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SEQUENTIAL CULTURE #18 21 Nov 03 |
The DC Canon, Part 2: Superman |
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JULIAN DARIUS |
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THE DC CANON Read Part 1: Batman. You are reading Part 2: Superman. Read Part 3: Kingdom Come. Read Part 4: The Justice
League. Read Part 5: Superman: Red Son. Read Part 6: Alan Moore’s Swamp
Thing. Read Part 7: Neil Gaiman’s The
Sandman. Read Part 8: Vertigo, Part 1. Read Part 9: Vertigo, Part 2. Read Part 10: Vertigo, Part
3. |
DC Comics’ super-heroes star in a plethora
of ongoing series, mini-series, specials, original graphic novels of various sizes,
and collections every month.
Characters like Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman are more iconic
than any other super-heroes around.
Yet for all of their sales, some have not explored the best that these
icons have to offer. This, then, acts as a guide for those new
to DC’s characters, for those who may be missing a classic of one of them,
and for those who simply wish to argue what merits such concern. Lists of such a nature are always a matter
of some debate and always involve some subjectivity. They are, nonetheless, not without their
purposes of stirring thought, guiding future reading, and solidifying the
canon. Take this one as you will. Superman |
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Superman is the
archetypal super-hero. When we see
super-heroes flying around with powers, we are seeing Superman’s legacy. |
Superman is due profound respect. He is the archetypal
super-hero. While the super-hero has
ancient antecedents, Superman’s debut in 1938 marked the creation of the
super-hero proper, or the formalization of the genre. Batman’s immediately roots, by contrast,
were the pulps: the Shadow, Tarzan,
and the like, popular in comics, on radio, and in movie serials. When we see super-heroes flying around
with powers, we are seeing Superman’s legacy. So strong was Superman’s archetypal nature that any super-hero
who could fly under his own power was derivative of him -- thus Marvel’s use
of devices like little wings on Namor’s feet. |
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I am close friends with a 19-year-old and a 10-year-old, both
Americans: neither knew that Superman
was an alien, was vulnerable to Kryptonite, or that Lex Luthor was his
arch-foe. |
Yet, for all his influence, Superman has
not fared as well as we might imagine.
He has nowhere near the number of classics associated with him as
Batman does. One reason for this is
that, while the archetypal super-hero, Superman’s powers make it hard to
identify with him. Another reason for
the lower number of Superman classics is that, while he was more popular than
Batman for most of the decades after their creation, Batman has increasingly
come to dominate throughout the latter 1990s and early third millennium -- as
his plethora of monthly publications demonstrates in contrast to Superman’s
present four or five. Today, as an
astounding number of movies based on Marvel Comics characters hit theatres,
as the four Batman movies ebb in the cultural memory, the four Superman
movies are not even known to exist by most twenty-year-olds and younger. I am close friends with a 19-year-old and
a 10-year-old, both Americans:
neither knew that Superman was an alien, was vulnerable to Kryptonite,
or that Lex Luthor was his arch-foe. This discussion of what classics Superman
has produced, while less than those of Batman, is multiplied in importance by
both Superman’s importance and his embarrassing present obscurity. |
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While Alan Moore is celebrated most for his classic Watchmen
and for non-super-hero works like From Hell, Moore’s work on Superman
is of the same quality, albeit in a different vein. |
The best Superman work is probably that of
writer Alan Moore. While Moore is
celebrated most for his classic Watchmen and for non-super-hero works
like From Hell, Moore’s work on Superman is of the same quality,
albeit in a different vein. Moore’s
Superman work consists primarily of Superman Annual (first series) #11
and the “Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow” storyline, which appeared
in Action
Comics #583
and Superman (first series) #423. “For the Man Who Has Everything,” the sole
story in Superman Annual (first series) #11, was created by the Watchmen
team of Moore and artist Dave Gibbons.
It begins with Superman as Kal-El on a Krypton that never exploded, a
narrative hook that prompts readers to ask how this strange situation has
come to pass. The Kryptonian narrative
runs throughout the issue, juxtaposed to a narrative occurring in the DC
Universe at present -- in which we find that Mongul, the interplanetary space
tyrant, has subdued Superman with a Trojan horse of sorts: a parasitic alien plant species that attaches
itself to people and grants its host, through hallucinations, his innermost
wish. Superman’s innermost wish seems
to be that Krypton never exploded, that he could live his life wish his
family and his people. In fact, that
fantasy turns into a nightmare as Krypton is ravaged by social problems, such
as drugs and riots; Kal-El, possessed by a sense that something is wrong,
watches his planet self-destruct socially instead of physically. This vision of a problematic Krypton stood
in stark opposition to the dominant view at the time of the dead planet as an
ideal and exotic utopia; a more problematic, if not dystopian, view of
Krypton would later be codified in John Bryne’s 1986 revision of the Superman
mythos. At the end, released from his
hallucination, Superman accepts Krypton’s destruction – while Mongul becomes
the victim of his own parasitic plant.
The end gives us Mongul’s bloody fantasies of cosmic conquest,
juxtaposing nicely with Superman’s fantasy in the surprising beginning. This is, then, a story about Superman’s
identity. But it is also a story
about his effect on others:
specifically, Batman, Robin, and Wonder Woman -- who arrive at
Superman’s Fortress of Solitude with presents “for the man who has
everything” and end up confronting Mongul.
This narrative possesses charms of its own. As the three arrive in the arctic, Batman warns the adolescent
Robin to keep his eyes up from Wonder Woman’s skimpy costume -- a wonderfully
subtle mature touch. The brutality of
Mongul, particularly as he punches Wonder Woman in a scene reminiscent of
domestic violence, is also of note.
The device of ironic juxtaposing the two narratives -- hallucination
of Krypton and the Fortress of Solitude -- would be used to more expanded
effect in Watchmen. And, in
the end, the destruction during the fight of Batman’s gift -- a synthesized
flower he has dubbed “Krypton” in Superman’s honor -- comes to symbolize
Superman’s coming to terms with his homeword’s demise. “Whatever Happened to the Man of
Tomorrow?” occupied the last two issues of Action Comics and Superman
prior to them being taken over by John Byrne’s revised continuity. Billed as “the last Superman story,” it
was actually labeled an “imaginary story” -- a story taking place outside of
continuity, much like DC’s present Elseworlds. This fact led Moore to introduce the story with a brief
statement about how, while this is an imaginary story, “Aren’t they
all?” This sentiment, celebrating the
role of imagination, echoed the tone of Moore’s Superman stories which stood
in stark contrast to his darker work on Watchmen, which led to a
decade of dark super-hero stories called “revisionist” or
“deconstructivist.” While Moore’s
Superman may have been somewhat “revisionist” in the sense of revising the past,
the more fun tone of his nonetheless mature work on Superman had more in
common with “reconstructionism,” a return to fun and imaginative super-hero
stories -- while retaining certain elements of maturity interjected by
“deconstructism” -- inaugurated by the painted mini-series Marvels and
subsequently advocated by Moore himself. |
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“The Last Superman Story” is pervaded by an ominous tone,
culminating in the end of the first half, in which the Legion of Super-Heroes
appear from the future to say goodbye -- as if knowing that Superman is about
to die. Superman’s villains attack,
often being reinvented in the process. |
That said, “the last Superman story” is
pervaded by an ominous feeling. The story
is filled with Superman’s universe of characters, both heroes and
villains. Supergirl appears, as does
Superman’s dog Krypto; in order to help Superman in his time of need, Lois
Lane and Jimmy Olsen use the Fortress of Solitude to reacquire the super-powers
they held on occasion. The ominous
tone to the story culminates in the end of the first half, in which the
Legion of Super-Heroes (who originated in Superman’s comics) appear from the
future to say goodbye -- as if knowing that Superman is about to die. Superman’s villains attack, one after
another, often being reinvented in the process. For example, Bizarro, a silly character considered to be
Superman’s opposite -- reversing “hello” and “goodbye,” or “happy” and “sad”
-- goes on a killing spree, having realized that to be more perfectly
opposite he must kill as Superman does not.
After a series of such attacks, each with a newly darker tone (like
the coming “revisionism”), Superman isolates himself and his loved ones in
his Fortress of Solitude. In the
second half, the Fortress is besieged by his villains, including his
arch-enemies Lex Luthor and Brainiac.
The attack is finally repulsed, but at the cost of a number of
characters’ lives. The other DC
characters are locked outside by a force field, forced to watch Superman’s
final battle. And, it seems, Superman
died there -- though his body was never found. In fact, Superman has exposed himself to a
special strain of Kryptonite that causes him to loose his powers -- allowing
him to live in domestic bliss with Lois Lane, where we last see him in the
future as a reporter interviews Lois Lane about Superman. In the classic Clark Kent / Lois Lane /
Superman love triangle, Superman has chosen to be Clark Kent. He has let down his burden, and he is
content. Superman Annual (first series) #11 can be found in The
Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told and in the more recent Across the
Universe: The DC Universe Stories of
Alan Moore. “The last Superman
story” was collected in its own volume as Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? An additional text piece by Moore was
apparently produced for a U.K. annual and has only been reprinted in a
black-and-white U.K. collection of Moore’s Superman work, itself now
out-of-print. |
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An idyllic pastoral more than a traditional Superman story. |
The second-best Superman story ever told
is Superman for All Seasons, appearing in 1998 as a four-issue
prestige format mini-series by the team of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim
Sale. The story’s most influential
portion is its first, beautifully depicting Clark Kent’s life on the farm in
Kansas, growing up with good old-fashioned Midwestern American values under
the tutelage of Ma and Pa Kent. Here
is his perception of his difference from others while still very much the
human being. Here is his simply joy
at his powers, flying with Lana Lang in a scene reminiscent of his flight
with Lois Lane in the classic 1978 movie Superman. An idyllic pastoral more than a
traditional Superman story, this chapter would go on to exercise great
influence on Smallville, the TV series featuring a super-powered Clark
Kent growing up in Smallville without a costume. |
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Clark returns to Smallville, petting his dog with all the
gentility of a boy unassuming about his body coursing with world-changing
power. |
The remainder of the story tells of
Superman’s arrival in and adjustment to Metropolis -- depicted as a
futurist’s dream, with monorails stretching between skyscrapers, although a
dream with overtones of fascism, under the thumb of corporate mogul Lex
Luthor and his men who fly by means of technological suits. Here too is Lois Lane and the beginnings
of Clark’s relationship with her.
And, throughout these later three chapters, Clark returns to
Smallville, deals with Lana’s adjustments to his departure, and pets his dog
with all the gentility of a boy unassuming about his body coursing with
world-changing power. (Note that a two-page story by the same creative
team, telling of Superman as a child almost meeting Batman as a child in
Smallville, appeared in Superman / Batman Secret Files 2003.) |
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While certainly a publicity stunt, The Death of Superman
was also tremendously fun. |
Coming in at #3 is the more commercial
“Death of Superman” storyline.
Published near the end of 1992, the story ran through the four monthly
Superman titles (with various creative teams) and culminated in Superman
#75. While certainly a publicity
stunt (the story received tremendous coverage in the mainstream press and
sales went through the roof), the story was also tremendously fun and
probably deserves to be thought a classic.
The six-issue story -- seven including an issue of Justice League
America -- was not rushed, essentially featuring a single fight. The tremendously powerful monster
Doomsday, newly escaped from a buried prison of unknown origin, made a
beeline for Metropolis, literally defeating the Justice League with one hand
bound behind his back. The
devastation was massive, the story tremendously dramatic, and the creature
unstoppable. At last, Superman and
Doomsday killed one another on the steps of The Daily Planet’s
building. And Superman lied dead, his
body cradled by a sobbing Lois Lane. A number of other bodies of Superman works
are of note, though they lack particular collections of coherent narrative
that reach the level of the classic -- largely due to the Superman titles’
habit of continuing into one another while being written and illustrated by different
teams of creators. An overview may be
found in The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told. Superman’s earliest stories are quite
readable and often enjoyable: they
are available in the Superman Archives and the Superman: Action Comics Archives series of
hardcover collections. Superman
experienced, in the 1950s and 1960s, sillier but often enjoyable years,
including the invention of Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, various
super-pets. These were years of great
imagination, including delightful notions like the shrunken city of Kandor
being kept in a bottle -- with a red sun like Krypton’s at the bottle’s top
to keep the Kryptonians from manifesting super-powers under Earth’s yellow
sun; Superman and others would even shrink and lead alternative lives in
Kandor. These stories are collected
in Superman in the Fifties and Superman in the Sixties. |
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Writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Neal Adams began a delightful run
on Superman in the ‘70s. |
The 1970s brought increased maturity to
American super-hero comics, and Superman was no exception. Writer Dennis O’Neil and artist Neal
Adams, who had successfully renovated Batman, began a delightful run on
Superman in the ‘70s, updating Clark Kent from a newspaper reporter to a
television reporter, dramatically lessening Superman’s powers, eradicating
Kryptonite (leading to an unforgettable sequence in which Superman eats
a now-powerless Kryptonite rock), and introducing a villainous version of
Superman made out of sand. While these
changes did not hold, they were marvelous.
Superman in the Seventies includes a brief sampling. The end of the decade and the early 1980s
saw several innovations. Lex Luthor
was given a suit of technological power, making the mad scientist a worthwhile
physical opponent. At the same time,
Brainiac was memorably re-envisioned as a fairly skeletal robot. Kandor was finally enlarged. Superman #400 offered an
anniversary celebration with considerable talent that remains fondly
remembered by many. This was the era
of the classic 1978 movie Superman – with its tagline, “you will
believe a man can fly!” -- that transformed the Superman story into more
realistic science fiction -- and its sillier but dramatic sequel, in which
renegade Kryptonians took over the White House. |
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The so-called Supergirl trilogy was particularly memorable,
featuring a parallel Earth utterly reduced to rubble by the renegade
Kryptonians, who Superman chooses to kill, ignoring the dying pleas of these
mass murderers. It is a dark but
enjoyable tale. |
John Bryne’s 1986 revamping of the
Superman mythos produced few single classic stories but many amusing ones,
updating in spirit the less serious but fun stories of old. Action Comics #600 contained an
extended story featuring Wonder Woman and Darkseid, illustrated by the
celebrated comics artist George Pérez, known for his detail. Bryne’s stories culminated in the
so-called Supergirl trilogy -- running through Superman (second
series) #21, Adventures of Superman #444, and Superman (second
series) #22 -- was particularly memorable, featuring a parallel universe with
an Earth utterly reduced to rubble by the renegade Kryptonians, who Superman
chooses to kill, compromising his morals to save lives, ignoring the dying
pleas of these mass murderers. It is
a dark but enjoyable tale. Bryne’s
work is collected in the Superman:
Man of Steel series of trade paperbacks. The years following Bryne’s departure
featured some similarly enjoyable but not classic stories. Following Bryne, Superman went insane with
guilt and decided to remove himself from Earth for his adopted planet’s
good. The storyline that followed in
1989 (collected in Superman: Exile)
was memorable for its extended depiction of Superman in space while those in
Metropolis deal with Clark Kent’s disappearance. 1989 also saw Lex Luthor:
The Unauthorized Biography, scripted by James Hudnall, in which a
reporter investigates Luthor’s poor origins and merciless rise in organized
crime; it may well deserve to be considered a classic. 1990’s “Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite”
storyline (collected in a volume of the same name), in which Clark Kent deals
with the mysterious loss of his powers, is also noteworthy. Culminating in Superman #50, the
storyline has Clark propose to Lois Lane -- only to get his powers (revealed
to have been stolen by the extra-dimensional imp Mr. Mxyzptlk) back. Lois accepted, and the Superman mythos was
changed forever. Also of note is Action
Comics #660, which followed later the same month, in which Lex Luthor
died, leaving Superman to contemplate the unreality of his newly-changed
life. 1991 saw the memorable “Time and Time
Again” storyline, featuring Superman bouncing through time -- including
episodes in World War II and one in which he he witnesses the moon exploding
a thousand years in the future (reflected in the Legion of Super-Heroes
title); this storyline introduced the time-traveling Linear Men. The “Panic in the Sky” storyline was
quickly collected, though not as good.
Better was 1992’s two-part “Crisis at Hand” storyline, in which Clark
and Lois deal with their neighbor suffering from domestic violence. The “Funeral for a Friend” storyline
followed late 1992’s “Death of Superman” (discussed above as the third best
Superman story). Showing the
immediate aftermath of Superman’s death and the world reacting to a world
without Superman, it is worthwhile though not classic. After three months of suspended
publication (except for a special each month), the Superman titles returned
and began the “Reign of the Supermen” storyline -- featuring four claimants
to the title of Superman. This
lengthy storyline saw, on the whole, a lessening of quality -- although the
cyborg Superman’s defense of President Bill Clinton and the President’s authentication
of the cyborg as the true Superman remains particularly memorable. Also memorable is the destruction of Coast
City, Green Lantern’s home, in its entirety at the instruments of the cyborg
and Mongul. Less memorable was
Superman’s convoluted return to life -- for a time with long hair. |
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1995’s three-issue prestige format mini-series Superman Vs.
Aliens was one of the rarest of comics occurrences: an inter-corporate team-up of real merit. |
The Superman titles, while popular in the
wake of Superman’s death, were not particularly good. Various storylines -- from “Bizarro’s
World” to “The Fall of Metropolis” to “Dead Again” to “The Death of Clark
Kent” and “The Trial of Superman” -- failed to measure up. Worth noting is the three-issue prestige
format mini-series Superman / Doomsday:
Hunter / Prey, a sequel of sorts to the “Death of Superman”
storyline. 1995’s three-issue
prestige format mini-series Superman Vs. Aliens was one of the rarest
of comics occurrences: an
inter-corporate team-up of real merit.
In this dark tale, Superman battles the aliens (of the Alien
series of movies) -- made dramatic by Superman’s ebbing powers and the
massacre by aliens of Argo City, a city that survived the explosion of
Krypton that had not been seen since the Silver Age, when its destruction by
Kryptonite poisoning had provided the origin for Supergirl. |
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Had Jeph Loeb’s issues been able to ignore all others, they
certainly would have reached that bar. |
1999 began a return to quality as new creative
blood was infused into the Superman titles.
This was exemplified by Jeph Loeb (who had previous written Superman
for All Seasons), who took over as regular writer of Superman. Other titles were mixed, however, and the
fact that they continued into one another removed the possibility of a
classic here -- though, had Loeb’s issues been able to ignore all others,
they certainly would have reached that bar.
This was an eventful era: the
galactic conqueror Imperiex was introduced; Metropolis was reconstituted by a
technological virus from the future (actually ordered to bring the comics
more in line with the animated Superman TV show running at the time); Lex
Luthor ran for election as President and won; Superman discovered a
Krypton more in line with its utopian form prior to Bryne’s revision, taking
back with him his super-powered dog Krypto; Earth became the battleground in
a massive interstellar war, waged by (among others) Imperiex and forming the
“Our Worlds at War” crossover that affected the entire DC universe, leading
to the death of some characters; Superman went into psychotherapy; and
President Luthor learned Superman’s identity (in 2002’s Superman
#178). Many of Loeb’s stories have
been collected, along with many concurrent stories in other titles, in a
series of trade paperbacks beginning that begins with the volume entitled Superman:
No Limits (and that shares a unified trade dress); the “Our Worlds at
War” crossover is collected in two softcover volumes entitled Superman: Our Worlds at War. Loeb would go on to write Superman along
with Batman in Superman / Batman, launched in 2003. |
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The concluding storyline of the Supergirl series, entitled
“Many Happy Returns” and published in 2002-2003, is highly worthwhile. |
While Superman’s spin-off titles are of
little note, the concluding storyline of the Supergirl series,
entitled “Many Happy Returns” and published in 2002-2003, is of particular
note. Written by Peter David, it
featured the pre-Bryne Supergirl interacting with the present-day Supergirl,
leading to some humorous situations.
Perhaps best was watching the present-day substitute for the pre-Bryne
Supergirl and have a relationship with the pre-Bryne Superman. Although these pre-Bryne characters did
not remain in the DC universe, the story is highly worthwhile (and is
available in the trade paperback entitled Supergirl: Many Happy Returns). |
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