posted June 22, 2002 11:13 AM    

If that wonderful SUPERMAN ANNUAL had been published just a few years later, it might have been called "The Last Temptation of Superman". Elliot S! Maggin was so adept at handling the idea of Superman's mythical resonance and his role as a humble savior. Maggin makes it obvious why Superman is such a legend in our universe and in his own, and he seems to be one of the few writers who were REALLY in tune with this idea.

One thing that comes to mind in the cool scene where Superman flies up to the space shuttle, and chats with the astronauts while "standing" upside down on the ceiling... Superman could easily just PUSH the astronauts and spacecraft of Earth far past the moon and into the furthest galaxies. He's already explored the whole cosmos under his own power, while our best technology struggles to lift a few heavily-equipped men into orbit. But he's ALLOWING us to reach space on our own. It will only mean something if we can do it for ourselves. It would be easy to resent Superman for holding back so much that he could offer, yet they seem to know he does it out of concern for humanity, not selfishness. For all the power that could set him apart, he wants to be among us as one of us, giving only the help we really need. If this isn't a perfect Christ analogy, I don't know what is.

That Epilogue was a nice touch as well. I caught the Old-Timer homage to the O'Neil / Adams stories right away. As a Green Lantern fan, Maggin seemed to be obsessed with linking the Guardians to Superman's history. He did it in SUPERMAN #243 with "Must There Be A Superman?", in #257 with Tomar-Re and the Guardians watching over Krypton, in his Superman novels and again here. The concept was such a good one, as long as it wasn't overdone, that even John Byrne preserved it intact, when he had the Guardians making sure Kal-El's rocket made it safely to Earth.

But when I first read the Annual, I started to wonder if this was supposed to be the original Old-Timer at all. The Epilogue seems to be set in the far future, and I wondered if maybe the aged storyteller in the red robe wasn't supposed to be Superman himself. He could tell the story so well because he was there. The swanderson art looks vague enough to me that MAYBE it could be an aged Superman. The final words of the story seem to imply that although Superman rejected godhood, he would someday be ready to embrace this as his destiny. I wonderered if maybe Maggin meant to imply that, like the mortal Guardian, Superman instead chose a state somewhere in between god and mortal, since he was transcending humanity but still could not give up his attachment to it. Looking back now, I think I'm probably reading too much into it, but it struck me at the time.

posted July 12, 2002 08:09 AM    

I've never even seen the eBay website, so I wouldn't know where to start.

posted July 27, 2002 05:41 PM    

The story begins with one of Luthor's probes collecting radioactive debris in space, its mission completed it crashes a foot away from Luthor who's been observing its rentry outside his lair. Although his men advised him to seek shelter in his bunker before it crashed, I love how Luthor dismisses the idea as he not only lives for science and would want to see these events first hand, but is so supremely arrogant that he'd rather die in one of his experiments than acknowledge the dangers of mother nature as being more important that his curiosity.

The scene cuts to Superman crashing through the apartment wall of a gunrunners den. Superman expresses his disgust at these men who would sell firearms to schoolkids and assures them that they'll be going to prison and that he'll soon catch up with their boss who's identity he's already worked out. Superman then brazenly orders the men to "Now stop looking so comical and climb aboard this table...and hold on tightly, because it might be a pretty rough flight to jail". I love how brazen Superman is in this scene - the fact that he can say "See that table? You're riding that to jail... Now get on!" and there isn't anything any of them can do. Just then the buzzer rings and Superman reaches to open the door acknowledging that he could use his X-Ray vision to see what's on the other side but instead "takes every opportunity to have what may be a pleasant suprise". As soon as the door's opened, the head gunrunner is tossed inside the room by Batman who greets his friend in idle chitchat. Looking over Batman's shoulder during this exchange, Superman asks if they might be able to add attempted murder to the charges. Batman immediately spins around, and flings his batarang at the man he threw to the floor knocking the gun he's taking aim with out of his hand. "No, I'm sure he didn't seriously think he could shoot me--He just wanted to give me batarand practice!" "Batman's quite a fellow for someone who can't even fly don't you think fellas?" remarks Superman as Batman swings away. That "every opportunity to be surprised" line really helps to explain what Superman sees in Batman - an admiration for his ingenuity.

Later that night, a young medical student named Reston meets up with Lex Luthor and delivers to him a package. He leaves his hideout to walk the streets. Having caught a glimpse of Superman flying over the city carrying some guys on a table on the way over to Luthor's lair, he feels nervous. On the walk home he cuts through some alleys with the uncomfortable feeling that he's being followed. He bumps into a wall with the words "HEY, FELLA!" spraypainted on it. Confused he starts to run and runs right into the Batman who interogates him. Later we see Batman with Superman talk on a rooftop but we get no clue what they're discussing.

After encountering a Luthor ambush aboard a hijacked subway train, Superman tracks down his nemesis beneath Metropolis. Picking up a manhole cover an enraged Superman shouts downwards "LU-THOR!". "Well, well, well, if it isn't..." Slamming the cover on the electrified tracks beneath him Superman quiets Luthor with the resounding clang. Still trying to get the ringing out of his ears, a bored looking Luthor greets Superman "Welcome to my temporary headquarters, Man of Steel...Metropolis Marvel...Man of Tommorrow...Eighth Wonder of the Universe...Defender of the Weak--" "STOW IT, LUTHOR!" Superman shouts as he lands out odf sight behind a planter. At his request, Luthor tells him his real plan and exposes him to a slightly altered rock of red kryptonite. Having tested it with the chemicals delivered to him by Reston, he knows what it'll do - turn Superman into an exact copy of the person closest to him at the moment of exposure. "ME!!" Grabbing Superman the reader sees that he's been transformed into an exact copy of Luthor who promptly injects him with a syringe that'll ensure that the transformation remains permanent. Holding him at bay with a gun, Luthor calls all the major TV stations amd newspapers so that he can set up a press conference. The conference is scheduled for a few hours from now and all eyes are on the empty podium where Luthor has not yet arrived. To evade the police awaiting his arrival a hologramatic projectuion of him materializes and the figure introduces himself as Erasmus Luthor who is in a secret location for his own protection. He tells a tale of having been held captive by his brother for years - exchanging his genius for the food and water needed to live. He has now found a way out of the prison he's been in for all these years and appears fullbodied to the audience with a handcuffed Lex Luthor who claims that he's lying. Erasmus explains that Lex's fingerprints will prove that he's really Lex Luthor and the next day drops his parachutted brother on Pocantico prison. Watching from Clark Kent's apartment the televised news that the prints indeed match is Batman who "sits...and waits...".

A few days later a helicopter attempts to land on the roof of a medical research facility in Metropolis, gets caught in some wires and falls to the street. Batman appears out of nowhere, kicks through the door, grabs the occupant and gets him to the roof introducing Erasmus Luthor to the head doctors gathered there. "I assume he's here looking for a job!". This is his intent and within the week has already provided cures for half a dozen diseases including some forms of skin cancer and other equally remarkable miracles. With news of his accomplishes reaching all parts of the world, Erasmus asks to have the world's governments at his disposal so that he ca acheive so much more. Watching the news from prison is Lex Luthor who rises and declares "This charade has gone on long enough!" and rips open his shirt. In Clark Kent's apartment, a figure rises, removes his Batman costume and reveals underneath his Superman uniform: "This charade has also gone on long enough!". Superman and Batman crash Erasmus' televised plea and engage in battle as the world watches. Pre-occupied with a trap prepared for him, Superman is forced to leave Batman to fend for himself which he does despite being outnumbered. Led away to jail, Superman explains the whole plot. It was Batman who, disguised as Superman, encountered Luthor in the subway and donned a disguise to look like Luthor. It was Superman who, disguised as Batman so Luthor would think he was still in prison, saved him on the roof of the Metropolis Research Center. "But why did you wait? Why did you rot in jail all that time?" Luthor asks. Batman: "Because you were doing our work for us!...Curing diseases ... making discoveries ... benefiting mankind--! I wish it could have lasted longer!" Batman then bursts out laughing and leaves the scene still laughing loudly to himself.

Epilogue. Clark Kent orders a hot-dog from an Italian street vendor, takes a bite, and is then told "That'sa seventy-two dolla an-a fifty cents!" "Excuse me?!" Kent declares that this is highway robbery and the vendor explains that his licence lets him charge whatever he feels is appropriate. As a compromise he offers to charge him only $25 for the bite he took. "That's worse! You want me to pay twenty-five dollars for a bite?". The argument draws a large crowd including a child sitting on a balcony who's curious as to what's going on. The railing gives way, the child falls and Kent chides himself for having drawn such attention to himself in public now that he has to change to Superman. As he runs to catch the boy hoping that no one'll notice him with all eyes on the boy, the vendor rips open his shirt revealing his Batman costume. He catches up to Kent whom he leap-frog's over and flings his apron over a post and catches the boy. The crowd cheers Batman and in the closing panel he pouts as he overlooks the city with Superman. "I didn't plan it that way, but now everyone knows I'm not above playing a joke on a friend!" "They also know something else," says Superman echoing something Luthor said to him as he was led off to jail "that sometimes, Batman, you can be a real pain!"

posted August 18, 2002 02:52 PM    

ACTION COMICS #582
(August, 1986)

“The Strange Rebirth of Jor-El and Lara!”

Writer: Craig Boldman
Artists: Alex Saviuk and Kurt Schaffenberger
Cover: Alex Saviuk and Murphy Anderson

*******

Jor-El, greatest scientist of the dying planet Krypton, urges his wife Lara to hurry, as she places their child Kal-El within the tiny experimental rocket that is his only hope to escape the obliteration of this world. We see these events from the toddler’s viewpoint, nestled within the rocket, as Jor-El’s lab crumbles all around the family, and the pressures within Krypton’s core build to its inevitable annihilation. Jor-El tells Lara there is still much to do in the little time remaining. Suddenly, there is a moment of blackness and silence; and then we see the rocket has been launched on its way to Earth, while the future Superman’s parents cling lovingly to each other, watching its ascent from ruins. "Kal-El will survive the cataclysm and rise ABOVE it, Lara!" says Jor-El solemnly. "And we shall live on," answers Lara, "through our SON!" Krypton explodes. The tiny rocket carries its young passenger off into the void of space...

Clark Kent spasms awake in his bed, escaping the nightmare he has just experienced. Clark slumps forward in misery, for he has had the same awful dream every night for a week. Changing to his Superman costume as the light of the dawn streams into his modest apartment, Clark reflects that "what really disturbs me about these dreams... is that brief gap in my memory of the events... occurring just BEFORE my infant form is rocketed to Earth!" Feeling certain that his mind will not rest easy until he recovers this missing fragment of his past, Superman flies off to his Fortress of Solitude.

Upon entering the Fortress, he is greeted by his hovering, robotic "butler" Quigley. "Good evening, sir!" bleeps Quigley. "Your presence at this hour is an unexpected pleasure!" (Quigley much resembles HERBIE the Robot from the old Fantastic Four cartoons, with Alfred Pennyworth’s personality as his programming. Quigley actually isn’t as cutesy or annoying as he sounds, but I guess Superman must have been jealous he didn’t have a butler like Batman...)

Superman approaches his mind-prober ray, a device he built long ago as Superboy, to energize the memory centers of his super-brain and restore faded memories of his life on Krypton. It looks like a metal throne beneath an old-fashioned beauty parlor hair-dryer. Seated under the ray, Superman recalls Jor-El hooking up an untested, experimental device to his own forehead, as well as that of his wife and son, just before launching Kal-El’s escape rocket.

Snapping out of his memory-trance, the adult Superman realizes that the implications are staggering. He uses the ultra-advanced medical equipment in the Fortress to scan his own brain for any trace of the device’s effects. He makes a shocking discovery: "This machine records evidence of not ONE set of brain waves within my head... but THREE!"

It seems that "my Kryptonian parents provided an ESCAPE ROUTE from my doomed home planet... not only for ME... but THEMSELVES as well!"

As he flies out of the Fortress, Superman looks back on its giant statues of Jor-El and Lara holding aloft a globe of Krypton. "Could my brain actually be storing the dormant essence of my Kryptonian parents? There can be only one reason why my father used that brain-wave transference device! He planted their thought-patterns in my head for safekeeping... in the hope that one day, I would find the means to restore them!"

Superman flies throughout the universe, journeying from one planet to another in search of the most brilliant medical experts he can find. With the knowledge he gains from these alien physicians and scientists, he soon finds himself ready for an awesome task. Back at the Fortress, he uses a hybrid of many alien technologies to construct a machine resembling the mind-prober ray, but connected by many tubes and cables to a pair of large glassine booths. "I’ve logged more light-years than I care to contemplate," explains Superman to the ever-loyal Quigley, who observes all from nearby. "I’ve bandied more theories about than I imagined EXISTED! But the REAL work starts NOW!"

"Assuming... as I am... that my parents exist at a 'CONCEPTUAL' level... the problem is to replace their physical forms, which were lost in Krypton’s explosion." ("Very good, sir," agrees Quigley.) "This can be done by a process similar to CLONING! This device will draw the necessary cells and materials from my body... nurture and grow them at accelerated speeds... and form new host-bodies for the 'stowaway' brain patterns hiden in my body!"

Superman secures himself into the red solar energy-powered device and straps on a strange helmet. "Mmm! My mouth is DRY! I feel CLAMMY! Better get this show on the road... before the realization of what I’m about to do really begins to sink in!" He hits the activator button, and is instantly wracked with pain. Energy crackles all around him, as embryonic shapes begin to form within the cloning chambers at his side. "The process! It’s BEGUN!" he cries out. "It... it’s... WORKING!"

"OH?" says Quigley. "I better set TWO extra places for tea!"

*******

A few days later, a smiling Clark Kent strolls into the Daily Planet offices to greet Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White. Right behind Clark are a handsome-looking fiftyish couple. The lady is white-haired and dressed much like the early Sixties version of Lois; the gentlemen closely resembles Clark himself, right down to the conservative suit and glasses, though his hair is graying at the temples. "Friends", announces Clark, "I’m delighted to introduce you to my PARENTS! My REAL parents... Jordan and Lora Ellsworth!"

(continued)

posted August 24, 2002 11:57 AM    

"This IS a surprise, Clark!" says Jimmy. "I knew you were adopted... but I didn’t know you were searching for your biological parents!"

"The investigative reporter in him, no doubt", laughs 'Jordan'. "We weren’t the EASIEST folks to track down!" "But we’re SO GLAD he did!" agrees 'Lora'.

Clark and the 'Ellsworths' take their leave so that Clark can continue showing off his so-called stomping grounds to the newcomers. Lois can’t remember Clark ever looking so pleased. "Clark’s a good guy", says Jimmy. "He deserves a break once in a while! I only hope his 'new' parents are all he hopes them to be!"

Meanwhile, those parents are in a nearby alley with our hero, changing into their Kryptonian outfits, just as he changes into his Superman costume. They fly up, up, and away, to further explore the sights of the Els’ new home... taking time to swoop past the Statue of Liberty. Jor-El and Lara express their relief that Kal-El was finally able to discover their use of the mind-transfer device and reconstitute them here on Earth. "It was a gamble", admits Jor-El. "But we had NOTHING to lose and EVERYTHING to gain!"

(All this time, a pair of sinister observers are watching the super-family on viewing monitors, from a hidden spaceship far above Earth. One is quite amused. "Did you hear? (Snort!) He said that it was a GAMBLE!")

Superman and his recreated parents land near the Great Sphinx in Egypt to examine the desert. "Earth is a lovely place, Kal!" enthuses Jor-El. "And your yellow sun!" marvels Lara. "It enhances the body- -expands the mind! It took us only HOURS to learn your language!"

Superman explains that flight is only one of the many powers he’ll teach them to use. Jor-El has already discovered his x-ray vision and used it to peer inside the burial chambers of a pyramid nearby. He’s so fascinated that he doesn’t notice as a sudden sandstorm appears within seconds, and buries him under tons of sand. Superman has deftly sidestepped the sand and laughs as Jor-El digs himself out. "I assure you, father-- that was NOT one of Earth’s natural weather occurrences!"

"It was your Kryptonian WIFE", grins Lara, as she waves a finger at him playfully, "trying to get your attention with a burst of super-breath! Let’s not let our minds wander, Jor! Here, KAL is the teacher and WE are the students!"

Proud at how well his parents are adjusting to their new life, Superman nonetheless can’t ignore a feeling of impending danger. He decides he must have become paranoid after so many years fighting crime. "You’ve sampled your basic abilities," explains the Man of Steel, as he leads the duo back into the skies, "though it’ll be a while before you move up to such esoteric skills as TIME and SPACE TRAVEL! Come along! We’ve got lots to do!"

On their way back to his Fortress, Lara rescues two passengers in a damaged hot air balloon that is about to plunge into the ocean. (One of these guys looks like Bob Rozakis; I assume the other one is based on somebody at DC too- Craig Boldman, maybe?) The befuddled balloonists expect their flying rescuer to be Superman, and they’re stunned when they see a woman instead. (Remember, Supergirl was already dead by this point in post-CRISIS continuity.) Superman offers his compliments. "Looks like you’re a NATURAL at the super-hero business, Mother!"

"After a lifetime of aiding people through inventions, theories, and formulas," grins Jor-El, "it seems a bit odd to take such a hands-on approach to saving lives!"

Back in the Fortress, Jor-El and Lara grow solemn and teary-eyed as they look upon the flag of Krypton and other Kryptonian relics Superman has preserved or recreated there. "Poor Mother and Dad," thinks Superman solemnly. "I’ve spent most of my life trying to come to terms with Krypton’s demise! But to THEM... it was only days ago that their proud planet still stood... only days since Father pleaded in vain with the Science Council to construct life rockets... and I was their baby boy."

The Last Son of Krypton places a comforting hand on his father’s shoulder, and his parents emerge from their reverie. They assure him they’ll manage to cope. After all, a new life on a healthy planet certainly beats the alternative...

The Super-Family all embrace in a hug beneath the now-statueless globe of Krypton.

(continued)

posted August 25, 2002 04:02 PM    

"Why, it’s my PHANTOM ZONE PROJECTOR!" exclaims Jor-El. "I invented it years before Krypton’s demise... it became Krypton’s official means of 'execution'! Convicted felons were transported into a dimension where they became ethereal beings-- living ghosts! From the Zone, they could observe events in the physical world, but have no BEARING upon them!"

Superman explains that the Projector, and the criminals within the Zone, all survived Krypton’s explosion. He uses a special viewscreen to "tune in" on the Phantom Zone so that they can see and communicate with the inmates.

General Zod, Jax-Ur, Faora Hu-Ul, Professor Vakox and the usual gang all float into view for some impotent fist-waving and threats. "Someday we’ll be free, Kal-El," declares Zod, "and that day will be your LAST! This I promise!"

Superman is surprised that Zod would threaten him while ignoring the sight of a living Jor-El right beside him. After all, it was Jor-El who discovered the Zone in the first place, and created the means for their imprisonment... the Phantom Zoners should hate him most of all.

Just as Superman begins to suspect something is very wrong, he is in for another surprise. "KAL--!" warns Jor-El. "DON'T TOUCH THAT PROJECTOR!" And Superman yanks his hand away as twin beams of heat vision melt the Zone Projector into slag.

"We’ve been watching this little play unfold, Kal-El!", sneers General Zod, still visible on the viewscreen. "Too bad you weren’t able to look BEHIND the scenes... like US!" "I only wish that WE had been responsible", says Jax-Ur.

"Great Stars," gasps a horrified Superman, as evil grins appear on the faces of his reconstituted ‘parents’, who have assumed fighting stances. "YOU’RE NOT MY PARENTS AT ALL- - ARE YOU?"

"Now, SUPERMAN," mocks 'Lara'. "How can you SAY that?"

"After all," says 'Jor-El', "you created these bodies! We’re flesh of your flesh! As for those extra sets of BRAIN WAVES you found in your head..."

"-- Let’s just call it a slight case of MISTAKEN IDENTITY!"

He punches Superman right through the wall into the next room, where Quigley is hovering about, dusting a collection of alien artifacts. Sprawled on the floor, the Man of Steel falls victim to a sizzling blast of heat vision, and grabs for the shield from a suit of extraterrestrial armor to protect himself. "Good evening, Mr. and Mrs. El!", bleeps Quigley. "The super-power training is progressing smoothly, I trust?"

The false Lara smashes the "annoying machine" Quigley into scrap with one blow, while her partner kicks Superman's shield apart. "Surely you can hold your own against us, Superman", he laughs. "Even TWO of us! After all-- you’ve had so much more EXPERIENCE with super-powers!"

But the Man of Might can’t bring himself to strike back against the foes who wear his parents’ faces, and he is soon battered mercilessly into unconsciousness by the evil doppelgangers.

When he awakens, he finds himself right outside the Fortress, bound with his own invulnerable cape to a tiny red-and-blue spacecraft. "Do you recall the LAST time you were a passenger in this craft, Superman?" laughs the Lara duplicate. "It’s the rocket that originally brought you to EARTH! It still contains an unused reserve tank of KRYPTONIAN FUEL!"

The false Kryptonians focus their heat vision on the tank, super-heating the fuel to make it "very VOLATILE- - a regular TIME-BOMB! In seconds it will create an explosion of super-magnitude, engulfing both YOU and METROPOLIS- - since that is GROUND ZERO!"

So saying, the Jor-El doppelganger lifts the rocket, Superman and all, and flings it skyward at incredible velocity. "I hope our MASTERS are watching!" gloats the evil Lara.

Unable to flex so much as a muscle to free himself, the tightly bound Superman is plunging toward the Metropolitan skyline within moments. The sinister observers we saw earlier are watching the whole thing on their monitor screens from outer space. But the heavy cloud cover above Metropolis temporarily obscures their view of the rocket, and their screens then suddenly go blank with static.

"Obviously, the rocket exploded and disrupted our transmission!" says one. "But we can leave nothing to chance! We must see what’s happened! Set course for EARTH!"

Soon, their spacecraft is orbiting the planet, and the interference to their monitoring equipment clears. They are surprised to see the intact skyscrapers of Metropolis, complete with the Daily Planet globe, appear onscreen.

"Hmm! Metropolis has beaten the odds- - and SURVIVED! But where is SUPERMAN?"

"Since you ASKED- - -!"

Superman’s mighty fist smashes his way through the hull of their spacecraft, and he steps inside to see...

"ROKK and SORBAN from the planet Ventura! I wondered who hated me enough to engineer such a scheme! On your world, GAMBLING is the all-consuming obsession! Everything’s a GAME to you!"

Sorban (who has grown a goatee, presumably so it’s easier to tell the duo apart) protests that hatred had nothing to do with it. Instead, their fascination with Superman’s code against killing had led to yet another wager. Discussing the "odd PATERNAL FEELINGS that loom so largely in beings of your type", Rokk and Sorban decided to have evil beings impersonate his parents, to learn whether or not "he would be driven to KILL the impostors- - for desecrating their memory, you know!" Rokk believed he would kill, while Sorban bet that he would rather die himself.

Superman demands to know how they made the scheme work. Sorban explains that "Those 'brain-wave' impostors were merely free-floating intellects we snatched from a neighboring dimension! Interesting species! Invisible-- bodiless-- and easily PROGRAMMABLE! They can be trained to perform ANY TYPE of MISCHIEF! Via long distance, we tampered with your mind-prober chair. THAT was the instrument we used to implant our little spies in your head! The chair contained records of your memories of Krypton... which our impersonators absorbed! And I used my MENTAL POWERS to give you the bad dreams which set things off!"

Rokk is puzzled as to how Superman survived the rocketexplosion. "I didn’t HAVE to escape!", declares the Man of Tomorrow. "That rocket was a MOCK-UP! The ordinary EARTH-FUEL exploded and set me FREE! Then I waited for you to come down and take a look!"

But the villainous Venturans still aren’t satisfied. They want to know what Superman did with their clone-impostors. After all, they have a WAGER depending upon the outcome of all this...

Superman refuses to give them the satisfaction of an answer. "I’m confident that Superman will NEVER be pushed to the point of commiting murder!", insists Sorban. "You’d best hope that I never get closer to that point than I am RIGHT NOW", says Superman, lifting the alien gamblers roughly by their collars. "I’ll RESIST that temptation... and place you in SPACE-PRISONS instead-- on OPPOSITE sides of the galaxy! You’ve broken a whole shopping list of interplanetary laws!"

Rokk and Sorban are more horrified by the threat of separation than of death. "But that’s INHUMAN! We’re PARTNERS! With whom will we make wagers?"

As he pushes their spaceship across the galaxy on its way to a distant prison-asteroid, Superman reflects to himself about how he in fact defeated the evil clone-beings. "My father’s impostor was right-- my long years of super-power practice DID give me an edge! After my ‘death-trap escape’, I took the offensive... encircled them at light-plus speeds... and whisked them into the TIME-STREAM. A feat they wouldn’t be able to master on their own without YEARS of experience! I left them stranded in the stream-- TRAPPED between moments in time, as disembodied observers... figuring that would render them harmless while I investigated their mysterious MASTERS!"

"But in light of their true nature... I think I’ll LEAVE them there! They were bodiless creatures before-- and now they are again! Hopefully, they’ll soon forget this brief moment when they wore physical forms-- forms which don’t belong to them!"

"Perhaps even their encounter with ROKK and SORBAN will fade from their memories! And if so... they’ll be a great deal luckier than I!"

As Superman hauls the duo from their ship on the distant prison-asteroid, an alien guard is already running up to take custody of them. (Apparently, interplanetary law doesn’t have to bother with the time and expense of TRIALS... you can just take the spacefaring scallawags directly to jail.)

*******

AFTERMATH

Back at his Fortress, Superman finishes restoring Quigley to his old self with a full repair job. (He even uses a super-tool kit.) "Very good, sir!", bleeps the rebuilt robot.

Superman pauses as he strides past the restored statues of Jor-El and Lara beneath the globe of Krypton. He looks up at the giant figures sadly.

"Well, Mother and Father... that didn’t work out as well as it MIGHT have, did it? I let my hopes get the best of me. A potentially FATAL error for a Superman!"

The Man of Steel slumps wearily to the floor, to sit at the feet of his father’s towering statue. "I did my best. I hope you can UNDERSTAND that!... I was counting on MIRACLES! But now... the most I have to HOPE for...

...is that eventually, these BAD DREAMS will go AWAY."

And so, later that night, Quigley comes hovering down the corridors of the Fortress, serving tray in hand, and comes upon the peacefully silent Last Son of Krypton still sitting in that very spot. "Sir, would you like a cup of tea? Oh, my!..."

"I believe he’s fallen ASLEEP!"

The End.

*******

It’s interesting to note that, although the dimension the bodiless impostors hail from is not specifically named, it is certainly Quarrm, the dimension that figured so greatly in the "Sand Creature" saga of the early Seventies, which inaugurated the then-modernized version of Superman under Julius Schwartz's editorship. Boldman’s use of Quarrm in this, the last "canonical" story of Schwartz’s Superman tenure, can’t be a coincidence. It’s there at the beginning and there at the end... the two stories form bookends of a sort for the Schwartz Era. The ending seems actually very poignant to me, reminiscent of the Hamilton Silver Age stories. Superman realizes he has to let go of the past... just as he’s about to lock the door on that version of the past and be reborn into another incarnation of sorts. The "new" John Byrne version of Superman was right around the corner, as promised in this issue’s letter column by the departing Answer Man, Bob Rozakis.

This issue’s "Action Reaction", which featured the last time we’d see that great Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez shot of Clark changing into Superman in the phone booth atop a letter column masthead, leads off for once with a letter from the issue’s writer. I think it’s worth quoting in full here:

"Dear Julie:

I feel very fortunate to have gotten the chance to work on the Superman books. If I could’ve picked any assignment in the comics field, I would’ve chosen to do exactly this. In the short time I’ve been writing, I have had my words interpreted and expanded upon by Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger, Wayne Boring, Al Williamson, Bob Oksner, Murphy Anderson_ all heroes of mine. It’s been just as much a thrill to have some of my stories done by the "younger guys" (Howard Bender and Alex Saviuk), as well as by close friends like Karl Kesel and Ron Randall. It’s even been fun trading letters with Nelson Bridwell. And there’s even a perverse thrill to be had in being around at the end of an era. Quite a kick all around. Not only have I been able to write stories about a living legend__but I got one as a boss as well.

It’s been a pleasure and I certainly hope it won’t be long before we’re working on something else together. Keep me in mind for whatever else you may have cooking between now and the year 2000. But for my money you can’t beat SUPERMAN.

CRAIG BOLDMAN, Fairfield, OH"

After letting a few contributors have their say, Rozakis assures them that ACTION COMICS will be concluding this run with the second part of Alan Moore's "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" next month and a special Bridwell text piece covering the highlights of Superman's history. Then it will go on a brief hiatus before returning with its numbering intact under a new creative team. He signs off with his usual reminder to Look, Up in the Sky...

It kind of reminds me of when a beloved sitcom goes off the air, and they like to show one last shot of the empty set as the lights go out.

posted September 01, 2002 08:12 PM    

quote:

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Posted by Aldous 11 July:
I just read a brief synopsis of the two-part story, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" by Alan Moore & Curt Swan, in Superman #423 and Action #583, that convinced me I must read this story.
My question is: has this story been reprinted in a TPB or something else I would be able to get at the local comic book store?

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quote:

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Posted by India Ink 11 July:
I don't know if your comics store would have it. Mine had it sitting on their shelves for a few years. I looked at it every now and then, and I didn't see the point in buying it since I had the original comics. Then one day when there was a TPB sale on I picked it up along with a lot of other TPBs. So now that lone copy is sitting on my shelf, not theirs.
A nice slim volume that reprints most of the contents of the originals. Worth having at the right price. And if it can't be had through your local store (or they can't order it in for you), then I'm sure it can be had via the internet. But I don't know much about all these internet stores and internet auctions.

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Well, I just went into the local comic book store and they can get me Whatever Happened for around eighteen New Zealand dollars.

posted September 20, 2002 09:17 AM       

Enjoy!

posted September 24, 2002 12:17 AM    

quote:

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Aldous:
I just read a brief synopsis of the two-part story, "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" by Alan Moore & Curt Swan, in Superman #423 and Action #583, that convinced me I must read this story.

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quote:

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Aldous:
Well, I just went into the local comic book store and they can get me Whatever Happened for around eighteen New Zealand dollars.

I ought to have it in about a fortnight, so once I've read it I'll let you know what I think.

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The collected volume of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" finally arrived, and I read it last night.

posted September 24, 2002 06:32 AM    

In the introduction to the collected edition of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow," Julius Schwartz says that he decided to have Kurt ink Curt for the last instalment of the story because Kurt had never inked Curt before.

posted September 24, 2002 01:08 PM       

quote:

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Originally posted by Aldous:
The collected volume of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow" finally arrived, and I read it last night.

And, well... what did youguys think of it?

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Well - I'm probably in the minority but I wasn't thrilled with it. I just came away with a feeling of sadness and resignation at an era forever gone.

I realize it's asking much to conclude an entire mythos within 2 issues, but the parade of carnage - albeit heroically portrayed, loses its impact after a while. And I thought Superman's reasoning for hanging it up at the end seemed flimsy, given the circumstances of Mxypltlk's "death".

"Keeping it real" while a revelation in Watchmen,was out of place in this setting IMO.

Could anyone have done a better job under the circumstances? Maybe not, but it doesn't change my opinion of the story.

posted September 26, 2002 02:55 PM    

First, there are so many things to like--the pairings of both Swan and Schaffenberger, and Swan and Perez, are great and well-served by this slim quality reprint volume. The ENB text is also a nice little thing to have (especially given that Bridwell died only about a year or so later). And there are all those other visual treats--so many characters that we get to glimpse for one final time--plus that sad but touching cover showing all the creative geniuses waving farewell to their character.

But it occurs to me that someone at the top at DC had to know well in advance when this Superman would make his final bows. Maybe they strung Schwartz along--maybe negotiations with Byrne were ongoing up to the last minute--maybe Byrne himself held out the possibility that his Superman would simply be a continuation of the Schwartz legacy rather than an overthrow of it. Putting aside all those maybes, however I feel that we should have had three years of the Schwartz Superman (from 1983-86), wherein all the creators colaborate in an extended tale of Superman that ultimately ended with the end of the Schwartz legacy (but not necessarily the death of Superman).

Instead those three years were spent meandering about with no clear purpose, as Schwartz seemed prevented from doing anything substantial with the character--essentially just holding a parking space for Byrne whenever he might drive up, if he ever did.

It's too bad that Schwartz didn't have a chance to tell an epic extended tale on the order of the Super-Sandman Saga or the Ra's al Ghul stories (I write about Schwartz as if he were a writer, but we should remember that in his capacity as editor he was actually as much an author of those stories as the credited writers and artists).

Yet Alan Moore let's us read this two-part tale in such a way that we don't have to accept it as the ultimate story of the "Silver Age" Superman. It's a possible story, an imaginary tale, but it isn't really the conclusion of that legacy.

I choose to think of the legacy as something incomplete, but still existing. What really happened next in 1986 was never written--and so I can choose to believe that the end was something else.

Furthermore, going over all the Weisinger and Schwartz comics, we can envision other pathways. There were stories of future Supermen--and these weren't exactly Elseworlds or Imaginary Stories. There were hints of Superman's future in the Legion of Super-Heroes.

posted September 26, 2002 03:55 PM    

Considering the huge number of Swan stories, it's understandable that Schwartz could make such a mistake (even though he was the editor of record for all of the above).

As for "Whatever Happened To the Man of Tomorrow?"... well, I'll have to comment more extensively on that at some future time. But I will say that, although I think it's a great story and I like it a lot, I also think it's a cheat.

Supposedly, it's a grand celebration of what has gone before, and Alan Moore's misty eyed farewell to the wild and imaginative elements of the Superman mythos during the 50s and 60s and 70s that he loves dearly. I think that's a gross misunderstanding. Ultimately, I have to regard this story as either: a concession to the idea that the spirit of those times is outdated and must be cast aside, or a parody of the more "serious" and "realistic" spirit that will be its replacement. In either case, he fails at what he supposedly set out to do, the celebration itself. I'm not sure if Moore himself recognized this.

(Plus, Luthor is there as nothing more than Brainiac's arms and legs. That's unforgivable! He's LUTHOR, for crying out loud!)

posted September 26, 2002 06:54 PM    

I definitely have several other comics like this, Curt S. + Kurt S. I could be persuaded to dig them out if required.

But...

It seems very odd to me that Julius Schwartz would forget something like that. As soon as I read those comments, examples of Curt + Kurt art appeared before my mind's eye, and I thought, "Waitaminute."