Showcase 97-99

[Great Rao]

Poll runs for a week.

Discussion was here
http://superman.nu/smf/index.php?topic=3220.0

[crispy snax]

wow i didnt think there was an issue with thse ones... i mean its powergirls origin?? why are people dissagreeing with that?

[DrJohnnyDiablo]

"I know that when I write entries its EASIER to know the series that can be abbreviated and those that should be spelled out in full without having to go back to a long canonical source page that has selected issues listed."-

This is a good point, but I think that the key issue of which issues to place in the canon is whether these issues get our collective "seal of approval" as historians. Since these particular comics are key to our understanding of the Earth-2 Superman's cousin and her backstory, I feel that it is important for them to be accorded the same status as, say, the Mr. & Mrs. Superman stories.

This would not be the same with Showcase No. 4 which has only a very tenuous connection to the Superman family of characters.

[Great Rao]

wow i didnt think there was an issue with thse ones... i mean its powergirls origin?? why are people dissagreeing with that?

It's more than her origin.  This story is what laid the groundwork for the chaotic and disparate "origins" that she has had for the last 20-odd years or so.  From Kryptonian cousin, to Atlantean princess who only thought she was Kryptonian, and everything in-between and after.

In this story, the idea that her Kryptonian origin could have just been a computer-induced virtual fantasy is introduced.  To me this is non-canonical like the World's Finest issue that claims the super-sons were a computer simulation; and like Supergirl's wedding and the other post-crisis, pre-Byrne nether-zone tales.

It also introduces the whole "malicious technology from an evil Krypton trying to take over a Kryptonian" thing.  Another concept that was used throughout the Iron Age and still rears its ugly head from time to time.

[crispy snax]

um, so if you dont like it, its non-canonical?

[Johnny Nevada]

wow i didnt think there was an issue with thse ones... i mean its powergirls origin?? why are people dissagreeing with that?

It's more than her origin.  This story is what laid the groundwork for the chaotic and disparate "origins" that she has had for the last 20-odd years or so.  From Kryptonian cousin, to Atlantean princess who only thought she was Kryptonian, and everything in-between and after.

In this story, the idea that her Kryptonian origin could have just been a computer-induced virtual fantasy is introduced.  To me this is non-canonical like the World's Finest issue that claims the super-sons were a computer simulation; and like Supergirl's wedding and the other post-crisis, pre-Byrne nether-zone tales.

It also introduces the whole "malicious technology from an evil Krypton trying to take over a Kryptonian" thing.  Another concept that was used throughout the Iron Age and still rears its ugly head from time to time.

Not sure it's right to blame the Showcase story for that---the blame for her various half-baked origin rewrites should be laid at "Crisis on Infinite Earths" and the post-Crisis "Secret Origins" story that introduced her post-Crisis origin (where the Atlantean junk came from---still like to know why they'd connect her to Atlantis of all things...).

[DrJohnnyDiablo]

I agree with Johnny Nevada on this one.