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80's Superman - DC Comics Message Boards
Author Topic:   80's Superman
Aldous
Member
posted September 26, 2002 07:08 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
quote:
Continental Op:
(Plus, Luthor is there as nothing more than Brainiac's arms and legs. That's unforgivable! He's LUTHOR, for crying out loud!)

Exactly. With abasement and humiliation the name of the game, Luthor had to take his lumps like everyone else. Maybe Luthor had even further to fall than Superman.

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Sankoni
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posted October 16, 2002 03:58 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Sankoni   Click Here to Email Sankoni
I agree with Shiuper

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Aldous
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posted October 16, 2002 03:21 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Aldous
quote:
Originally posted by Sankoni:
I agree with Shiuper

I beg your pardon?

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India Ink
Member
posted November 23, 2002 05:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
^
^
^

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BruceWayneMan
Member
posted December 23, 2002 06:55 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for BruceWayneMan
I feel that the carnage in The Last Superman Story served a vital purpose - and that was to show how Superman will fight for a planet and people that aren't his own no matter what the cost to himself. Superman used to be the most tragic figure in comics - he lost his world and two sets of parents, and as much as Clark Kent might be able to pretend to fit in, he was in reality someone who could never escape the complete isolation fostered upon the last being of a dead planet. Anyways, the comments about Luthor's presentation in this story have got me wondering about how everyone regards Action 544.

This was the issue where Luthor gains his new battlesuit and more importantly, features the destruction of Lexor by his own hand. This has to be the most contradictory portrayal of Luthor I've ever seen and makes me wonder if his actions were ever explained in a later issue. Lexor is the planet Luthor refused to steal from when he teamed up with Brainiac in Superman 167 and the planet where he could have killed Superman but for his concern for them. How did this Luthor become the terrorist he was in Action 544. I know the destruction of Lexor was unintentional, but he still terrorizes the planet and gleefully destroys and pillages it for no apparent reason. Anyone feel the same way, or have I missed some rational explanation?

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India Ink
Member
posted January 02, 2003 04:41 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I made some passing comments about Action 544 on page 2 of this thread in reference to Heroes Against Hunger.

I have no doubt that 544 is a great comic--certainly an artistic treat--but it definitely sits badly with me.

By the time that issue came out I was a great fan of the Lexor stories (written by Ed Hamilton) and long desired a return to Lexor. So I was quite excited that we finally got Luthor back on Lexor, but for Bates to just use the planet as a set-up for Luthor's revenge rampage was about as bad as killing off Iris Allen to give Barry some angst.

If this story had to be written it's too bad that Edmond Hamilton didn't get to write it.

The way that Hamilton just suddenly disappeared from the Superman books has always left me with this unfullfilled feeling. Hamilton began so much--and then after him a lot of that was disregarded. It would have been better if Ed had had the chance in the late sixties to finish off a lot of what he had begun. If he had written the finish of Lexor it might not have been so confused. He's the one writer who truly understood Luthor.

But 544 reveals that Bates never really could connect with the Luthor character--and in this issue he simply makes Lex over into the kind of character that he can write. Much the same way writers after Bates have also made over Luthor into another character that fits the type each writer is comfortable writing (various versions of The Kingpin, Ra's al Ghul, Doctor Doom, or Professor Zoom).

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Continental Op
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posted February 01, 2003 11:12 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Continental Op
(bump)

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India Ink
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posted February 22, 2003 06:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
^

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The Progenitor
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posted February 22, 2003 07:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for The Progenitor   Click Here to Email The Progenitor
thanks for bringing this back guys
its appreciated.

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India Ink
Member
posted February 22, 2003 07:10 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I thought this (and the other topics) might prove useful for Wolfshepherd's review of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" on this topic...
http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum30/HTML/011998.html

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India Ink
Member
posted March 08, 2003 04:01 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
I've gathered together some posts on foreign (German) editions of Superman from the early eighties.

The first quote is from the "Superman in the 70s" thread, page 20, while the other posts come from "Keith Giffen Superman Story in an 80's German Comic" on the OTHER SUPERMAN TOPICS forum...

quote:
Originally posted by Continental Op:
There was indeed a lot of Superman material (and presumably other DC material) produced exclusively for foreign markets, much like Disney has published tons of stuff distributed only outside of North America, and Marvel had their Captain Britain stories and such for the U.K. Some of the foreign DC material was eventually reprinted in the American books, but much of it wasn't.

Here's the full scoop from Bob Rozakis' online Answer man column as it appeared about a year ago, which can be found regularly at http://www.silverbulletcomicbooks.com/ (I hope the cut and pasting works correctly here, and that Bob wouldn't mind the unauthorized reproduction):

< Here's the story on the lost Parasite story mentioned in last week’s column:
The story that recounted the Parasite’s marriage to a lawyer named Lorna and the birth of their kids, Trini and Troy, was actually published, albeit only in Germany. In 1981, DC began creating original Superman stories for its insatiable German audience at the request of their West German publisher, Ehapa, as related in a comprehensive article by Dave Peterson in THE COMICS BUYER'S GUIDE # 519. The episodes ranged from forty-six page "novels" intended for a quarterly graphic album to thirty-pagers for SUPERMAN HEFT. Unlike Disney, who permitted additional adventures of Donald Duck and company to be produced by foreign publishers, DC generated the additional Superman adventures themselves. Writers included Bob Rozakis, Paul Kupperberg, Cary Bates, E. Nelson Bridwell and Elliot Maggin while artists ranged from Curt Swan and Alex Saviuk to Gil Kane and Alex Toth.
DC published several of the stories in English over the next few years but they never had a chance to publish "The Parasite Curse," which is credited to Cary Bates, Alex Saviuk and Dave Hunt. The installation of the post-Crisis John Byrne-continuity pretty much killed any chances of the story ever seeing print and the hints offered in 1986’s WHO’S WHO # 17 are as close as any American readers are likely to get to seeing that story.
-- John Wells (johnwells99@yahoo.com)

Thanks, guys. A few of the stories that were done for Ehapa actually did see print in issues of ACTION COMICS and SUPERMAN, but the Parasite tale was not among them.>

Personally, I would LOVE to see these lost stories of the "Lame Duck Superman" (as India Ink has termed the era). I mean, DC is sitting on essentially NEW Curt Swan-illustrated Superman stories? But sadly, there would be virtually no audience left for these in the States. The chances of seeing these reprinted in the U.S. are about as low as the chances of throwing a rock in Canada without hitting a guy named Gordon.


Maybe they could show up in the Archives, but by the time the Superman Archives roll around to the mid-Eighties, I'll be lucky to be alive even as a disembodied brain in a jar.


quote:
Originally posted by exredleg:
Help!

Back in the 1986-1989 timeframe, I was stationed in Germany while serving in the Army. One day while shopping in downtown Nurnberg, I stumbled upon some German reprints of DC Comics. I was still collecting comics "long distance" thanks to monthly shipments from my "home shop" back in Chicago, so I was still fairly current on what was going on in the Super-books.

One of the stories in the German editions caught my eye. It was drawn by Keith Giffen! If my memory serves me correctly, it may have been inked by Larry Mahlstedt. The art looked as if it were from the "pre-Toth tribute era" of Giffen's run on the Legion.

I didn't read German ... but a few things I remember from the story:

An appearance by the skeletal Braniac

Superman seemed to be trapped in a device that allowed Brainiac to review Supeman's memories (my memory could be faulty here!)

One of Superman's memories dealt with "Superbaby" ... looked to be a humorous moment!

All-in-all it looked like a neat story ... a story I never saw in print in a U.S. Superman comic!

Does anyone know if this story was ever printed in the U.S. ?? If not, how about a reprint in a future Superman comic !!


quote:
Originally posted by Mikishawm:
DC prepared more than two dozen Superman stories specifically for the German market between 1981 and 1985 but only a handful were reprinted in the U.S. And, unfortunately, the story you recall is one that never appeared here.

My friend Norbert Elbers, who lives in Germany, has been helping me compile a list of those stories and drew my attention to this request. I believe he's identified the story that you're looking for.

It's "The Wall of Infinity," a 46-pager plotted and written by Robert Loren Fleming & Keith Giffen, pencilled by Giffen and inked by Romeo Tanghal. And, yep, the skeletal Brainiac is the villain of the piece. It appeared in SUPERMAN TASCHENBUCH # 72.

It'd be really great if DC would reprint this and some of the other stories in English but, in the meantime, you might want to check eBay and see if anyone's selling that edition.

Hope this answered your question.

John Wells


quote:
Originally posted by n-man:

"...My friend Norbert Elbers, who lives in Germany, has been helping me compile a list of those stories and drew my attention to this request."

yeah - that's me.

But the credit appertains not only to me. It's teamwork. A friend of mine - Georg - and I tried to attach the German issues to the original US comic books.

In the past (until ca. 1987) the German publisher didn't say what the US issue was from the comics they bring out. And so it was a huge work to detect the US original.
And on the search we find some stories which has never been published in USA. It's surprising but true.

Because we don't have all US comics from DC (but all German issues) it was very difficult to say this German book is this US book. When we are at a loss we described the story and miki knew the answer....

Another example is a Parasite story. In an old WHO'S WHO in Amerika you can read, that he has two children. But also this story is unknown in USA, but published in Germany.


quote:
Originally posted by Continental Op:
I would really, really, really, really, really, really, really like to see these stories finally published in English!

Too bad DC must be sure there is no longer a market for this kind of Superman. But I envision something like a series of "Elseworlds 100 Page Super-Spectaculars" that I think would sell fairly well even today.

DC has loosened up considerably in recent years when it comes to allowing REPRINTS of Weisinger-era and Schwartz-era Superman material; why not allow previously UNSEEN material as well?

The Brainiac and Parasite stories sound fascinating, and in particular I think it's downright criminal that DC should have unpublished Superman art by Curt Swan that they won't print.

Oh well.


quote:
Originally posted by exredleg:
Mikishawn & n-man,

Thanks for all your detective work! I will try to track down that book on eBay. I probably remember enough German to make some sense of the story.

Meanwhile ... let's see these stories reprinted in English!


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India Ink
Member
posted April 27, 2003 06:05 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for India Ink
Since the BIG CHANGE is supposed to happen soon, I thought it prudent to give this thread a bump NOW.

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Dave the Wonder Boy
Member
posted May 16, 2003 11:12 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for Dave the Wonder Boy   Click Here to Email Dave the Wonder Boy
Superman in the 80's was mentioned in a few posts of a larger discussion of 80's material on the ODCUT boards:

"Was mid to late 80's the best DC ever?" http://dcboards.warnerbros.com/files/Forum94/HTML/009215.html

I don't think I've ever posted so much to a single topic.

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