The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1911: Youngblood #8, March 2009

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And that's it. Shaft and Cougar rescue Scion from her virtual prison, Diehard stops Stormhead's attack, and a deranged Spacehunter makes planetfall - and then nothing. The entire story disappears in favour of a Rob Liefeld helmed reboot where the team hang out with Barack Obama, and the original lineup is basically reinstated. No word on how Badrock stops from crumbling, no word on how the planet survives the impact of a crazed killer from space.

 

I honestly just can't understand Liefeld's decisions when it comes to this team. Indeed, I've just read an article in which he now reveals that the doesn't own the rights to the team anymore, which is why the most recent series simply stopped as well.

So how do I sum up Youngblood? The same way I always do - they're a crap team, a Teen Titans riff that is eventually given the chance to shine in the hands of excellent creators, until their original creator decides that they're popular enough for him to jump on the coattails, at which point the series tanks. I'm glad to see that characters like Doc Rocket, and later Suprema, have made a significant enough impact to be included in later iterations of the team. Indeed, that might be one of the motivating factors for me to have a look at the two series that follow this one, in 2012 and 2017 respectively.

But for now, I think we're done with them. I was going to read the older stuff I have kicking about, but I think I'd rather get back to my alphabetical indie creators. I think I need something a little less mainstream, and a little less inevitably disappointing. I honestly can't think of too many other forms of media where a story gets cut off in the middle like this. The occasional television series, I suppose, but this is truly one of the great drawbacks to producing serialized narratives - there's always the chance that the serial simply won't run long enough to contain the narrative.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1910: Youngblood #7, January 2009

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As we near the end of this iteration of the team, everything that's old is new again in a lot of ways. The Televillain didn't get much chance to be a villain in his initial appearances in Supreme, but Casey and Donovan are playing him to the hilt at the moment. It's cool to see some of the uses of his powers, rather than simply being able to travel through television signals and insert himself into broadcasts. In today's issue he uses his remote to actually rewind action in the real world as it's happening. He also appears to have trapped Scion in a virtual version of the Oprah show, and if she's not rescued soon she'll simply vanish into the ether. I don't recall the Televillain being quite so murderous in his other appearances, but perhaps he's realized that TV is much more violent in the modern era, and he's adapting.

I have to hand it to the creative team with regard to the number of plot threads they're keeping up in the air. At no point do things get confusing, and it never feels like too much is going on in the story. The comics from which Youngblood originally springs were not quite like this. A few of my reviews of Supreme from this era (which I re-read last night) note that entire battles sometimes took 2 or 3 issues, with no other story content to break up the fight. Or there were simply jumps from one place to another without any context or delicacy to the shift. I've read a few interviews with Liefeld, and even he admits his story-writing skills were lacking at the time of the original Youngblood series. I guess once we get to the final issue of this series, we'll find out if he's grown much. I don't recall being particularly impressed by it.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1909: Youngblood #6, November 2008

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Just to add on to a thought I had yesterday, I don't think that this current Youngblood series is delving deeply enough into the ways in which we're shaped by celebrity culture, but this is certainly not to say that writer Joe Casey isn't capable of such depth. Have a look at G0dland, for goodness' sake. So what we have in Youngblood, instead, is simply intelligent entertainment, rather, I suppose, that didactic entertainment. Though, in a lot of ways, all entertainment is didactic.

I've decided to read the rest of my Youngblood comics from the collection after I'm done this series. I'm curious as to how much of each iteration of the team is included in this later (but not latest) series. There's obviously a lot of Alan Moore's influence, with the use of the Spacehunters, the Televillain, Johnny and Doc, and the shared history that was set up in the Awesome U. But we also get characters from the older iterations, some of whom are only just now getting the proper character development one might expect of an almost 20 year old superhero. As with Prophet, the retroactive reading of various Youngblood series will be enhanced by the brilliance of the comics that follow them.

It also makes me curious, however, about the series that follow this one. I know that there was a revival of the title a few years after this one crashed, but I've no idea how much of the previous continuity is included in that revival. As part of the Extreme Studios initiative at Image Comics, the later series also takes on legacy numbering, so there's a chance it will also take on legacy aesthetic. That said, some of the other comics to come from this era, all legacy numbered, took the various Extreme heroes in some pretty interesting directions. I've waxed lyrical about them in previous posts about Youngblood, so I won't link again, but, honestly, just go read the Keatinge Glory or the Graham Prophet. Just really bloody good.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1908: Youngblood #5, September 2008

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 Seemingly out of the woodwork a new Youngblood team is assembled for network television, even as our heroes (the old Youngblood, that is) decide it's time to stop the rampage of the Televillain. I wasn't around comics for the introduction of Youngblood all those years ago, but I hadn't realized that the celebrity aspect was such a huge part of the initial idea of the team. I quite like how it's all playing out in this series, especially with the added threat of the Televillain. Though I don't think the series is delving as deeply as it could, we're getting a nice little surface commentary on the ways in which we're programmed, pun intended, by television and celebrity. It's something I've always had a difficult time understanding, the cults of celebrity that grow up around particular people in the public spotlight. And much like Shaft's Youngblood team, some public figures realize what a joke the whole celebrity industry is and step away from it. They often tend to be the ones that we respect all the more, as I'm sure the case will be for Shaft's team.

Brain's a little sleepy today. That's all I got.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1907: Youngblood #4, July 2008

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One of the things I really love about this project is that I get to go back and re-read stuff that I haven't read in, in this case, over a decade. In 2008, when this comic was coming out, I'd quit my job as a gas and hydro meter reader and was preparing to re-enter university in the coming Autumn. In fact, given comics publishing dates, there's a good chance this one came out as I was being inundated with reading from my classes. Which is probably why I don't remember it that well.

 

Joe Casey definitely has a long game in mind while writing this series, proof of which comes from not least the proclamation that, as of next issue, "phase 2" begins. Sadly it only gets 4 issues, but what a four issues it's likely to be. The new Spacehunter has just crash-landed on Earth with a warning, Leonard and Waxey Doyle jump back in as support characters, and the team finally flips the bird to the government who have been manipulating them, and gets on with the job of being superheroes. In fact, at the end of the issue, Shaft himself says this - that superheroes are not meant to be manipulated or scripted - they're meant to stand in the front when no one else is willing to. The rest of the team seems to be on board.

 

I noted Alan Moore's command of character in his brief Youngblood series - Casey isn't quite there. Johnny seems to have virtually no personality, unfortunately, though that may be from all of the recreational pharmaceuticals he's "tested" on himself. We're getting a little bit of Doc and Cougar, but the focus is definitely on Shaft, and Badrock a little bit. Actually, Badrock's story is really fascinating - I don't remember how it turns out, but it's not the story I was expecting from him. Something is going drastically wrong with this powers.

 

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1906: Youngblood #3, April 2008

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Well, as the above cover attests, Image's oldest superhero has fallen.

Youngblood v.1 #1 is an important comic. Now, this is not because it's a good comic. In fact, it's well-known throughout the industry as being a particularly bad comic. Rob Liefeld's artwork has, of course, gotten better over the years (though it's still not my cup of tea), and I think he's finally, for the most part, acknowledged that he needs a scripter, if not a writer, to achieve some level of good story. Youngblood #1, however, suffers from what I can only imagine was an over-inflated ego that believed it could do everything. All that said, it's an important comic because it was the first Image comic published. I mean, honestly, you can grab it for less than a buck most places, as it was extremely (see what I did there?) overprinted and, as I say, was really not very good.

But what comes out of it is pretty fantastic, as I've been saying for the last few weeks now.

Today's issue deals with the aftermath of Shaft's death - not necessarily how each of the team members deals with this blow, but how it's going to be presented in the reality show. This, I think, speaks again to what I was talking about yesterday, the idea that those in charge seem to think that they know how those in their charge should be acting, thinking, and feeling. It's an attitude that sees people as cogs in a machine, rather than human beings who have an almost infinite range of experience, and reaction, to life.

(Sometimes I read back over these posts, and I think, "Y'know, Tom, you aren't really talking about comics here are you?")

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1905: Youngblood #2, February 2008

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The show continues, and Badrock discovers a problem with his usually impervious derma.

I quite like that there's an undercurrent, mostly from the heroes, of explicit knowledge that this reality show angle is going to blow up. There's a slightly more-archetypal story going on here that I really, really recognize. It's that moment when someone thinks that they have a handle on a situation because they've done all the research and tested everything with focus groups and done all the brand marketing and other bullshit...but they've never taken into account what it's actually like to work on the front lines where all of that research etc. means absolutely nothing. In a much less-superpowered milieu, I've seen it in stores and institutions I've worked at - the higher-ups think that their new ideas and initiatives will very easily be implemented and will make everything wonderful, but they have no experience of how things actually work on the sales floor or in the classroom, and they get crabby when someone who does know how things work tells them their idea is a bad one.

We are definitely seeing this in Youngblood, and it's thoroughly unsurprising that it's the U.S. government that is refusing to listen to people who, quite simply, know better. That idea that just because you're in a position of authority you somehow automatically know better than those in your charge is so frustrating. It completely discounts particular kinds of knowledge. Just as I was leaving academia, there were conversations about FanAcs, or fan academics, and how much authority such people should be afforded in discourse about fandom. To me, the only difference between myself as a fan and/or academic and a "FanAc" is that I've had the benefit of getting a language with which to have detailed conversations about the subject, whereas a FanAc has not. But a good, well-trained academic can recognize when someone is talking about something for which they don't have the words and then supply those words to the person. It's called teaching, and it's something that, in my experience, a lot of academics need to spend a lot more time thinking about and doing.

Well, that went off the rails into a rant about academia. Sorry.

More to follow.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1904: Youngblood #1, January 2008

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Taking a break from our alphabetical investigation of the small press, just for a week or so.

 

There's a text feature on the inside front cover of this comic that gives a brief history of Youngblood, outlining their status as government agents and celebrity superheroes. There's a brief note about a revival of the team that "collapsed under its own weight," the only real nod to the Moore/Skroce team and what happened to them. Though, later in the issue as the team fights a giant robot, Shaft notices something familiar, and I'm wondering if the tech is Big Brother-inspired. Leonard Doyle is, sadly, absent from the team.

In that vein, along with Leonard, Suprema and Twilight are also missing. I know Suprema shows up in at least one issue of Bloodstrike that I've got that came out around the same time as the relaunch of all of these Extreme Studios titles. Glory, Prophet, Supreme, and a host of others got reboots, and really good reboots around this time. Prophet, amongst the rest, went on to have a respectable run and told an absolutely amazing story. It would have been lovely to see where Youngblood under Casey and Donovan's capable hands would have gone, but, as I've noted in previous posts about the series, in issue #9, partway through a storyline, Liefeld pulls the plug and gives us a really lame issue, and then the series fizzles.

But I don't want to go into the series just waiting for it to end. There's some excellent stuff happening here, stuff that, while it owes a great deal to the previous series, charts its own directions and narratives. I'm excited to read it again, as I haven't since it was first published. The team is reassembled and the celebrity aspect is pushed - the idea is that the government wants to be able to export superheroes the same way that they do Hollywood stars. I get the sense it's just not going to work out that way.

More to follow.

Further Reading and Related Posts

Joe Casey is among my favourite writers - his run on Adventures of Superman is probably one of the best Superman stories I've read.

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1730: The Adventures of Superman #619, October 2003

A nicely semi-domestic issue about Lois and Clark today. I like to see a bit of the old competitive dynamic with these two, and in today's set-up issue they're tasked with finding out something about "The Candidate," a charismatic figure who claims to be running against Lex Luthor as President of the United States.

I have to say, reading a run of Superman comics featuring a career villain as President is something I wasn't sure I'd have the stomach for these days. The SuperVillain-in-Chief in the real world is just so appalling that I thought it might be too close to home. But here's the thing: Luthor is preferable. At least he's smart. Like, really smart. At least, in some miniscule way, Luthor thinks that what he's doing is for the benefit of all humankind. They're just too dumb to realize that. But with 45, there's so little evidence of intelligence, which is far more frightening. Though I suppose what's more frightening is someone who would see that lack of smarts and still vote for the man.

Oh, and there's also an alien assassin called "Assassin Lad" who makes planetfall at the end of the issue. Not sure who he's there for, but I'm excited to find out.

Note: I realized that, in reading this run, there's a few issues missing numerically. Those were guest issues not written by Casey. I tend to follow writers.

"That boy's a go-getter, isn't he...?"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1729: The Adventures of Superman #618, September 2003

I should have mentioned in yesterday's blog that this comic is kind of woefully outdated now. We might, might, have been able to get away with the idea of encyclopedia's in the world of 2002, but here in 2019, they're a dinosaur whose bones now litter the shelves of thrift shops and faux Ikea living rooms. The stack of books left at the end is proof positive of why they're a format of information dissemination that, barring extreme global catastrophe, will very likely never return.

Just like the Mxy Twins after the end of today's story, which makes me very sad. It's rare that a superhero gets successfully revamped, and even more so with a supervillain. Mxyzptlk has gone from clownish to mean and back again over the years, but he's basically remained the same character since his introduction. (For the record, the best Mxy story by far is World's Funnest, a long-form, realities-wide battle between Mxy and Batmite.) So to see him revamped this way, even without saying it in so many words (their previous identity is only alluded to), is just very cool. I think the twins could have been a nice foil for Superman for a while.

There is a really amazing moment in this comic where Joe Casey uses the imps' ability to perceive the world as somewhat fictional to fill in one of his own plot holes. Though, knowing Casey and his intelligent writing, I wonder if he left the hole there specifically to have this kind of fun with Mxy. A previous antagonist is visited by a mysterious figure after being apprehended who gives him a power upgrade. Though the mysterious figure bears little resemblance to either Classic Mxyzptlk or the Mxy Twins, with a simple "He is now," the figure is explained. This was a retcon of something that was very likely left inexplicable in order to facilitate this very retcon itself. Or something.

""Who was that mysterious stranger...?"

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1728: The Adventures of Superman #617, August 2003

I'm sad to say that today's and tomorrow's comics are the only appearances of the Mxy Twins, who appear to be a pair of 5th dimensional imps who are actually Superman's old foe Mr. Myxzptlk. And, really, all they're doing is trying to sell a copy of the Encyclopedia Universal, which seems to be a much less convenient version of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Along the way, of course, they cause the sorts of mischief that 5th dimensional imps often do. With the embrace of the weird in DC's Doom Patrol television series, I'd love to see an imp or two show up in the Arrowverse. Imagine the Legends of Tomorrow trying to stop Batmite from changing the shape of North America into the Bat Symbol. The mind boggles.

The usual amazing writing aside, Charlie Adlard's fill-ins on these issues are brilliant as usual. He's an artist I absolutely love (though I'm not a big Walking Dead fan). His work on Wildstorm's The Establishment is just excellent, and he does not disappoint here taking a turn on the Man of Steel.

"We're here on the final stop on our whirlwind tour to sell the Encyclopedia Universal."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1727: The Adventures of Superman #612, March 2003

I'm actually glad I didn't re-read this issue before the others. It explains the Hollow Men far too much, and I preferred reading them a little more mysteriously.

Today's comic gives us yet another window into questioning the role of Superman, and of the superhero. Clark is faced, sort of, with a reflection of himself that he might not recognize, but that long-term fans will. It's the Superman who debuted in the pages of Action Comics in 1938, the crusader for social justice and equality. Though we see very little of this character (unlike the cover), his actions are unmistakable as those taken by the Siegel and Shuster version of the character in his earliest adventures. Unfortunately, the violent acrobatics and less-complicated morality of this older version of the Man of Steel doesn't sit well in 21st century America, and he is seen as a threat, rather than a hero. Superman, the current one, of course figures out what's going on, but perhaps misses out on a chance for some self-reflection. This comic is much more about the readers considering who and and what Superman should be, rather than he himself doing it.

That's what the next few issues are for (or rather, the last few that I read last week.) Timey-Wimey.

"You policeman are playing too rough! These folks are just concerned about the environment!".

(Just as a note - all of the older version of Superman's lines end with an exclamation point. It's a little thing, but really adds a nice nuance to the story.)

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1726: The Adventures of Superman #616, July 2003

Something I've found really interesting about this story is some of the self-reflection that Superman undertakes as he's facing the Hollow Men. In an earlier part of the story, he is caught in their energies, which start to siphon off not only his physical colour, but also "all hope. The very emotion that has fueled his entire life." For Superman, there is something strangely alluring to this idea, that the very thing that makes him who he is can be taken away. Clark becomes fascinated by the idea, and curious as to how well his conviction, his super-conviction, perhaps, could stand up to this draining. He even puts himself at their mercy, banking on the idea that his hope is stronger than their homogenizing.

I often hear people coming down on Superman because he's just so powerful. How can anything defeat him when he is pretty much a secular Saviour figure, unbeatable and immortal? My answer never changes. It's not about what he can do, but what he chooses to do. Or not to do. It's about getting inside the head of this powerful creature who is also very simple a good person, and about his struggles with what he should do to follow his creed, and what he shouldn't, in order to keep from becoming, in a very real sense, an incarnated god. In today's issue, he sees the power of the Hollow Men as a way of testing his convictions. Perhaps this is the greatest part of the Superman story. Not how hard he can hit, or how fast he can fly, but how strong his convictions are. And, even more interestingly, Clark's own questioning of those convictions.

Told you this was a great run of Superman comics.

"Even in death, he never felt such emptiness...He can't go on like this...not with so many lingering questions..."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1725: The Adventures of Superman #615, June 2003

I ended yesterday's entry with a line from the comic that claimed that the Heroville experiment had grown its own superheroes. I'm not entirely sure that's how we would describe Heroville. The definition of a superhero has been a point of contention for those who define such things for decades now. Is it the costume? Is it the mission? Is it the powers, or the mask? One way that I personally define a superhero is that it's someone who, ultimately, will choose others over themself. This works for non-super heroes as well. Virtually all of the superhero comics I read feature a character like that, one who is willing to but themself in danger in order to keep others from having to. If this is the case, are the shut-away citizens of Heroville actually superheroes? Rather, they're simply powered people. It is the choice of what to do with those powers that makes them heroes. Or villains, I suppose. Indeed, the only citizen of the town that we see take on this role is Kid Scout, after having been rescued from the Hollow Men by Superman. He volunteers for a mission into the outside world, having only known Heroville his whole life. In response to protests from the adults, he says "I can find anyone...anywhere...it's what my Mom and Dad trained me for...I'm a superhero." Kid Scout makes the choice to take on the role. So perhaps we can look at Heroville as a town full of potential superheroes - it is simply the choice, and the moment, that shift them from potential to actual.

This comic actually had a wonderful description of what one needs to be a superhero:

"How to be a Superhero: First of all, you need a secret hideout. You need various crimefighting gadgets that reflect your superhero motif. You must be pure of heart...fair in decision...you must never stray from your sense of justice...Finally, you need to be brave. You will need that bravery...to survive."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1725: The Adventures of Superman #614, May 2003

Of course, having just said that much of this run is standalone stories, here we are a the beginning of a three-part tale about fictions coming to life. There's more than a little of Grant Morrison's Doom Patrol shining through the seams of this virtually-seamless story, most especially his inaugural "Crawling from the Wreckage" story, and Casey himself has noted Morrison as an influence. That influence is on full, wonderful display here.

The story actually picks up from another tale from issue #612, which I somehow skipped, and which I'll fill in after I'm done this story. The basic set-up is the discovery of a tesseract filled with super-powered people living a 1950s lifestyle. Given yesterday's appearance by a Jack Kirby character, the comparison of Heroville to Supertown, from Kirby's Forever People must be made, though Heroville is definitely, if one can say this of a town full of superheroes, a little more down to Earth. There's also the comparison to be made with Alan Moore's Top Ten, though Heroville, for all its powers, is much less chaotic than Neopolis.

The other set-up for this story, stemming from issue #612, is a rash of superhero casualties, heroes discovered unresponsive and, literally, drained of all of their colour. Heroville seems a prime target...

"We grew our own superheroes here."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1724: The Adventures of Superman #613, April 2003

Not sure how I managed it, but I grabbed this comic to read this morning and somehow skipped over the five issues prior. Which is not a big deal, as this is a standalone story that, really, could have happened anywhere in the run. Much of the end of the Casey/Aucoin run on this title is standalone, and I really think that's why it works so well. Casey and Aucoin are rarely held up amongst the great Superman writers, but I think this particular run is some of the best Superman I've read.

Though today's comic is much less a Superman comic and much more a Lois Lane one. (I really ought to pick up Greg Rucka's Lois Lane series.) While the Man of Steel is away doing Superman-y things, Lois investigates a store that is profiting from Superman merchandise without his consent. The proprietor, Funky Flashman, is an old Jack Kirby character that was modeled on Stan Lee's public face of Marvel in the 1970s. It's not a flattering portrait.

Lois ends up triumphing, of course. There really is an excellent case to be made that she's the most interesting non-superhero character in the whole DCU. As with Superman, when Lois is written well, she's stellar. And this story is right up there.

"No...wear the uniform. For old times' sake."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1595 - 1597: The Adventures of Superman #603 - 605, June - August, 2002

Occasionally I'll make a point of reading the letters pages in some of the older comics I look at. They are a feature of comics that make a comeback every few years, though it's definitely more emails that snail mails that make up the content these days. A good letters page engages with all kinds of debates around a title, and doesn't shy away from printing critical letters. One subject that comes up in these Superman comics is the dissolution of the "triangle numbers" system. This sub-numbering system allowed readers of Superman comics in the 90s to figure out what order issues from different series should be read in, as the Man of Steel had four (or was it five?) ongoing series at the time. I'll admit, and I've said it before, that the triangle numbering was what kept me away from Superman for a long time. It felt to me like a scam to make people buy 4 monthly titles in order to get a complete story, and that's not cool. But, from the sounds of some of the letters, the discontinuation was not a popular decision.

Another thing that comes up in the letters is commentary on the "cartoon-y" art that apparently was proliferating in the titles at this time. I can see it, with artists like Mike Wieringo and Ed McGuiness on the titles. For some, this kind of stylized art detracts from the sense of realism (whatever that might mean in a superhero universe) they crave in a story. So I'm looking forward to the responses to Carlos Meglia's art on this three-part story. I love it, but I get the suspicion I'm in the minority when it comes to Superman fans. I'll keep an eye out and let you know.

The story itself is excellent, featuring an incursion from the Crime Syndicate and a strangely-powerful infant. As I was reading these comics over the last few days, and going back over some of my earlier academic writing on superheroes, I realized that the Crime Syndicate, and their Earth as portrayed in this era, are a wonderful example of the physics of fictional universes that I had hoped to be writing my doctorate on. It is established in the Morrison/Quitely Earth 2, for which these comics are a follow-up, that it is virtually impossible for anyone from the Crime Syndicate's Earth to succeed in their plans on Superman's Earth. Something about the make-up of the universes fundamentally influences not only the outcome of the respective characters' plans, but also the kinds of stories that can exist in this shared universe. There is a moral physics at work in these fictional universes, one that, I think, would tell us a lot about ourselves and our relationships with fiction if someone (oh, I don't know how, you know, perhaps someone who did 4.5 years of a doctorate before being told that this kind of research was "irrelevant and forgettable") (I'm not bitter, you're bitter) had the time and inclination to think about it.

I keep telling myself I should just write my book. I really, really should.

"Don't bother calling me in an emergency. I'll know before you do."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1513: Adventures of Superman #600, March 2002

Sorry I've been behind. Getting some stuff ready for the Fan Expo and Fairy Tales festival. I'll try to keep on top of things from here on.

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..."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1507: Adventures of Superman #594, September 2001

I've never been a fan of Doomsday, or his role in the death of Big Blue. Big as the story might have been, and earnest as its writers might have been (watch Louise Simonson talk about it in Secret Origins - she was broken up by this), I've always found this story to be a bit too contrived for my tastes. Granted, it was the early 90s, and comics were very different back then, but to me Superman shouldn't die in a punch-up. That's beneath him. As is this creature.

That said, it's full of beautiful art, and of excellent commentary on the extraordinary measures countries will go to while they're at war, regardless of the cost once peace has been "won."

But it's also the middle of a crossover that I have no interest in following. I think tomorrow's comic is the last part that impinges upon Adventures, so hopefully the alien bad guys will be defeated, and Superman will come out on top.

"Once freed...it was...primal...brutal...now I understand how it  could've done...what it did...to you..."

The 40 Years of Comics Project - Day 1506: Adventures of Superman #593, August 2001

I forgot to mention yesterday that we didn't actually skip an issue, jumping from #590 to #592. There was a four part crossover called "Infestation," penned by Marv Wolfman, that I didn't track down as I was grabbing up all of Casey's Superman. I may go back to it, though, as I've recently read some of Wolfman's old Action Comics, and they're really good. And thinking back to Crisis, his work with Superman in that title is also pretty great.

Regardless, we're jumping into another crossover, though I won't be reading too much of this one. "Our Worlds At War" may have seemed an appropriate storyline in the early 2000s (remember, this is pre-9/11), but these days I wonder why we have to have so many stories about interstellar war. I think it reveals a really deep-seated fear that anyone, or anything, that we eventually encounter out in space will be so much like ourselves that we'll inevitably go to war with them. Isn't that depressing?

The crossover delves much more deeply into the issue faced a couple of days ago by the Man of Steel, that of President Luthor. It must irk Superman so much to have to be on the side of his greatest rival, but it also speaks to the idea of the common threat uniting all of humanity. My great fear is that it's only in the face of a world-ending event that we can actually come together as a single people, finally. Though, given the state of climate change, perhaps even such an event isn't enough to bring us together.

Humans really do suck sometimes.

"I vill reduce your alien flesh to protoplasmic slime!"