A big one today! Though the series is titled Adventures of Superman, this is actually the original Superman series that debuted in 1939. The title was changed when John Byrne rebooted Superman in the 80s and started up a new eponymous title. It, too, must be coming up on a 1000th issue, though Action got there a little quicker by way of a weekly series for a while.
The last few issues have been parts of larger events, hence my reluctance to write about them. We make our way through "Our Worlds At War," the epilogue of which does deserve a moment's attention. The comic, #596, arrived in stores the day after September 11th, 2001. Chillingly, the second page features a panel of Lex Corps twin towers in ruins, victims of an alien attack. The similarity to the tragedy in New York was chilling. The comic was made returnable, and for a little while there was a ghoulish speculator interest in the issue. These days I think it pulls in about the same as any other issue from this run. Following that was a crossover issue with the "Joker: Last Laugh" event. It was good, but somewhat anticlimactic without the denouement of the main series.
After today's issue, the story becomes much more self contained, as far as I can recall. One of the things that does remain throughout the Super-titles is the problem of Lex Luthor as President. That's the subject of today's story, as it's revealed to Superman that Lex has been missing for three weeks. Superman finds him, sort of, and some very interesting things are revealed about the Man of Steel's nemesis. There's also a lovely retelling of his origin in full-page pin-ups, a fitting tribute to this iconic tale.
Superman's adventures always continue. He'll be around long after any of us are gone. He'll be telling the same kinds of stories, inspiring the same kinds of people, growing more and more legendary as the years, centuries, pass. Ironically, we're going to take a break from them for now. I've recently added some interesting things to the collection, so I'm going to poke about at those, and then we'll come back for another chunk, and I think the superior chunk, of Joe Casey's Superman.
"Once upon a time, a strange visitor came to Earth..."
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