded and defined a genre. In the decades since his spectacular launch in April 1938 (cover-dated June), one who has survived every kind of menace imaginable. With this in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his prodigious back-catalogue and re-present them in specifically-themed collections, such as this fun but far from comprehensive chronicling of someone who’s become his latter-day Kryptonian antithesis: a monstrous militaristic madman with the same abilities but far more sinister values and motivations.

For fans and creators alike, continuity can be a harsh mistress. These days, when maintaining a faux-historical cloak of rational integrity for the made-up worlds we inhabit is paramount, the greatest casualty of the semi-regular sweeping changes, rationalisations and reboots is those terrific tales which suddenly “never happened”.

The most painful example of this – for me at least – was a wholesale loss of the entire charm-drenched mythology which had evolved around Superman’s birthworld in the wonder years between 1948 and 1986. Happily, DC post Future State/Infinite Frontier/other recent publishing events are far more inclusive, all-encompassing and history-embracing…

Silver Age readers buying Superman, Action Comics, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane, World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen (not forgetting Superboy and Adventure Comics) would delight every time some fascinating snippet of information was revealed. We spent our rainy days filling in the incredible blanks about the lost world through the delightful and thrilling tales from those halcyon publications.

Thankfully DC was never as slavishly wedded to continuity as its readership and understood that a good story is worth cherishing. This captivating compilation gathers material from

Superman #17: Action Comics #241 & 261; Action Comics Annual #2; Superman Man of Steel #100 and Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collector’s Edition/DC Special Series #26 spanning 1942 to 2000, and focusing on landmark, rare, and notionally non-canonical tales of his astounding home-away-from-home/Super Mancave: all crafted by some of the countless gifted writers and artists to have contributed to the mythology of the Man of Tomorrow over the years.

Without preamble we open with Jerry Siegel & John Sikela’s ‘Muscles for Sale!’ (from Superman #17, cover-dated July/August 1942) which offered the very first revelation that the ultra-busy champion of the weak had built himself a little retreat. Here, located in a remote US mountain, the Action Ace enjoyed some Me-time in his new “Secret Citadel”, exercising, letting off super-steam and wandering about his Trophy Room before battling a mad mesmerist turning ordinary citizens into dangerously overconfident louts, bullies and thieves…

Then, an era later and after the Metropolis Marvel had become a small screen star, the Silver Age officially began with Action Comics #241 cover-dated June 1958. Scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye ‘The Super-Key to Fort Superman’ is a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman as an impossible intruder vexes, taunts and baffles the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary: a place packed with fascinating wonders for Space Age kids…

February 1960 offered a classic return to the icy palace in ‘Superman’s Fortress of Solitude!’ (Action Comics #261 by Siegel, Boring & Kaye) as linked but previously untold anecdotes detail the secret history of the citadel of wonders to foil a cunning criminal plot against the indomitable hero…

Next, from 1981 and in its 64-pages + covers entirety, is an epic time travel excursion catered and curated by Roy Thomas, Ross Andru & Romeo Tanghal, and only previously seen in film-inspired oversized tabloid treat Superman and His Incredible Fortress of Solitude All New Collectors Edition (DC Special Series #26). A cunning excuse to revisit past stories and glories and enjoy a room-by-room meander, ‘Fortress of Fear!’ finds the Man of Steel scouring his vast domicile for a clue to prevent the imminent explosive demise – 59 minutes and counting! – of his second homeworld! He’s also planning on thoroughly chastising mystery villain Dominus for risking all of humanity for simple vengeance…

Co-crafted by Jerry Ordway, John Statema, George Peréz, Mike Mignola, Roger Stern, Curt Swan & Brett Breeding, ‘Memories of Krypton’s Past’ (Action Comics Annual #2 1989) was a way-station moment in an absolutely epic endeavour wherein the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Superman finally learned why he was the last and only Kryptonian.

Previously. when trapped in a pocket dimension he had been forced to execute three super-criminals who had killed every living thing on their Earth and were determined to do the same to ours. Although given no choice, Superman’s actions plagued him, and on his return his subconscious caused him to stalk the streets in a fugue-state dealing out brutal justice to criminals in the guise of Gangbuster. When finally made aware of his schizophrenic state, Kal-El banished himself before he could do any lasting harm to Earth.

For months the exile roamed space, losing his abilities (deprived of Sol’s rays his powers quickly fade), before being enslaved by tyrant Mongul and forced into gladiatorial games on giant battle-planet Warworld…

Not seen here is the aftermath of those revelations wherein Superman overthrows the despot, liberates the hordes of the Warworld and returns to Earth with the most powerful device in Kryptonian history…

Closing the vacation trips comes the last chapter of another extended epic as first seen in Superman: Man of Steel #100 (May 2000). In Mark Schultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen’s ‘Creation Story’, semi-retired inventor hero John Henry Irons AKA Steel and his brilliant niece Natasha continue their battle against electronic packrat cult the Cybermoths: foiling the theft of future tech. Their efforts and resultant struggle happily lead to a brand new extra-dimensional opportunity for the astounded and late-arriving Caped Kryptonian as a freshly discovered pocket dimension discovered by Steel is filled and repurposed with the last Kryptonian remnants of the original Fortress of Solitude. Sadly, the astounding architectural feat draws rapacious Cybermoths and their anarchic queen Luna into action again, with neither Superman nor his engineering associates aware that a horrifying old enemy is behind her repeated attempts to seize this new citadel in a “Phantom Zone”…

No trip is complete without a little keepsake, and here we finish with double page cutaway diagram spread ‘Secrets of the Fortress of Solitude’ by Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, Phil Jimenez & Andy Lanning, taken from Action Comics Annual #10 in 2007. Be assured, should you ever get lost in the astounding arctic sanctuary, this should keep you out of the Interplanetary Zoo and well away from the Phantom Zone portal.

You’re welcome…
Copyright 1942, 1958, 1960, 1981, 1989, 2000, 2007, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8


By Bob Kane, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz, Dick Sprang, Jerry Robinson, Ray Burnley & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-3744-8 (HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s an absolute crime that the comics stories of Richard W. Sprang have never been gathered in a properly curated edition. On the 110th anniversary of his birth in Fremont, Ohio, I’m flogging another dead comics horse by re-reviewing one of my favourite collections, but even that is a venue he shared with others. Surely his astounding, compelling contributions particularly to DC key icons Batman & Superman have earned him a dedicated Sprang Legends or Tales of omnibus or compendium?

Dick Sprang (July 28th 1915 – May 10th 2000) began earning money from art and narrative early on, working as a designer and illustrator in Ohio whilst still in high school: editing and contributing art to magazines and pulps from the early 1930s onwards. On graduation in 1934 he joined the bullpen of Toledo, Ohio publishing chain Scripps-Howard delivering deadline-busting ads, editorial cartoons and illustrations. Working with the company engravers Sprang mastered every aspect of print technology before moving to New York City in 1936 to illustrate pulps – everything from westerns to detective to general adventure yarns.

Regular clints included Popular Detective, Popular Western, Phantom Detective, G-Men, Detective Novels Magazine, Crack Detective & Black Hood Detective/Hooded Detective, for which he also wrote stories. In 1937, Sprang began ghosting/assisting on newspaper strips including Secret Agent X-9 and The Lone Ranger, which led to his scripting episodes of the latter’s radio show.

As pulps declined and comic books proliferated, he capitalised on the trend, forming a studio shop with Ed Kressy (Fact Finders, The Lone Ranger, Power Nelson) & Norman Fallon (Speed Comics, Shock Gibson, World’s Finest Comics). In 1941 they were hired by DC supremo Whitney Ellsworth who anticipated with dread Bob Kane being drafted. The trio began crafting inventory material to offset that inevitable day, which gradually slipped out over the course of the conflict. His first newsstand appearance was on part of the cover for Batman #18 (August/September 1943) whilst his first full outing was the next issue. For Batman #19, he pencilled all four stories and the cover, but only inked the first three (!) leaving Fallon to embellish the fourth yarn. By 1946, and although utterly uncredited, Sprang was the leading artist on Batman comic book material, which marrying and moving to Sedona, Arizona barely impacted. In fact, he taught commercial photographer/new bride Lora Ann Neusiis to letter and colour his pages and, as “Pat Gordon”, she took off some of the load until their divorce in 1951. Gordon carried on working for DC until around 1961…

In 1955, despite still being unknown to fans, Sprang took on the Superman/Batman team-up feature in World Finest Comics and soldiered on with it, newspaper strips, countless covers and more. His astounding artistry enhanced DC titles for 20 years, including Real Fact Comics #1–3, 18, Strange Adventures #1, Superman, Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane & Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen, and he fully recreated Batman’s look for the forward-facing 1950s, with a new Batplane, Batmobile and other paraphernalia. Sprang’s Joker was definitive and he also co-created the Riddler and the character who became Supergirl.

That all ended on his retirement in 1963. When he wasn’t beguiling sedentary adventure fans, Sprang had become a noted explorer and historian of Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and happily commenced a career that brought him the fame comics hadn’t. His many celebrated discoveries and contributions are on show at Northern Arizona Universities Cline Library Special Collections in Flagstaff and the Utah Historical Society in Salt Lake City.

Under recommendation here in my What the £*^&$!? section is a tome chockfull of Sprang in full bloom, but which still only has him as just one of the guys. Nevertheless what is there is totally unmissable and on the 110th anniversary of his birth there’s something to look for as the material is rarely reprinted and utterly eternally beguiling…

Batman: The Dark Knight Archives volume 8

Launching a year after Superman, “The Bat-Man” (and latterly Robin, the Boy Wonder) cemented DC/National Comics as the market frontrunner and conceptual leader of the burgeoning comic book industry. Having established the fantastic parameters of metahumans with their Man of Tomorrow, the strictly mortal physical perfection and dashing derring-do of DC’s Dynamic Duo then became the swashbuckling benchmark by which all other four-colour crimebusters were measured.

This luxuriously lavish hardback Archive Edition covers another bevy of Batman adventures (#32-37 from his solo title, spanning December 1945/January 1946 to October/November 1946), with the Gotham Gangbusters resolutely returned to battle post-war perils and peacetime perfidies of danger, doom and criminality…

These Golden Age greats comprise many of the greatest tales in Batman’s decades-long canon, as lead writers Bill Finger & Don Cameron, supplemented by Joe Samachson, Alvin Schwartz and other – sadly unrecorded – scripters, pushed the boundaries of the medium. On the visual side, graphic genius Dick Sprang superseded and surpassed freshly-returned originator Bob Kane – who had been drawing Batman’s daily newspaper exploits until its cancellation – making the feature utterly his own in all but name whilst keeping the Dauntless Double-act at the forefront of a legion of superhero stars, just as veteran contributor Jerry Robinson was reaching the peak of his illustrative powers and preparing to move on to other artistic endeavours. The sheer creativity exhibited here proved the creators responsible for producing the bi-monthly adventures of the Dark Knight were hitting their own artistic peak: one few other superhero titles might match. Within scant years they would be one of the only games in town for Fights ‘n’ Tights fans…

Following a fascinatingly fact-filled and incisive Foreword from the inestimable Roy Thomas, the all-out action begins with Batman #32 and another malevolently marvellous exploit of The Joker whose ‘Racket-Rax Racket!’ (by Cameron & Sprang) finds its felonious inspiration in college-student hazing and initiation stunts, after which Finger scripted ‘Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder!’ for your man Sprang, reprising the jaunty junior partner’s origins to reveal how the lad earned the right to risk his life every night beside the mighty Batman in a blisteringly tense first case…

Light-hearted supplemental feature ‘The Adventures of Alfred’ provides thrills and laughs in equal measure as the dutiful retainer reluctantly baby-sits a posh pooch and ends up ‘In the Soup’ after stumbling upon a gang of high society food smugglers (Samachson & Robinson), before Cameron & Sprang spectacularly combine a smidgen of sci fi flair and a dash of historical conceit to the regular adventure mix when Professor Carter Nichols uses his hypnosis-powered time-travel trick to send Bruce & Dick to the court of Louis XIII to work with D’Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in ‘All for One, One for All!’

Issue #33 was 1945’s Christmas issue – complete with seasonal cover by Sprang – but is otherwise an all-Win Mortimer art-fest; beginning with Finger’s ‘Crime on the Wing’, wherein the Penguin pops up with a renewed campaign of crime employing trick umbrellas, just to prove to modern mobsters that he’s still a force to be reckoned with, after which anonymously-scripted thriller ‘The Looters!’ has the Dynamic Duo hunting a heartless pack of human hyenas led by the Jackal: raiding cities struck by disasters natural and not…

As if that wasn’t vile enough, the shameless exploiter also tries to steal or sabotage the invention of a dedicated seismologist who thought he’d found a way to predict earthquakes. Thankfully, the Batman & Robin are on site to rock the Jackal’s world…

The issue ended with a similarly uncredited Holiday treat as ‘The Search for Santa Claus’ sees three broken old men redeemed by the season of goodwill. After selflessly standing in for Saint Nick, an innocent man who’d spent 25 years in jail, an over-the-hill actor and a millionaire framed and certified insane by unscrupulous heirs all find peace, contentment and justice after encountering our industriously bombastic caped & masked elves…

Three quarters of issue #34 was crafted by Finger & Sprang, beginning with ‘The Marathon of Menace!’ as an old man who dedicated his life to speed records organises a cross-country race across the US with enough prize cash to interest crooks – and the ever-vigilant Gotham Gangbusters, after which an insufferable chatterbox deafeningly returns in ‘Ally Babble and the Four Tea Leaves!’; in which the chaos-causing manic maunderer consults a fortune teller and accidentally confounds a string of dastardly desperadoes…

Robinson limned an anonymous yet timely tale as ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Tired Tracks’ finds the veteran valet stumbling upon opportunistic thieves before the issue ends with Finger & Sprang detailing ‘The Master Vs. the Pupil!’ Here Batman tests his partner’s progress by becoming the quarry in a devious manhunt, but Robin’s early confidence and success take a nasty nosedive after an embarrassing gaffe which proves the danger of too much success…

Finger, Bob Kane & Ray Burnley crafted the lion’s share of Batman #35, beginning with the landmark ‘Nine Lives has the Catwoman!’ wherein the slinky thief finally emerged as the Dark Knight’s premier female foil. Escaping prison and going on a wild crime spree, the feline felon convinces the world – and possibly the Caped Crusaders – that she cannot die, after which the equally auspicious and influential ‘Dinosaur Island!’ catches the heroes performing a sociology experiment in a robotic theme park, only to find the cavemen and giant beasts co-opted by a murderous enemy looking to become king of the criminal underworld by orchestrating their deaths…

An unknown creator scripted the whimsical exploits of ‘Dick Grayson, Author!’ (Kane & Burnley art) as the young daredevil deems comic book stories too unrealistic and is offered the opportunity to write some funnybook dramas which would benefit from actual crime-fighting experience. Of course, all that typing and plotting are harder than they look…

Kane & Burnley also illustrated all the Batman tales in #36, beginning with Alvin Schwartz’s ‘The Penguin’s Nest!’ wherein the podgy Bird of Ill-Omen starts imperilling his new, successful – and legitimate – restaurant venture by committing minor misdemeanours just to get arrested. Unsure of what he’s up to, the Masked Manhunters spend an inordinate amount of time and energy keeping him out of jug… until they finally glean his devious, million-dollar scheme…

When Hollywood’s top stuntman suffers a head injury on set and begins acting out assorted past roles in the real world, the panicked studios call in Batman as ‘Stand-In for Danger!’ (Cameron, Kane & Burnley), whilst Robinson’s ‘The Adventures of Alfred: Elusive London Eddie!’ sees the mild-mannered manservant ferreting out a British scallywag gone to ground in Gotham, after which the issue ends on a spectacular high with another terrific time-travel trip. Courtesy of Finger, Kane & Burnley ‘Sir Batman at King Arthur’s Court!’  sees our compulsive chrononauts crisscrossing fabled Camelot and battling rogue wizards to verify the existence of enigmatic Round Table legend Sir Hardi Le Noir…

This stunning and sturdy compilation concludes with the all-Robinson, all anonymously scripted #37, beginning with ‘Calling Dr. Batman!’ wherein the wounded crimebuster is admitted to hospital and uncovers dark doings and radium robbery. As if that wasn’t enough, a very sharp nurse seems to have suspicions regarding the similarity of the masked celebrity’s wounds to those of a certain millionaire playboy she recently tended to…

Batman & Robin are back in Tinseltown to solve a dire dilemma as ‘Hollywood Hoax!’ sees them hunt thieves and blackmailers who have swiped the master print of the latest certified celluloid smash before the dauntless derring-do ends with a magnificent clash of eternal adversaries when ‘The Joker Follows Suit!’ Fed up with failing in all his felonious forays, the Clown Prince of Crime decides imitation is the sincerest form of theft and begins swiping the Dark Knight’s gimmicks, methods and gadgets; using them to profitably come to the aid of bandits in distress…

Accompanied as always by a full creator ‘Biographies’ section, this superb collection of comic book classics is a magnificent rollercoaster ride back to an era of high drama and breathtaking excitement: a timeless, evergreen delight no addict of graphic action can ignore.

And it’s got lots of Dick Sprang in it!
© 1945, 1946, 2012 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Action Comics: 80 Years of Superman the Deluxe Edition


By Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster, Fred Guardineer, Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Jerry Coleman, Otto Binder, Edmond Hamilton, Len Wein, Cary Bates, Marv Wolfman, John Byrne, Roger Stern, Joe Kelly, Grant Morrison, Paul Levitz, Mort Meskin, Ed Dobrotka, Fred Ray, Wayne Boring, Al Plastino, Jim Mooney, Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Gil Kane, Dick Giordano, Kerry Gammill, Bob McLeod, Ben Oliver, Neal Adams plus Many & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-7887-8 (HB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

It’s a fact (if such mythological concepts still exist): the American comic book industry would be utterly unrecognisable without the invention of Superman. His unprecedented adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his June 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early Man of Steel had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East embroiled America, patriotic relevance. He’s also been regular blockbuster business in his many and varied screen interpretations, too.

In comic book terms, though, Superman is master of the world, having utterly changed the shape of a fledgling industry and modern entertainment in general. There were newspaper strips, radio & TV shows, cartoons, games, toys, mountains of merchandise and those movies mentioned. Everyone on Earth gets a picture in their heads when they hear his name.

It all started with Action Comics #1 and continues to this day, so this bold compilation (presumably soon to be superseded by a 90th Anniversary edition) celebrates the magic, not just with the now-traditional re-runs of classic Superman tales, but with informative articles and fascinating glimpses of some of the other characters who shared the title with him. This epic album gathers material from Action Comics #0, 1, 2, 42, 64, 241, 242, 252, 285, 286, 309, 419, 484, 554, 584, 655, 662 & 800, opening with writer/DC publisher Paul Levitz’s Introduction, a fond Foreword from Laura Siegel Larson and Jules Feiffer’s scene-setting, context-creating essay ‘The Beginning’ before the immortal pictorial wonderment commences.

Most early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have been given descriptive appellations by the editors. Thus, after that unmistakeable, iconic cover and a single page describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton (also explaining his astonishing powers in 9 panels), with absolutely no preamble ‘The Coming of Superman’ by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster introduces a costumed crusader – masquerading by day as reporter Clark Kent – averting numerous tragedies. As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and roughing up a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse since she is attempting to vamp the thug at the time!

The mysterious Man of Steel makes a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

To say the editors were amazed by Superman’s popularity was a gross understatement. They had their money bet on a knock-off Mandrake the Magician crafted by veteran cartoonist Fred Guardineer as graphic top dog. Here, Zatara: Master Magician’s mystic/illusion powers are fully demonstrated in ‘The Mystery of the Freight Train Robberies’ but it’s still a run-of-the-mill, rather sedate affair when compared to the astounding exploits of the Caped Wonder.

Next up is a sneak peek at ‘The Ashcans’: unused and alternative illustrations that didn’t make that crucial first cut, after which Action #2 (with a Leo O’Mealia generic adventure cover) supplies the conclusion of Superman’s first case as ‘Revolution in San Monte’ finds the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone to spectacularly dampen down hostilities already in progress…

‘The Times’ by Tom DeHaven deconstructs the mythology of the title before Fred Ray’s Superman cover (November 194)1 introduces Action #42’s ‘The Origin of the Vigilante’ by Mort Weisinger & and incredible Mort Meskin. This spectacular western-themed hero-romp proves the anthology title had plenty of other captivating characters to enchant audiences…

AC #64 debuted ‘The Terrible Toyman’ (Don Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos), wherein an elderly inventor of children’s novelties and knick-knacks conducts a spectacular campaign of high-profile and potentially murderous robberies, with Lois as his unwilling muse and accessory, and is followed by a little tale of serendipity as Marv Wolfman harks back to his early days and explains ‘How I Saved Superman’. That’s followed by a genuine lost treasure as ‘Too Many Heroes’ offers an unpublished 1940s Superman tale – credited to Siegel & Shuster – rescued from destruction and obscurity. What a gift!

David Hajdu exposes the allure of the alter ego in ‘Clark Kent, Reporter’, after which we jump to June 1958 and the beginning of the Silver Age. Action Comics #241 cover-featured ‘The Key to Fort Superman’: a fascinating, clever puzzle-play guest-featuring Batman, scripted by Jerry Coleman and limned by Wayne Boring & Stan Kaye as an impossible intruder vexes the Man of Steel in his most sacrosanct sanctuary. One month later Otto Binder & Al Plastino introduced both the greatest new villain and most expansive new character concept the series had seen in years.

‘The Super-Duel in Space’ has evil alien scientist Brainiac attempt to add Metropolis to his collection of miniaturised cities in bottles. As well as a titanic tussle in its own right, the tale totally changed the Man of Steel’s internal mythology: introducing Kandor, a city packed with Kryptonians who all escaped the planet’s destruction when Brainiac abducted them. Although Superman rescues his fellow survivors, the villain escaped to strike again, and it would be years before the hero could restore Kandorians to their true size.

After some intriguing and noteworthy test-runs, a future star of Superman’s ever-expanding universe launched in Action Comics #252. ‘The Supergirl from Krypton!’ (May 1959), saw Superman discover he has a living relative in cousin Kara Zor-El who had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, which was hurled intact into space when the planet exploded. Eventually Argo City turned to Kryptonite like the rest of the detonated world’s debris, and her dying parents repeated recent history as, observing Earth through their scopes, they despatched Kara to safety as they perished.

Landing on Earth, she met Superman and he created the cover-identity of Linda Lee, hiding her in an orphanage in small town Midvale so that she could master her new powers in secrecy and safety. Larry Tye’s ‘Endurance’ discusses longevity and political merit before we return to Superman’s official Action Comics co-star throughout the 1960s…

Hogging the cover (by Super-stalwarts Curt Swan & George Klein) the simpler times of practicing in secret ended as a big change in the Maid of Might’s status occurred. When her new adoptive parents learned of their new daughter’s true origins, Superman allowed cousin Kara to announce her existence to the world in 2-part saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ (#285 February 1962) and ‘The Infinite Monster!’ (#286, March). Here Siegel & Jim Mooney detail how Supergirl becomes the darling of the universe, openly saving planet Earth and finally getting the credit for it.

Those long-standing TV connections were exploited in Action Comics #309 (February 1964) for hoary secret-identity save plot ‘The Superman Super-Spectacular!’ as a telethon posed a puzzle for the always overbooked Man of Steel. Written by Edmond Hamilton and illustrated by Swan & Klein, it sets up a scene where the Action Ace can use none of his usual tricks to be both Superman and Clark simultaneously, and delivers a truly shocking and utterly era-appropriate solution…

Hurtling forward to December 1972 and Action #419 we meet a surprisingly successful back-up feature created by Len Wein, Carmine Infantino & Dick Giordano. ‘The Assassin-Express Contract!’ introduced Christopher Chance as the Human Target, hiring himself out to impersonate endangered individuals such as the businessman “accidentally” sitting in the sights of a hitman, thanks to a disgruntled employee dialling a wrong number…

From a period where Golden Age stories were assumed to have occurred on parallel world Earth-Two, ‘Superman Takes a Wife’ first appeared in 40th Anniversary issue #484 (June 1978). Here Cary Bates, Swan & Joe Giella detail how the original 1938 Man of Tomorrow became editor of the Metropolis Daily Star in the 1950s and married Lois Lane. Thanks to villains Colonel Future and The Wizard who had discovered a way to make Superman forget his own existence, only she knew that her husband was once Earth’s greatest hero…

More meta-realistic meandering led to ‘If Superman Didn’t Exist’ (by Marv Wolfman & Gil Kane in Action #554 (April 1984) which posits an alien-subjugated Earth deprived of heroes until two kids with big dreams invent one…

In 1985 DC Comics rationalised, reconstructed and reinvigorated their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths. They also used the event to regenerate key properties at the same time. The biggest gun they had was Superman and it’s hard to argue that the change was not before time. The big guy was in another slump, but he’d weathered those before. So how could a root and branch retooling be anything but a pathetic marketing ploy that would alienate the real fans for a few fly-by-night Johnny-come-latelies who would jump ship as soon as the next fad surfaced? This new Superman was going to suck…

But he didn’t.

Public furore began with all DC’s Superman titles being “cancelled” (actually suspended) for three months, and yes, that did make the real-world media sit-up and take notice of the character everybody thought they knew for the first time in decades. However, there was method in this seeming corporate madness.

The missing mainstays were replaced by a 6-part miniseries running from October to December 1986. Entitled Man of Steel it was written and drawn by Marvel’s mainstream superstar John Byrne and inked by venerated veteran Dick Giordano. The bold manoeuvre was a huge and instant success and the retuned Superman titles all came storming back with the accent on breakneck pace and action. Superman had always enjoyed brief or lengthy partnerships with other if lesser heroes and Action Comics was confirmed as a team-up vehicle for the Man of Steel. Issue #584 had a January 1987 cover-date and featured a case fighting with and beside the Teen Titans as the young heroes had to battle an apparently out-of-control Caped Kryptonian with a ‘Squatter’ secretly riding in his head…

Following a gentle cartoon “roasting” by Gene Luen Yang in ‘Supersquare’, Roger Stern, Kerry Gammill & Dennis Janke review ‘Ma Kent’s Photo Album’ (from AC #655, July 1990) offering some insights into growing up different before a major turning point began…

As years passed, Lois and Clark gradually grew beyond professionalism into a work romance but the hero had always kept his greatest secret from her. That all changed after the Man of Tomorrow narrowly defeated mystic predator Silver Banshee and decided no more ‘Secrets in the Night’ between him and his beloved (by Stern & Bob McLeod: #662, February 1991).

Action #800 (April 2003) offers a reverential examination of the ongoing myth thus far as ‘A Hero’s Journey’ combines a Joe Kelly script with art from Pasqual Ferry, Duncan Rouleau, Alex Ross, Tony Harris, Bill Sienkiewicz, Dave Bullock, Ed McGuiness, J.H. Williams III, Dan Jurgens, Klaus Janson, Killian Plunkett, Jim Lee, Tim Sale, Lee Bermejo, Cam Smith, Marlo Alquiza & Scott Hanna: cherry-picking unmissable moments from a life well lived…

In 2011, DC again rebooted their entire line and Superman was reimagined once more. ‘The Boy Who Stole Superman’s Cape’ by Grant Morrison & Ben Oliver comes from Action Comics #0, (November 2012), focussing on a decidedly blue-collar champion just learning the game and painfully aware of the consequences if he makes a mistake, before we wrap up the celebrations with April 2018’s ‘The Game’ by Levitz & Neal Adams. Here primal archenemies Superman and Luthor face off for another round in their never-ending battle…

Before the curtain comes down, there’s still more unbridled joy and rekindled memories as ‘Cover Highlights’ resurrects stunning examples from the Golden, Silver, Bronze, Dark and Modern ages of the Man of Tomorrow, as well as the very best of Action Comics ‘Now’.

Should you be of a scholarly or just plain reverential mood you can then study the copious ‘Biographies’ section so you know who to thank…

Exciting, epochal and unmissable, this is a book for all fans of superhero stories and the man who started them all.
© 1938, 1941, 1943, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1972, 1978, 1984, 1986, 1990, 1991, 2003, 2012, 2018 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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DC Finest: Superman – Kryptonite Nevermore


By Dennis O’Neil, Leo Dorfman, Cary Bates, Len Wein, Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, Dick Giordano, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-79950-165-7 (TPB/Digital edition)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times

This stunning compilation is part of the DC Finest editions line: full colour chronologically curated paperback compilations delivering “affordably priced” comic books generally around 600 pages and highlighting past glories.Whilst primarily and understandably concentrating on the superhero character pantheon, there will also be genre selections like horror and war books, and themed compendia. Sadly, they’re not yet available digitally, as were the last decade’s Bronze, Silver and Golden Age collections, but we live in hope…

Superman is the comic book champion who started the whole genre and, in the decades since his 1938 debut, has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With that in mind it’s tempting and very rewarding to gather up whole swathes of his inventory and periodically re-present them in specific themed collections, such as this one commemorating one his greatest extended adventures. The episodes contained herein were originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires and remains a true landmark of the superhero genre. Moreover the brand overhaul seen here was a major concerted effort to re-energise the Man of Steel at a time when comics superheroes were experincing a major die-back…

When Julie Schwartz took over editorial responsibility for the Superman title in 1970, he was expected to shake things up with nothing less than spectacular results. To that end, he incorporated many key characters and events simultaneously developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding “Fourth World”. That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which brought a staggering new universe to fans: instantly and permanently changing the way comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received. Don’t think for a moment that the 1985 reboot triggered by Crisis on Infinite Earths was new or innovative… just necessary…

As the Sixties closed, Schwartz was again breathing fresh life into a powerful but moribund icon – a job he had been excelling at since more-or-less singlehandedly kickstarting the Silver Age of Comics. Superman had been a mega-media star since his launch, with internationally syndicated comics, books, newspaper strips, movie and cinema serials plus hugely successful radio and TV shows (live action and animated) making the franchise globally recognizable. Whenever that happens, inevitably overkill and overexposure inescapably set in and the core property needs to be carefully overhauled or vanish forever. I’ll bet you can think of plenty of really famous and ubiquitous things from your childhood that one day you simply stopped noticing. Happily, sometimes they can be reborn…

Schwartz knew his market and was open to new ideas, and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial, socially-challenging “realistic” story content unseen since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales ultimately described as “Relevant”…

With iconic covers by Curt Swan, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams, Dick Giordano, Murphy Anderson & Jack Adler, this titanic tome collects in whole or in part the Man of Steel’s first comics renaissance through exploits from Action Comics #393-406 and Superman #233-238 and #240-242, spanning cover dates October 1970 to December 1971.

On sale from 27th August 1970, Action Comics #393 hinted at rather than heralded a new era as ‘Syperman Meets Super-Houdini!’ In a tale by prolific lead super-scribe Leo Dorfman and artists Curt Swan & Murphy Anderson (AKA “Swanderson”) the ultimate hero faces a moral dilemma when reformed crimnal turned escape artist “Hair-breadth” Holahan is blackmailed to resume his criminal ways – or lose his abducted son. Of course, Superman can help…

Following a Superman Scrapbook Pinup, with Swanderson reworking a classic Golden Age Superman contents page, second strip ‘The Day Superboy Became Superman!’ (by Dorfman as Geoff Brown with Ross Andru & Mike Esposito illustrating) depicts a pivotal moment for college boy Clark Kent as radical student Marla Harvey showed the so-conservative law-&-order adherent what those concepts meant to people trapped in poverty and privation…

The updating of an icon continued in AC #394 with Swanderson illustrating both ‘Midas of Metropolis’ and low key “Geoff Brown” character vignette ‘Requiem for a Hot Rod’. The lead yarn pits Superman against world’s richest man Cyrus Brand, who seemingly infects the Action Ace with his own all-encompsing lust for money, only to find the hero is incorruptible and knows actual crime when he sees it, whilst a humourous follow-up sees Clark and Lois Lane at a vintage car event, cleverly exposing a bully rigging games of chicken for cash…

Action #395 revealed ‘The Secrets of Superman’s Fortress’ with a dynamic cutaway spread fuelling an “untold tale” of an early romantic encounter with a sexy alien Superman could have loved. Sadly, super-powered Althera was of an incompatible species… and also a slaver…

Dorfman was the go-to guy for supernatural tales and weird phenomena articles, and at the forefront of a shift in tone as DC characters and titles embraced the global resurgence in spooky horror and mystery fare. Next here a back-up guest starring Supergirl explores the uncanny powers and shocking truth of accident inducing accessory ‘The Credit Card of Catastrophe’, but comes down down heavily on the side of rationality and confidence trickery in the end…

As the sixties closed and with his various screen appearances a thing of the past, Superman was soon in dire need of an editorial overhaul. That officially began with Superman #233 in a groundbreaking epic serial edited by incoming reboot wunderkind Julius Schwartz that was heavily promoted in advance. Crafted by scripter Dennis J. “Denny” O’Neil, and ubiquitous illustrators Swan & Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240 – a deliberate and very public abandonment of tired old super-villains, fanciful Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly poked the readership and revitalised the Man of Tomorrow, attracting new readers and beginning a period of engagingly human-scaled stories making Superman a “must-buy” character all over again.

The innovations began with ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ as a government experiment to harness Kryptonite as an energy source goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Metropolis Marvel is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab, but somehow survives a supposedly fatal radiation-bath. Then, reports begin filtering in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly mineral has been transformed to harmless, common iron! As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can now accomplish. He isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet’s new owner Morgan Edge – a key character created by Jack Kirby for his soon to unfold Fourth World Saga – shakes up Clark Kent’s cosy civilian life: summarily ejecting him from the print game and remaking him as a roving TV journalist…

Meanwhile, the desert site of his recent crashlanding offers a moment of deep foreboding as Superman’s irradiated imprint in the sand shockingly grows solid and shambles away in ghastly parody of life…

Over in Action Comics #396, editors Murray Boltinoff & E. Nelson Bridwell continued in their editorial positions (right up until #419 December 1972) but heralded the beginning of a radical new age with a 2-chapter Imaginary Story (hey, didn’t Alan Moore do that too?) ‘The Super-Panhandler of Metropolis!’ was set years from “now”, where a highly advanced Earth wonders why and how Superman disappeared. Media mogul Jimmy Olsen discovers the shocking truth of the hero’s degrading decline in #397 as ‘Secret of the Wheel-Chair Superman!’ sentimentally focuses on a pitiable but still valiant do-gooder giving everything for those in need, and thereby saving himself too.

For this colossal collection, each issue’s stand-alone back-up has been moved to allow an uninterrupted lead story and for reader convenience of comprehension. Thus, next comes #396’s Brown/Swanderson teaser ‘The Invaders from Nowhere!’: an intellectual mystery with Superman perplexed and imperiiled by super-technological aliens somehow living inside his own infallible arctic citadel. It is bolstered by the legendary ad that announced the big change in Metropolis…

Rendered by Swan & Vince Colletta, ‘A New Year Brings a New Beginning for Superman 1971’ announced Clark’s job change and enhanced cast, trumpeted that Jimmy Olsen and Lois Lane would be joined by The Newsboy Legion and Rose and the Thorn and that Supergirl would get a new look, as well as suspending the venerable World’s Finest team of Superman, Batman & Robin, with the title becoming a Superman team-up book…

‘The Super-Captive of the Sea!’ was AC #397’s closer, wherein the Man of Tomorrow is indefinitely trapped beneath the oceans thanks to aquatic aliens flooding Earth’s skies with red sun refracting crystal clouds. They wanted Superman for their own world, but foolishly understimated his ingenuity and determination…

O’Niel & Swanderson’s intensely sophisticated suspenseful overhaul properly resumes in Superman #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control, politically untouchable plantation owner/human trafficker refuses to let his indentured workforce flee an imminent eruption on the island of Boki. Handicapped by international laws, the Man of Steel can only fume helplessly as the UN blunders towards a diplomatic solution, and his anxiety intensifies when a sinister sand-thing inadvertently and agonisingly drains him of his powers. Crashed to Earth in a turbulent squall, the de-powered champion is attacked by work boss Boysie Harker’s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the day…

In #235, the ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ tacitly acknowledged fasionable arcane influences – remember, the comics industry and wider world was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories – as mystery musician and apparent polymath Ferlin Nyxly reveals the secret of his ever-growing aptitudes and gifts is an archaic artefact which steals from living beings knowledge, talents and even Superman’s alien abilities. The Man of Steel is initially unaware of the drain as he’s trying to communicate with his eerily silent dusty doppelganger, but once Nyxly graduates to a full-on raving super-menace self-proclaimed “Pan”, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template to trounce the power plunderer…

“The Youth” and their music take centre stage in Action #398 as Kent’s news round-up of the college campus scene unmasks sinister sonic skulduggery that – accidentally combined with Kryptonian recording tech – makes Superman an out-of-control rioter thanks to ‘The Pied Piper of Steel’, after which Dorfman/Brown reveal a horrifiying transformation for Supergirl into a ‘Spawn of the Unknown’…

Superman #236 offered a Batman cameo and science fictional morality play when cherubic E.T.’s seek Superman’s assistance to defeat a band of devils and rescue Kent’s friends from Hell. However, the ‘Planet of the Angels’ proves to be nothing of the kind, and the Man of Steel must pull out all the stops to save his adopted homeworld from a very real Armageddon, whilst in Action #399 ‘Superman, You’re Dead… Dead… Dead!’, finds the hero trapped with other great men of the past abducted by future historians and accidentally discovering a ghastly end that awaits him, before realising that something’s not quite right, whilst B-feature ‘Superbaby’s Lost World’ sees the Tot of Tomorrow lost in a theme park and exploited as cover by charismatic bandits Connie & Hyde. Of course this innocent waif is far more than anyone can handle…

Superman #237 sees him save an astronaut only to see him succumb to a madness-inducing mutative disease. After another savage confrontation with the Sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present as more mortals fall to the contagion. Convinced he is both carrier and cause, the ‘Enemy of Earth’ considers quarantining in space. Meanwhile, Lois tumbles into another lethal predicament and Kal-el’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, before another clash with the sandy simulacrum on the edge of space presents an incredible truth.

Painfully debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the ever-more human creature. Now able to speak, it offers a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might become…

In Action #400 ‘My Son… Is He Man or Beast?’ sees Superman made reluctant guardian to troubled teen Gregor Nagy: an angry boy with astounding shapeshifting powers that will inevitably kill him, whilst back-up ‘Duel of Doom!’ offers an untold Tale of Kandor as students, rivals and lovers Yllura and Arvor vie for academic awards, almost die together and ultimately learn the value of teamwork and togetherness…

The Man of Tomorrow is a mere shadow of his former self in Superman #238, unable to prevent terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering all Earth in ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees!’ With Lois among their hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, the Action Ace desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, but its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his life…

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the hero in his incalculably all-powerful days – so not included here – before Action Comics #401 & 402 address the growing contemporary political crisis of First Nations’ rights in ‘Invaders Go Home’ and ‘This Hostage Must Die!’ The continued tale sees Superman taken hostage by Indian protesters seeking to stop the US government taking a piece of sacred ground for a rocket base. Despite being apparently helpless before the magic of Angry Young Medicineman Dan Red Hawk the Action Ace is playing a covert game and hunting a criminal profit motive behind all the passionate rhetoric and popular dissent…

Cary Bates scripted #401’s back-up yarn as ‘The Boy Whe Begged to Die!’ sees our hero forced to use his superwits when he’s accidentally activates a mega-timebomb and fails to evacuate every civilian in time whilst Brown delivers #402’s ‘The Feud of the Titans!’ as Superman and Supergirl inexplicably go to war for possesion of the Fortress of Solitude…

The physically diminished Caped Kryptonian returned in Superman #240 (O’Neil, Swan and Dick Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution. In ‘To Save a Superman’, his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion is now vulnerable and fallible makes his dilemma dangerously common knowledge. Especially interested are the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocate all resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call, Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows his other identity and offers an unconventional solution…

From 1968 superhero comics began to decline – just as they had at the end of the 1940s – so publishers sought fresh ways to maintain their readerships as tastes changed. Back then, the industry depended on newsstand sales, and if you weren’t popular, you died. Editor Jack Miller, innovating illustrator Mike Sekowsky and relatively new scripter Denny O’Neil came up with a radical proposal and made history by depowering the only female superhero then in the marketplace. They had the mystical Amazons leave our dimension, taking with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weapons…

Reduced to humble humanity she chose to stay on Earth, assuming and legitimising her own secret identity of Diana Prince and resolved to fighting injustice as a mortal. Tutored by blind Buddhist monk I Ching, she trained as a martial artist, and quickly became a formidable enemy of contemporary evil. Now, I Ching claims he can repair Superman’s difficulties and restore his dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove his remaining Kryptonian powers as a precursor to fully regaining them, allowing the ASG opportunity to strike. In the resultant brutal melee, the all-too-human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his life…

The saga continues with Swanderson back on art in #241, withSuperman overcoming momentary but nigh-overwhelming temptation to put down his oppressive burden of duty and lead a normal life. Admonished and resolved, he submits to Ching’s resumed remedy ritual and finds his spirit soaring to where the sand-being lurks, before explosively reclaiming the stolen powers. Leaving the gritty golem a shattered husk, the astral Kal-El brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the world…

Over the next few days, however, it becomes clear that something has gone wrong. The Man of Tomorrow has become arrogant, erratic and unpredictable, acting rashly, overreacting and even making stupid mistakes. In her boutique, Diana Prince discusses the problem with Ching and the sagacious teacher deduces that whilst merely mortal and fighting ASG thugs, Superman received punishing blows to the head which have caused a brain injury that did not heal when his powers returned…

When the out-of-control hero refuses to listen, Diana & Ching track down the dying sand-thing and beg its aid. The elderly savant recognises it as a formless creature from other-dimensional Quarrm and listens to the amazing story of its entrance into our world. He also suggests a way for it to regain some of what it recently lost…

Superman, meanwhile, has blithely gone about his deranged business until savagely attacked by a statue of a Chinese war-demon. Also able to steal his power, it has been possessed by a second fugitive from Quarrm. It has no conscience and wears ‘The Shape of Fear!’…

The shocking saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the second Quarrmer falls under the sway of two petty thugs who use it to put freshly de-powered Superman into hospital…

Rushed into emergency surgery, the Kryptonian fights for his life as sand-thing confronts war-demon in the streets. Events take an even more bizarre turn once the latter drives off its foe and turns towards the hospital to finish off the flesh-&-blood Superman…

Regaining consciousness – and a portion of his power – the Metropolis Marvel battles the beast to a standstill but needs the aid of his silicon stand-in to drive the thing back beyond the pale. With the immediate threat ended, Man of Steel and Man of Sand face off one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the cost…

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the Man of Tomorrow he used to be. Of course, he eventually returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never quite regained the tension-free smug assurance of his pre-1970s self…

For now though, with the epic ended day-to-day dilemmas resume with Action #403 and Bates & Swanderson’s ‘Attack of the Micro-Murderer’, wherein the Krptonian is attacked and fatally infected by sentient time-travelling micobe Zohtt before millions of earthlings donate blood to flush his system clean, after which Brown channels Daniel Keyes’ Flowers for Algernon for ‘The Man With the X-Ray Mind’ as an intellectually-challenged janitor develops and tragically loses astounding mental abilities…

Dorfman scripted #404’s ‘Kneel to Your Conqueror, Superman!’ wherein governemntal secret weapon/supergenius Rufus Caesar goes rogue and devises tech to steal The Action Ace’s powers, before inevitably overreaching and reaping every tyrant’s fate. As Geoff Brown, the multi-faceted writer offers another glimpse at our hero’s college years with ‘The Day They Killed Clark Kent’ relating a memorable teaching moment after a hazing incident is covertly commandeered and redirected by the Adolescent of Steel. Then Bates introduces ‘The Starry-Eyed Siren of Space!’ in Superman #243, as cosmic catastrophe catapults the Caped Kryptonian into an encounter with disembodied ultra-mentalities Kond & Rija. Sadly, the latter recalls the long forgotten joys of physicality and constructs an organic form to woo Superman, leaving Rija no choice but to do similar and win back his mate…

‘Superman, Bodyguard or Assassin?!’ leads in Action #405, as Bates posits an Imaginary Story near future where a Psy-ops expert turns the Man of Steel into an assassin pointed at the US President. He follows up with regulation continuity thriller ‘The Most Dangerous Bug in the World?’ as Clark Kent is swept up in a product demo that threatens to expose his secret identity. Over in Superman #244, O’Neil anticipates early AI anxiety and human responses via the rampages of ‘The Electronic Ghost of Metropolis!’, before AC #406 sees Dorfman deal with the rise of counter cultures and semi-religious cults as telejournalist Clark Kent investigates a charismatic ‘Master of Miracles’. What he discovers is a devious plot orchestrated by someone very close to his home and his heart…

For the same issue, the writer dons his “Brown” mantle to expose a restless and beleagured supernatural alchemist inhabiting the Tower of London for centuries as ‘The Ghost That Haunted Clark Kent’ before the wraparound superhero-bedecked cover for all reprint giant Superman #245 and Curt Swan’s pencilled model sheet ‘The Man of Many Faces’ penultimately usher in final wonder ‘Danger… Monster at Work!’ from #246, with Len Wein debuting as super-scribe and introducing an extended cast of Clark Kent’s neighbours in a wry and witty warning tale of pollution gone mad and monsters in Metropolis’ sewers, perfectly limned by Swan & Anderson…

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more human-scaled concerns to balance outrageous implausible fantasy elements all wedded to gripping plots and sublime art make Kryptonite Nevermore one of the very best Superman sagas ever created, and its wonderful to see the other stories of the time included for balance and to prove that this was very much the Man of Steel getting his long-needed second wind for the next comics age.

A must-have graphic collection to sit on the same shelf as Watchmen, Batman: Year One, Segar’s Popeye, Gottfredson’s Mickey Mouse, The Fourth World Saga, Kirby & Lee’s Galactus Trilogy and Chaykin’s American Flagg!, this is a shining exemplar of action- adventure comics captured at their most perfect moment. Why don’t you have this yet?
© 1970, 1971, 2025 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: The War Years – 1938-1945


By Roy Thomas, Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster with Don Cameron, Mort Weisinger, Fred Ray, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Leo Nowak, Ed Dobrotka, John Sikela, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC/Chartwell Books)
ISBN: 978-0-7858-3282-9 (Album HB)

This book includes Discriminatory Content produced in less enlightened times.

The creation of Superman and his unprecedented adoption by a desperate, joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form. Within three years of his debut in the summer of 1938, the intoxicating mix of eye-popping action and social wish-fulfilment which hallmarked the early exploits of the Man of Tomorrow had grown to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy and even whimsical comedy: all deep and abiding issues for the American public at that time.

However, once the war in Europe and the East snared America’s consciousness, combat themes and patriotic imagery dominated most comicbook covers if not interiors and the Man of Steel was again in the vanguard.

In comic book terms Superman was master of the world and had already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was a popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, foreign and overseas syndication and the Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons. Thankfully, the quality of the source material was increasing with every four-colour release and the energy and enthusiasm of Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster informed and infected the burgeoning studio that grew around them to cope with the relentless demand.

Superman was definitely every kid’s hero, and the raw, untutored yet captivating episodes reprinted here were also completely embraced by the wider public, as the new so very portable entertainment medium of comic books became a vital tonic for the troops and all the ones they had left behind…

I sometimes think – like many others of my era and inclinations – that superhero comics are never more apt or effective than when whole-heartedly combating global fascism with explosive, improbable excitement courtesy of a myriad of mysterious, masked marvel men. All the most evocatively visceral moments of the genre seem to come when gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and I hope you’ll please forgive the appropriated contemporary colloquialism – “Nips and Nazis”. Isn’t it great then that they’re political legacy remains and a whole new diverse, multinational bunch are back again for the latest costumed cavorters to knock around some more?

This superb hardcover archive – unavailable digitally but still readily accessible in paper formats – has been curated by comic book pioneer Roy Thomas, exclusively honing in on the euphoric output of the war years, even though in those long-ago dark days, publishers and creators were wise enough to offset their tales of espionage and imminent invasion with a barrage of home-grown threats and gentler or even more whimsical fare…

A past master of WWII era material, Thomas opens this tome with a scene-setting Introduction and prefaces each chapter division with an essay offering tone and context before the four-colour glories commence with Part 1: The Road to War, as following the cover to Action Comics #1, the first Superman story begins.

Most of early tales were untitled, but for everyone’s convenience have in later years been given descriptive appellations by editors. Thus, after describing the foundling’s escape from exploding Planet Krypton and explaining his astonishing powers in nine panels, with absolutely no preamble the wonderment begins in ‘Superman, Champion of the Oppressed’ and ‘War in San Monte’ from Action Comics #1 & 2 (June and July 1938 by Jerry Seigel & Joe Shuster) as a costumed crusader who masquerades by day as reporter Clark Kent began averting numerous tragedies.

As well as saving an innocent woman from the electric chair and delivering rough justice to a wife-beater, the tireless crusader works over racketeer Butch Matson – consequently saving suave and feisty colleague Lois Lane from abduction and worse, since she was attempting to vamp the thug at the time! The mysterious Man of Steel made a big impression on her by then outing a lobbyist for the armaments industry who was bribing Senators on behalf of greedy munitions interests fomenting war in Europe…

The next breathtaking instalment ‘Revolution in San Monte’ sees the mercurial mystery-man travelling to the war-zone and spectacularly shutting down hostilities already in progress…

Maintaining the combat theme, the cover of Action Comics #10 (March 1939) follows and the cover and first two pages of Superman #1 (Summer 1939): an expanded 2-page origin describing the alien foundling’s escape from Krypton, his childhood with unnamed Earthling foster parents and eventual journey to the big city. A back-cover ad for the Superman of American club and the October 1939 Action Comics #17 cover precedes Fall 1939’s Superman #2 cover and rousing yarn ‘Superman Champions Universal Peace!’, depicting the dynamic wonder man once more thwarting unscrupulous munitions manufacturers by crushing a gang who had stolen the world’s deadliest poison gas weapon…

After another concise history lesson Part 2: War Comes to Europe re-presents a stunning outreach article thanks to Look Magazine commissioning a legendary special feature by the original creators for their 27th February 1943 issue. ‘How Superman Would End the War’ is a glorious piece of wish-fulfilment which still delights, as the Man of Tomorrow arrests and hauls budding belligerents Hitler and Stalin to a League of Nations court in Geneva.

Accompanied by the March 1940 cover, Action Comics #22 & #23 then declares ‘Europe at War’: a tense, thinly disguised call to arms for the still neutral USA, and in a continued story – almost unheard of in those early days of funnybook publishing. Here Lois and Clark’s fact-finding mission (by Siegel, Shuster and inker Paul Cassidy) spectacularly escalates, and after astounding carnage reveals a scientist named Luthor to be behind the international conflict…

The anti-aircraft cover for Superman #7 (November/December 1940) and an ad for the Superman Radio Program precede Siegal, Wayne Boring & Don Komisarow’s ‘The Sinister Sagdorf’ (Superman #8 January/February 1941). This topical thriller spotlights enemy agents infiltrating American infrastructure whilst ‘The Dukalia Spy Ring’ (Superman #10 May/June 1941) references the 1936 Olympics and sees the Action Ace trounce thinly-veiled Nazis at an international sports festival and expose vicious foreign propaganda: themes regarded as fanciful suspense and paranoia as the US was still at this time still officially neutral in the “European War”.

Behind Fred Ray’s Armed services cover for Superman #12 (September/October 1941, ‘Peril on Pogo Island’ (Siegel, Shuster & Leo Nowak) finds Lois and Clark at the mercy of rampaging tribesmen, although spies from a certain foreign power are at the back of it all, after which a Fred Ray gallery of covers – Action Comics #43 (December 1941), Superman #13 (November/December 1941), Action Comics #44 (January 1942) and Superman #14 (January/February 1942) – concludes the chapter.

All of these were prepared long before December 7th changed the face and nature of the conflict…

After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor everything changed and Part 3: America Goes to War reflects the swift shift to a war footing, beginning with the notorious Siegel & Boring ‘Superman Daily Strips’ from January/February 1942, wherein an overeager Clark Kent tries too hard to enlist and only succeeds in getting himself declared 4F (unfit to fight)…

Timeless Fred Ray patriotic masterpieces from Superman #17 (July/August 1942) and #18 (September/October 1942) precede a stirring yarn from the latter. ‘The Conquest of a City’ (Siegel & John Sikela) sees Nazi agents using a civil defence drill to infiltrate the National Guard and conquer Metropolis in the Fuehrer’s name… until Superman spearheads a counter-attack…

The other great patriotic cover master was Hardin “Jack” Burnley and a quartet of his very best follow – Action Comics #54 (November 1942) & #55 (December 1942), World’s Finest Comics #8 (Winter 1942 with Batman & Robin thrown in for good measure) and Superman #20 (January/February 1943). That last also provides ‘Destroyers from the Depths’ wherein Hitler himself orders dastardly Herr Fange to unleash an armada of marine monstrosities on Allied shipping and coastal towns. Of course, they prove no match for the mighty magnificent Man of Steel…

After Burnley’s Action Comics #58 cover (March 1943), Siegel, Ed Dobrotka & Sikela detail the saga of ‘X-Alloy’ from Superman #21 (March/April 1943) as a secret army of Nazi infiltrators and fifth columnists steal US industrial secrets and would have conquered the nation from within if not for the ever-vigilant Man of Steel. Sikela’s cover Action Comics #59 (April 1943) concludes this section as Part 4: In for the Duration discusses the long, hard struggle to crush the Axis. By the time of these tales, the intense apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s forces were being rolled back on every Front…

Following Burnley’s May 1943 Action Comics #60 cover, Superman #22 May/June 1943 provides Siegel & Sam Citron’s ‘Meet the Squiffles’: a light-hearted but barbed flight of whimsy wherein Adolf Hitler is approached by the king of a scurrilous band of pixies who offer to sabotage America’s mighty weapons. Neither nefarious rogue had factored Superman – or patriotic US gremlins – into their schemes though…

Action #62 (July 1943) and Superman #22 (July/August 1943) showcase two of Burnley’s very best covers, with the latter fronting an astounding masterpiece of graphic polemic. Don Cameron scripts and Citron illustrates ‘America’s Secret Weapon!’: a rousing paean to US military might wherein Clark and Lois report on cadet manoeuvres and the Man of Steel becomes an inspiration to demoralised troops in training. Covers by Burnley for Action #63 (August 1943) and Superman #24 (September/October 1943) – which latter provides ‘Suicide Voyage’ – follow. This exuberant yarn by Cameron, Dobrotka & George Roussos finds Clark (and pesky stowaway Lois) visiting the Arctic as part of a mission to rescue downed American aviators. Of course, no one is expecting a secret invasion by combined Nazi and Japanese forces, but Superman and a patriotic polar bear are grateful for the resultant bracing exercise…

‘The Man Superman Refused to Help’ comes from Superman #25 (November/December 1943) and follows Burnley and Stan Kaye’s November 1943 cover for Action Comics #66. In a far more considered and thoughtful tale from Siegel, Ira Yarbrough & Roussos expose the American Nazi Party – dubbed the “101% Americanism Society” – whilst offering a rousing tale of social injustice as an US war hero is wrongly implicated in the fascists’ scheme until the Man of Steel investigates…

Next up and from the same issue is a much reprinted and deservedly lauded patriotic classic.

‘I Sustain the Wings!’ by Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray was created in conjunction with the Army Air Forces Technical Training Command under Major General Walter R. Weaver, designed to boost enlistment in the maintenance services of the military. In this stirring tale Clark attends a Technical Training Command school as part of the Daily Planet’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment (a genuine problem at this time in our real world) but the creators still find space for our hero to delightfully play cupid to a lovestruck kid who really wants to be a hot shot pilot and not a mere “grease monkey”…

Wayne Boring & Roussos’ cover for Superman #26 (January/February 1944) precedes Boring’s ‘Superman Sunday Strips #220-227’ for January -March 1944, with the Metropolis Marvel heading to multiple theatres of War to deliver letters from loved ones on the Home Front after which Roussos’ ‘Public Service Announcement’ (from Superman #28, May 1944) urges everyone to donate waste paper – like comic books!

July/August 1944’s Boring cover for Superman #29 finds Lois greeting the USA’s real Supermen – servicemen all – before Action #76 (September 1944 and Kaye over Boring) leads to anonymously-scripted ‘The Rubber Band’ from World’s Finest Comics #15 (Fall 1944). Illustrated by Sikela & Nowak and concentrating on domestic problems, it details the exploits of a gang of black market tyre thieves who are given a patriotic “heads-up” after Superman dumps their boss on the Pacific front line where US soldiers are fighting and dying for all Americans…

Drawn by Boring, ‘Superman Sunday Strips #280-282? (March 1945) then rubbish and belittle the last vestiges of the Third Reich as Hitler and his inner circle desperately try to convince the Action Ace to defect to the side comprised of Supermen like them…

In Superman #34 (May/June 1945) Cameron, Citron & Roussos attempt to repeat the magic formula of ‘I Sustain the Wings’ with ‘The United States Navy!’ as Clark is despatched to follow three college football heroes as they progress in different maritime specialisations through the hellish war in the Pacific.

The enthralling sally through Superman’s martial exploits conclude with one final Thomas-authored article as Part 5: Atoms for Peace? reveals how the fruits of the Manhattan Project changed everything…

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious editions; worthy, long-lasting vehicles for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced. Such Golden Age tales are priceless enjoyment at absurdly affordable prices and in a durable, comfortingly approachable format. What dedicated comics fan could possibly resist them?
™ & © 2015 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Tim Drake: Robin volume 1 – Mystery at the Marina


By Meghan FitzMartin & Riley Rossmo, with Ricardo López Ortiz, Lee Loughridge, Belén Ortega, Luis Guerrero & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-77952-057-9 (TPB/Digital edition)

Created by Marv Wolfman & Pat Broderick for Batman: Year Three, Tim Drake debuted in Batman #436 (August 1989): a child prodigy who had deduced Batman’s secret identity and – from a distance – diagnosed the Dark Knight’s impending guilt-fuelled nervous breakdown following the murder of Jason Todd – AKA Robin #2 and latterly The Red Hood. Tim would become – via a torturous series of circumstances – the third Robin.

Still a child himself, Drake attempted to manipulate Dick Grayson – the first hero dubbed “Boy Wonder” – into returning as the Dark Knight’s partner before grudgingly accepting the position himself (see Batman: A Death in the Family and Batman: A Lonely Place of Dying). After a long period of training and acclimation and many dangerous adventures, a deeply impressed if not quite recovered Batman instead offered Tim the job.

This new kid took fans by storm, and Drake secured a series of increasingly impressive solo mini-series (see Robin volume 1: Reborn) and eventually his own long-running comic book. Being trained by Batman is an arduous and agonising undertaking. During the terrifying Batman: Wargames saga Drake in his turn became estranged from his moody mentor and forcibly retired from the fights ‘n’ tights game. Batman replaced Tim with Stephanie Brown, daughter of the criminal Cluemaster, who became the vigilante Spoiler to compensate for her father’s depredations. Eventually the role of Robin settled upon the tense and hostilely hunched shoulders of Bruce Wayne’s assassin-trained son Damian…

In between a massively complex solo career work with the Batman family and leading the Teen Titans and Young Justice, restless Tim dated teammates Cassie Wonder Girl Sandsmark and Stephanie – who had now evolved into one of Gotham City’s many Batgirls. Peripatetic and aloof he vanished and frequently returned, briefly employing the codenames Red Robin and “Drake” but never seemed to find a comfort zone or niche all is own. However, in the wake of continuity resetting event Infinite Frontier, Tim’s already incredible life was shaken again by a stunning realisation when Batman’s only competition for the title “World’s Greatest Detective” finally realised he was bi-sexual after rescuing old high school friend Bernard Dowd from kidnappers…

Re-presenting a tale from DC Pride: Tim Drake Special #1 (August 2022) and Tim Drake: Robin #1-6 (November 2022-April 2023) this breezy crime conundrum opens with ‘Elephant in the Room’ by Meghan FitzMartin, Belén Ortega & Luis Guerrero, previously seen in the aforementioned Pride special wherein Young Justice seek to stop a phantom pachyderm tearing up Gotham. They have no idea a mystery mastermind has targeted Tim, wrapped up as they all are in sorting out his so-fascinating love-life…

The new nemesis – arrogantly deeming himself private detective Tim Drake’s “Moriarty” – opens his campaign of terror after the other, other, other Robin moves onto a houseboat at Gotham City Marina, and spends weeks just settling into the area’s utterly unique community and ambiance. Thoroughly grounded Bernard is a big help here, but being a grown up is tough, especially after City Hall starts working to close down the artistic outsider enclave. Former costumed comrade Darcy Thomas – now calling herself Sparrow – further complicates events, turning up just as leading anti-eviction activists Mère & Cam are attacked. Mother and daughter are found butchered and dumped in a trash can…

As Mystery of the Marina begins, Tim and Bernard are still in the shaky early days of a first serious relationship… six months and counting… with our hero anxiously locked in the closet about sharing his super-sideline with his new love. Perhaps that’s why he’s happy to cede the lead investigator role to old contact Police Detective Williams – a like-minded investigator who won’t shirk, stint, jump to conclusions… or let the authorities declare this a “boating accident”. This leaves Robin to do what needs to be done in the shadows…

Secret searches and a little deduction in the wake of further outrages lead to an inescapable conclusion: Tim Drake is the true target of an obsessive hidden enemy repeatedly testing him by restaging classic literary crimes, using spectral/holographic/robot beasts like the ghost elephant and a monster orangutan (have you read The Murders in the Rue Morgue? Goldfish? The Moonstone?) to disrupt his life…

Stakes are raised when Robin is framed for a gem robbery and Williams finds himself clashing with his own colleagues, who are happy to call it another inexplicable “masks” crime in the face of overwhelming contradictory evidence, and things get out of control when the challenges cost librarian Mrs Jen her life just for assisting Robin & Sparrow.

Pressure mounts on all sides as reclusive city councilman Rathbone seeks to evict all those degenerate marina dwellers, and Bernard silently accepts that Tim has a secret he can’t share yet. It’s all so fast and too confusing and Robin can’t even work out which classic tale he’s being forced to live out… until impatient, arrogant “Moriarty” overplays his hand…

Or does he?

As the clock counts down and atrocities escalate, the villain’s plans and motivations are revealed as the opponents finally face off, but as the literary war becomes too much like real life and our hero forgets a major maxim of plotting… it’s always the one you’ve let get too close…

Blending devious detective tropes with spectacular superhero schtick sweetened by a heaping of healthy romance, multimedia maven Meghan FitzMartin (Batman: Urban Legends Batman: Urban Legends, podcast Red Rhino, TV’s DC Super Hero Girls animated and Supernatural) is an award-winning writer who crafts tales of genre stereotypes and archetypes via emotion-driven tales in fantastic worlds. Here they’re realised by Riley Rossmo (Harley Quinn), Ricardo López Ortiz & Lee Loughridge with gripping suspense and blistering pace as this Robin finds his feet and his place in Gotham…

Also offering a variant cover gallery by Travis Moore & Tamara Bonvillain, Jorge Jiménez, Sweeney Boo, Dan Mora, Jamal Campbell, David Baldeón &Arif Prianto, Rossmo & Loughridge, Jorge Corona, David Talaski, Rian Gonzales, Todd Nauck, Simone Di Meo, Edwin Galmon, Nick Robles, Juni Ba, Karl Mostert & David Baron, this is a thoroughly modern totally traditional superhero whodunnit you must not miss.
© 2022, 2023, 2024 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.