Superman – Page 21 – Now Read This!

March 14, 2016March 13, 2016

Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

By Alan Moore, Curt Swan, Dave Gibbons, Rick Veitch, George PÃ©rez, Kurt Schaffenberger, Al Williamson & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2731-9

Superman first appeared in Action Comics #1, sometime in April 1938 (the cover said June but that was, by custom, the date by which unsold copies had to be returned â€“ and hard it is to imagine that there were any!). An instant sensation, the Man of Steel promptly spawned a veritable infinitude of imitators, and gave birth to a genre, if not an industry.

The Original outlived them all; growing and adapting, creating a pantheon and a mythology, delighting millions of readers over the generations.

Alan Moore is one of the most lauded names in comic history, and much of his most memorable work has appeared – one way or another – under the banner of DC Comics’ various imprints. Here, then, finally collected into one volume are all the stories he produced starring the most important icon of the funnybook industry, gathering a trio of much reprinted yarns into one unmissable trade paperback edition.

This book reprints Superman #423, Action Comics #583 from September 1986, DC Comics Presents #85 (September 1985) and the epochal and influential Superman Annual #11 for 1985, and includes a Dave Gibbons pin-up and leads off with an incisive Introduction ‘The Time has Come!’ by Paul Kupperberg.

Two-part crossover ‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’ ended the initial run of Superman and Action Comics prior to the hero’s groundbreaking post-Crisis on Infinite Earths reboot in 1986.

In the 50th anniversary year of DC Comics, the Powers-that-Be decided that modern readers had moved beyond the old style and continuity, and consequently re-imagined the DC universe and everything in it. Crisis on Infinite Earths unmade the continuity and remade the greatest heroes in it. The editors have spent the intervening years since trying to change it all back again in some manner or other.

None of which is particularly relevant, except that in the lead-up to the big change, departing Editor Julius Schwartz turned his last issues (Superman #423 and Action Comics #583) into a blessed gift of closure for the devoted fans who had followed Superman for all their lives â€“ if not his.

With these amazing tales all concerned said goodbye to a certain kind of hero and a particular type of story. They made way for a tougher, harder universe with less time for charm or fun.

‘Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?’ is a glorious ending to an era and a sensibility, lovingly written by Alan Moore â€“ who cunningly managed to instil a sense of doom and tragedy into the mix – with gloriously evocative pencil art from Curt Swan and loving, lavish inks from George Perez & the hugely underrated Kurt Schaffenberger, respectively.

Here, Moore parades for one last time the characters and concepts that made Superman special and shows the reader just how much will be lost once the World turns. It deftly blends modern narrative values into the most comfortably traditional scenarios, making the tale work in contemporary terms whilst keeping all the charm, whimsy and inherent decency of the characters. It is a magical feat, a genuine Gotterdammerung; full of tragedy, nobility and heroism but with a happy ending nonetheless. I’m not going to tell you the plot, other than to say it details the last days of the World’s Greatest Superhero. Be prepared to cry when you read it.

This is a story every comic fan, let alone DC reader, should know, and even works as an introduction as well as a grand farewell.

Following that is a team-up of Superman with Moore’s signature character Swamp Thing. ‘The Jungle Line’ comes from DC Comics Presents #85, illustrated by Rick Veitch and Al Williamson, and finds Superman slowly succumbing to a fatal disease contracted from a Kryptonian spore. Plagued by intermittent powerlessness, oncoming madness and inevitable death, the hero deserts his loved ones and drives slowly south to die in isolation. Mercifully in the dank, dark emerald wetlands he is found by a monster: Earth’s singularly benevolent plant elemental and envoy of The Greenâ€¦

Moore & Dave Gibbons produced one of the last truly great Superman stories before the cosmic upheaval of Crisis on Infinite Earths. ‘For the Man Who Has Everything’ (Superman Annual #11) has alien despot Mongul invading the Fortress of Solitude and attacking the Action Ace with the most insidious of weapons. The valiant last-minute intervention of Batman, Robin and Wonder Woman are barely enough to turn the tideâ€¦

A spectacular battle-romp, this one also shows a dystopian Krypton for the first time: a view that the fabulous lost world might not have been a super-scientific paradise after all and one that has become a given of all later interpretationsâ€¦

This is an incomprehensibly enchanting collection of Fights ‘n’ Tights wonderment: a pure package of superhero magnificence: fun-filled, action-packed, absolutely addictive and utterly unmissable.
Â© 1985, 1986, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 11, 2016February 10, 2016

Superman: The Trial of Superman

By Louise Simonson, Dan Jurgens, Karl Kesel, David Michelinie, Roger Stern, Stuart Immonen, Jon Bogdanove, Ron Frenz, Tom & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-331-5 (DC)Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â 978-1-85286-856-2 (Titan)

The Man of Steel has proven to be all things to most fans since his dynamic debut in 1938. Although largely out of favour these days with all the myriad decades of accrued mythology being re-synthesised into an overarching all-inclusive multi-media film-favoured continuity, the stripped-down, gritty post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Action Ace, as re-imagined by John Byrne and built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen, resulted in some stunning highsâ€¦

Almost as soon as the Byrne restart had stripped away much of the mythology and iconography which had grown up around the Strange Visitor from Another World over fifty glorious years, successive creative teams spent a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible to a cynical and well-informed audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

Collecting Action Comics #716-717, Adventures of Superman #529-531, Superman volume 2, #106-108, Superman: Man of Steel #50-52 and Superman: Man of Tomorrow #3 (spanning November 1995 to January 1996), this hyper-charged space opera thriller reads best if taken in conjunction with a working knowledge of the characters, but outright newcomers can soon get up to speed by paying attention to the carefully administered snatches of expository dialogue, and if all you’re after is a heaping helping of far-flung Fights ‘n’ Tights fantasy you’re in for a real treatâ€¦

The star-spanning saga begins with ‘Split Personality’ (by Louise Simonson, Jon Bogdanove & Dennis Janke from Superman: Man of Steel #50) as an alien armada approaches Earth. The Metropolis Marvel doesn’t notice. He’s busy losing a fight with murderous energy-eater the Parasiteâ€¦

The situation gives super-powered Alpha Centurion and his Team Luthor mercenaries an opportunity to move in. The Roman hero had spent two thousand years away from Earth winning intergalactic renown with his alien arsenal, and on his return home became a flirtatious rival for Lois Lane‘s attention. Although generally a decent sort, he’s still always happy to prove his innate superiority to Supermanâ€¦

He doesn’t get the chance, however, as a cadre of extraterrestrials beam in and arrest the power-drained Man of Steel. He’s so debilitated the hulking Brute brought along to subdue him is unnecessary. As they all fade away, Centurion returns to the battle with Parasite and can’t help but wonder what agents of the famed and just Tribunal want with Supermanâ€¦

Aboard ship, the enervated hero is baffled to find himself accused of cosmic crimes but cannot find what exactly he’s supposed to have done. The confusion only increases when Brute tries to murder him by throwing the emaciated Kryptonian into the sunâ€¦

As Alpha Centurion finally defeats Parasite on Earth, 93,000,000 million miles away, Brute rectifies his mistake: battling with recapturing a now fully re-powered Superman, all the while thankfully babbling that now he’s proved his worth, his hostage â€œmilk-brother won’t be executedâ€â€¦

When they get back on the Tribunal ship, however, a panel of alien judges sentences Brute to death by solar incineration before getting around to charging Superman with a billion counts of murder and of causing the destruction of Kryptonâ€¦â€¦

The confrontation continues in Superman #106 (Dan Jurgens, Ron Frenz & Joe Rubenstein) as the astounded Man of Tomorrow pleads ‘Not Guilty!’ The case is laid out by Tribunal Prime who relates that a distant ancestor of the Last Son of Krypton instilled a genetic flaw in his entire race by means of a miraculous device dubbed the Eradicator. It prevented them from ever leaving the planet and now Kem-L‘s descendent Kal-El bears the responsibility for their extinctionâ€¦

Aghast but unbowed, Superman struggles free but is easily pacified by a mysterious power of the Prime and dumped in a vast cell. That only exacerbates the crisis as one of the other inmates is brutal alien Massacre who instantly tries to slaughter his despised enemyâ€¦

When the catastrophic clash is broken up by the guards, Superman is horrified to witness the sadistic response the Tribunal considers to be justice servedâ€¦

Back on Earth, Lois has been working on the Centurion. She wants the arrogant champion to use his super-spaceship Pax Romana to trace the avenging Eradicator Brute mentioned when Superman was initially abducted. After learning the eerie antihero (an uncanny merging of a dying human scientist with Kem-L’s recovered wonder-weapon) is no longer on-planet, Lois starts on the next stage of a rescue planâ€¦

Karl Kesel, Stuart Immonen & JosÃ© MarzÃ¡n Jr. contribute the next chapter (Adventures of Superman #529) as, aboard the Tribunal flagship, Superman meets other inmates awaiting judgement/execution and makes unlikely new friends.

On Earth the now fully-engaged Centurion contacts some of the Action Ace’s old ones – Steel, Supergirl and Superboy – and sets off in pursuit of the Tribunal, even as, back in the cosmic adjudicators’ gigantic jail, Superman and his new chums stage a ‘Jail Break’â€¦

Having picked up Eradicator en route, Alpha Centurion’s rescue party surges on, unaware that the man they’ve come to liberate has crashed onto a distant planet where, thanks to one of his fellow escapees, they all find refuge in an inter-dimensional bolt-hole called Havenâ€¦

When said fellow escapee then tries to take over the place, the runners experience surprisingly fair ‘Fugitive Justice!’ (Action Comics #716 David Michelinie, Kieron Dwyer & Denis Rodier)â€¦

The Tribunal have not been idle. With their special Police Agents scouring the local systems, Prime engages the service of flamboyant bounty hunter Freelance who promptly locates and captures the harassed runners only to fall for one of them.

Earth’s finest are doing less well. The â€œSâ€ symbol most of them wear is all over the interspacial networks and cash-hungry hunters from every star-faring species just assume they must also be ‘Wanted’ (Simonson, Bogdanove & Dick Giordano, Superman: Man of Steel #51)â€¦

‘Bottled Up!’ (Superman #107, Jurgens, Frenz & Rubenstein) finds Superman’s Rescue Squad abandoned by the Centurion. Piling into a salvaged ship they head onwards to the Tribunal’s homeworld, unaware that the object of their concerns – and his fellow escapees – have all returned to Haven to save a wounded comrade.

The consultation with infamous wizard Tolos is deeply disturbing. The creepy mage has a thriving city in a jar and amiably offers to cure ailing Mope in return for a promise of future favours. That price comes due whilst far away the super friends are ambushed by avowed enemy Hank Henshaw, the undying Cyborg-Superman, who is apparently working for the intergalactic arbitratorsâ€¦

Tolos plans to live forever. His bottles are filled with beings whose bodies he will inhabit and burn out, but with a Kryptonian in his sights, the wizard thinks he might have all he’ll ever need. He attacks but completely misjudges the resolve of the mighty Man of Steelâ€¦

In ‘Different Demons’ (Adventures of Superman #530 Kesel, Immonen & MarzÃ¡n Jr.) the fugitive Superman is diverted by a mercy mission to a magical world to clear Mope’s name, whilst on the Tribunal world Alpha Centurion has been arrested and thrown in cell with Superboyâ€¦ who believes the Roman is actually Henshaw in disguiseâ€¦

As the far-flung Action Ace and Mope war with invisible aliens and more mages in ‘Fighting Back’ (Superman: Man of Tomorrow #3, Roger Stern, Tom Grummett & Brett Breeding), elsewhere, evidence of collusion between a high official and Henshaw starts to emergeâ€¦

Superman and Mope however have now moved on to fully-automated murder-metropolis ‘H’Tros City’ (Action Comics #717 Michelinie, Dwyer & Rodier), but as the cosmic conurbation continually attempts to eradicate them, the seemingly ubiquitous Henshaw take control of its programs to finish his enemy off in person.

The blockbuster battle instead goes Superman’s way, but the hero typically sacrifices his victory to save the cyborg and is rewarded with betrayalâ€¦

‘Crime and Punishment’ (Simonson, Bogdanove & Giordano, Superman: Man of Steel #52) once more finds the valiant champion in front of the triumphant Tribunal. Sentenced to immediate execution he battles on, but seems doomed until the impatient Henshaw – who always planned to double cross the judges – seizes control of the planet’s computers, inadvertently allowing the rescue squad to break out of jail and mount a last minute saveâ€¦

In the aftermath of a shattering final battle the cyborg appears beaten at last but despite his clear guilt there’s ‘No Escape!’ (Superman #108 by Jurgens, Frenz & Rubenstein) for the Last Son of Krypton eitherâ€¦

The court of catastrophe explosively descends into all-out civil war and by the time the dust settles and our heroes head home there’s precious little ‘Justice!’ (Adventures of Superman #530 Kesel, Immonen & MarzÃ¡n Jr.) to be seen anywhereâ€¦

Clever drama, spectacular action and rollercoaster pace, coupled with the usual high standard of character interplay, smart writing and fabulous art, all underscore this hugely enjoyable yet largely forgotten extraterrestrially epic diversion in the amazing life of Superman, but this starry saga is truly deserving of a second look and honest reappraisal.

A British Titan Books edition is also readily available from on-line sellers.
Â© 1995, 1996, 1997 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

August 11, 2015August 10, 2015

Superman the Silver Age Dailies volume 2: 1961-1963

By Jerry Siegel, Wayne Boring, Curt Swan &Stan Kaye with Otto Binder, Leo Dorfman, Edmond Hamilton, Bill Finger & Robert Bernstein (IDW Publishing Library of American Comics)

ISBN: 978-1-6137-7923-1

It’s indisputable that the American comicbook industry – if it existed at all – would have been an utterly unrecognisable thing without Superman. Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s unprecedented invention was fervidly adopted by a desperate and joy-starved generation and quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Spawning an impossible army of imitators and variations within three years of his 1938 debut, the intoxicating blend of breakneck, breathtaking action and wish-fulfilment which epitomised the early Man of Steel grew to encompass cops-and-robbers crime-busting, socially reforming dramas, science fiction, fantasy, whimsical comedy and, once the war in Europe and the East sucked in America, patriotic relevance for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and vigorous dashing derring-do.

In comicbook terms Superman was master of the world. Moreover, whilst transforming the shape of the fledgling funnybook industry, the Man of tomorrow relentlessly expanded into all areas of the entertainment media. Although we all think of Cleveland boys’ iconic invention as the epitome and acme of comicbook creation, the truth is that very soon after his debut in Action Comics #1 the Man of Steel became a fictional multimedia monolith in the same league as Popeye, Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and Mickey Mouse.

We parochial and possessive comics fans too often regard our purest and most powerful icons in purely graphic narrative terms, but the likes of Batman, Spider-Man, X-Men, Avengers and their hyperkinetic kind long ago outgrew their four-colour origins and are now fully mythologized modern media creatures instantly familiar in mass markets, across all platforms and age rangesâ€¦

Far more people have seen or heard the Man of Steel than have ever read his comicbooks. His globally syndicated newspaper strips alone reached untold millions, and by the time his 20^th anniversary rolled around at the very start of what we know as the Silver Age of Comics, he had been a thrice-weekly radio serial regular, starred in a series of astounding animated cartoons, two films and a novel by George Lowther.

He was a perennial sure-fire success for toy, game, puzzle and apparel manufacturers and had just ended his first smash live-action television serial. In his future were three more shows (Superboy, Lois & Clark and Smallville), a stage musical, a franchise of blockbuster movies and an almost seamless succession of games, bubblegum cards and TV cartoons beginning with The New Adventures of Superman in 1966 and continuing ever since. Even superdog Krypto got in on the small-screen actâ€¦

Although pretty much a spent force these days, for the majority of the last century the newspaper comic strip was the Holy Grail that all American cartoonists and graphic narrative storytellers hungered for. Syndicated across the country – and often the planet â€“ it was seen by millions, if not billions, of readers and generally accepted as a more mature and sophisticated form of literature than comic-books. It also paid better.

And rightly so: some of the most enduring and entertaining characters and concepts of all time were created to lure readers from one particular paper to another and many of them grew to be part of a global culture.

Mutt and Jeff, Flash Gordon, Dick Tracy, Buck Rogers, Charlie Brown and so many more escaped their humble tawdry newsprint origins to become meta-real: existing in the minds of earthlings from Albuquerque to Zanzibar.

Most still doâ€¦

So it was always something of a risky double-edged sword when a comicbook character became so popular that it swam against the tide (after all weren’t the funny-books invented just to reprint the strips in cheap accessible form?) to became a genuinely mass-entertainment syndicated serial strip.

Superman was the first original comicbook character to make that leap â€“ about six months after as he exploded out of Action Comics – but only a few have ever successfully followed. Wonder Woman, Batman (eventually) and groundbreaking teen icon Archie Andrews made the jump in the 1940s and only a handful like Spider-Man, Howard the Duck and Conan the Barbarian have done so since.

The daily Superman newspaper comic strip launched on 16^th January 1939, supplemented by a full-colour Sunday page from November 5^th of that year. Originally crafted by such luminaries as Siegel & Shuster and their studio (Paul Cassidy, Leo Nowak, Dennis Neville, John Sikela, Ed Dobrotka, Paul J. Lauretta & Wayne Boring) the mammoth task soon required the additional talents of Jack Burnley and writers like Whitney Ellsworth, Jack Schiff & Alvin Schwartz.

The McClure Syndicate feature ran continuously until May 1966, appearing at its peak in more than 300 daily and 90 Sunday newspapers, boasting a combined readership of more than 20 million. Eventually artists Win Mortimer and Curt Swan joined the unflagging Boring & Stan Kaye whilst Bill Finger and Siegel provided stories, telling serial tales largely separate and divorced from comicbook continuity throughout years when superheroes were scarcely seen.

Then in 1956 Julie Schwartz kicked off the Silver Age with a new Flash in Showcase #4 and before long costumed crusaders began returning en masse to thrill a new generation. As the trend grew, many publishers began to cautiously dabble with the mystery man tradition and Superman’s newspaper strip began to slowly adapt: drawing closer to the revolution on the comicbook pages.

As Jet-Age gave way to Space-Age, the Last Son of Krypton was a comfortably familiar icon of domestic modern America: particularly in the constantly evolving, ever-more dramatic and imaginative comicbook stories which had received such a terrific creative boost when superheroes began to proliferate once more. The franchise had actually been cautiously expanding since 1954 and in 1961 the Caped Kryptonian could be seen not only in Golden Age survivors Action Comics, Superman, Adventure Comics, World’s Finest Comics and Superboy but also in Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane and Justice League of America.

Such increased attention naturally filtered through to the far more widely-read newspaper strip and resulted in a rather strange and commercially sound evolutionâ€¦

This second expansive hardback collection (spanning August 1961 to November 1963) opens with a detailed Introduction from Sidney Friedfertig, explaining the provenance of the strips; how and why Jerry Siegel was tasked with retuning recently published yarns from the comicbooks; making them into daily 3-and-4 panel black-&-white continuities for the apparently more sophisticated and discerning newspaper audiences.

This frequently required major rewrites, subtle changes in plot, direction and tone and, on occasion, merging more than one story into a seamless new exploit to excite and generally amuse sensible, mature grown-ups.

If you’re a veteran fan, don’t be fooled: the tales retold here might seem familiar but they are not mere rehashes: they’re variations and deviations on an idea for an audience perceived as completely separate from kids’ comics. Even if you are familiar with the original comicbook source material, the adventures presented here will read as brand new, especially as they are gloriously illustrated by Wayne Boring (with a little occasional assistance from Curt Swan) at the very peak of his artistic powers.

After years away from the feature Boring had replaced his replacement Curt Swan at the end of 1961, regaining his position as premiere Superman strip illustrator to see the series to its eventual conclusion.

As an added bonus the covers of the issues those adapted stories came from have been included as a full, nostalgia-inducing colour galleryâ€¦

The astounding everyday entertainments by Siegel & Boring commence with Episode #123 from August 14^th to September 16^th 1961 revealing how timid Clark Kent mysteriously excelled as a policeman whilst wearing a legendary old cop’s lucky tin star in ‘The Super Luck of Badge 77!’: a yarn based on an adventure of the same name by Otto Binder & Al Plastino from Superman #133 (November 1959).

‘Superman’s Hunt for Clark Kent’ (September 18^th to 5^thNovember and first seen in Superman #126 January 1959, by Binder, Boring & Stan Kaye) then detailed how a Kryptonite mishap deprived the Man of Tomorrow of many of his memories and left him lost in Metropolis trying to ferret out the secret of his other identity after which Episode #125 – running from November 6^th-December 23^rd – saw the restored Clark as ‘The Reporter of Steel’ (originally a Binder, Boring & Kaye yarn from Action Comics #257, October 1959) after Lex Luthor very publicly inflicted the mild-mannered journalist with unwanted superpowers, setting suspicious Lois Lane off on another quest to prove her colleague was actually the Caped Kryptonian.

‘The 20^th Century Achilles’ ran Christmas Day 1961 through January 20^th 1962, adapted from an Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & Kaye thriller in Superman #148 (October 1961) which detailed how a cunning crook held the city hostage to his apparent magical invulnerability whilst ‘The Man No Prison Could Hold’ (January 22^nd – February 24^th by Bill Finger, Boring & Kaye from Action Comics #248, in January 1959) saw Clark and Jimmy Olsen captured by a Nazi war criminal using slave labour to construct a mighty vengeance weapon. Unbeknownst to all the Man of Steel had good reason to foil every escape attempt and stay locked upâ€¦

An old-fashioned hard lesson informed the Kryptonian Crimebuster’s short sharp shock treatment of ‘The Three Tough Teenagers’ which ran from February 26^th to March 31^st, based on a Siegel & Plastino collaboration contemporaneously appearing in Superman #151 (February 1962) at the same time. Perhaps the headline-grabbing nature of youth in revolt was too immediate to resist? Usually timing discrepancies in publication dates could be explained by the fact that submitted comicbook stories often appeared months after they were completed, but here it feels like neither iteration of the franchise was willing to surrender sales-garnering topicalityâ€¦

Swan illustrated portions of the Siegel/Boring strip version of ‘The Day Superman Broke the Law’ (2^nd to 28^th April) from the original by Finger & Plastino from Superman #153 May 1962, which saw the hero fall foul of a corrupt city councilman rewriting ordinances to hamper him after which the hero became ‘The Man with the Zero Eyes’ (running 30^th April to June 2^nd from an uncredited tale in Superman #117, November 1957 and first limned by Plastino) as a space virus caused uncontrollable super-freezing rays to blaze from his eyes.

Spanning 4^th – 23^rd June ‘Lois Lane’s Revenge on Superman’ grew out of a comedy tale by Siegel, Swan & George Klein in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #32 (April 1962). Here however there’s a dark edge to the story as the frustrated journalist revels in humiliating her ideal man after a magic potion turns him into a baby whilst ‘When Superman Defended his Arch-Enemy’ – published from 25^th June to August 4^th as adapted from Action Comics #292 and released in September 1962) by writer unknown & Plastino saw the Metropolis Marvel acting as defence Counsel for the ungrateful mad scientist after the fleeing maniac dismantled a sentient mechanoid on a world of machine intelligencesâ€¦

Appearing daily from 6^th August to September 8^th ‘Lois Lane’s Other Life’ retold Siegel, Swan & Klein’s tale from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #35 (August 1962) as the daring doll changes her appearance to go undercover but subsequently loses her memory after which ‘The Feud Between Superman and Clark Kent’ from September 10^th to 27^th October (originally by Hamilton & Plastino in Action Comics #292, October 1962) saw the two halves of the hero separated by Red Kryptonite. Sadly the goodness and nobility are all in the merely human Clark part and he must stay out of his merciless alternative fraction’s murderous clutches until the effect wears offâ€¦

As first conceived by Siegel, Swan & Klein in Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #38 (January 1963) ‘The Invisible Lois Lane’ – which filled newspaper pages between October 29^th and December 1^st – was more comedy than drama but here the undetectable investigator quickly sees her quarry switch from Clark to Superman and it takes super-ingenuity to convince her otherwiseâ€¦

‘The Man Who Hunted Superman’ – December 3^rd 1962 to January 19^th 1963 – originally appeared as Boy of Steel blockbuster ‘The Man Who Hunted Superboy’ (by Leo Dorfman & George Papp in Adventure Comics #303, December 1962) and found Clark subbing for a prince in a Ruritanian kingdom, complete with adoring and compliant princess bride, until the Action Ace could topple a highly-placed usurper and save the kingdom whilst ‘Superman Goes to War’ January 21^st to February 23^rd (initiated by Hamilton, Swan & Klein in Superman #161, May 1963) sees Lois and Clark on an film-set sponsored by the US military and inadvertently caught up in a real but unconventional alien invasionâ€¦

From February 25^th to April 20^th Red K stripped our hero of his powers leaving ‘The Mortal Superman’ forced to fake it due to an unavoidable prior engagement in a terse reinterpretation of the Dorfman & Plastino yarn seen in Superman #160, April 1963.

The Man of Steel for good and sound patriotic reasons allowed himself to be locked up for the alleged murder of Clark Kent in ‘The Trial of Superman’ between 22^nd April and May 25^th, later seen in its original format in Hamilton & Plastino’s thriller from Action Comics #301, June 1963.

Hardworking obsessive editor Perry White loses his memory and falls into the clutches of criminals who use his investigative instincts to uncover Earth’s greatest secret in ‘The Man who Betrayed Superman’s Identity’ – 27^th May to July 6^th – as adapted from Dorfman, Swan & Klein’s suspenseful romp in Action Comics #297, February 1963, whilst with adult sensibilities fully addressed, genuine tragedy and pathos pushes Siegel & Boring’s reinterpretation of ‘The Sweetheart that Superman Forgot’ running from 8^th July to August 17^th into the heady heights of pure melodrama as Superman loses his astounding powers, memories, and use of his legs; loving and losing a girl who only wanted him for himself.

In one of the most adult of stories of his canon, the hero recovers his lost gifts and faculties and has no notion of what he’s lost and who waits for him forever alone: a depth of emotion the author could only dream of approaching in the Plastino-illustrated original version which appeared in Superman #165, November 1963).

Painfully locked into the un-PC, sexist comedy tropes of the era, from August 19^th – September 14^th comes ‘Superman, Please Marry Me’ wherein a novelty record of Lois purportedly begging her ideal man to give in makes the reporter’s life a living hell in a â€œtweaked-for married-readersâ€ yarn based on ‘The Superman-Lois Hit Record’ by Siegel, Swan & Klein from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #45 (November 1963) after which ‘Dear Dr. Cupid’ – based on Siegel & Kurt Schaffenberger’s light-hearted turn from Superman’s Girlfriend Lois Lane #45, (November 1963), which ran from September 14^th to October 12^th â€“ details how the news-hen’s surprising and unsuspected gift for doling out advice as an Agony Auntie leads to a series of disturbing gifts from an unexpected admirerâ€¦

This epic chronicle concludes with ‘The Great Superman Impersonation’ from October 14^th to November 23 1963 and based on Robert Bernstein & Plastino’s Action Comics #306, (cover-dated November 1963) with Clark kidnapped by foreign agents who want to pass him off as the Man of Tomorrow in order to take over a Central American republic: big mistake, especially as Superman is in a playful moodâ€¦

Superman: – The Silver Age Dailies 1961-1963 is the second of three huge (305 x 236 mm), lavish, high-end hardback collections starring the Man of Steel and a welcome addition to the superb commemorative series of Library of American Comics which has preserved and re-presented in luxurious splendour such landmark strips as Li’l Abner, Tarzan, Rip Kirby, Polly and her Pals and many of the abovementioned cartoon icons.

If you love the era, these stories are great comics reading, and this is a book you simply must have.
Superman â„¢ and Â© 2014 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 24, 2015May 23, 2015

Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore – DC Comics Classic Library

By Denny O’Neil, Curt Swan, Murphy Anderson, Dick Giordano & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2085-3

Superman is the comicbook crusader who started the whole genre and in the decades since his debut in 1938 has probably undertaken every kind of adventure imaginable. With this 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 hardback commemoration of one his greatest extended adventures originally released just as comics fandom was becoming a powerful – if headless – lobbying force reshaping the industry to its own specialised desires .

When Julie Schwartz took over the editorial duties of the Man of Steel 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 that were developing as part of fellow iconoclast Jack Kirby’s freshly unfolding â€œFourth Worldâ€.

That bold experiment was a breathtaking tour de force of cosmic wonderment which introduced a staggering new universe to fans; instantly and permanently changing the way DC Comics were perceived and how the entire medium could be received.

Schwartz was simultaneously breathing fresh life into the all-powerful but moribund Superman franchise and his creative changes were just appearing in 1971. The new direction was also the vanguard and trigger for a wealth of controversial and socially challenging material unheard of since the feature’s earliest days: a wave of tales described as â€œrelevantâ€…

Here the era and those changes are described and contextualised – after ‘A Word from the Publisher’ – in Paul Levitz’s ‘Introduction’ after which the first radical shift in Superman’s vast mythology begins to unfold.

With iconic covers by Neal Adams, Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson this titanic tome collects Superman #233-238 and #240-242, originally running from January to September 1971.

Almost all the groundbreaking extended epic was crafted by scripter Denny O’Neil, veteran illustrator Curt Swan and inker Murphy Anderson – although stand-in Dick Giordano inked #240. The willing and very public abandonment of super-villains, Kryptonian scenarios and otherworldly paraphernalia instantly revitalised the Man of Tomorrow and began a period of superb human-scaled stories which made him a â€œmust-buyâ€ character all over again.

The innovations began in ‘Superman Breaks Loose’ (Superman #233) when a government experiment to harness the energy of Kryptonite goes explosively wrong. Closely monitoring the test, the Action Ace is blasted across the desert surrounding the isolated lab but somehow survives the supposedly fatal radiation-bath.

In the aftermath reports start to filter in from all over Earth: every piece of the deadly green mineral has been transformed to common ironâ€¦

As he goes about his protective, preventative patrols, the liberated hero experiences an emotional high at the prospect of all the good he can do now and isn’t even phased when the Daily Planet‘s new owner Morgan Edge (a key Kirby character) shakes up his civilian life: summarily ejecting Clark Kent from the print game and overnight remaking him into a roving TV journalistâ€¦

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

The resurgent suspense resumes in #234’s ‘How to Tame a Wild Volcano!’ as an out-of-control plantation owner refuses to let his indentured native workforce flee an imminent eruption.

Handicapped by misused international laws, the Man of Tomorrow can only fume helplessly as the UN rushes towards a diplomatic solution, but his anxiety is intensified when the sinister sand-thing inadvertently passes him and agonisingly drains him of his mighty powers.

Crashing to Earth in a turbulent squall storm the de-powered hero is attacked by bossman Boysie Harker‘s thugs and instantly responds to the foolish provocation, relying for a change on determination rather than overwhelming might to save the dayâ€¦

The ‘Sinister Scream of the Devil’s Harp’ in #235 gave way to weirder ways (the industry was enjoying a periodic revival of interest in supernatural themes and stories) as mystery musician Ferlin Nyxly reveals that the secret of his impressive and ever-growing aptitudes is a archaic artefact which steals gifts, talents and even Superman’s 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 dubbed Pan, the taciturn homunculus unexpectedly joins its living template in trouncing the power thiefâ€¦

The next issue offered a science fictional morality play as cherubic aliens seek Superman’s assistance in defeating a band of devils and rescuing Clark Kent’s best friends from Hell. However the ‘Planet of the Angels’ proves to be nothing of the kind and the Caped Kryptonian has to pull out all the stops to save Earth from a very real Armageddonâ€¦

Superman #237 has the Metropolis Marvel save an astronaut only to see him succumb to a madness-inducing mutative disease. After another destructive confrontation with the sand-thing further debilitates him, the harried hero is present when more mortals fall to the contagion and, believing himself the cause and an uncontrollable ‘Enemy of Earth’, considers quarantining himself to spaceâ€¦

As he is deciding Lois Lane stumbles into another lethal situation and Superman’s instinctive intervention seemingly confirms his earlier diagnosis, but another clash with his always-close sandy simulacrum on the edge of space heralds an incredible truth.

Pathetically debilitated, Superman nevertheless saves Lois and again meets the ever-more human creature. Now able to speak, it gives a chilling warning and the Man of Steel realises exactly what it is taking from him and what it might becomeâ€¦

A mere shadow of his former self, the Man of Tomorrow is unable to prevent a band of terrorists taking over a magma-tapping drilling rig and endangering the entire Earth in #238’s ‘Menace at 1000 Degrees’.

With Lois one of a number of hostages and the madmen threatening to detonate a nuke in the pipeline, he desperately begs his doppelganger to assist him, before its cold rejection forces the depleted hero to take the biggest gamble of his lifeâ€¦

Superman #239 was an all-reprint giant featuring the Action Ace in his incalculably all-powerful days – and thus not included here – but the much-reduced Caped Kryptonian returned in #240 (Giordano inks) to confront his own lessened state and seek a solution in ‘To Save a Superman’.

The trigger was his inability to extinguish a tenement fire and the wider world’s realisation that their unconquerable champion was now vulnerable and fallibleâ€¦

Especially interested were his old enemies in the Anti-Superman Gang who immediately allocated all their resources to destroying their nemesis. After one particularly close call Clark is visited by an ancient Asian sage who somehow knows of his other identity and offers an unconventional solutionâ€¦

From 1968 onwards superhero comics began to decline and publishers sought new ways to keep audience as tastes changed. Back then, the entire 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 stepped up with a radical proposal and made a little bit of funnybook history with the only female superhero then in the marketplace.

They revealed that the almighty mystical Amazons were forced to leave our dimension, and took with them all their magic – including Wonder Woman‘s powers and all her weaponsâ€¦

Reduced to mere humanity she opted to stay on Earth, assuming her own secret identity of Diana Prince, 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 this same I Ching claims to be able to repair Superman’s difficulties and dwindling might, but evil eyes are watching. Arriving clandestinely, Superman allows the adept to remove all his Kryptonian powers as a precursor to restoring them, allowing the A-S Gang the perfect opportunity to strike.

In the resultant melee the all too human hero triumphs in the hardest fight of his lifeâ€¦

The saga continues with â€œSwan-dersonâ€ back on the art in #241 as Superman overcomes a momentary but nearly overwhelming temptation to surrender his oppressive burden and lead a normal lifeâ€¦

Admonished and resolved he then 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 golem a shattered husk, the phantom brings the awesome energies back to their true owner and a triumphant hero returns to saving the worldâ€¦

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 soon deduces that during his time of mere mortality whilst fighting the gangsters, Superman received a punishing blow to the head. Clearly it has resulted in brain injury that did not heal when his powers returnedâ€¦

When the hero refuses to listen to them Diana and Ching have no choice but to track down the dying sand-thing and request its aid. Ching recognises it as a formless creature from the other-dimensional realm of 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 lostâ€¦

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

The staggering saga concludes in ‘The Ultimate Battle’ as the Quarrmer briefly falls under the away of a brace of brutal petty thugs who put the again de-powered Superman into hospitalâ€¦

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

Recovering 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 paleâ€¦

With the immediate threat ended Man of Steel and Man of Sand face each other one last time, each determined to ensure his own existence no matter the costâ€¦

The stunning conclusion was a brilliant stroke on the part of the creators, one which left Superman approximately half the man he used to be. Of course all too soon he returned to his unassailable, god-like power levels but never lost the tension-free smug assurance of his 1950s-1960s self.

A fresh approach, snappy dialogue and more terrestrial, human-scaled concerns to shade the outrageous implausible fantasy elements, wedded to gripping plots and sublime artwork make Kryptonite Nevermore! One of the very best Superman sagas ever created

Also included here is the iconic ‘House Ad’ by Swan & Vince Colletta which proclaimed the big change throughout the DC Universe and a thoughtful ‘Afterword by Denny O’Neil’ wraps things up with some insights and reminiscences every lover of the medium will appreciate.
Â© 1971, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015

Superman: the World’s Finest Comics Archives volume 2

By Jerry Siegel, Don Cameron, Alvin Schwartz, Joe Samachson, Sam Citron, Ed Dobrotka, Ira Yarbrough, John Sikela, George Roussos, Stan Kaye & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2470-7

The debut of Superman rapidly propelled National Comics to the forefront of their fledgling industry and in 1939 the company was licensed to produce a commemorative extra-length comicbook celebrating the opening of the New York World’s Fair. With the Man of Tomorrow prominently featured on the appropriately titled New York World’s Fair Comics, the premium also featured such four-colour stars as Zatara, Butch the Pup, Gingersnap and The Sandman.

The experiment generated another such titanic tome a year later, and since the prodigious card-covered 96 page anthologies were a tolerable hit, the editors were inclined to further test the waters through another oversized anthology starring only their own pantheon of characters with market-leaders Superman and Batman prominently featured.

The format was retained for a wholly company-owned, quarterly high-end package, retailing for the then hefty price of 15Â¢. Launching as World’s Best Comics #1 (Spring 1941), the book transformed into the somehow-deemed-classier World’s Finest Comics from #2, beginning a stellar 45 year run which only ended as part of the massive clear-out and decluttering exercise that was Crisis on Infinite Earths.

Until a cost-cutting exercise in 1954 reduced the page count, the first 70 issues of World’s Finest only saw Superman, Batman and Robin united on the covers. From #71 (cover-dated July) onwards, however, the three began a long-lived partnership that lasted more or less until the title was cancelled.

This deliciously deluxe hardback Archive edition collects the Action Ace’s solo exploits from World’s Finest Comics #16-32 (Winter 1945 to January/February 1948) in gleaming, seductive full-colour and also includes an incisive Foreword by fan, historian, and comics creator Jim Amash as well as the now-traditional creator biographies.

With stunning, eye-catching covers from Jack Burnley, Dick Sprang and Win Mortimer, this fabulously exuberant compendium opens with the regrettably anonymous ‘Music for the Masses!’ illustrated by Sam Citron & George Roussos wherein Clark Kent and Lois Lane help a starry-eyed hick songwriter escape the machinations of arch conman J. Wilbur Wolfingham to find stardom and true love, and World’s Finest Comics #17 provided thrills and spills in Don Cameron, Citron & Roussos’ ‘The Great Godini!’, wherein a reformed convict struggles to escape his notorious past whilst attempting to forge a career as a stage magician and escapologistâ€¦

‘The Junior Reporters!’, by Alvin Schwartz & Ed Dobrotka, sees a young newsboy prove his grit and integrity in a journalism competition, scoring his first major scoop by exposing the crooked schemes of his older brother’s gang, after which WFC #19 details Cameron & Ira Yarbrough’s ‘The Battle of the Zodiac!’ as Lois’ investigation of a shady swami leads to a spectacular, phantasmagorical clash between the Man of Steel and animatedly aggressive astrological embodiments.

After swiping advanced electronic and atomic components, creepy Winslow Schott becomes ‘The Toyman: Super-Scientist!’ (Cameron, Dobrotka & Stan Kaye), bedevilling the Metropolis Marvel with lethally devious devices, whilst from #21, ‘The Plane of Tomorrow!’ (Joe Samachson, Yarbrough & Roussos) finds Superman feeling uncharacteristically jealous when Lois seemingly switches her fickle attentions to a dashing jet designer targeted by a dodgy industrialistâ€¦

When Lois and Clark are despatched north to cover radium mining they uncover a strange mystery. Aging prospector John Borealis seems to be just a crazy old man handing out gold to his struggling fellows but he harbours a dangerous secret which draws out an army of bandits in ‘The Siege of Aurora Roost!’ (Schwartz, Yarbrough & Kaye in #22)â€¦

When a handful of silent screen stars attempt a comeback they begin dotting the city with vast imitations of the Seven Wonders of the World. As the poorly built edifices begin to crumble, Superman steps in to save the day as ‘The Colossus of Metropolis!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye from World’s Finest Comics #23), after which those artists delineate the again-anonymously-scripted ‘Impossible But True!’ wherein the presenter of a new TV show tells more and more blatant lies on camera.

What nobody knows is that poor Olga Olmstead is being fed false info by ruthless kidnappers and the Man of Tomorrow is biding his time until he can strikeâ€¦

‘Mad Weather in Metropolis!’ from WFC #25 (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye) follows similar themes when Lois is appointed Daily Planet meteorologist and resentfully fabricates impossible forecasts which Superman makes come true. What she doesn’t know is that the Caped Crimebuster is using her potty prognostications to help out an ailing sporting goods store and catch a gang of racketeersâ€¦

Co-creator Jerry Siegel returned after war service in 1946 and ‘The Confessions of Superman!’ (art by John Sikela & Kaye) saw him on top form as the promise of a huge charity donation convinces the Man of Might to pen his (somewhat expurgated) autobiography and then have to prove to his publisher that he did indeed perform the feats he describedâ€¦

World’s Finest #27’s featured ‘The Man who Out-Supered Superman!’ (Siegel, Sikela & Kaye again ) wherein downtrodden love sick schnook Nelson Swayne devised numerous sharp ways of outdoing the Man of Steel to win back his flighty, star-struck girlfriendâ€¦

Paramount mad scientist Lex Luthor returned with a â€œlife-rayâ€ to plunder and pillage Metropolis, galvanising a giant statue into becoming ‘Superman’s Super-Self!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Kaye) whilst ‘The Books that Couldn’t be Bound!’ (Schwartz, Sikela & Kaye in #29) found Clark and Lois following a harried bookbinder as he strove to fulfil three all-but-impossible commissions. Naturally the Caped Kryptonian also turned up to assist as a unique apprenticeâ€¦

‘Sheriff Clark Kent’ (Cameron, Win Mortimer & Dobrotka) took the Man of Steel to the Wild West but it was his meek alter ego and feisty little lad Roaring Pete who caught the cunning crook ramrodding the fearsome Rockdust Banditsâ€¦

Sheer whimsy guided ‘Superman’s Super-Rival!’ (Schwartz, Yarbrough & Kaye) as punchy boxer Dan the Dunce swipes an experimental sedative which turns him into a mighty muscled mauler able to mangle the Man of Steel and seduce away his girl Loisâ€¦ The last tale in this volume – from World’s Finest Comics #32, Fall 1944 – is ‘The Seventh Wonder of the World!’ by Siegel, Yarbrough & Kaye, astoundingly detailing how Superman briefly visits ancient Egypt just in time to smash an army of proto-Nazis, liberate Pharaoh’s slaves and complete the Pyramid of Cheops. All in a day’s work, reallyâ€¦

These blockbusting yarns provide a perfect snapshot of the Caped Kryptonian’s amazing development from unstoppable, outlaw social activist to trusted and omnipotent paragon of American virtues in timeless tales which have never lost their edge or their power to enthral and beguile.

This is raw comicbook wonderment at its most primal and perfect.
Â© 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

April 7, 2015

Superman Archives volume 8

By Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Don Cameron, Bill Finger, Alvin Schwartz, Whitney Ellsworth, Ed Dobrotka, Sam Citron, Ira Yarbrough, George Roussos, Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2885-9

Today’s American comicbook industry – if it still existed at all – would have been utterly unrecognisable to us without Superman. His unprecedented invention and adoption by a desperate and joy-starved generation quite literally gave birth to a genre if not an actual art form.

Spawning an impossible army of imitators and variations, within three years of his 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 for a host of gods, heroes and monsters, all dedicated to profit through exuberant, eye-popping excess and explosive derring-do.

In comicbook terms at least Superman was master of the world, having already utterly changed the shape of the fledgling industry. There was the phenomenally popular newspaper strip, a thrice-weekly radio serial, games, toys, as much global syndication as the war would allow and the perennially re-run Fleischer studio’s astounding animated cartoons.

Despite all the years that have passed since then, I – and so many others – still believe that superhero comics were never more apt or effective than when they were whole-heartedly combating the agents of Fascism (and yes by heck, even the dirty, doggone, Reds-Under-the-Beds Commies, who took their place in the 1960s too!) with mysterious masked marvel men in compulsive, improbable short, sharp exploits,

The most evocative and breathtaking moments of the genre always seem to occur as those gaudy gladiators soundly thrashed – and please forgive the offensive contemporary colloquialism – â€œNips, Nazis and Redsâ€. However, even in those dark days long-ago, the young and enthusiastic creators were wise enough to augment their tales of espionage and invasion with a range of gentler, more whimsical four-colour fare. By the time of the sagas in this superb seventh Superman full-colour hardcover Archive edition – re-presenting #30-35 (September/October 1944 to July/August 1944) of the Man of Tomorrow’s solo title – the apprehension of the early war years had been replaced with eager anticipation as tyranny’s infernal forces were being rolled back on every Front.

Superman was the premier, vibrant, vital role model whose startling abilities and take-charge, can-do attitude had won the hearts of the public at home and the troops across the war-torn world.

Now, although the shooting was all but over, stirring, morale-boosting covers and stories were being phased out in favour of gentler and even purely comedic themes.

Following a funny and informative Foreword: â€œLook! Up in the Sky! It’s a Birdâ€¦ it’s a Planeâ€¦it’s – An Imp?’ by cartoonist Evan Dorkin discussing the advent of super-foes, social change and a certain fifth dimensional jester, the action-laced whimsy begins with ‘Superman Alias Superman!’ by Don Cameron, Ira Yarbrough & Stan Kaye wherein lovelorn Clark Kent takes romantic advice from office-boy Jimmy Olsen and impersonates his own alter ego to impress Lois.

The doomed imposture is further complicated because his scathing, scoop-obsessed colleague is fully fixated on catching high society bandit Silver Foxx and has no time for Clark’s insecurities and idiociesâ€¦

The go-getting journalist was always too busy for romance back then, as can be seen in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Arch-Swindler’ by Cameron, Ed Dobrotka & George Roussos. In those turbulent times the interpretation of the â€œplucky news-henâ€ was far less demeaning than the post-war sneaky minx who was so popular in the late 1950s and 1960s.

Lois might have been ambitious and life-threateningly precipitate, but it was always to advance her own career, help underdogs and put bad guys away, not trap a man into marriage.

Her Superman-free exploits began in #28: a succession of 4-page vignettes offering breathless, fast-paced, screwball comedy-thrillers. In this example, spurred on by Clark’s teasing, she tracks down, is captured by and spectacularly turns the tables on murderous conman Jack Doverâ€¦

Back with the star feature, Bill Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos revealed how an ancient prophecy turns the Action Ace into ‘The King’s Substitute’ as centuries ago the ruler of tiny nation Poltavia learns that a Superman will one day deliver his country from bondage, restore a true heir and offer the people a wonderful thing called democracyâ€¦

Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster & Yarbrough then herald the start of a new kind of adventure as ‘The Mysterious Mr. Mxyztplk’ debuts. An utterly intoxicating daffy romp introduced the 5th dimensional imp who would henceforward periodically test the Man of Steel’s ingenuity and patience in a still-hilarious perfect example of the lighter side of super-heroics.

Mxyztplk (later anglicised to Mxyzptlk, presumably to make it easier to spell?) became a cornerstone of the Superman mythos: an insufferable pixie against whom all Superman’s strength and power were useless. From then on brains were going to be as important as brawn as frustration became the Man of Steel’s first real weaknessâ€¦

Superman #31 opens with crime-thriller ‘Tune Up Time for Crime’ (Finger, Sam Citron Roussos) as crooks with a deadly new sonic weapon turn out to have the scientific backing of the Metropolis’ Marvel’s oldest enemy, after which arch-whimsy reappears in ‘A Dog’s Tale’ (Finger, Citron & Roussos) when scruffy mutt Flip proudly tells his canine pals how he helped Superman crack a dognapping racketâ€¦

Cameron & Dobrotka then reveal how a gang of jewel thieves prove no match for dumb luck and journalistic moxie in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Aces Doonan Gang’ before Finger, Citron & Roussos close out the issue with a trip to the museum as ‘The Treasure House of History!’ finds Superman saving a noble institution from mismanagement, skulduggery and even closure whilst discovering a lost Mayan cityâ€¦

In #32 ‘Superman’s Search for Clark Kent!’ (Alvin Schwartz, Dobrotka & Roussos) finds the Action Ace an invincible amnesiac after volunteering for a scientific trial and forced to track down his own other identity whilst ‘Crime on Skis!!’ (Finger, Dobrotka & Roussos) sees the restored hero debunk a malign mythical bird as no more than a cover for more pedestrian killers plaguing a ski resort.

‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: Monkey Business’ (Whitney Ellsworth, Dobrotka & Roussos) is another splendidly frothy concoction describing how a ventriloquist at the zoo puts the jaunty journo on the trail of a pack of pickpockets, after which the terrible Toyman resurfaces to plague Metropolis, plundering wealthy antique collectors in search of a treasure hidden since the French Revolution in ‘Toys of Treachery!’ (Cameron, Dobrotka & Roussos).

Superman #33 opened with the hero following foolish Lois into ‘Dimensions of Danger!’ (Cameron, Yarbrough & Roussos) after she road-tested a Mxyztplk spell and ended up stuck in his home realm of Zrfff. Once there the Caped Kryptonian had the opportunity to do a little mischief-making of his ownâ€¦

With art by Yarbrough & Roussos ‘The Country Doctor!’ is the kind of socially aware redemptive tale Bill Finger was a master of and saw Clark Kent stuck in homey little Middletown watching aging Dr. David Brown make a difference – but little money – ministering to the poor souls around him.

The physician’s only regret was a son who preferred big city glamour cases and big city fees, but then something quite tragic happenedâ€¦

Ellsworth & Dobrotka’s ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Purloined Piggy Bank’ found her being pranked by (male) cops before turning the tables on them and crushing a crime conspiracy. The issue ends with classic mystery yarn ‘The Compass Points to Murder!’ (Finger, Yarbrough & Roussos) finding the Action Ace darting to the four corners of the globe in search of a killer who believed he’d successfully silenced a shipping fleet magnate but had left one telling clue behindâ€¦

In #25 Mort Weisinger & Fred Ray’s ‘I Sustain the Wings!’ played a crucial part in America’s attempt to address a shortfall in vital services recruitment – a genuine problem at this time in our real world – and created an instant comics classic.

Artistically Superman #34 is an all Citron/Roussos affair, whose opening shot attempted to repeat the magic formula with Cameron scripted ‘The United States Navy!’ with Clark despatched to follow three college football heroes whilst they progress – in different maritime specialisations – through the war in the Pacific. Â

Then ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Foiled Frame-Up’ (Ellsworth) sees her upset political scoundrels and expose a smear campaign after which Cameron instigates a prototype â€œImaginary Taleâ€ with ‘The Canyon that Went Berserk!’ wherein a fortune teller prompts Clark into daydreaming the prospecting adventure of a lifetimeâ€¦

‘When the World got Tired!’ (Finger) then ramped up the tension when a sinister epidemic of global indolence and sloth turns out to be the work of Lex Luthor and his new alien alliesâ€¦

The gaggle of Golden Age goodies conclude with the contents of Superman #35 (mostly illustrated by Yarbrough & Roussos), starting with the Cameron scripted ‘Fame for Sale!’, wherein shady cove and scurvy scoundrel J. Wilbur Wolfingham rears his conniving head once more. The magnificent pastiche of W. C. Fields as a ruthless Mr. Micawber returned like a bad penny over and again to bedevil honest folk and greedy saps and here he acted as an early kind of spin doctor/publicist for a millionaire miser, social climbing parvenu and even the Mayor of Metropolis, promising their names would be on everybody’s lips.

Of course he neglected to mention how he would accomplish the feats and drew the unwelcome attention of an always alert Action Aceâ€¦

A gang wanting to profiteer from a new medicine came to a painful end in ‘Lois Lane, Girl Reporter: The Drug Swindle’ (Cameron & Dobrotka) whilst Yarbrough & Roussos resumed their illustrative endeavours for Finger’s ‘Like Father, Like Son!’ wherein Superman cleared the name and reputation of a local politician whose enemies sought to tar him with the same scandalous brush as his supposedly criminal child, and the

‘The Genie of the Lamp!’ (scripted by Schwartz) then sees the Action Ace teach a wealthy young antique collector the difference between precious objects and people in need by masquerading as a wish-fulfilling spriteâ€¦

With stunning covers by Jack Burnley, Wayne Boring, Roussos & Kaye, plus a full ‘Biographies’ section this is another stunning selection of the stories which kept the groundbreaking Man of Steel at the forefront of comics for nearly 80 years.

As fresh and thrilling now as they ever were, these endlessly re-readable epics are perfectly situated in these gloriously luxurious Archive Editions; a worthy, long-lasting vehicle for the greatest and most influential comics stories the art form has ever produced.

So what are you waiting forâ€¦?
Â© 1944, 1945, 2010 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

February 10, 2015February 9, 2015

Superman: President Lex

By J.M. DeMatteis, Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, Greg Rucka, Mark Schultz, Karl Kesel, Ed McGuinness, Carlo Barberi, Doug Mahnke, Mike Wieringo, Paco Medina, Tony Harris, Duncan Rouleau & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-974-4

Superman has been altered and adjusted continually over his many decades of fictive life since Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster’s iconic inspiration first appeared in Action Comics #1. Moreover, every refit and reboot has resulted in appalled fans and new devotees in pretty much equal proportion, so perhaps the Metropolis Marvel’s greatest ability is the power to survive changeâ€¦

Although largely out of favour these days as the myriad strands of accrued mythology are carefully reintegrating into an overarching, all-inclusive, multi-media dominant, film-favoured continuity, the grittily stripped-down, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel (as re-imagined by John Byrne and superbly built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen) resulted in some stunning high points.

Actually, no sooner had the Byrne restart demolished much of the accrued iconography which had grown up around the â€œStrange Visitor from Another Worldâ€ over fifty glorious years than successive creators began expending a great deal of time and ingenuity putting much of it back, albeit in terms more accessible to a cynical and well-informed audience far more sophisticated than their grandparents ever were.

Even so, by the mid-1990’s Byrne’s baby was beginning to look a little tired and the sales kick generated by the Death of and Return of Superman was fading, so the decision was made to give the big guy a bit of a tweak for the fast-approaching new millennium: bringing in new writers and artists and gradually moving the stories into more blockbusting, hyper-heroic territory.

The fresh tone and new look were celebrated by a new sequence and style of trade paperback editions. This fifth themed collection gathers material culled in full or in part from President Luthor Secret Files and Origins #1, Action Comics #773, Adventures of Superman #581 & 586, Superman #162-166, Superman: Man of Steel #108-110 and Superman: Lex 2000 #1, spanning June 2000 to March 2001 and detailing the improbable success of the villainous magnate as he accedes to the highest political office in the landâ€¦

â€œCity of Tomorrowâ€ Metropolis is now fully adapted to its status as the most technologically advanced population cluster on Earth, rebuilt and overwritten into a technological wonderland by Brainiac-13. Judiciously selling scraps of the future-tech has made Luthor immeasurably rich and oppressively influential. It has even allowed him to massage his own history: accentuating the positive and deleting the negativeâ€¦ or â€œthe truthâ€ as those who know him call itâ€¦

The blueprint to power begins with ‘The Why’ (by Greg Rucka, Matthew Clark & Ray Snyder from President Luthor Secret Files and Origins #1) picturing the provocations which inspired the nefarious businessman to throw his hat into the political ring.

Following an extract from Adventures of Superman #581 (J.M. DeMatteis, Mike Miller &Walden Wong) in which he announces his candidacy, ‘The Most Suitable Person’ (President Luthor Secret Files and Origins #1 by Rucka, Dale Eaglesham & Ray Kryssing) follows his conniving and murderous ploys as he selects Daughter-of-the-Demon Talia Al G’hul to run his various commercial enterprises while he’s running the world – and why he won’t take no for an answerâ€¦

Next comes ‘The American Dream’ (Superman #162 by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Cam Smith) which sees Lex hits the campaign trail, naming Clark Kent‘s boyhood pal Pete Ross as running mate. Frustration is continually building in the Man of Steel at the impossible situation and he’s in no mood for extreme or arbitrary actions from JLA team-mate Aquaman who chooses this moment to attack Metropolis for alleged pollution crimes generated by LexCorp and the super-cityâ€¦

After tackling a colossal sea monster and winning no leeway from the King of Atlantis, Superman is equally unhappy to deal with an invading aquatic army led by former Aqualad Tempest or the monstrous tidal wave generated to inundate his home townâ€¦

Even with teen terrors Young Justice lending a hand in concluding episode ‘Where Monsters Lurk!’ (Loeb, McGuinness, Paul Pelletier & Smith from Superman #163), the flood still distracts him so much he is unable to prevent Atlanteans from abducting Luthor. He is utterly aghast when the Presidential candidate negotiates his own release and even closes a deal with the repentant and conciliatory sea-dwellersâ€¦

Then the most popular man in town all but guarantees his clear road to the White House after a failed assassination attempt leaves him (barely) bloodied but proudly unbowedâ€¦

Another extract, ‘Soul of the City!’ (Adventures of Superman #586 by DeMatteis, Miller, Armando Durruthy & Wong) depicts the ultimate indignity as the defender of Truth, Justice and the American Way has to publicly congratulate his greatest enemy on becoming the new boss before ‘Metropolis is Burning’ (Superman: Man of Steel #108 by Mark Schultz, Paco Medina, Doug Mahnke, Juan Vlasco & Tom Nguyen) discloses a council of war with inventive genius John Henry Irons AKA Steel to handle the Luthor situation.

The talks are soon shanghaied by a more immediate crisis when B-13 tech terrorist Cyber-Queen Luna returns from the Phantom Zone, accidentally unleashing a Brobdingnagian energy-leeching parasite to ravage Metropolis. As the heroes deploy to defeat the beast, they are unaware of a felicitous side-effect which also frees long lost friend, genius and Luthor-loather Professor Emil Hamiltonâ€¦

Elsewhere, as scarily obsessed Batman warns Superman and Lois Lane to do something about President-Elect Lex, ‘Tales from the Bizarro World’ (Loeb, McGuinness, Carlo Barberi, Smith & Vlasco from Superman #164) finds safety-averse newsboy Jimmy Olsen adopted by the immensely powerful simpleton doppelganger and dragged around town until Supergirl comes bombastically to his aidâ€¦

Eventually however it takes the experience of the Man of Tomorrow to glean what the skewed duplicate needsâ€¦

From Superman: Lex 2000 #1, an assortment of vignettes follow, the first of which offers chilling insights into the mettle of the new President in warts-&-all origin yarn ‘Lex Luthor: Triumph over Tragedy’ by Loeb, Tony Harris & Snyder, after which the Dark Knight takes matters into his own gauntleted hands in ‘One or the Other’ (Rucka, Dwayne Turner & Danny Miki) and suffers a rare defeatâ€¦

Jimmy gets stuck with a tedious assignment that provides a glimpse into the nature of his work colleagues in ‘Where Were You?’ (Loeb, Mahnke & Wong), whilst Superman finally expresses his own furious frustrated emotions – thankfully off-planet – in ‘He’s Heard the News’ (Loeb, McGuinness, Barberi & Smith), before ‘Lana’s Story’ (Loeb, Todd Nauck & Klaus Janson) focuses on the feelings and fears of Superman’s first girlfriend, current wife of the new Vice Presidentâ€¦

A seasonal jam session, Superman #165 offers a string of short guest shots as Mr. and Mrs. Superman distribute presents to the Justice League in ‘Help!’ (scripted by Loeb, with art by McGuinness & Smith, Humberto Ramos & Wayne Faucher, Rob Liefeld & norm Rapmund, Mike Wieringo & Smith, Art Adams, Ian Churchill & Rapmund and Joe Madureira & Tim Townsend).

Meanwhile time-guarding Linear Man Liri Lee heads Earthward to warn that planet Pluto has been transformed into a lethally voracious war-worldâ€¦

Despite the Christmas cheer and temporary goodwill the Action Ace is slipping into despondency, losing faith with the American people who elected Lex. Happily time-bending Liri is able to show him how horrific the ‘World Without Superman’ (Superman: Man of Steel #109 by Schulz, Duncan Rouleau, Jaime Mendoza & Marlo Alquiza) would be and, re-galvanised, the hero is ready if not particularly willing to join dynamic duo Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. and Steel when grotesque invader Earthquake attempts to kill the President at his inauguration in ‘Saints’ (Superman: Man of Steel #110, Schulz, Mahnke & Nguyen)â€¦

The campaign catalogue concludes with a brace of sidebar stories from President Luthor Secret Files and Origins #1 as ‘Rockets’ Red Glare’ (Karl Kesel, Pelletier & Smith) introduces Lex’s surprising selections for his Inner Cabinet whilst showing how he deals with aggravating old business after which ‘He’s Coming Mr. Lew-Thor’ (Loeb, Wieringo & Alquiza) wraps things up with a foreboding look at his unlikely Special Advisor Nathaniel Mackelvanyâ€¦

With a cover gallery by Harris, Snyder, McGuinness & Smith, Mahnke & Nguyen, Rouleau & Mendoza and Glen Orbik, this book can seem a tad confused and a little perplexing due to playing fast-and-loose epic with chronological order but all-in-all provides plenty of action, thrills and even some humour as it embarks on one of the boldest and most inventive periods in the Man of Steel’s decades-long history.

January 3, 2015

Superman: Critical Condition

By J.M. DeMatteis, Joe Kelly, Jeph Loeb, Mark Schultz, Carlo Barberi, Pascual Ferry, Kano, Doug Mahnke, Mike McKone, Cary Nord, Pablo Raimondi, Duncan Rouleau & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-949-3

Although largely out of favour these days as the myriad strands of accrued mythology are being carefully reintegrated into an overarching, all-inclusive multi-media dominant, film-favoured continuity, the grittily stripped-down, post-Crisis on Infinite Earths Man of Steel (as re-imagined by John Byrne and superbly built upon by a succession of immensely talented comics craftsmen) resulted in some stunning high points.

The fresh tone was augmented by a new sequence and style of trade paperback editions and this third collection gathers material from The Adventures of Superman #579-580, Superman: Man of Steel #101-102, Action Comics #766-767, Superman: Metropolis Secret Files and Origins #1 and Superman #158, covering June and July 2000.

The â€œCity of Tomorrowâ€ is slowly coming to terms with the fact that it has been transformed into an often-terrifying technological wonderland after a cyber-attack by future fiend Brainiac-13, but the Man of Steel is trying to cope with far weightier issues. Despite exposing The Parasite who had been impersonating Lois Lane-Kent, the Man of Tomorrow was unable to force the location of his missing wife from the leech before he/it died. With his one true love lost and maybe dead, Superman also had to admit that something was killing him from the insideâ€¦

‘Pranked!’ (Adventures of Superman #579 by J.M. DeMatteis, Mike McKone & Marlo Alquiza) opens proceedings here as Superman scours the city, convinced Lex Luthor knows something about Lois’ disappearance. He soon distracted however when the maniacal Prankster strikes again.

Having no time for the killer idiot’s japes, he reacts impulsively and is ambushed by a new foe dubbed The Adversary. The mystery strongman and Prankster (even with a B-13 upgrade of his own) are no match for the enraged Man of Steel, but that angry concern and overconfidence only lead Superman into a Kryptonite trapâ€¦

The saga continues in ‘All Fall Down’ (Superman: Man of Steel # 101 by Mark Shultz, Pablo Raimondi & JosÃ© Marzan Jr.) as the rapidly expiring Metropolis Marvel crashes into the technological wonderland built by John Henry Irons AKA Steel.

With the inventor Superman devises a means of boosting his depleted solar energy reserves to fight off the K-radiation exposure, but rather than rest and recuperate, the weary hero then disguises himself in another attempt to broach Luthor’s Lair. The bid fails ignominiously and the ailing hero is caught, beaten and kicked out like a dogâ€¦

As he is picked up off the street by another worried ally, back at the â€œSteelworksâ€, Irons makes a chilling discovery regarding Superman’s conditionâ€¦

‘Metropolica’ (Superman: Metropolis Secret Files #1, by Joe Kelly, Pascual Ferry & Alvaro Lopez) then takes us on a strange diversion as Luthor sets his formidable bodyguards Hope and Mercy the task of finding the missing Lois Lane. For once innocent of mischief, the Machiavellian multi-billionaire needs to know who is acting against his interests in his own domain.

Although the mission exposes a lot of secrets about the City of Tomorrow, Lois’ whereabouts is not one of themâ€¦

Action Comics #766 then concludes the hunt as Batman steps in – over the increasingly feeble protestations of the clearly-dying Man of Steel – in ‘D.O.A.’ (by Kelly, Cary Nord & Jason Baumgartner). The Dark Knight’s methodology and attitudes might be unwelcome, but as Superman follows him through the most sordid and squalid regions of the city he cannot fault their efficacy; especially when, against all hope, they find Lois alive.

With his wife at last returned Superman’s energy finally fades and he collapsesâ€¦

The eponymous ‘Critical Condition’ then begins with ‘Little Big Man’ (from Superman #158 by Jeph Loeb, Duncan Rouleau & Jaime Mendoza) as a desperate band of scientists assemble at S.T.A.R. Labs to try and save Superman from a poison or infection which is destroying him by making his powers go wild.

With Irons are Doctors Sarah Charles, Kitty (Rampage) Faulkner and Professors Bridgette Crosby and Ray Palmer, but their combined efforts seem doomed to failure until Jimmy Olsen tells Lois of a call to the Daily Planet tip-line.

Soon she is frantically chasing sorceress and petty criminal La Encantadora who has horrifying details about what is wrong with the Man of Steelâ€¦

Palmer meanwhile has opted to undertake a â€œFantastic Voyageâ€ inside Superman, accompanied by Steel, Supergirl and Superboy but as the Atom shrinks his emergency team into the patient’s boiling hot bloodstream he has no idea that more than one of his party is concealing a deadly secretâ€¦

In ‘Green Universe’ (Adventures of Superman #580, by J.M. DeMatteis, Carlo Barberi & Juan Vlasco) the Girl of Steel – currently the earthly abode of a fallen angel – is attacked by antibodies shaped like memories even as Superboy and Steel locate a Kryptonite tumour that suddenly attacks themâ€¦

In the outer universe Lois’ search for Encantadora has brought her into conflict with infallible assassin Deathstroke the Terminator, who has instructions to stop the witch sharing her knowledge at all costs. As the women flee the masked killer, back at the lab a late arrival proves to Palmer that one of the heroes he has micro-injected into Superman is both an impostor and an assassinâ€¦

With the patient alternately flatlining and nearly exploding, the latecomer is rapidly â€œatomisedâ€ and sent ‘Inside Superman’ (Shultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen, Superman: Man of Steel #102) to warn the unwary Super-Squad.

Simultaneously Lois and Encantadora explosively arrive in time to inform the scientists what has been gradually poisoning Superman for months, but before Atom and his colleagues can act Deathstroke also bursts in, ready to kill everyone if it means the Action Ace’s endâ€¦

Everything comes to a compulsive and catastrophic climax in ‘Death’s Door’ (Action Comics #767, by Kelly, Kano & Alquiza) as the mystery poisoner is revealed, Terminator thwarted and the Super-Squad triumphantly restores Superman to full health, ready for the next confrontation in the Never-Ending Battleâ€¦

With a cover gallery by McKone, Alquiza, Manke, Nguyen, Schultz, Cam Smith, Danny Miki, Ian Churchill & Norm Rapmund, this epic life-and-death struggle offers drama, doom, shock, spectacle and surprises which no lover of the Fights ‘n’ Tights genre can help but adore: a compelling soap opera super-melodrama which remains a high point of the canon and a sheer delight for all fans of pure untrammelled Action fiction.
Â© 2000, 2003 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

December 14, 2014December 13, 2014

Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again

By Frank Miller& Lynn Varley (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-929-4

Despite and because of all the controversy and uproar over The Dark Knight Returns, the clamour for a sequel began almost immediately. Auteur Frank Millar kept everybody hungry for almost fifteen years and when he finally did capitulate it was – as usual – not what anyone was expecting.

Originally released as a 3-issue prestige format miniseries between November 2001 and July 2002 under DC’s Elseworlds imprint (a line featuring key characters in non-canonical or out-of-continuity tales). Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again once more confounded reader expectations with its concentration on contemporary social commentary, other (lesser?) superheroes and political corruption as well as the dumbing-down and sexualisation of the media â€¦

Three years after the climax of the original epic, America and the world are worse off than ever and following a mood-setting Introduction from veteran journalist â€œVicki Valeâ€, Book One opens with a well-hidden Bruce Wayne assessing just how far his country has fallen: a tidal wave of Bread-&-Circuses on the airwaves saturation-lobotomising the populace with tawdry titillation and celebrity news soporifics whilst impossibly popular, implausibly avuncular President Rickard assures the complacent proles they’ve never had it so goodâ€¦

The Batman knows a secret however: PoTUS doesn’t existâ€¦

There’s still some dissent, but who listens nowadays to old dinosaurs like Jimmy Olsen constantly bemoaning the repeal of The Bill of Rights or carping on about how all the costumed heroes have somehow vanished.

Elswehere, an incredibly tiny man continues his daily battle against voracious monsters until suddenly he is plucked from his hostile micro-prison by a young girl dressed like an animal.

After years in Hell Ray Palmer is ready to help an old comrade take back the world, but first he and Catgirl Carrie Kelley have to battle their way through an army of federal heavies and rent-a-copsâ€¦

Young, independent bedroom-&-basement News-hackers run with the story of â€œMasks and Capesâ€ making a comeback, prompting Rickard to extend Martial Law into its 19^th month. Somewhere far away a former Bastion of Liberty is terrified of the repercussions. Superman is still permitted to save lives in the worldâ€¦ as long as nobody sees him doing itâ€¦

In a cave far below ground, Catgirl helps The Atom retool for the forthcoming fight whilst introducing the bemused physicist to the Dark Knight’s latest addition to his arsenal: a legion of former gangstas and protÃ©gÃ©s dubbed The Batboys.

Buried in the nightly teaser-fest entitled News in the Nude, the Prez is delivering another placating homily when his image suddenly fritzes. The word is now out with more and more people realising their beloved paternalistic patriarch might be nothing than a hologram mask for any anonymous monster or maniacâ€¦

In the White House Lex Luthor fears his grip on power is slipping, whilst far-too-close-for-comfort, quintessential investigator The Question listens and learnsâ€¦

The long days of quiet resistance at last end when an explosion deprives the entire Eastern Seaboard of power, allowing Catgirl and the Batboys to move into Phase Two of the plan: liberating missing speedster Barry Allen from captivity and energy-generating slavery on a collosal power-grid-feeding treadmill.

The Flash is resistant – horrified and furious until Carrie reassures him that his beloved wife Iris is no longer a hostage of the American Governmentâ€¦

Deep in his lair Wayne contemplates his successes and calculates when exactly the Administration will send his old friend Clark after him againâ€¦

As the free and unsanctioned parts of the media speculate on the return of caped crusaders and the freaks quickly become a hot trend, out in space Superman contacts the long-hidden Wonder Woman and she joins him in a conference with Captain Marvel.

The World’s most powerful heroes are still castrated by the secret alliance of Luthor and Brainiac which has held their loved ones safety against them for years. After being horrifically reminded once more of the cost of disobedience, Superman heads after Batman but flies straight into a perfectly planned ambush and falls to a resurgent and growing rebel Justice League and a particularly vengeance-hungry Green Arrowâ€¦

Book Two finds the nation gripped by â€œSuperhero Chicâ€ as a torrent of fashion-crazed wannabes spring up everywhere. Increasingly furious Federal spin-doctors and government apparatchiks are helpless to stem, denigrate or even belittle the tide.

Ignoring the media storm Batman takes a more active role, attacking Luthor’s strongholds, liberating the likes of Plastic Man, Elongated Man and the rest whilst striking fear into the hearts of the too-long-complacent oppressorsâ€¦

In a momentous change of heart, eternal lovers Wonder Woman and Superman abandon their previous position and even allow their long hidden daughter Lara to join the struggle.

As Earth celebrates the â€œreturnâ€ of Superman, Luthor unleashes a ghastly facsimile of The Joker to kill the returned champions one by one, whilst Brainiac utilises an alien monster to draw the Man of Steel into battle. Heroes begin to fall. Manhunter, Guardian, The Creeper and Captain Marvel die before Lara arrives to decide the outcomeâ€¦

With Luthor and Brainiac on the defensive Bruce Wayne unmasks at a massive freedom concert in Gotham and beseeches the public to reclaim their country. This revolution is being televisedâ€¦

The apocalyptic conclusion in Book Three finds the battle in full flow with the massed forces and resources of totalitarian government ranged against two generations of masked champions and more – such as the exiled Green Lantern – arriving every moment.

Batman still has unfinished business: freeing the captive bottle-city Kandorians whose possession by Brainiac has neutered The Man of Tomorrow for years, but despite a concerted and successful campaign the Dark Knight is captured and tortured by Luthor even as the faux Joker targets Catgirl.

The killer has a history with the Bat-dynasty and a personal score to settle with the aging hero’s newest junior assistantâ€¦

With chaos, anarchy and even freedom in the air, the beaten dictators opt for a Scorched Earth policy and before long the entire planet looks unlikely to surviveâ€¦

This controversial sequel volume is packed with production drawings and a Designs Sketchbook to augment a unique and decidedly different Bat-saga at once bombastic, brutal, challenging and immensely entertaining.

Whilst certainly not the equal of its mythic predecessor, The Dark Knight Strikes Again is certainly a tremendously important tale no fan of comics should miss.
Â© 2001, 2002, 2005 DC Comics, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

November 5, 2014November 4, 2014

Superman: ‘Til Death Do Us Part

By Jeph Loeb, Mark Schultz, Joe Kelly, J.M. DeMatteis, Stuart Immonen, Ed McGuinness, Doug Mahnke, Pablo Raimondi, Kano, Yanick Paquette, & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-862-4

The fresh tone was augmented by a new sequence and style of trade paperback editions and this third collection gathers material from Superman #155-157, The Adventures of Superman #577-578, Superman: Man of Steel # 99-100 and Action Comics #764-765 covering April to June 2000 as the world slowly recovers from the terrifying attack of future fiend Brainiac-13, an assault which left Metropolis transformed into a literal â€œcity of Tomorrowâ€â€¦

The never-ending story resumes with ‘The Private Life of Clark Kent’ by Jeph Loeb, Ed McGuinness & Cam Smith from Superman #155 wherein the exhausted hero heads to Kansas for a quiet break with his parents and finds unwelcome interloper Superboy already in residence.

The Man of Steel has always been uncomfortable around his obnoxious, eternally juvenile clone but the gentle wisdom of Ma Kent soon smoothes the troubled waters. It’s a pity she’s not around when he gets back to the big city and increasingly irritable new wife Lois lays into bewildered Clarkâ€¦

Retreating back to Smallville in ‘A Tales of Two Cities’ (Adventures of Superman #577 by Stuart Immonen, Jay Faeber, Yanick Paquette, Rich Faber& JosÃ© Marzan Jr.), Clark debunks a case of eco-terrorism: clearing innocent kids and catching the real big business culprits even as in Metropolis Lex Luthor makes a play for economic supremacy.

The wily villain sacrificed his baby daughter to Brainiac in return for the patents to B-13, and his stranglehold on the future tech is being inexorably parlayed into a commercial – and soon political – monopolyâ€¦

Out of sorts and still avoiding Lois in ‘All That Dwell in Dark Waters’ (Mark Shultz, Pablo Raimondi & Sean Parsons from Superman: Man of Steel #99), Clark then rescues childhood sweetheart Lana Lang and her husband Pete Ross from an aquatic spirit and receives a much-needed pep talk on responsibility whilst in Metropolis semi-retired hero Steel and his niece Natasha tackle a cult of electronic packrats dubbed Cybermoths from plundering future tech ‘In the Belly of the Beast’ (Shultz, Doug Mahnke & Sean Parsons).

The resultant struggle happily leads to a brand new extra-dimensional opportunity for the astounded and late-arriving Caped Kryptonianâ€¦

Still avoiding his irrationally irascible wife in Action Comics #764, ‘Quiet after the Storm’ (Joe Kelly, Kano & Joe Rubinstein) finds Clark talking over his marriage problems with his dad whilst saving a lonely old lady from death by despondency in Smallville. However when visiting the Martian Manhunter the invulnerable hero finally acknowledges that not all his problems are emotional after collapsing in a choking fitâ€¦

Superman #156 opens ‘The Tender Trap’ (Loeb, McGuinness & Smith) as Lois and Clark’s relationship deteriorates even further, a situation exacerbated when Daily Planet Editor Perry White hires Lanaâ€¦

Shaken, bewildered and increasingly wracked by coughing fits, Superman barely survives an ambush by energy – and now memory – leech The Parasite.

Thankfully Wonder Woman is on hand to drive the monster away, but the Amazon’s appearance only reignites Lois’ feelings of neglect, jealousy and overriding suspicion.

So angry is the enraged reporter that she takes up Luthor on a long-standing offerâ€¦

Desperate to repair his relationship with Lois, Clark organises a substitute hero team to watch Metropolis whilst he takes her for a vacation to a paradise planet in ‘Getting Away from it All’ (Adventures of Superman #578 by J.M. DeMatteis, Pablo Raimondi & JosÃ© Marzan Jr.). Once again fate and duty conspire to ruin everythingâ€¦

In ‘Creation Story’ by Shultz, Doug Mahnke & Tom Nguyen (Superman: Man of Steel #100), the pocket dimension discovered by Steel is spectacularly filled and repurposed with the last Kryptonian remnants of the original Fortress of Solitude. Sadly the astounding architectural feat draws the rapacious Cybermoths and their anarchic queen Luna into action again, but neither Superman nor his engineering associate are aware that a horrifying old enemy is behind her repeated attempts to seize this new â€œPhantom Zoneâ€â€¦

A bizarre change of pace features in Action Comics #765 as ‘A Clown Comes to Metropolis’ (Kelly, Kano & Marlo Alquiza). Tragically the Joker‘s idea of good times include humiliating Luthor and wanton mass slaughter, whilst all Harley Quinn can think about is beating his lethally effective bodyguard Mercy to deathâ€¦

With chaos and carnage running rampant it’s the worst possible time for Superman to be sick, but even after sending the homicidal humorists (barely) packing, worse is in store for the Man of Steelâ€¦

Concluding instalment Superman #157 opens with Clark reeling at the news that his wife is leaving him. Before that can sink in he then finds himself in super-powered combat with his spouse in ‘Superman’s Enemy Lois Lane’ (Loeb, McGuinness & Smith); a blockbuster battle that threatens to decimate the city.

Aware too late that his wife has been replaced by an impostor, the hero valiantly overcomes his illness and reluctance to hit the â€œwomanâ€ he loves, but his eventually victory is a purely pyrrhic one.

When the dust settles Superman is the only survivor and suddenly realises he has no idea where the real Lois is, or even if she still livesâ€¦

To Be Continuedâ€¦

With a cover gallery by McGuinness & Smith, Immonen, Terry Dodson, Manke, John Dell and Yvel Guichet this captivating conundrum of a compilation pits the World’s Greatest Hero against insurmountable problems whilst examining the mere man beneath the steel hard skin.

Lovers of the Fights ‘n’ Tights genre cannot help but respond to the sheer scale, spectacle and compelling soap opera melodrama of these tales which remain a high point of the canon and a sheer delight for all fans of pure untrammelled Action fiction.

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