We are at the end of the Superman retrospective. Since I’m only covering the pre-Crisis Superman you might expect me to cover his role there, as I have done for other retrospectives… but Superman does SO much there that it would be its own retrospective.
You might also expect me to cover the final love letter to the Silver Age character, the Alan Moore masterpiece “Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow?”, especially since I’ve already covered its connection to the Legion.
But I have decided to do something a bit more obscure, since I expect virtually anyone following this retrospective has already read the Moor stories: what happened in the stories immediately preceding them?
This requires a bit of context, because identifying the “last pre-Crisis Superman story” is difficult.
“Crisis on Infinite Earths #12” has a cover date of March 1986, and the first issue of Man of Steel… the John Byrne miniseries that introduced the post-Crisis Superman… has a cover date of October.
This leaves a 6-month gap between the end of Earth-One and the establishment of the post-Crisis era. Even weirder, “Man of Steel” lasts six issues during which the Superman books continue to have stories that are extremely difficult to classify… by definition they are not pre-Crisis, but they haven’t caught up with the post-Crisis continuity yet.
Man of Steel #6 has a cover date of December 1986, and the first stories in the Superman books that explicitly follow its continuity have a cover date of January 1987.
This is the limbo where we find “Whatever happened to the Man of Tomorrow”:
- Action Comics #582 = limbo -> Action Comics #583 = Part 1 of “WHTTMT?” -> Action Comics #584 = post-Crisis
- Superman #422 = limbo -> Superman #423 = Part 2 of “WHTTMT?” -> retitled to Adventures of Superman #424 = post-Crisis
Making things more confusing…
- 1939 to 1986: Superman volume 1 #1-423
- 1986 to 2006: Superman volume 1 retitled “Adventures of Superman”. Launch of a second title Superman volume 2 restarting from #1 and lasting until #226
- 2006 to 2011: “Adventures of Superman” retitled Superman volume 1, ending with #714
- 2011 to 2016: Superman volume 3 #1-52
- 2016 to 2018: Superman volume 4 #1-45
- 2018 to 2021: Superman volume 5 #1-32
- 2021 to 2023: “Superman: son of Kal-El” #1-18
- 2023 to ongoing: Superman volume 6
This confusion is hilarious when compared to the other long-running Superman book.
- 1938 to 2011: Action Comics volume 1 #1-903
- 2011 to 2016: Action Comics volume 2 #1-52
- 2016 to ongoing: Action Comics #957 to #1100 and still going
And with that out of the way, let’s have a look at the last two issues stuck in the limbo between pre-Crisis, “WHTTMT?” and the post-Crisis era
Action Comics #582 (1986)
by Craig Boldman & Alex Saviuk
One of Superman’s lesser-known powers is apparently shooting parents out of his eyes.
We begin with Superman flashing back to the destruction of Krypton.
You can see that his parents are clearly the pre-Crisis version, even though this was published a month after Man of Steel #1 introduced their more alien post-Crisis version.
On of the advantages post-Crisis Superman has is that he lacks super-memory, so he can’t remember Krypton’s explosion.
Although I’m sure he also had nightmares about it.
Super-memory is so important to this story that Superman finds it suspicious that he can’t remember ALL the details from when he was a baby.
Another pre-Crisis thing I have no nostalgia for: Superman having random super-experiments laying around in the Fortress of Solitude.
Turns out that the missing memory was Jor-El briefly connecting his son’s mind with his wife’s.
Superman discovers that there are THREE distinct brain waves in his head.
If we discover that he’s been hearing voices all these years, A LOT of his Silver Age behavior will suddenly make a lot more sense.
Jokes aside, this isn’t a bad premise: what if Jor-El found a way to record his and Lara’s mind inside the brain of his son? Given how absurdly powerful Kryptonian brains have been shown to be under yellow suns, that’s not that absurd.
At least by comic book logic.
While I don’t really care for the super-scientist version of Superman, I to appreciate that he doesn’t have to do everything himself and instead consults a few aliens with interesting designs.
You have to love how “downloading two full brains from my own” is already given as feasible and we’ve already moved to cloning.
At least Superman says it’s something “similar to” cloning. He can’t use cells from their parents because their bodies were destroyed with Krypton, so I’m guessing he’s extracting their DNA from his own body? A sort of reverse conception?
Don’t think too hard how, if Kryptonian genetics are anything like humans, he would be missing half of each parent genes.
Even more amazing? IT WORKS.
Not really sure why they are old, but I do know that the last name Ellsworth isn’t random.
That’s definitely a deep cut for Whitney Ellsworth, Golden Age editor for DC Comics and producer of the Superman TV show.
I often forget that Clark Kent being adopted was publicly known pre-Crisis as well; it doesn’t come up all that often.
The parents adjust to their new powers by frolicking in Egypt and saving people on hot air balloons… as one does.
I understand the shock, but wouldn’t they feel bummed about THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR WORLD long before enjoying dressing up as humans and flying around?
Superman shows his parents the technology of the Fortress of Solitude, and the Phantom Zone projector gives him a clue that something isn’t right.
Now don’t be shocked, but Superman’s parents are *gasp* not the real deal!
This turns into, what else, a Big Dumb Kryptonian Fight.
Including some super-bondage.
But Superman breaks free and discovers who has been behind all this: Rokk and Sorban from the gambling planet Ventura, which you might remember has a Legion connection.
As far as evil plans go this is pretty nasty, but I feel we’re going off topic from “aliens obsessed with gambling” to this.
The “parents” were actually programmable extra-dimensional aliens (???) that disguised themselves as fake brain patterns in Superman’s mind.
Those aliens were smart enough to impersonate Jor-El and Lara, but dumb enough to think the copy of Superman’s baby rocket as real and not a monument.
Sounds legit.
As for what happened to the “parents”… Superman locked them as intangible ghosts stuck between dimensions.
So in the infinite number of worlds that keep getting restored in the DC multiverse, there’s still one out there where two clones of Superman’s powers live in limbo.
Adding to the confusion from my introduction, this book will also take a 3-month hiatus after the Moore story.
Superman #422 (1986)
by Marv Wolfman & Curt Swan
cover by Brian Bolland
The post-Crisis books have a reputation for being darker than what preceded them, which is largely true. Which makes it weird that THIS is not post-Crisis yet.
And it’s appropriate, since this begins as a straight up horror story.
Superman has a brief encounter with this monster, who actually manages to draw blood before fleeing.
Oh COME ON, are we STILL dealing with Superman’s inexplicable skepticism of magic?
Dude, you know magic exists! And you’ve been around for so long that I refuse to believe you’ve never met a werewolf, or know a hero who did!
So Superman is about to transform into a werewolf.
I guess it’s inevitable when your writer is named Wolfman.
The werewolf is not the only one on the prowl.
Superman then spots the werewolf when investigating Lupus Laboratories.
What are the odds of Lupus Laboratories creating werewolves?
There’s no magic involved with werewolves, which is why one managed to hurt Superman.
Wait, what?
Superman fights the werewolf a third time…
…and loses!
What a copout: the one on the cover isn’t Werewolf Superman, it’s a werewolf wearing Superman’s costume.
All the various jokes about Superman wearing his underwear over his pants are true.
He really does go commando beneath the costume.
Could the werewolf plot and Lois dating a guy who is called a wolf every other panel possibly be related?
Eventually Superman does find the guy and uncovers the conspiracy.
These are “science werewolves”, not magic ones, but they are still able to hurt Superman… SOMEHOW.
As we all know, science werewolves are weak to electricity so the guy saves Superman by using a lightning rod, but he sacrifices his life for this.
By far the biggest surprise of the story is that the Lois plot really WAS completely unrelated to anything.
The letters page includes a mention of the Challenger disaster.
Historical significance: 0/10
Given the era, none of these two issues had a chance.
Silver Age-ness
Action Comics #582: 8/10
Bonkers premise? Check. Sudden mastery of superpowers? Check. Weird Superman inventions? Check. Last minute resolution behind the scenes with questionable morality? Triple check!!!
Prevented from going any higher by the smallest amount of angst.
Superman #422: 4/10
Arbitrary skepticism and a science werewolf being able to hurt Superman without ANY given explanation. Too horror to go any higher.
Does it stand the test of time?
Action Comics #582: 5/10
There is SOME potential there. Superman finding a way to restore his parents to life could introduce some neat concepts… that this story has no intention of following.
It was a given that the parents would turn out to be impostors, but that resolution felt completely out of nowhere.
Superman #422: 4/10
Half of it is a competent if a bit generic horror story. Unfortunately that’s the part without Superman, because his connection is extremely flimsy and he really doesn’t have a whole lot to contribute. Superman fighting a werewolf while fighting his own potential transformation would be an interesting story, but that’s not the one we got.
I appreciate the subversion of the Lois subplot having absolutely no connection despite multiple cheeky references to the guy being a wolf.
And that’s it for the “Famous Superman stories” retrospective… kind of.
We have two codas to the whole thing: next time I will give the Super Awards for this whole thing… and we’ll close with a return to the World of Krypton.