Category: Superman

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Superman vs. Predator


By Mark Schultz & Ariel Olivetti (DC Comics/Dark Horse)
ISBN: 978-1-84023-319-3

I’m never particularly comfortable with crossovers combining licensed characters. It seems to me that some basic law of narrative integrity is being flouted purely for venal profit when two (or more) disparate headlining money-spinners are shoehorned into a story with scant regard for intrinsic values and often necessitating ludicrous plot-maguffins simply to make the mismatch work.

On first look just such commercial instincts seem to ride roughshod over all other considerations in this Battle of The Brands from DC and Dark Horse, which originally appeared as a three-issue miniseries in 2000 before making the jump to stiff covers and nominal legitimacy as a graphic novel…

However, appearances can be deceiving and once the necessary leveling gimmick has de-powered the nigh-omnipotent Man of Tomorrow what’s left is a beautifully illustrated and tensely effective thriller that both movie mavens and funnybook fans can read and enjoy.

Written by David Michelinie and illustrated by Alex Maleev the action opens with a S.T.A.R. Labs expedition to La Jungla de Las Sombras, one of the hottest and isolated areas of the South American rain forest. A small group of scientists looking for specimens discover a half-buried alien spacecraft and immediately fall out. Whilst ambitious young Dr. Marla Rollins is bedazzled by the potential benefits and glory that would accrue from such a find, grizzled xenobiologist Casey Trabor wants to blow it up. He knows trouble when he sees it. Of course the mound of human skulls he’s standing on might be colouring his judgement…

In Metropolis, Lois Lane gets wind of the find and promptly heads South, but Superman arrives first, only to be exposed to a fast-acting extraterrestrial virus when he enters the fallen vessel with the squabbling scientists. The first inkling that something is wrong comes when the “dead” ship awakens and emits an alarm signal. Before anybody can react a surprise attack by paramilitary mercenaries drives off both the explorers and a painfully weakened Man of Steel.

Fleeing into the jungles the Americans learn the legend of the Predators (heavily referencing the first movie) from a native and when Lois finally turns up Superman is captured trying to rescue her from the mysterious soldiers.

All is revealed when the entire party is dragged before mad scientist Solomon Ward, who has turned a lost city into his private lab. Ward intends to inject a chemical into the Earth’s atmosphere that will wipe out all hereditary disease and disability. Unfortunately it works by killing all the “genetically impure” carriers at once, leaving only healthy, “pure” people alive to breed…

With Superman crippled and an unstoppable madman about to eugenically euthanise possibly everyone on Earth, dark secrets are revealed about more than one of the S.T.A.R. scientists, whilst elsewhere chaos and horror erupt as an invisible monster begins slaughtering the mercenaries…

The good guys escape and try to warn civilisation, whilst the dying Superman heads back to the downed ship looking for a last-ditch cure. What he finds is a bloody charnel house and an alien hunter summoned by the reactivated vessel.

Dying but indomitable, the Man of Steel must defeat an inhuman killing machine in time to stop mass genocide by far more wicked human monsters. The inscrutable Predator, however, has an agenda of its own, and of course there’s a thermonuclear self-destruct clock counting down too…

We are all, on some level, still just kids in our own heads, inhabiting a vast metafictional gestalt where Dracula, Adam Adamant, Thursday Next, Danger Mouse, Fu Manchu, James Bond and Carnacki, the Ghost Breaker stalk the same London streets (hey! That I would buy…) and occasionally it’s okay to giver in to the wide-eyed wonder addict – but only if the product is a well written and beautifully executed as this rare treat…

© 2001 DC Comics, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation and Dark Horse Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 0-930289-51-X

When the very concept of high priced graphic novels was just being tested in the early 1990s DC Comics produced a line of glorious hardback compilations spotlighting star characters and celebrating standout stories from the company’s illustrious and varied history decade by decade. They even branched out into themed collections which shaped the output of the industry to this day.

The Greatest Stories collections were revived this century as smaller paperback editions (with mostly differing content) and stand as an impressive and joyous introduction to the fantastic worlds and exploits of the World’s Greatest Superheroes. However for sheer physical satisfaction the older, larger books are by far the better product. Some of them made it to softcover trade paperback editions, but if you can afford it, the big hard ones are the jobs to go for…

From the moment a kid first sees his second superhero the only thing he/she wants is to see how the new costumed marvel stacks up against the first. From the earliest days of the industry (and according to Julie Schwartz’s fascinating introduction here, it was the same with the pulps and dime novels that preceded them) we’ve wanted our idols to meet, associate, battle together – and if you follow the Timely/Marvel model, that means against each other – far more than we want to see them trounce their archenemy one more time…

The Greatest Team-Up Stories Ever Told gathers together a stunning variety of classic tales and a few less famous but still worthy aggregations of heroes, but cleverly kicks off with a union of bad-guys in the Wayne Boring illustrated tale ‘The Terrible Trio!’ (Superman #88, March 1954) as the Man of Steel’s wiliest foes, Lex Luthor, Toyman and the Prankster joined forces to outwit and destroy him, whilst World’s Finest Comics #82 (May-June 1956) saw Batman and Robin join the Man of Tomorrow in a time-travelling romp to 17th century France as ‘The Three Super-Musketeers!’, helping embattled D’Artagnan solve the mystery of the Man in the Iron Mask.

A lot of these stories are regrettably uncredited, but nobody could miss the stunning artwork of Dick Sprang here, and subsequent research has since revealed writer Edmond Hamilton and inker Stan Kaye were also involved in crafting this terrific yarn.

Kid heroes prevailed when Superman was murdered and the Boy Wonder travelled back in time to enlist the victim’s younger self in ‘Superboy Meets Robin’ (Adventure Comics #253, October 1953) illustrated by Al Plastino, whilst two of that title’s venerable back-up stars almost collided in an experimental crossover from issue #267 (December 1959).

At this time Adventure starred Superboy and featured Aquaman and Green Arrow as supporting features. ‘The Manhunt on Land’, with art from Ramona Fradon & Charles Paris, saw villainous Shark Norton trade territories with Green Arrow’s foe The Wizard. Both parts were written by Robert Bernstein, and the two heroes and their sidekicks worked the same case with Aquaman fighting on dry land whilst the Emerald Archer pursued his enemy beneath the waves in his own strip; ‘The Underwater Archers’, illustrated by the excellent Lee Elias.

As I’ve mentioned before, I was one of the “Baby Boomer” crowd who grew up with Gardner Fox and John Broome’s tantalisingly slow reintroduction of Golden Age superheroes during the halcyon, eternally summery days of the 1960s. To me those fascinating counterpart crusaders from Earth-Two weren’t vague and distant memories rubber-stamped by parents or older brothers – they were cool, fascinating and enigmatically new. And for some reason the “proper” heroes of Earth-One held them in high regard and treated them with obvious deference…

It all began, naturally enough, in The Flash, flagship title of the Silver Age Revolution. After ushering in the triumphant return of the costumed superhero, the Scarlet Speedster, with Fox and Broome at the reins, set an unbelievably high standard for metahuman adventure in sharp, witty tales of science and imagination, illustrated with captivating style and clean simplicity by Carmine Infantino.

Fox didn’t write many Flash scripts at this time, but those few he did were all dynamite. None more so than the full-length epic that literally changed the scope of American comics forever. ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ (Flash #123 September 1961, illustrated by Infantino and Joe Giella) introduced alternate Earths to the continuity which resulted in the multiversal structure of the DCU, Crisis on Infinite Earths and all succeeding cosmos-shaking crossover sagas since. And of course where DC led, others followed…

During a benefit gig Flash (police scientist Barry Allen) accidentally slips into another dimension where he finds the comic-book champion he based his own superhero identity upon actually exists. Every adventure he’d avidly absorbed as an eager child was grim reality to Jay Garrick and his mystery-men comrades on the controversially named Earth-2. Locating his idol Barry convinces the elder to come out of retirement just as three Golden Age villains, Shade, Thinker and the Fiddler make their own wicked comeback… Thus is history made and above all else, ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ is still a magical tale that can electrify today’s reader.

The story generated an avalanche of popular and critical approval (big sales figures, too) so after a few more trans-dimensional test runs the ultimate team-up was delivered to slavering fans. ‘Crisis on Earth-One’ (Justice League of America #21, August 1963) and ‘Crisis on Earth-Two’ (#22) combine to become one of the most important stories in DC history and arguably one of the most important tales in American comics. When ‘Flash of Two Worlds’ introduced the concept of Infinite Earths and multiple heroes to the public, pressure had begun almost instantly to bring back the actual heroes of the “Golden Age”. Editorial powers-that-be were hesitant, though, fearing too many heroes would be silly and unmanageable, or worse yet put readers off. If they could see us now…

The story by Fox, Mike Sekowsky Bernard Sachs finds a coalition of assorted villains from each Earth plundering at will and trapping the mighty Justice League in their own HQ. Temporarily helpless the heroes contrive a desperate plan to combine forces with the champions of a bygone era and the result is pure comicbook majesty. It’s impossible for me to be totally objective about this saga. I was a drooling kid in short trousers when I first read it and the thrills haven’t diminished with this umpty-first re-reading. This is what superhero comics are all about!

The wonderment continues here with a science fiction hero team-up from Mystery in Space #90, which had been the home of star-spanning Adam Strange since issue #53 and with #87 Schwartz moved Hawkman and Hawkgirl into the back-up slot, and even granted them occasional cover-privileges before they graduated to their own title. These were brief, engaging action pieces but issue #90 (March 1964) was a full-length mystery thriller pairing the Winged Wonders and Earth’s interplanetary expatriate in a spectacular End-of the-World(s) epic.

‘Planets in Peril!’ written by Fox, illustrated by Carmine Infantino and Murphy Anderson, found our fragile globe instantly transported to the Alpha-Centauri system and heading for a fatal collision with the constantly-under-threat world of Rann at the behest of a scientific madman who eventually proved no match for the high-flying, rocket-powered trio.

Before settling into a comfortable pattern as a Batman team-up title, Brave and the Bold had been a high-adventure anthology, a try-out book like Showcase and a floating team title, pairing disparate heroes together for one-off  adventures. One of the very best of these was ‘The Challenge of the Expanding World’ (#53, April-May 1964) in which the Atom and Flash strove valiantly to free a sub-atomic civilisation from a mad dictator and simultaneously battled to keep that miniature planet from explosively enlarging into our own.

This astounding thriller from Bob Haney and the incredible Alex Toth was followed in the next B&B issue by the origin of the Teen Titans and that event is repeated here. ‘The Thousand-and-One Dooms of Mr. Twister’ (#54, June-July 1964) by Haney, Bruno Premiani and Charles Paris united sidekicks Kid Flash, Aqualad and Robin the Boy Wonder in a desperate battle against a modern wizard-come-Pied Piper who had stolen the teen-agers of American everytown Hatton Corners. The young heroes had met in the town by chance when students invited them to mediate in a long-running dispute with the town adults, but didn’t even have a team name until their second appearance.

By the end of the 1960s America was a bubbling cauldron of social turmoil and experimentation. Everything was challenged and with issue #76 of Green Lantern, Denny O’Neil and comics iconoclast Neal Adams completely redefined contemporary superhero strips with relevancy-driven stories that transformed moribund establishment super-cops into questing champions and explorers of the revolution. ‘No Evil Shall Escape My Sight!’ (O’Neil, Adams & Frank Giacoica, April 1970) is a landmark in the medium, utterly re-positioning the very concept of the costumed crusader as ardent liberal Green Arrow challenges GL’s cosy worldview as the heroes discover true villainy can wear business suits, harm people just because of skin colour and happily poison its own nest for short term gain…

Of course the fact that the story is a brilliant crime-thriller with science-fiction overtones beautifully illustrated doesn’t hurt either…

The Fabulous World of Krypton was a long-running back-up feature in Superman during the 1970s, revealing intriguing glimpses from the history of that lost world. One of the very best is ‘The Greatest Green Lantern of All’ (#257, October, 1972 by Elliot Maggin, Dick Dillin & Dick Giordano) detailing the tragic failure of avian GL Tomar-Re, dispatched to prevent the planet’s detonation and how the Guardians of the Universe had planned to use that world’s greatest bloodline…

Brave and the Bold produced a plethora of tempestuous team-ups starring Batman and his many associates, and at first glance ‘Paperchase’ (#178, September 1981) by Alan Brennert & Jim Aparo from the dying days of the title might seem an odd choice, but don’t be fooled. This pell-mell pairing of Dark Knight and the Creeper in pursuit of an uncanny serial killer is tension-packed, turbo-charged thriller of intoxicating quality.

The narrative section of this collaborative chronicle concludes with the greatest and most influential comics writer of the 1980s, combining his signature character with DC guiding icon for a moody, melancholy masterpiece of horror-tinged melodrama. From DC Comics Presents #85 (September 1985) comes ‘The Jungle Line’ by Alan Moore, Rick Veitch & Al Williamson wherein Superman contracts a fatal disease from a Kryptonian spore and plagued by intermittent powerlessness, oncoming madness and inevitable death, deserts his loved ones and drives slowly south to die in isolation.

Mercifully in the dark green swamps he is found by the world’s plant elemental the Swamp Thing…

The book is edited by Mike Gold, Brian Augustyn & Robert Greenberger, with panoramic and comprehensive endpaper illustrations from Carmine Infantino (who blue-printed the Silver Age of Comicbooks) and text features ‘The Ghosts of Frank and Dick Merriwell’, ‘That Old Time Magic’ and a captivating end-note article ‘Just Imagine, Your Favourite Heroes…’. However for fans of all ages possibly the most beguiling feature in this volume is the tantalising cover reproduction section: team-ups that didn’t make it into this selection, filling in all the half-page breaks which advertised new comics in the originals. I defy any nostalgia-soaked fan not to start muttering “got; got; need it; Mother threw it away…”

This unbelievably enchanting collection is a pure package of superhero magnificence: fun-filled, action-packed and utterly addictive.
© 1954-1985, 1989 DC Comics Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman & Batman: Generations – An Imaginary Tale


By John Byrne, coloured by Trish Mulvihill (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-56389-605-7

Working on the biggest guns in any company’s publishing stable is like being King Canute. You get the major gig, make your irrevocable, industry-shaking refit of said star-vehicle and then as time passes, watch it get inevitably changed or as with DC in current times changed back to suit the restless drive of the fickle fans.

After Crisis on Infinite Earths the myriad alternate Earths that had housed different eras of DC heroes as well as providing handy accommodation for the company’s acquisitions such as Fawcett’s Marvel Family and retinue or the Charlton Action Heroes line had been amalgamated into one bulky, homogenous whole, and the company took the opportunity to retrofit their major stars into the bargain.

Batman got darker, Wonder Woman was culturally re-cast and Superman had all the charming Mort Weisinger/Murray Boltinoff/Julie Schwartz additions and contributions to the original Siegel & Shuster paraphernalia jettisoned by revamp architect John Byrne. Out went the friendship with the Caped Crusader, the entire career as Superboy and all the tenuous, wondrous baggage of fifty spectacular years.

And then he decided to bring it all back…

In the four-issue Prestige format miniseries Superman & Batman: Generations, An Imaginary Tale published under DC’s non-continuity “Elseworlds” imprint in1999, Byrne posited a world where the Man of Steel and the Caped Crusader began just as they had in the dog-days of the 1930s, and by sampling all the eradicated material prior to Crisis, explored how the pair would have fared had they aged like us relatively real people.

Written with obvious affection and referencing the magnificent alternate-continuity flights of fancy dubbed “Imaginary Stories”, but with a more mature modern sensibility the saga progressed in decade-wide jumps that followed the family and friends of the World’s Finest Heroes in an epic struggle spanning the years 1939 to 1999, with a punchy postscript set in 2919 but revealing a secret origin in 1929.

Beginning with ‘The Vigilantes’ where two new mystery-men, Superman and Batman first meet to defeat the mad scientist Ultra-Humanite at the New York Word’s Fair, jumping to ‘Family Matters’ in 1949 where the Joker and Luthor kidnap Clark Kent’s wife Lois, the ‘Strange Days’ of 1959 where aging Dark Knight and Metropolis Marvel battle Bat-Mite, Mr. Mxyzptlk and a host of weird aliens and monsters whilst their children prepare to succeed them or tragically fall the turning point comes with the ‘Changing Times’ of 1969.

Now elder statesmen of the heroic community Batman and Superman watch their children deal with such complex issues as corrupt US President Nixon, the Vietnam War and massive social unrest, only to lose one of their own to the ageless madness of the Joker.

‘Twilight of the Gods’ in 1979 introduced the eco-despot Ra’s Al Ghul to the saga as triumph and tragedy continued to dog the heroes’ descendents and one of their oldest foes struck his most telling blow, whilst ‘Crime and Punishment’ a decade later found the revenge-crazed Superman a disgraced and hunted felon for taking the law into his own hands, with the epic proper ending in 1999 with ‘Beginnings and Endings’ as the fragmented survivors of the twin heroic dynasties reunited after years at odds.

The epilogue ‘1929’, using the magic of comic-books leapt into the 30th century to reveal the actual first meeting of Superman and Batman, a rather saccharine conclusion that was clearly meant to presage the inescapable sequel…

Complex and professional yet somehow inadequate and unfulfilling, the time-girdling circularity and touchy-feely happy-ending is strongly reminiscent of Robert Heinlein’s later Lazarus Long novels (but lacking the satirical bite), as Byrne focused far too hard on adding everything Silver-Aged-and-the-Kitchen-Sink to the mix, but for all that this is still a hugely readable piece of sweetened fluff, beautifully engaging and thoroughly engrossing, and might well act as a gateway tale for new readers and young fans to try the older material for themselves.

Great but not the greatest, Generations is a book every Fights ‘n’ Tights fan should try, but be warned it’s out of print and going for a vast range of prices from online and high-street retailers…

© 1985 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

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Superman vs. the Flash


By Jim Shooter, Curt Swan & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-0456-3

The comic-book experience is littered with eternal questions that can never really be satisfactorily answered. The most common and most passionately asked always begin “who would win if…” or “who’s strongest/smartest/fastest…”

Teenaged scripting wunderkind Jim Shooter knew that very well when he pitched and subsequently scripted a Superman story in 1967 that created a sub-genre of comic-plot and led inevitably and delightfully to the graphic novel under review here.

DC Editors in the 1960s generally avoided such questions as who’s best for fear of upsetting some portion of their tenuous and perhaps temporary fan-base, but as the superhero boom slowed and the upstart Marvel Comics began to make genuine inroads into their market, the notion of a definitive race between the almighty Man of Steel and the “Fastest Man Alive” became an increasingly enticing and sales-worthy proposition.

This sporty chronicle gathers together the initial contest and numerous rematches between the heroic speed-demons, but if you’re seeking a definitive answer you won’t find it here. These are splendid costumed entertainments; adventures designed to catch your breath and quicken your pulse. It not about the winning: it’s all to do with the taking part…

‘Superman’s Race With the Flash’ (Superman #199, August 1967) gets the ball rolling in a stirring saga by Shooter, Curt Swan & George Klein, wherein the two speedy champions were asked to compete in an exhibition contest by the United Nations, thereby raising money to fight World Hunger. Naturally they agreed, but the clever global handicap, circling the planet three times, was secretly subverted by rival criminal combines attempting to stage the greatest gambling coup in history…

Of course justice and charity triumphed in the end, but the stakes were catastrophically raised in the inevitable rematch from Flash #175 (December 1967). ‘Race to the End of the Universe!’ found the old rivals speeding across the cosmos when ruthless alien gamblers threatened to eradicate Central City and Metropolis unless the pair settled who was fastest. Scripter E. Nelson Bridwell added an ingenious sting in the tale, whilst Ross Andru & Mike Esposito delivered a sterling illustration job in this yarn, but once more the actual winning was deliberately fudged.

When World’s Finest Comics became a team-up vehicle for Superman the first guest star was the Flash who again found himself in speedy if contrived competition. ‘Race to Save the Universe!’ and its conclusion ‘Race to Save Time’ (WFC #198-199 November and December 1970, by Denny O’Neil, Dick Dillin & Joe Giella) once more upped the stakes as the high-speed heroes were conscripted by the Guardians of the Universe to circumnavigate the entire cosmos at their greatest velocities to undo the rampage of the mysterious anachronids, faster-than-light creatures whose pell-mell course throughout the galaxies was actually unwinding time itself. Little did anybody suspect that Superman’s oldest enemies were behind the scheme…

‘Chase to the End of Time!’ and ‘Race to the End of Time!’ opened the new team-up series DC Comics Presents (#1-2, July-August and September-October 1978) as Marty Pasko and the utterly superb Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez & Dan Adkins rather reprised the World’s Finest tale with warring alien races tricking Superman and Flash into speeding through the time-stream to prevent Earth’s history from being corrupted and destroyed. As if that wasn’t dangerous enough, nobody could predict the deadly intervention of the Scarlet Speedster’s most dangerous foe, Professor Zoom, the Reverse-Flash…

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths DC heroes got a sound refitting, and the frankly colossal power levels of the heroic community were downscaled to more believable levels. Some stalwarts even died, and when ‘Speed Kills!’ debuted in Adventures of Superman #463 (February 1990 by writer/artist Dan Jurgens and inker Art Thibert), touted as the first race between the fastest men on Earth, there was a new kid in the Flash’s uniform: ex-sidekick Wally West had graduated to the role.

The story itself is a delightfully whacky romp wherein 5th dimensional pest Mr. Mxyzptlk coerced the pair into running a race everybody knew was fixed from the get-go…

This collection concludes with a spectacular saga unerringly aimed at older fans. ‘Speeding Bullets’ (from one-shot DC First: Flash/Superman July 2002) is by Geoff Johns, Rich Burchett & Prentis Rollins, and features villain Abra Kadabra who challenges the Man of Steel and the 1940s Flash Jay Garrick to catch the current Vizier of Velocity who is running amok at hyper-speed and rapid-aging with every step…

If they can’t catch him then the Fastest Man Alive won’t be…

With the addition of some of the very best covers the company has ever produced to this book, readers casual or deeply devoted are guaranteed a joyous thrill-ride from some of the most entertaining stand-alone stories in DC history. On your marks… get set… Buy!

© 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2005 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

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Superman and the Legion of Super-Heroes


By Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-009-9

Once upon a time, in the far future, a band of super-powered kids from dozens of alien civilisations took inspiration from the greatest legend of all time and formed a club of heroes. One day these Children of Tomorrow came back in time and invited that legend to join them…

And thus began the vast and epic saga of the Legion of Super-Heroes, as first envisioned by writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino in the landmark Adventure Comics #247 (April 1958). Since that time the fortunes and popularity of the Legion have perpetually waxed and waned, with their future history tweaked and rebooted, retconned and unwritten over and again to comply with editorial diktat and popular whim.

The current trend is to re-embrace the innocent, silly, joyous, stirring and utterly compelling pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths tales but to shade them with contemporary sensibilities and with this in mind Geoff Johns has been gradually reinstituting the Lore of the Legion in a number of his assignments. Beginning most notably with Justice League of America: the Lightning Saga and culminating in the ongoing New Krypton and War against Brainiac sagas the Legion are back and once more carving out a splendid niche in the DC Universe.

Along the way came this superb, nostalgia-enhanced cracker of a tale which reestablished direct contact between the futuristic paladins and the Man of Tomorrow…

Collecting Action Comics #858-863, this chronicle finds the Legion back in the 21st century, summoning Superman to save Tomorrow’s World once more. Long ago the Legion had regularly visited: spiriting the young Kryptonian to a place and time where he didn’t have to hide his true nature. However, once he began his public career, the visits ceased and his memories were suppressed to safeguard the integrity of history and the inviolability of the time-line.

Now a desperate squad of Legionnaires must reawaken those memories since the Man of Steel is the last hope for a world on the edge of destruction. In the millennium since his debut Superman has become a beacon of justice and tolerance throughout the Utopian Universe, but a radical, xenophobic anti-alien movement has swept Earth, marginalising, interning and even killing all non-Terrans. Moreover, a super-powered team of Legion rejects has formed a Justice League of Earth to lead a crusade against all extraterrestrial immigrants, claiming Superman was actually a true-born Earthling, and declaring him their spiritual leader…

Of course Kal-El of Krypton must travel to the future and not only save the day but clean the racist stain from his name – a task made infinitely more difficult because Earth-Man, psychotic xenophobe leader of the Earth-First faction, has turned our yellow sun a power-sapping red…

Bold, thrilling and absolutely enthralling, the last-ditch struggle of a few brave aliens against a racist, fascistic and completely ruthless totalitarian tomorrow is the stuff of pure comic-book dreams. Superman strives to unravel a poisonous future where all his hopes and aspirations have been twisted, with only his truest childhood friends to aid him, and the incredibly intense and hyper-realistic art of Gary Frank and Jon Sibal makes it all seem not only plausible but inevitable…

With this kind of material, the new-old may well be back for all time…

© 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves


By Kevin VanHook & Tom Mandrake (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-2292-5

The Man of Steel and the Dark Knight are two characters who have, for the most part, escaped their lowly comic-book origins and entered the greater meta-fictional literary landscape populated by the likes of Mickey Mouse, Fu Manchu, Tarzan and  Sherlock Holmes. As such their recognition factor outside our industry means that they get to work in places and with other properties that might not appeal to funny-book purists – take for example this controversial tale that piles on heaped helpings of monster-bashing, and which, despite a host of DC guest-stars, feels more like a test launch than a guaranteed hit.

Superman & Batman vs. Vampires & Werewolves is an intriguing, if flawed, oddment (with one of the clunkiest titles ever imagined) that might appeal to the casual graphic novel reader, especially if they’re not too adamantly wedded to the comic-book roots and continuity of the DC Universe.

Prowling the streets of Gotham, Batman comes across a partially devoured corpse and is promptly boots-deep in an invasion of mindless berserker vampires and werewolves who swiftly turn the city into a charnel house. Helpless to combat or contain the undead rampage, the Caped Crusader accepts the aid of enigmatic (but rational) vampire Marius Dimeter and his lycanthropic counterpart Janko who grudgingly ally themselves with the hero to track down Herbert Combs, a truly deranged scientist resolved to traffic with the Realms Beyond.

To facilitate his goals Combs had turned Janko and Dimeter into the cursed creatures they are and unleashed his plague of horrors on America to further his research. He is infecting more helpless humans and has become an actual portal for Lovecraftian beasts to invade our reality…

Superman joins the fray as one of these Elder God nightmares is unleashed but even after its defeat is no real help: hampered more by his ethical nature than his utter vulnerability to magic. Far greater aid is provided by super-naturalist Jason Blood and his Demonic alter-ego, whilst Kirk Langstrom, who can deliberately transform into the monstrous Man-Bat, provides both scientific and brutally efficient cleanup assistance.

Fellow heroes such as Wonder Woman, Nightwing and Green Arrow turn up and join the battle with great effect, but after their admittedly impressive cameos and participatory contributions wander off before the overarching threat is ended. Nuh-uuh! Once the team-up begins comics guys (who aren’t paid big bucks like big-name guest actors) don’t leave until the day is saved.

So it’s up to the headliners – with Dimeter and Janko – to finally restore order and normality but the cost is high both in blood and convictions… In the final outcome the heroes are – relatively – victorious but the ending is rather ambiguous and leaves the impression that the whole affair has been a pilot for a Dimeter spin-off

This is clearly a break-out publishing project, aimed at drawing in new readerships like those occasional movie tie-ins that drive professional fans crazy (see Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator), and on that level the daft and inconsistent plot can be permitted if not forgiven.

VanHook more often makes films than comics and the tale is certainly most effective on the kind of action and emotional set-pieces one sees in modern film: so even if there are far too many plot holes big enough to drive a hearse through, the sensorial ride should carry most readers through. Most importantly the art of Tom Mandrake is as ever astoundingly powerful: dark brooding and fully charged for triumph and tragedy…

So whilst not perhaps for every collector, there’s still a great deal of sinful pleasure to be found here. And let’s face it: who doesn’t like monster stories or finding out “who would win if”…
© 2008, 2009 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman vs. Brainiac


By various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-4012-1940-6

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 calculated confection of cosmic clashes with alien arch-foe Brainiac, originally a mere marauding alien but continually refitted over the decades until he now stands as the ultimate artificial nemesis, a thing of cogs, clockwork and computer code.

This superb collection represents appearances both landmark and rare from the many brilliant writers and artists who have contributed to the Kryptonian canon over the years and naturally this terrific tome opens with the extremely impressive introduction ‘The Super-Duel in Space’ by Otto Binder and Al Plastino, from Action Comics #242 (July, 1958) wherein an evil alien scientist attempts to add Metropolis to his collection of miniaturised cities in bottles.

As well as a titanic tussle in its own right, this tale completely changed the mythology of the Man of Steel, by introducing Kandor, a city full of Kryptonians who had escaped the planet’s destruction when Brainiac captured them. Although Superman rescued his fellow survivors, the villain escaped to strike again, and it would be years before the hero could restore the Kandorians to their true size.

Next is a lovely and clever yarn from Superman’s Girl Friend, Lois Lane #17 (May 1960), by Jerry Siegel, illustrated by the exceptional fine art team of Curt Swan and George Klein. ‘Lana Lang, Superwoman’ saw the Man of Tomorrow temporarily imbue both Lana and Lois with superpowers to foil a blackmail/murder plot by the viridian villain, whilst the novel-length saga ‘The Team of Luthor and Brainiac’ by Edmund Hamilton, Swan & Klein (from Superman #167, February 1964) not only teamed the hero’s greatest foes in an uneasy alliance but also revealed that the alien antagonist was actually a malevolent mechanism in humanoid form, designed by the computer-tyrants of the planet Colu to infiltrate and destroy organic civilisations and cultures.

There’s a big jump to the end of the 1970s for the next story, an epic three-part clash that first appeared in Action Comics #489-491 (November 1978-January 1979) scripted by the hugely undervalued Cary Bates and illustrated by Swan & Frank Chiaramonte.

‘Krypton Dies Again’ sees Superman once more battling Brainiac when the light from the decades gone explosion of his homeworld finally reaches Earth. The resultant flash supercharges his Kryptonian cells leaving the Man of Steel helpless. ‘No Tomorrow for Superman!’ finds an increasingly berserk hero unable to cope until joined by Hawkman to finally resolve ‘A Matter of Light and Death!’

In Action Comics #544 (June 1983) both Luthor and Brainiac were given radical makeovers to make them more apposite menaces for the World’s Greatest Superhero. Marv Wolfman and Gil Kane amped up the computer conqueror’s threat-level with ‘Rebirth!’ as cosmic forces reshaped the humanoid horror into a mechanistic angel of death.

When DC Comics decided to rationalise and reconstruct their continuity with Crisis on Infinite Earths in 1985 they used the event to regenerate their 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 new, back-to-basics Man of Steel was a sensation and members of his decades-old rogue’s gallery were suitably retooled to match the new, grittier sensibility.

In this continuity ‘The Amazing Brainiac’ was Vril Dox, a monolithic disembodied intellect from the planet Colu who inhabited and transformed the body of showbiz mentalist Milton Moses Fine, (Adventures of Superman #438, March 1988, written by John Byrne& Jerry Ordway, illustrated by Ordway & John Beatty), until it grew beyond physical limits in ‘Man and Machine’ (Action Comics #649, January 1990, by Roger Stern, George Pérez, Kerry Gammill & Brett Breeding) to eventually become a time-travelling ball of malignant computer code, constructing or co-opting ever-more formidable physical forms in its self-appointed mission to eradicate Superman.

By the time of ‘Sacrifice for Tomorrow’ from Action Comics #763 (March 2000), by Joe Kelly, German Garcia, Kano & Mario Alquiza, the fiend had transformed into its 13th iteration and converted Metropolis into an automated City of the Future. It had also learned how to possess human infants – including Lana Lang’s newborn son and Luthor’s daughter Lena… – a chilling thriller to end on, but only a taste of the monstrous horror Brainiac is capable of.

With a pin-up page of Brainiac 13 by Scott Beatty, Steve Kim & Tommy Yune (from Superman: Metropolis Secret Files #1, March 2000) this comprehensive collection is a compelling introduction and overview of the undying enemy alien and a superb treat for fans of every vintage.

© 1958, 1960, 1964, 1978, 1979, 1983, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2008 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Brainiac


By Geoff Johns, Gary Frank & Jon Sibal (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-230-1

Since his first appearance in Action Comics #242 (July 1958) the alien reaver Brainiac has been a perennial favourite foe of the Man of Steel, and has remained so even through being subsequently “retooled” many times. Brilliant and relentless, the one thing he/it has never been is really scary – until this latest re-imagining from Geoff Johns and Gary Frank.

In modern DC continuity the raider was a computerised intellect from the planet Colu who inhabited and transformed the body of showbiz mentalist Milton Fine, until it grew beyond physical limits to become a time-travelling ball of malignant computer code, constructing or co-opting ever-more formidable physical forms in its self-appointed mission to eradicate Superman.

Now, in this slim but evocative graphic novel, collecting Action Comics #886-870 and Superman: New Krypton Special #1, the truth is finally revealed. Long ago, an alien invader attacked the planet Krypton: merciless robotic berserkers slaughtered hundreds of citizens before physically removing the entire city of Kandor. Decades later one of those robots lands on Earth only to promptly fall before the Man of Tomorrow’s shattering fists.

This ‘First Contact’ leads to a revelatory conversation with Supergirl, a fortunate survivor of the Kandor Incident, in ‘Hide and Seek’. Every Brainiac Superman has ever faced has only been a pale shadow of the true villain: autonomous automatic probes and programming ghosts of a malevolent entity that has stalked the stars for centuries, stealing representative cities before destroying the redundant worlds they once thrived upon. And now the real Brainiac has found Earth…

What nobody realises is that the Cosmic Kidnapper has been searching the universe ever since Krypton died. He actually wants to possess every last son and daughter of that long-dead world…

Superman rockets into space to find the monster, unaware that the marauder is already en route to Earth, and as the Metropolis Marvel confronts his old foe for the very first time in a titanic, horrific clash, ‘Greetings’ sees Supergirl lead the defence of an embattled planet Earth from the monster’s diabolical mechanical marauders.

The war on two fronts continues in ‘Mind Over Matter’, concluding in an overwhelming tale of ‘Triumph and Tragedy’ as Superman defeats Brainiac and frees an entire city of fellow Kryptonians he never knew still existed, only to lose one of the most important people in his life, ending the adventure on an uncharacteristically sombre, low key note in ‘Epilogue’.

Johns is at the forefront of the creative movement to restore much of DC’s Pre-Crisis on Infinite Earths mythology, and by combining a modern sensibility with much of the visual flavour of Ridley Scott’s Alien movies has added a tangible aura of terror to the wide-eyed imagination and wonder of those old and much-loved tales. The visceral, gloriously hyper-realistic art of Gary Franks and John Sibal adds to the unease, and their deft touch with the welcome tension-breaking comedic breaks is a sheer delight.

This is a Superman yarn that anybody can pick up, irrespective of their familiarity – or lack of – with the character: fast, thrilling, spooky and deeply moving, for all that it’s also the introduction to the major story event New Krypton – but that’s a tale and review for another time…

© 2008, 2009 DC Comics.  All Rights Reserved.

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Showcase Presents Supergirl volume 2


By Jerry Siegel, Leo Dorfman, Jim Mooney & various (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84856-055-0

Superhero comics don’t often do whimsical and thrilling anymore. They especially don’t do short or self-contained. The modern narrative drive concentrates on extended spectacle, major devastation and relentless terror and trauma. It also helps if you’re a hero who has come back from the dead once or twice or wear a combat thong and thigh boots…

Although there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that, sometimes the palate just craves a different flavour. Once this continued cosmic cataclysm was the exception not the rule, and this second enchanting black and white compendium of the early career of Superman’s cousin Kara Zor-El of Argo City happily displays why.

After a few intriguing test-runs Supergirl began as a future star of the expanding Superman pocket universe in Action Comics #252 (May 1959). Superman’s cousin Kara had been born on a city-sized fragment of Krypton, 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, observing Earth through their scopes, sent their daughter to safety as they perished. Landing on Earth, she met Superman who created the identity of Linda Lee and hid her in an orphanage in small town Midvale whilst she learned of her new world and powers in secrecy and safety.

This second collection, encompassing all the Girl of Steel’s adventures from the back of Action Comics #283 (December 1961) to #321 (February 1965), finds the young heroine still in training, her very existence kept secret from the general public and living with adoptive parents Fred and Edna Danvers – who are also completely unaware that the orphan they have recently adopted is a Kryptonian super-being.

The accent on these stories generally revolves around problem-solving, identity-preserving and loneliness, with both good taste and the Comics Code ensuring that readers weren’t traumatised by unsavoury or excessively violent tales. Such plots, akin to situation comedies, often pertained, as in the first story represented here: ‘The Six Red “K” Perils of Supergirl!’, by Jerry Siegel and regular artist Jim Mooney.

Peculiar transformations were a mainstay of 1960s comics, and although a post-modern interpretation might discern some metaphor for puberty or girls “becoming” women, I rather suspect the true answer can be found in the author’s love of comedy and an editorial belief that fighting was unladylike. Red Kryptonite, a cosmically altered isotope of the radioactive element left when Krypton exploded, caused temporary physical and sometimes mental mutations in the survivors of that doomed world – a godsend to writers in need of a challenging visual element when writing characters with the power to drop-kick planets…

Here the wonder-stuff generates a circus of horrors, transforming Supergirl into a werewolf, shrinking her to microscopic size and making her fat (I’m not going to say a single word…).

The drama continued in the next instalment, ‘The Strange Bodies of Supergirl!’ wherein she grew a second head, gained death-ray vision (ostensibly!) and changed into a mermaid. This daffy holdover to simpler times presaged a big change in the Maid of Might’s status as with the next issue her parents learned her true origins and her existence was revealed to the world in the two-part saga ‘The World’s Greatest Heroine!’ and ‘The Infinite Monster!’ both appearing in issue #285, as Supergirl became the darling of the universe: openly saving the planet and finally getting the credit for it.

Action #286 pitted her against her cousin’s greatest foe in ‘The Death of Luthor!’, whilst ‘Supergirl’s Greatest Challenge!’ saw her visit the Legion of Super-Heroes (quibblers be warned: initially their far-future era was the 21st century. It was quietly retrofitted to a thousand years from “now” after the tales in this volume) and save the Earth from invasion. She also met the telepathic descendent of her cat Streaky. His name was Whizzy (I could have left that out but chose not to – once more for smug, comedic effect…).

‘The Man who Made Supergirl Cry!’ signaled the beginning of Leo Dorfman’s run as scripter. Little is known about this prolific writer, other than he also worked under the name Geoff Brown, producing quality material continuously from the Golden Age until his death in 1974. In this tight little thriller Phantom Zone villains took control of Supergirl’s new dad in a plot to escape their ethereal dungeon dimension, whilst #289’s ‘Superman’s Super-Courtship!’ is something of a classic, as the Girl of Steel scoured the universe for an ideal mate for her cousin. Charming at the time, modern sensibilities might quail at the conclusion that his perfect mate was just like Supergirl herself, but older…

‘Supergirl’s Super Boy-Friends!’ saw both human Dick Malverne and Atlantean mer-boy Jerro catch super-powers after kissing her (I’m again saying nothing here) whilst she didn’t actually become ‘The Bride of Mr. Mxyzptlk!’ when the fifth dimensional prankster transferred his unwanted attentions to her in Action #291.

An extended storyline began in the next issue when the girl got a new “pet”. ‘The Super-Steed of Steel!’ was a beautiful white horse who helped her stave off an alien invasion, but the creature had a bizarre and mysterious past, revealed in ‘The Secret Origin of Supergirl’s Super-Horse!’, and a resolution of sorts was reached in ‘The Mutiny of Super-Horse’.

A new cast member joined the series in ‘The Girl with the X-Ray Mind!’, a psychic with a shocking connection to the Superman Family, and her secrets were further revealed in ‘The Girl who was Supergirl’s Double!’ It was the beginning of an extraordinarily tense and epic continued storyline that featured Phantom Zone villains, Luthor, Supergirl’s arch enemy Lesla Lar, the destruction of Atlantis and genuine thrills and excitement. Earth was threatened by ‘The Forbidden Weapons of Krypton!’ and it took ‘The Super-Powers of Lex Luthor!’ to finally save the day.

Action #299 returned to whimsical normality with ‘The Fantastic Secret of Superbaby II!’, and the anniversary 300th issue featured ‘The Return of Super-Horse!’: another multi-part tale that revealed ‘The Secret Identity of Super-Horse!’ in #301, only to suffer ‘The Day Super-Horse went Wild!’ in the next episode.

By this time Supergirl was featured on every second Action Comics cover, and was regularly breaking into the lead Superman story. All those covers, by art dream-team Curt Swan and George Klein are collected herein, as is their Dorfman-scripted Man of Steel tale ‘The Monster from Krypton!’ from #303, with Supergirl having to battle her Red K transformed cousin. Sadly the art is misattributed to Mooney in the credits, but he actually did draw the moving tragedy of ‘Supergirl’s Big Brother!’ for his regular second-feature in that issue.

Supergirl got a new arch-enemy in ‘The Maid of Menace!’ but Black Flame was not as problematic as ‘The Girl Who hated Supergirl!’ (again solely credited to Mooney but I’m pretty sure its at least part-inked by John Forte). Action #306 was a pure mystery thriller as Girl of Steel became ‘The Maid of Doom!‘ whilst ‘Supergirl’s Wedding Day!’ almost proved that no girl can resist a manly man… almost!

‘The Super-Tot from Nowhere!’ proved to be a most difficult adventure in babysitting and #309’s ‘The Untold Story of Argo City!’ began another long saga revealing the true fate of Kara’s Kryptonian mum and dad, whilst ‘Supergirl’s Rival Parents!’ saw her having to chose between them and her Earth family.

More equine revelations came on ‘The Day Super-Horse Became Human!’ whilst eerie coincidence was examined in ‘The Fantastic Menace of the “LL’s”.’ ‘Lena Thorul, Jungle Princess!’ brought the troubled psychic back into the Girl of Steel’s so-complicated life, and the soap opera screws began really tightening when parent trouble resumed in ‘Supergirl’s Tragic Ordeal!’

It was the start of another wicked plot, continued in ‘The Menace of Supergirl’s Mother!’ and concluded in ‘Supergirl’s Choice of Doom!’, but the heroine’s problems were only beginning. In Action #317, Luthor’s latest scheme resulted in ‘The Great Supergirl Double-Cross!’, after which her life changed forever when ‘Supergirl Goes to College!’

Now nominally on her own at sedate Stanhope College, the dramas of catty rival and suspicious sorority sisters were added to identity preserving, boy-chasing and superhero-ing, but first she had to prove she wasn’t ‘The Super-Cheat!’ to keep her place at university. ‘The Man Who Broke Supergirl’s Heart!’ was not only a cad but an alien one, and this volume finishes on an emotional high with #321’s ‘The Enemy Supergirl!’ stuffed with intrigue, imposters and even coma-patients…

Throughout this four-odd year period Kara of Krypton underwent more changes than most of her confreres had in twenty years, as the editors sought to find a niche the buying public could resonate with, but for all that these stories remain exciting, ingenious and utterly bemusing. Possibly the last time a female super-character’s sexual allure and sales potential wasn’t freely and gratuitously exploited, these tales are a link and window to a far less crass time and display one of the few strong female characters that parents can still happily share with their youngest girl children. I’m certainly not embarrassed to let any women see this book, unlike any “Bad-Girl” book you could possibly name.

© 1961-1964, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.

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Superman: Last Son


By Geoff Johns, Richard Donner & Adam Kubert (DC Comics)
ISBN: 978-1-84576-572-9

In recent years DC has taken great pains to rationalise the attendant continuities surrounding their comicbook characters’ forays into other media. It’s sound sense, both commercially and artistically, as no matter whether if it’s a television series, big screen interpretation or the animated “kids” shows (generally the very best and most palatable material for died-in-the-wool fans: check out Justice League Unlimited or Batman: the Brave and the Bold and see for yourselves) that bring new fans into the mix. When they finally check out the comics – which is surely the ultimate goal – inconsistencies and jarring differences can only lead to confusion, disappointment and a lost reader.

Last Son was a five issue story-arc that blended portions of the Christopher Reeve Superman films into the then-current comics continuity, using the “ripple effect” of the reality-altering Infinite Crisis to explain the changes in the character’s back-story – and as a palliative sop to the most intransigent and picky fan-boys. The storyline also impacted on many other DC titles and its repercussions are still in effect in current issues of all Superman titles.

It also brought film director Richard Donner back to the characters he had turned into global sensations in Superman: the Movie and Superman II, substituting key elements of those epics for much of the increasingly tangled web which had preceded it. This volume collects Action Comics #844-866, #851 and Action Comics Annual #11; the stories co-written by Donner’s old assistant and super-scripter Geoff Johns, with stylish and gritty illustration from Adam Kubert and colorists Dave Stewart and Edgar Delgado making an incomparable contribution to the events.

In his Fortress of Solitude the Man of Tomorrow is chided and reminded by the computer-recorded consciousness of his father Jor-El that he is an alien surrounded by humans, but never one of them. As the troubled hero returns to Metropolis and his wife Lois, he detects a spaceship crashing to Earth. Catching the blazing capsule he discovers a young boy within, who appears to be from Krypton…

Claimed by the US government the boy nearly disappears into the nebulous miasma of US covert agencies until Superman breaks him free and hides him with the only humans with any experience of raising super-kids: Jonathan and Martha Kent…

With his own family as a support group the Man of Steel decides on a course of action that will keep the government involved-but-honest, although when Lex Luthor sends the unstable juggernaut Bizarro to steal the child, he is forced to see that only secrecy and anonymity can save the youngster from becoming somebody’s ultimate weapon.

Naming the mysterious child Christopher he and Lois adopt the boy, just as three Kryptonian villains break free of the Phantom Zone (based on the filmic General Zod, Ursa and Non as seen in the aforementioned Superman: the Movie and Superman II). Confronting Superman they claim to know the boy’s secret, but they are angry, implacable and hungry for revenge…

Despite many scheduling problems during its initial release this series has slowly been accepted as a cornerstone of Superman’s latest mythology, and by reintroducing many beloved facets of older interpretations – albeit in the whimsy-lite, grim-and-gritty post-modern manner (such as the return of Superman’s Daxamite “big brother” Mon-El and different shades of Kryptonite), has almost re-validated some of the most charming memories of many older devotees. Spectacular and fabulously compelling, this heroic mystery epic is a brilliant book to introduce modern readers to the comics industry’s greatest invention, and has lots to offer any older fan who will accept yet another revamp.
© 2006, 2007, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.