Superman #15

"Wings"
writer/pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
colors: Petra Scotese
letters: John Costanza
editor: Michael Carlin

grade: C


I'm starting to feel like the decent Byrne issues are harder to read than the bad ones. With a truly poorly executed issue, the comically bad blunders become your focal point but, with an issue like this one, where there are few real errors to give your attention to, I instead find myself realizing everything that Byrne's Superman comics are missing and will never deliver; namely:

1. Good characterization
2. A compelling supporting cast
3. A decent villain who isn't either an over-the-top Luthor or a barely compelling one-hit-wonder who will die by the end of the issue
4. A well thought out conflict
5. Consistency/continuity now that Helfer is gone

Really, the most you can hope for in these stories is decent art and good action (and even those comes around rarely in these issues). It's depressing to consider that these issues have NOTHING to offer. With Helfer gone and Byrne not watching continuity as carefully as he should, I'm seriously wondering if I even need to be reading these issues in order to fully follow the Jurgens era (which is my ultimate goal in reading all of this).

Anyway, I suppose I should get around to reviewing the actual issue...

So here we have a storyline in which we finally get to learn more about Captain Maggie Sawyer. Byrne draws a clear and stated parallel here between her custody battle with her ex and Cat Grant's similar but different battle that Wolfman depicted over in Adventures of Superman. I found both conflicts rather tedious, and both characters and their children rather dull. At least Byrne acknowledged his theft of a Wolfman story idea for once.

The strength of this issue initially appears to be the tact with which Byrne introduces the fact that Sawyer is a lesbian and that this is what broke up her marriage and cost her custody of her daughter. It's bold territory for comics in 1987, and I'm actually impressed at first with the tact Byrne uses in telling us this. He never uses the words explicitly so that an impressionable child or easily offended fan can miss or choose not to believe what he's so clearly hinting at. Again, I was impressed at first because I then got to thinking about the whole Barda/Sleeze thing again. Byrne had absolutely no qualms about making it overt that Barda was being habitually raped and that Superman was starring in a porn with her, so that's appropriate content for an all ages comic book, but an upstanding citizen being a lesbian is not?

Beyond that, this is a pretty forgettable issue, introducing a pretty forgettable subplot in the shape of a custody battle, Maggie's similarly forgettable daughter, and a ludicrous plot involving a villain who turns children into mutant bat people and then promptly dies before the story can go anywhere interesting. And by the way, are they going to return to this storyline and discuss what happens to the 20+ mutant kids that were left behind from this story? Seems like it will be hard to make this interesting with the perpetrator already dead. And yeah, we are given a clear hint that Maggie's daughter is still mutating, but I could care less and actually kind of hope Byrne forgets to follow up on this one.

Important Details:

- Superman's "vision powers" can be disrupted/confused by scattered pieces of lead foil.
- Captain Maggie Sawyer is revealed to be a lesbian
- 1st appearance and death of Skyhook
- 1st appearance of Jimmy Olsen's mother (from behind only)
- Revealed that Jimmy Olsen created his signal watch. Superman did not give it to him.
- Superman can only hear the signal watch at the speed of sound, meaning it can take an hour for him to hear it if he is hundreds of miles away.
- Superman needs to know what he is looking at in order to be able to use his X-Ray vision effectively (this makes no sense. In Superman #9, he used his X-Ray vision to scan every building in Metropolis in search of a lead box. In this case, he's just trying to look into one old church for mutant children).


Minor Details:

- How can Superman hear a silent alarm from a distance? It's not like it's ringing at some high pitch. It's just sending electronic impulses to the police. Can Superman hear phone calls being transmitted from a distance as well?

- Though Maggie Sawyer's characterization is lacking, I at least respect that Byrne made her balance toughness and sensitivity; not just a stereotype.

- Why does Jimmy Olsen suddenly appear so much younger in his cameo here, especially living with his mother? He seemed quite a bit older/more mature when we last saw him in this title.

- Why would Maggie just randomly feel the need to inform Superman of her sexual disposition? It's not integral to the story unless Superman wants to know why she lost custody of her child.

- Of course, Superman and Maggie show up JUST as her daughter is about to be mutated by Skyhook.

- So wait -- Maggie's ex-husband just leaves his young daughter home alone all day? Even after she just ran away? Even as Superman is flying away from the house and can clearly see this?


plot synopsis in one sentence:

Superman is trying to investigate some high profile thefts allegedly being committed by super-beings and narrowly misses capturing one, Maggie Sawyer is still worried about her missing daughter, her daughter is being recruited by Skyhook, a mysterious and abusive villain grabbing kids off the street and converting them into mutant bat people, Lois is still furious at Clark for abusing his relationship with Superman to get ahead (she currently believes he and Superman were raised together by the Kents), Sawyer uses Jimmy Olsen's signal watch to contact Superman, she gives her entire life story to him, including the fact that she realized late in life that she was a lesbian and this ruined her marriage and custody privileges, Superman searches for Maggie's daughter and finds a flying mutated bat kid, Maggie randomly suspects this is related to what happened to her daughter, and she and Superman find Skyhook just as he's about to mutate Maggie's daughter, Skyhook is killed, the Police Surgeon is stuck with the mutated kids and has no idea what to do with them, Superman implores Sawyer's ex husband to reconsider granting her shared custody, and we're left with the strong hint that their daughter is still mutating.

Amazing Heroes #96 (June 1986) - Part I

A huge thanks to guppy270 who sent me individually scanned pages of this article, written shortly before Man of Steel debuted, that provides some truly worthwhile insight into these reviews. The article uses Wolfman, Byrne, and Helfer as primary sources. Below are my notes from reading the first nine pages (guppy270 will be sending the rest to me shortly):


- Though there really shouldn't be any debate about this anyway, Wolfman makes it abundantly clear that this was intended to be a complete reboot and divorced from the original continuity.

- Some chronology is provided (though I've yet to check how well it holds up with internal continuity):

1. Implied (though not explicitly stated) that MoS #2 almost immediately follows the end of MoS #1
2. MoS #3 takes place 7 months after MoS #2
3. MoS #4 takes place 18 months after MoS #2
4. MoS #5 takes place approximately 2 years after MoS #2 (further proving that Lois' statement in that issue about wanting Superman to kiss her for five years now does not work)
5. The Bizarro from MoS #5 is "the first foe he ever met whose super-powers matched his own." This may imply that there were other super villains prior to this, just not as powerful.
6. Superman discovers he's invulnerable at age 8
7. Superman discovers his X-Ray vision around age 13 (woah. That's a bad age for a boy to discover that particular power)
8. Superman is 18 when he discovers he can fly

- At this point, though Man of Steel had been planned to completion, individual stories for the regular titles had not been planned. This might help to explain why the quality dropped off so quickly with Superman #1; Byrne was writing two monthly titles and had little planned in advance.

- No inkers had been assigned to the regular titles yet either at this point.

- The idea to reboot Superman with no Superboy, less powers, and a revised Lex Luthor was being championed by Wolfman, Frank Miller, and Steve Gerber long before Jeannette Kahn began pushing for it. Miller and Gerber's proposal was different from Wolfman's, but they wanted to change the same kinds of things.

- Andy Helfer was put in charge of the reboot and given freedom to hire the creative talents.

- The quote from Wolfman that kills me:

"Sometime last summer I discovered that John Byrne was no longer under contract to Marvel...I essentially said to John, "This may cut my own throat, but DC is interested in a new version of Superman. If you're interested, now that you're freelance, why don't you get in touch with them? I didn't think he would, but I was hoping."

He then went on to tell Dick Giordano to recruit Byrne for Superman as well.

Of course, then he says this:

"I felt that John would present the Superman I'd like to read. Plus he'd make it sell, and that's more important than anything else, as far as I'm concerned."


Well, I guess he got what he wanted, then.

- Wolfman's only takes credit for coming up with the post-Crisis Luthor (of course, Cat Grant hadn't been conceived of yet as of the publication of this article). Byrne takes credit for the rest ("99%" in his words), even though most evidence suggests that the majority came from Helfer and was then tossed out the window when Byrne got rid of him (the full reboot, the removal of the Silver Age camp aspects, etc) and that Lois Lane was likely influenced by Mindy Newell.

- Wolfman didn't appear to be very empowered in the reboot, outright admitting that he hoped suggesting Byrne to Giordano would secure him the writing chores on the second Superman book. He also explains that he wasn't going to do it if Byrne didn't like his concept for Luthor: "The fact that he did like the Luthor idea meant that our views were so similar, as I had hoped, that we could easily work together."


You damned fool, Wolfman. You damned fool.

- Alan Moore was originally slated to write Action Comics. Not only would that have been something worth reading; it also would have knocked Byrne off his high horse once Watchmen exploded.

- Byrne and Wolfman were originally invited to pitch plots for Superman IV, but Christopher Reeves ultimately pushed for his own concept.

- Byrne praises himself for taking Superman "back to the basics," and clarifies that he means, "Siegel and Shuster's Superman meets Fleischer's Superman in 1986." Of course that explains so much of the Silver Age nonsense he went on to dredge up and all the over-sexed plots and overtones. Certainly, Big Barda being serially raped and Superman secretly fantasizing about boning Wonder Woman while sleeping around with Cat Grant fits into that concept with ease. In fact, as Byrne explains, "In terms of personality, my Superman pays homage to Christopher Reeve."

- Superman's X-Ray vision is actually a combination of telescopic and microscopic vision, allowing him to focus and see through the atomic structure of objects.

- Byrne originally wanted to do away with the Heat Vision, but then decided it can be a manifestation of the solar radiation he absorbs from the Earth's yellow sun

- The experimental "Space Plane" Superman saves from crashing at the end of MoS #1 was originally written and drawn as a space shuttle, but they changed it in response to the Challenger explosion.

- Pa Kent came up with the idea for Superman's costume, drawing inspiration from the old Justice Society heroes (who now existed before Superman did in the post-Crisis).

- Byrne was passionate about the idea that the world doesn't suspect that Superman has a secret identity. They figure he's off saving people somewhere else when not in Metropolis. Great idea, but didn't Byrne contradict that pretty quickly in Superman #2 when Luthor has his assistant try to figure out who Superman really is?

- We finally get some clarification on the idea that Clark is a novelist. He was published only one book, but it was a best seller. No acknowledgement that Lois is also a published author here, though it has been mentioned in the books.

- Clark is now a special features reporter, getting special assignments as opposed to being given a beat.

- Apparently, the reason Clark becomes a reporter (never explained in MoS) is so that he can travel to where he is needed and snoop around. I don't follow this logic, though. Superman can already fly anywhere a lot more quickly than Clark can take a plane, and he has super senses, so he doesn't necessarily need an alter-ego with which to snoop. Even Batman doesn't depend upon Matches Malone each month to get his information.

- Jor El and Lara have never physically been near each other prior to MoS #1. Whereas I inferred they'd never been physically intimate nor even kissed before, apparently they'd never even been in the same room until that moment.

- Along the same lines, Byrne sought to create a Krypton that "deserved to blow up," and that Superman would dislike, preferring and pledging his full allegiance to Earth in contrast.

- Strongly implied that it was Helfer's idea to treat Superman as someone who had been raised on Earth rather than an alien amongst us.

- Byrne originally wanted Lara to come to Earth, pregnant with Kal-El, and then get killed by Kryptonite after he had been born. DC rejected the idea.

- An explanation for how Kryptonite works is offered that doesn't make much sense. It replaces the solar radiation that gives Superman his powers with Kryptonian radiation, thus making him normal, but it's also irradiated and thus is deadly to him as radioactive materials would be to us. However, Superman can recover from these effects when his super powers are restored.

Well it looks like, somehow, I messed up my pacing a bit and am two months behind where I should be with World of Krypton/World of Smallville, so I'll be reviewing the remainder of World of Krypton and then the first issue of World of Smallville before returning to the regular Superman titles.


World of Krypton #3

"History Lesson"
story: John Byrne
breakdowns: Mike Mignola
finishes: Rick Bryant
colors: Petra Scotese
letters: John Workman
editor: Michael Carlin

grade: C

Whereas last issue did an excellent job of capturing a single prolonged moment, this one works too hard to compensate, offering far too much history/explanation while also rushing to get to the story of Jor El and Lara. Jor El is introduced as a young iconoclast that everyone seems to respect even as he does nothing but watch old history "tapes" all day long (for reasons that never get explained) at the cost of losing touch with the world and his obligations within it (yet Byrne seems to idealize this behavior). I can connect the dots and see that Byrne painted an unflattering depiction of Krypton back in Man of Steel #1 and wanted to portray it as a place that deserved to die, and so having Jor El distance himself from that world might seem like a positive thing, but nothing in this issue connects those dots on their own. It's been nearly two years since MoS #1, and nothing in this issue clearly suggests there's anything wrong with modern day Krypton, so Jor El just comes off as...creepy.

The history tapes play out the climax of Van L's story with too much detachment, since it's viewed from the lens of a documentary that Jor El is viewing. The surprise revelations of who was leading Black Zero and, especially, who "The Doctor" was were hardly surprising. Byrne is still playing up the mystery of "The Doctor" entire pages after I knew the answer.

So, watching old tapes about death and destruction has made Jor El believe that the birthing maxtrix process is wrong? Nothing in this issue helps us to understand why beyond the idea that Van L came to understand the ancient cloning process was similarly wrong.

It's interesting that Jor El's only thoughts while viewing the Clone War (yeah, I'm calling it that. Just one more idea Byrne may have "borrowed" from another work) is total admiration for the "fury" and "ferocious valor". Essentially, a Jor El of today would be the guy who locks himself in his room all day to watch documentaries about barbarian wars, admiring their savagery, and then asks the grandmother of the bride to be if he can see her naked before they get engaged. He's a weirdo pervert, and yet Byrne idolizes him.


Mignola's art comes off too raw and awkward in this issue, suggesting (once again) that Bryant is not doing a great job of "finishing" his work.


Important information we learn about the history of Krypton:

- Jor El's time was "a thousand centuries" after the previous issue which, itself, was a thousand years after the first one. First off, can't Byrne make his measurements of time a little more precise/believable? Second, he keeps saying "a thousand centuries" as if he doesn't understand that equates to a hundred thousand years. Third, how in the world are people living that long, even with cybernatic enhancements?? The cybernetic enhancements are supposed to be a poor substitute for the three clones each Kryptonian used to be given for organ harvesting, but how in the world could having three clones worth of organs allow someone to lives for 101,000 years??

- Kan-Z was the leader of Black Zero, though it's unclear in the story whether he created Black Zero after his mother tried to have him marry her own clone, whether it existed and he was leading it before then, or whether it existed before then and he only assumed leadership of it after that event transpired. Clues are given to suggest all three possibilities at various points in the story.

- Vara (somehow) returns as the enigmatic doctor that helps Van L to defeat Black Zero, even though we clearly saw her die earlier in the series.

- Black Zero wanted to destroy all life on Krypton as reparations for having used mindless clones for organ harvesting over the years. Now that's a cause that would rally a large amount of supporters, right?

- Kandor was the capital of Krypton before Black Zero destroyed it

- Van L stopped Kan Z from blowing up Krypton

- Jan L was Van L's son.

- It is never clearly indicated that Jor El and his father, Seyg-El (okay, that really was cute, Byrne), are related to Van L.



Minor details:

- The first panel of this issue, set in approximately the same era as Man of Steel #1, clearly homages the opening shot from that issue.

- So a civilization-ending war erupted over the rights of mindless clones, yet nobody has a problem being waited on by intelligent robots that actually have emotions, going so far as to worry about what they'll say to entice their masters to obey their fathers?

- The events of World of Krypton #1 occurred in the year "Zero to the Fifth Power All Divided by Eight Hundred Ninety Two" (spelled out because I don't know how to do exponents on a discussion board). Below is a transcript of an actual conversation that happened between my wife and I in regard to this revelation:

Me: So forget the absurdity of assuming a race would ever use such a method of chronicling time. There's something else very wrong with this.

Her: Isn't zero to any power still zero?

Me: Yes, and...?

Her: Zero divided by anything is still zero.

Me: Exactly.

Her: So it's Year Zero?

Me: No, it's Year John Byrne is a Flipping Idiot.


Yeah, I'm back to being sick of the guy...


plot synopsis in one sentence:

A young Jor El is reviewing the history of the Clone War and how Van L finally saved the day, The head of the Kryptonian Birth Matrix and a woman named Nara have arrived to meet with Jor El, but he is blowing them off by watching the documentary, we learn that Krypton's population is tightly controlled by government sanctioned pro-creation and that Jor-El has the ideal genes to be selected to father the next Kryptonian to replace one who recently died, the mother will be Lara (Nara's grand daughter), and Jor El surprises everyone by asking to see a projection of what she looks like first (which is unheard of in the culture, but Nara grants his wish).

shaxper presents:

World of Krypton: An Alternate Ending That's More Consistent with Byrne's Characterizations


Exterior shot of the El home, where the following can be heard from miles away...

Lara: Jor El! OH! Jor El! Ugh!!!

Jor El: Oh! Oh gosh! Yes!!

Cut to interior shot. Lara is just trying to break down the door to Jor El's study. Cut to Jor El's study. He's just watching more history tapes of epic battles.

Jor El: Such ferocity! Oh baby!!

Lara breaks down the door.

Lara: So this is what you've been doing all week?

Jor El: Well no. I was watching secret videos of the neighbor's daughter periodically, too.

A vid screen pops on with two random Kryptonians

Kryptonian 1: That boy is a genius.

Kryptonian 2: Truly ahead of his time.

Lara: That does it. I can't take it anymore. I'm leaving. You can raise Kal-El on your own!

Lara hands Jor El the baby and storms out.

Jor El: Craaaaaaaap.

Time passes. Jor El is making a recording.

Jor El: So Krypton blew up. Gone. Really. Don't go looking for it. You're, like, the last survivor...and stuff. Yeah.

rocket blasts off.

Jor El: Now to watch some illegal videos of my cousin.


The End.

Superman (1987) #16

"He Only Laughs When I Hurt"
story and pencils: John Byrne
inks: Karl Kesel
colors: Tom Ziuko
letter: John Costanza
editor: Michael Carlin

grade: D


Boy...where do I start? Ummm, okay, this is the first post-Crisis appearance of The Prankster and...well, I'm just going to do it like this:


What kind of sucked about this issue:

- Byrne's pacing, for one. After having Superman reflect on "the high points" of his adventures over the past year (of course, Byrne only covers the ones he wrote), Supes reflects on how "Morgan Edge and his Galaxy Communications Network have been on my case for my intervention in Qurac." Wait...what??? When did this happen??? Surely enough, it didn't. Edge and his media network are first introduced in this issue. Byrne feels the need to jump right into this awkwardly, yet can devote half a page to showing that the Prankster covered a subway tunnel in popcorn.

- Jimmy sitting on his mom's floor, watching "Uncle Oswald." 16 months later, I still can't get a fix on how old Jimmy is. We got our first real glimpse of him in Superman #4 and, at the time, he seemed far older, more mature, and independent. Of course, Andy Helfer was still editor back then and pushing for a new, more mature approach to Superman. This entire story is a clear reminder that, sans Helfer, Byrne wants to pretend its 1957 again and he's Mort Weisinger.

- Yet another frickin' high profile personality trying to defame a superhero as being dangerous to society. How many frickin' times are we going to replay this same plotline? I can't decide whether it makes it worse or better that, as I'm thinking "this guy is a carbon copy of G. Glorious Godfrey" from Legends, we find out Byrne is thinking the same thing, having Darkseid control this guy.

- In what way is this version of The Prankster in any way a formidable or even appropriate villain for Superman? Shouldn't Supes be able to end this guy in five seconds flat??



What completely sucked about this issue:

- The Prankster's scheme. I mean, what the heck? So he started hoarding freebies from sponsors years ago in order to enact this plan in case his ratings ever dropped. Even if you can buy that, what IS his plan? Sure, he's drumming up lots of attention, but what's he going to do with it? It's not like anyone's going to put him back on the air after escaping from the law, and what was his point in allowing himself to be captured in the first place? And why doesn't Superman just keep pursuing him at the end? Does he have a way of stopping Superman's super speed, super hearing, and super vision?? This makes absolutely no sense.

- Going along with that, how in the world did he execute all these pranks? Corporate sponsorship and hoarding don't explain how you make a hundred foot rubber flower shoot out of the ground or detonate hundreds of bags of popcorn remotely, nor how he has giant stuffed animals HOLDING Lois against her will (did he recruit henchmen?) And, of course, The Prankster built a trap door in Edge's building that ejects out into the very exterior frame of the structure without anyone noticing, and Edge just happens to stand exactly over that precise spot where it's located. Byrne doesn't seem to be concerned about any of this. Seriously, Byrne, if you're looking for an excuse to have Superman battle stupid stupid sh*t, just say it's been 90 days and bring back Mxyzptlk.

- Byrne's portrayal of television of the past. He has his characters argue that TV of today is somehow superior to programming of the past by containing "messages" and by not depicting violence while portraying cartoons clearly intended to resemble Masters of the Universe, G.I. Joe, Smurfs, Transformers, (ironically) Superman, and Popeye. Okay, Lois is clearly ambivalent about the shows, herself; let's be fair. But then The Prankster goes on to say:

"My ratings are declining because kiddies today have no interest in the old values. A pie in the face means nothing to them. Seltzer down the pants does not whisper to them of a grand tradition! It does not speak of two hundred years of baggy pants comedians! Who among them watches the old shows? Who loves W.C. Fields, the Three Stooges, The Marx Brothers...?"

I sure hope Byrne is trying to be absurd here, but if you're going to have a character portray a culture that we are now losing touch with in such an unfair manner, shouldn't someone somehow counter-balance the perception or at least make some comment to indicate that he's off the mark? That is not at all a fair depiction of Vaudeville comedy. If anything, it perpetuates an absurd stereotype that really bugs me. There was so much quality in that era. Truthfully, I don't think Byrne understands or cares about that style of comedy at all. Otherwise, The Prankster's pranks would have born some resemblance to the better gags of the era and, as a result, a lot funnier. I'm curious, then, as to why he chose this motif for The Prankster? Why give so much attention to something that doesn't interest you?




What was actually good about this issue:

- Supergirl's entrance at the end. WOW!!



Important Details:

- 1st post Crisis appearance of The Prankster (did we really need him, though? He's like a suckier Mxyzptlk).

- 1st post Crisis appearance of Supergirl

- 1st appearance of Pete Shoemaker, Jimmy Olsen's homeless friend

- More indications that Byrne's Superman stories happen days, not weeks, apart as we are told that Superman #11 occurred less than 90 days ago (it's been five months in real time).



plot synopsis in one sentence:

A new media mogul, Morgan Edge, is trying to denounce Superman, The Prankster, a vetern children's show star, decides to start playing deadly pranks on the city, holds Lois Lane hostage, allows himself to be captured, and then escapes as a means of boosting his popularity, we learn that Morgan Edge is working for Darkseid, Superman rescues Edge from The Prankster, and Supergirl crashes to Earth, unconscious, in Antarctica.

Superman: The Earth Stealers
writer: John Byrne
pencils: Curt Swan
inks: Jerry Ordway
colors: Bill Wray
letters: ?
editor: ?

grade: B-


It's interesting to view this release in the context of the emerging graphic novel medium. DC was clearly in the midst of experimentation/marketing research in 1988. They'd experienced success with the limited series (most notably DKR, Watchmen, and Man of Steel), they'd already begun releasing reprint anthologies in the form of premium Archive Editions, softcover tpbs of high interest stories such as Batman: Year One, Man of Steel, Dark Knight Returns, Watchmen, etc (and I believe The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told had recently hit shelves), but, to the best of my knowledge, this was only DC's second original content graphic novel.

The first (again, as far as I know) was Batman: Son of the Demon. While that volume was 80 pages long and initially released in a gorgious premium hardback edition, this follow up graphic novel, released a year later, comes off far less impressive. Without even discussing its content, Earth Stealers is a paltry 47 pages and was only released in an inexpensive softcover format with no forward, afterward, nor supplemental information of any kind. Perhaps DC was experimenting with a less expensive format? It just seems odd that a property currently enjoying three monthly series and an ongoing parade of limited series wouldn't receive its first graphic novel with a little more gusto than this. Perhaps this was an early sign that DC was cooling to Byrne? He'll be off of Action Comics in three more months and leaving the entire franchise only three months after that, complaining that he wasn't supported enough by the DC editorial staff (boy, wait until I get into this one with my review of Superman #22...). Or perhaps someone at DC took a look at Earth Stealers and simply decided it wasn't going to amount to a big deal.

Essentially, if I wanted to compress all that the Byrne Superman run is, the good and the bad, into 47 pages, this would be it. You've got the clear affection for the Weisinger Era Superman stories nodded to with an absurd sci-fi plot (and, of course, Curt Swan signed on for penciling chores -- which I'll get into later in this review), an odd attempt to handle such a story with a little more depth and thought that sometimes works, more often doesn't, and generally comes at the cost of capturing any of the simplistic charm of those early stories, an overly cynical, complaining, and sarcastically joking Superman that's hard to admire, and plot holes a mile wide. All that's really missing is the heavy handed preaching and an unflattering stereotypical depiction of a minority group.

To be fair, Earth Stealers encaptures ALL of Byrne's approach to Superman (Barda sex tapes aside), and so it is successful at times too. He certainly lends more sci-fi authenticity to the premise than a Superman story from 1957 would have, going into detail about the resources required to build so massive a ship as the one that is doing the "Earth stealing," and attempting to explain how an advanced race might move through space so efficiently via a sort of tear in space (that I assume functions like a wormhole or space-fold), but then he also leaves nagging little problems like how there's still light on Earth (and, in fact, blinding light) when the Earth has been ensnared in a semi-permeable black aura and is being carried away from the sun at faster than light speed. There are a million smaller problems as well, but they aren't worth getting into. Essentially, Byrne hits that same old uncomfortable balance of simple/fun and mature/thoughtful, never quite mastering either tone, and leaving me entirely unclear on how much suspension of disbelief to afford him. And, of course, he still misses the point that the true innate charm of those old Superman stories was the character, himself, as a beacon of goodness that we could all believe in, even when he felt the need to have some fun at Lois' expense. Byrne's Superman is a jaded whiner throughout this story, and it irks me.

What should be the high point of this volume is Curt Swan's return to Superman. You'd think that would be the key factor to highlight, but a number of odd choices are made, all of which diminish Swan's impact upon the story:

1. Having Ordway ink over Swan's pencils. Don't get me wrong. I like Ordway, but his style is completely different from Swan's and takes away any sense of charming nostaliga that one would expect Swan's pencils to provide.

2. Having Ordway do the cover. WHY??? If you've brought back Swan to do Superman, shouldn't the cover be advertising this fact?

3. To go along with this, Swan is credited second on the cover (after Byrne).

4. Maybe he declined the offer, but it seems like it would have been fun to allow Swan to co-plot this story. I don't know how much input he had for the old stories, but he certainly knew that style of plotting better than Byrne does.


In the end, this was somewhat fun in its execution, but there's still that weird uncomfortable balance between modern and retro going on in both the writing and the artwork, and diminishing Swan's contributions to the issue on so many levels really disappoints me as well.


Continuity Alerts:

- Lexcorp has its hands in more things than we'd previously been led to believe. They are now outfitting NASA (if, in fact, the space agency depicted in this story is NASA) with technology that is beyond its own capabilities, and WLEX is quickly emerging as a leading news source in Metropolis, frequently scooping other news sources because, "they're boss, Lex Luthor, creates most of the best stories."

- Superman's ability to hold his breath for several hours at a time is a byproduct of his super fast metabolism (Superman, himself, explains this, but how would he know this?).

- Lois begins to suspect that Clark is Superman and explains her rationale to Perry White. I thought the one dimension of the Superman reboot Byrne was most proud of was the idea that no one would suspect Superman had an alternate identity. He outright mocked the concept and called it "lazy writing" in his preface to the Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman tpb; a preface that was written years after this story. Yet he's now played this card twice in two years of writing Superman (the first time being in Superman #2 when Luthor is confronted with this possibility too).

Lois and Superman share a passionate kiss (they're first in the Post-Crisis) when they believe all may be lost. Afterwards, Superman tells her:

"You...don't have to say anything, Lois, Nothing is really changed by what happened aboard the gatherer. We both have...things to come to terms with. When you're ready, I'll be here."

What things does Superman have to come to terms with? And let's keep in mind this kiss comes one month (probably only a matter of days, by their time) after Lois confided in Superman that she had feelings for Clark, and that happened almost concurrently with her visiting Jose DelGado in the hospital and telling him that Superman was nothing and her feelings were for him.

Does Byrne at least realize he's doing this?

And wow, providing a moment as pivotal as Superman and Lois' first kiss outside of the regular Superman titles? I wonder how many of the regular readers actually picked up Earth Stealers? It's not like it was even solicited in the regular Superman titles, so how many other readers completely missed this moment, unaware of this dinky little direct-market only graphic novel and/or assuming it was unimportant?




Minor Details


- As has become customary, Byrne begins this story with Superman either reflecting on all the adventures we've watched him face as of late or an adventure he's just coming back from that we didn't read about in order to perpetuate the idea that he's always busy and these adventures are only the highlights. The latter is again true this time, as he explains he just got back from dealing with a burning oil tanker in the Persian Gulf.

- An unusual amount of agnosticim comes through in the early parts of this issue as, on the very first page, an engineer on the Moonbase informs his colleagues they should worship at "the first church of me" because he fixed a problem and, only, two pages later, Superman reflects, "...all the RIGHT gods must have been watching over me today." Personally, I've no qualms with comic book writers espousing religious, agnostic, nor athiestic view in their pages when appropriate, but...it's Superman. You know, the American Way and all that? Surely, impressionable kids were reading.

- John Byrne beats Superman: Red Son by thirteen years in having a Russian Cosmonaut ponder out loud how things would have worked out differently if Superman had arrived on Earth in Russia instead of America.

- On page 4, Clark stares after Jimmy Olsen and thinks, "But you've still got all the makings of a FINE reporter. Agile of mind, and body...". Creeeeeepy.

- Gee, Perry. Maybe the reason WLEX gets the news leaks faster is that they aren't working in the print medium. How in the world is a paper that gets released in two daily editions going to scoop a radio news network in a fair fight?

- I'll accept the premise that Superman can hold his breath for several hours, but wouldn't that all get thrown out the window when he gets knocked unconscious in space?

- Not the first time that Superman makes a comment like, "Let's face it, I've been playing this game too long to..." yet every clue we've been offered about Byrne's Post-Crisis Timeline suggests that Superman first became Superman in 1984, and that the current day is still 1987. Does serving as Metropolis' protector for three years really afford him the right to refer to that time as a "game" he's been playing for a long while now? Tireless as the work may be, he must still be figuring things out.

- Upon speculating whether or not the space vessel is intending to harm Superman, he comments that, "Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when I've been attacked in the past, the attacker meant it." Maybe I'm being nitpicky on this one, but I can think of at least two adventures off the top of my head where the attacker didn't mean it (Titano and the irradiated nuclear engineer, and even then you've got murkier examples like Prof. Emil Hamilton and Combattor, and note that I'm coming up with these from memory; I'm sure there have been more examples), and there's no way we've seen a hundred Superman adventures yet. Maybe every single one of those minor adventures we haven't seen involved antagonists who meant to hurt Supes?

- "Forgive the cliche, but...where am I?" I'm sorry? That's a cliche?

- Why does Superman still have super powers in the absence of Earth's yellow sun? Heck, he's initially drained and waits for his powers to recover aboard the Earth Stealers' ship, yet there is no sun of any kind around.

- When the Earth Stealers scan Superman's brain to relive each and every one of his memories (what a useless procedure to employ on a minor threat to your ship), the visual includes key figures in Superman's life including his Kryptonian parents (but not Ma and Pa Kent), and only two villains -- one of which is Metallo, a one-time villain from the first issue of Superman that didn't seem all that important. Why this particular selection of persons? Perhaps a crowd of figures, spanning beyond the width of the panel, would have been more appropriate? Of course, if the Earth Stealers had seen Ma and Pa Kent in Superman's memories, they would have been abducted instead of Lois, Jimmy, and Perry, and that would have cost this story much of its Weisinger Era feel.

- I love how Perry introduces himself to the alien leader as "Perry White, Managing Editor of the Daily Planet!" as if he expected that to mean something to him.

- The arena combat sequence on pages 32-34 is probably as fun as this story gets. GREAT Swan pencilwork!

- Okay, so Superman wins the match in the arena. Why in the world does that cause the aliens to abandon their ship, critical to the survival of their entire race? Couldn't they just sap Superman's strength again and capture him a second time? Could an ancient alien race have truly survived this long when making stupid and abitrary decisions like this one?

- We build up all this tension that Superman will likely die while pushing the Earth and moon back to the proper solar system, and then he just doesn't. No particular acknowledgement of "Wow! I made it -- just barely!" or "That was easier than I thought!" He just does it.

- We can make some assumptions, but Superman never makes clear his rationale for why he doesn't want this story published. Earth has faced potential destruction before in this continuity.



plot synopsis in one sentence:

An alien race that abducts planets to scrap into raw material captures Earth, Superman intervenes, is captured, has his memories scanned, and is then forced to fight in an arena for the fate of Earth and the lives of Lois, Jimmy and Perry, he wins, the aliens abandon ship (thus condemning their ancient race to extinction), and Superman returns things to normal, asking the Daily Planet not to publish what has happened, presumably since it would upset the order of things on Earth.

World of Smallville #2

"Stolen Moments"
writer: John Byrne
pencils: Kurt Schaffenberger
inks: Alfredo Alcala
letters: Carrie Spiegle
colors: Petra Scotese
editor: Mike Carlin

grade: B+


This storyline continues to impress me, especially since it makes the Kents so incredibly ideal. I've made the argument before that the true fantasy at the root of the Superman mythos is not the idea that a person could have fantastic super powers, but rather that two parents could do a perfect job of raising a a child and thus create a hero. If we accept that it's who Superman is that defines him as opposed to what he can do, then it's Jonathan and Martha Kent that made the hero, not Kryptonian genetics. Though Byrne is only beginning to play with the idea that Superman is more than a guy with a long list of super powers, he captures the idea quite well in these pages, having Superman reflect that:

"So much of who I am, so much of Superman came from the life Ma and Pa Kent gave me. If someone else had been my father or mother, if Pa had married another woman, or if it had been Daniel and Martha Fordman who raised me..."Clark Fordman," would he ever have become Superman, I wonder?"


And, sure enough, Jonathan and Martha both move through this story like saints, not to the extent that it's saccharine and unreal, but rather with a grace that is admirable and heroic. Jonathan refusing to take the love of his life away from another man she doesn't love because Dan Fordman is a good man and it's the wrong thing to do, Martha declining to take any inheritance when her wealthy husband dies in order to keep the peace and be free from his quarrelsome family -- it's the way people should behave but never do. It's more heroic than anything I've yet to see Superman do in these post-Crisis pages.

The only odd thing about this issue is that the story ends on page 17. At that point, it abruptly shifts gears to revisit Jonathan and Martha discovering the rocket with Kal-El in it, and then Lana Lang stops in, and the stage is set for a retelling of the whole Manhunters portion of the origin, which will take place next issue. Definitely not excited to downshift into that territory after such a touching and well executed romance saga.

Art-wise, Schaffenberger and Alcala are still mixing poorly, and the backgrounds are often so plain that its destracting. This is a tough story to look at, but the characterization is so good that it's still worth it.


Continuity Alerts

- Jonathan Kent was missing in action for one out of his five years away, held by the Japanese in a POW camp, and was presumed dead.

- We still aren't told exactly when this story takes place, but it seems safe to assume Jonathan was drafted early on in 1940, fought from 1941 to 1944, was captured in the final year of the war, and was returned by the Japanese government shortly after the war concluded in 1945. Therefore, the story likely takes place in 1945 or 1946.

- Superman estimates that he was a little less than halfway to Earth when this story took place. So, assuming the story takes place in 1945, and that Superman arrived in 1959 (various references in Man of Steel #1 and #6 establish this as being correct if the present day of the comic is 1987), that means Kal-El left Krypton, and Krypton exploded, around 1930/1931.

- Jonathan and Martha were engaged three months after the conclusion of this story, and married six months after that. Thus, they were likely married in 1947 and are currently celebrating their 40th anniversary in the present day of this continuity instead of their 48th (as was originally stated in Adventures of Superman #430).

- Jonathan and Martha Kent had three stillborn pregnancies prior to Clark's arrival. I'm assuming they also had great deal of difficulty in conceiving in the first place if they'd been trying to have a child for 12 years (1947 to 1959).


Minor Details

- Why is the scene in which Jonathan is reunited with his old friend, Julie, included? This seems arbitrary. Is Julie someone we're supposed to know (Julie Schwartz, perhaps?).

- For the first time, I'm starting to think that having Dr. Whitney be a plant for the Manhunters wasn't such a ridiculous idea. It explains why the town doctor didn't discover (or at least didn't announce) anything unusual about young Clark. Of course, since his powers developed over time, it's possible this would have been the case anyway with an ordinary doctor.

- "Well I don't reckon there's ever been two prouder parents than we were, Clark. We used to make unnecessary trips into Smallville just so we could parade you up an' down for folks to see." I just love how Byrne writes the Kents. How do you write a present day Superman who's as flippant, jaded and whiny as Byrne's Superman has often been when he came from stock like this? Maybe writing this story is what finally got him writing Superman a little more heroic in the most recent issue of Action Comics (#599).

- So, while World of Smallville #1 seemed to be written prior to the whole revelations about the Manhunters coming out (Clark remarked that Smallville never changes and that he'd been away for a long time, wheres he'd just been to Smallville at the conclusion of the Millenium tie-in, and EVERYTHING about Smallville had changed as 28 years worth of lies came to the surface), this issue clearly acknowledges the whole Manhunter thing and sets the stage for it to be retold in greater detail next issue.

- Interesting how Byrne and Schaffenberger handle the end of the issue, with Clark and Lana smiling at each other with Ma and Pa Kent watching from the background. It gives a clear sense that Clark and Lana were intended for each other in exactly the same way Jonathan and Martha were. In fact, their upbringings parallel each other, with both couples growing up as best friends, and everyone expecting both couples to marry. I suppose they are setting the stage for the story of Lana's heartbreak (which, judging by the cover, will be told in World of Smallville #4).


plot synopsis in one sentence

- Jonathan Kent decides to refuse Dan Fordman's request for him to take Martha from him, Dan's sister is convinced Martha is a gold digger waiting for Dan to die, she confronts Dan about this and agitates his condition, Dan dies, Martha requests that she inherit nothing from Dan other than a small patch of land she always liked, she and Jonathan later marry, we are reminded of how they later discovered Kal-El's rocket, and Lana shows up to set the stage for the retelling of the Manhunters' involvement in the history of Smallville.