Big Blue - Death and Resurrection
I just love that the other characters in the superhero community in the DC universe calls him Big Blue. ;p
I don't read a lot of Superman stories, and so I'm very unfamiliar with his supporting cast, and that unfamiliarity makes me even less likely to read his stories (also I can't stand Lex Luthor). However since I do want to read Superboy's own 90's series I figured I should start at the beginning with him, which meant reading The three stories, Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend, and Return of Superman (the final one is also known as the Reign of the Supermen I think).
I decided to read these on the bus, because it's always a brilliant idea to read something about a character dying in a public setting... Maybe if I ever catch up on Game on Thrones I'll decide to watch Red Wedding on a bus. I am a genius. Anyway. Let's talk the Big Blue and the major event happening to him in his books from the early 90's.
Okay, so it starts with an issue of one of the four Superman books at the time, and a story that besides the brief scenes with Doomsday mostly revolved around the conclusion I think of a previous story? O_o I was a bit confused. But it had Lois Lane! Anyway, we had the monster of our story make its appearance and we moved on to the rest of the story.
It kinda is just a really long curb stomp battle through the Superman books and one issue of Justice League. I liked that one though because Booster! And Beetle! BFFs! And Booster trying to go on a rage filled rampage when Beetle was so badly hurt he almost died, but Booster was not strong enough and Doomsday just trashed him completely, and ruined Booster's suit. Poor Booster...
There isn't much else to say really, there's just a lot of fighting and destruction and some moments here and there that I liked at the time but weren't particularly memorable.
I liked the fact that they told the final issue of it in just one panel for every page. Sure there were some issues, mostly with wonky perspective every now and again, but I like the idea of it. Also halfway through I started crying, thankfully not loud sobbing, but silently crying because SUPERMAN. He was about to die. It was really sad and painful, and I had to discretely try and wipe away tears. I did not expect it to give me such an emotional reaction. I have as I've said not read a lot of Superman stories, I certainly like the character, but I don't have a strong emotional connection, not really. It's also a 20 year old story I already knew everything that would happen, and that Supes would come back, and it still really hit me. Superman, dead.
I think that's what hit me though, and not so much the actual storytelling, but the fact that Superman was dead. That DC's personification of ultimate good was dead, that leaves quite a large hole.
In the end, I don't know what to think of these issues, It had the right emotional payout certainly, but I'm not sure I liked it on its own, you kinda have to carry on reading, because superman is dead and you really want to see how that affects people.
I really liked Funeral for a Friend to start with, but felt that it started to drag a little after a while. But the first part of it? Really good. We get to see the superhero community's grief and how they deal (though when Aquaman and Wonder Woman showed up all I could think was "where were they earlier?").
In the Justice League issue though I have to question the artist (dan jurgens amusingly enough) a bit. Through out this issue we have Booster running around in his ruined costume without once pulling on a shirt, and the suit is completely ruined leaving him naked from the waist up pretty much. I'm not complaining. There's also the way he is drawn where you just can't help looking at his face and go "damn boy you are handsome". And there are scenes where he is supposed to be sad and angsting, but it looks like he's a model in a photo shoot where he's supposed to be brooding and handsome. I liked it. But it kinda did not fit the tone/mood for the aftermath of what had happened.
One scene I really liked (also Booster... I may have a thing) was the final one with Booster in Ted's dark hospital room. Where he talks about how Ted has to wake up because Booster needs him. It hurt so good, knowing what will happen. Gods. My heart.
The main focus of these issues though is of course in the Superman titles and divided up between Lois, Clark's parents, and *sigh* I was hoping not to have to get into it. Lex Luthor but not the real Lex? Along with Supergirl? This is the only time I felt that previous knowledge would probably have been useful for me (honestly, this is actually the least confusing Superman event I've read, there were the Our World's at War thing that was super confusing to me, as well as the Superman titles I read leading up to Infinite Crisis. All of which I went away from feeling like I would have understood them better if I knew more of the continuity up to that point).
We get a lot of Lois' grief, which is very emotional and painful, I may have cried once or twice. At least got very teary eyed, especially when it also brought in Martha and Jonathan Kent and their grief over losing their son. I loved how it focused on how Lois wanted to be there for them, but felt like she wasn't, and that the Kent's were having the same thoughts. That they wanted to be there for Lois to comfort and help her but that they felt they didn't do enough. It really showed what wonderful people they are.
Lew meanwhile did a lot of whining about how he wanted to be the one to kill Superman. I really can not fucking deal with his entitled fucking assholery and being a fucking three year old.
There's also a plot about Cadmus, and uh. Stealing Superman's body? I don't know. Stuff happened. Lois was being awesome for a lot of that though, and I basically love Lois Lane a lot. If that hasn't been made clear yet. Seriously, I just want to write her name and draw lots of hearts around it. She is my favorite.
Anyway, moving on to the final story of the three.
ALL THE SUPERMEN!
Okay, here is when it's actually a little bit disappointing to know what happens later on. Because well... You spend a lot of time shouting: "DO NOT TRUST THE CYBORG SUPERMAN!" and have to make sure the shouting is only in your head and not out loud. The only thing I did not now in fact was who the hell the fourth Superman was. I knew Superboy, obviously (he is my precious baby), I knew Steel from 52, I, as I said, knew what the cyborg Superman would do, but I could not remember reading anything about the sunglasses wearing jerkass superman. You'd think someone would have mentioned him at some point, but nope (at least nothing I could remember).
I really enjoyed this story though.
I liked seeing tiny super-"don't call me superboy"-boy being well 90's superboy. I had missed him and his massive ego, but also seeing his insecurities, and having other characters point them out and superboy actually listening. Also I have gone completely around and have ended up loving his clothes. Yeah, they are ridiculous but they are so him, and I love his hair style. He's just my precious baby boy and one of those characters who just inspire this massive protective instinct in me.
I loved Steel, gods did I love Steel. Not because he's the only character not trying to pretend to be Superman, but because he is the character who perfectly embodies Superman's ideals because those are the right things to do. He wants to help, and he wants to correct something that is inadvertently his fault (sure he developed weapons in the first place, but it's not really his fault that they got stolen) He's also amazingly bad ass and human. I liked him in 52, but here, wow, he is awesome. Definitely my favorite character to come out of this little experiment (superboy was already my favorite, don't need to count him).
The jerkass Superman and the actual evil superman were interesting to read about. The first one is a jerk, but that just means you don't believe he's superman (which is true), and yeah it's not very subtle how they are trying to make us think that he's going to become evil, but whatever. It's really interesting seeing the cyborg superman, and the tiny clues that are there of his turn later on. There's a bit in particular in the white house after he's saved the president where he is using the computers (here's were I really had to stop myself from going "Oh my god you idiots! Don't let him near the computers!"- out loud), and we get a bunch of panels showing different things, the two I zeroed in on were the panel with the green lantern symbol and the panel with Coast City (foreshadowing!).
Speaking of Coast City though... As emotional as Superman's death is, he's Superman. He's always going to come back in the end, because well, Superman. The destruction of Coast City though. This is probably the darkest and most horrible moment in these three stories. I had to sort of take a short break after reading it, because it's just so devastatingly sad. There were so many people in that city, and all of them were killed. A whole city destroyed and everyone, everyone was killed. I can't quite put into words what it made me feel, the opposite from what I wish comics were which is bright, joyful and filled with hope.
I also discovered that when I read Hal Jordan's fall from grace, I had read the Green Lantern issue included in this collection. It sorta made more sense now? I mean, I knew Coast City had been destroyed that was obvious, but I had a better grasp on who the characters involved all were this time around. Seeing as how the destruction of the city affected me it was very satisfying to see Jordan taking out his anger on those responsible.
I got a tiny bit ahead of myself there, so lets go back a bit and talk about Superman's return.
It is kind of obvious that it's Superman in that robot suit walking towards metropolis. Or maybe that't just because I know Supes will be back. IDK. It really was a great moment though, the reveal that Superman is back and alive. Even knowing it would happen you're just filled with so much happiness. ... And then you start giggling because what the hell is he wearing and why is his hair so long? It gets kind of worse when he starts picking up fucking weapons. Gods, he just looked so silly.
Anyway, to wrap this up because it's long enough as it is. It ends with Lois and Clark kissing, and really, can there be anything better than that? (Wally West and Linda Park kissing? Yes, but not relevant) Happy endings all around, sort of... It ends happily for Lois and Clark anyway. Next time I read a Superman story I am skipping forwards straight to their wedding (I have no Superman stories I've planned to read at this point, but I probably will. Eventually. I really love Lois and Clark as a pairing. An d I love Lois).
Things I have not talked about:
* Lex Luthor and Supergirls creepy, weird, super manipulative on Lex's part,'relationship'(?????)
* Supergirl (wasn't she killed in crisis on infinite earths and not returned until the Superman/Batman book in the 2000's??? Who is this??? Why can she shapeshift??? So many questions)
* Guy Gardner's appearances (Guy... Guy... Guy... The 90's were not kind to you)
* Lois pointing out explicitly that she has never gotten herself into any situation she can't save herself from after Perry telling her that "this time Superman won't come in at the last second to save her. It was an awesome come back from Lois. Except, pretty much every situation Lois ends up in through these three stories ends with her being saved by someone. Disappointing.
* The ugly asshole who started hitting on Lois like two weeks after Clark Kent disappeared. What the fuck dude?
* The dude who owned a bar who saved a puppy and named it Krypto. Who was this dude? I have no idea.
* That weird issue with Jonathan Kent after he had a heart attack and there's a lot of weird stuff happening. I am still not sure I didn't dream that one.
So, in the end, what can I say about these three stories... I really liked them. Taken as a whole, all three of them together, I enjoyed them. As much as I do want happy funny stories with lots of bright colors and hope, I also like stories with drama and a bit of angst, and it certainly had that. It also had hope though, hope in Steel embracing Superman's ideals and working to not become the new Superman but to still continue his work in honor of him. Hope in Superboy who despite his brashness, and his ego, and attitude at times, still has so much potential. It introduced great characters. It had interesting plot elements, did it drag it out a bit at times? Yes, it did, but not so much that I completely lost interest. It wasn't a whole year of Superman being dead, nor was it several months of grief, it was also about trying to move on.
I actually have no idea what fans in general though of it at the time, nor what they think now. But in the end all I'm gonna say outside of the cut is that I really liked these stories as a whole rather than three separate stories.
It's entirely possible that I started writing this post last week, and made it two paragraphs into the behind the cut stuff before taking a break for a week. For no real reason, just that I couldn't muster up the energy to finish this. That's the explanation for why I didn't bring up everything (that and I didn't want it to get too long), I don't remember all the details, and also I don't have the energy to talk about every single thing.
No idea what my next post will be. It'll be a surprise.
I don't read a lot of Superman stories, and so I'm very unfamiliar with his supporting cast, and that unfamiliarity makes me even less likely to read his stories (also I can't stand Lex Luthor). However since I do want to read Superboy's own 90's series I figured I should start at the beginning with him, which meant reading The three stories, Death of Superman, Funeral for a Friend, and Return of Superman (the final one is also known as the Reign of the Supermen I think).
I decided to read these on the bus, because it's always a brilliant idea to read something about a character dying in a public setting... Maybe if I ever catch up on Game on Thrones I'll decide to watch Red Wedding on a bus. I am a genius. Anyway. Let's talk the Big Blue and the major event happening to him in his books from the early 90's.
Okay, so it starts with an issue of one of the four Superman books at the time, and a story that besides the brief scenes with Doomsday mostly revolved around the conclusion I think of a previous story? O_o I was a bit confused. But it had Lois Lane! Anyway, we had the monster of our story make its appearance and we moved on to the rest of the story.
It kinda is just a really long curb stomp battle through the Superman books and one issue of Justice League. I liked that one though because Booster! And Beetle! BFFs! And Booster trying to go on a rage filled rampage when Beetle was so badly hurt he almost died, but Booster was not strong enough and Doomsday just trashed him completely, and ruined Booster's suit. Poor Booster...
There isn't much else to say really, there's just a lot of fighting and destruction and some moments here and there that I liked at the time but weren't particularly memorable.
I liked the fact that they told the final issue of it in just one panel for every page. Sure there were some issues, mostly with wonky perspective every now and again, but I like the idea of it. Also halfway through I started crying, thankfully not loud sobbing, but silently crying because SUPERMAN. He was about to die. It was really sad and painful, and I had to discretely try and wipe away tears. I did not expect it to give me such an emotional reaction. I have as I've said not read a lot of Superman stories, I certainly like the character, but I don't have a strong emotional connection, not really. It's also a 20 year old story I already knew everything that would happen, and that Supes would come back, and it still really hit me. Superman, dead.
I think that's what hit me though, and not so much the actual storytelling, but the fact that Superman was dead. That DC's personification of ultimate good was dead, that leaves quite a large hole.
In the end, I don't know what to think of these issues, It had the right emotional payout certainly, but I'm not sure I liked it on its own, you kinda have to carry on reading, because superman is dead and you really want to see how that affects people.
I really liked Funeral for a Friend to start with, but felt that it started to drag a little after a while. But the first part of it? Really good. We get to see the superhero community's grief and how they deal (though when Aquaman and Wonder Woman showed up all I could think was "where were they earlier?").
In the Justice League issue though I have to question the artist (dan jurgens amusingly enough) a bit. Through out this issue we have Booster running around in his ruined costume without once pulling on a shirt, and the suit is completely ruined leaving him naked from the waist up pretty much. I'm not complaining. There's also the way he is drawn where you just can't help looking at his face and go "damn boy you are handsome". And there are scenes where he is supposed to be sad and angsting, but it looks like he's a model in a photo shoot where he's supposed to be brooding and handsome. I liked it. But it kinda did not fit the tone/mood for the aftermath of what had happened.
One scene I really liked (also Booster... I may have a thing) was the final one with Booster in Ted's dark hospital room. Where he talks about how Ted has to wake up because Booster needs him. It hurt so good, knowing what will happen. Gods. My heart.
The main focus of these issues though is of course in the Superman titles and divided up between Lois, Clark's parents, and *sigh* I was hoping not to have to get into it. Lex Luthor but not the real Lex? Along with Supergirl? This is the only time I felt that previous knowledge would probably have been useful for me (honestly, this is actually the least confusing Superman event I've read, there were the Our World's at War thing that was super confusing to me, as well as the Superman titles I read leading up to Infinite Crisis. All of which I went away from feeling like I would have understood them better if I knew more of the continuity up to that point).
We get a lot of Lois' grief, which is very emotional and painful, I may have cried once or twice. At least got very teary eyed, especially when it also brought in Martha and Jonathan Kent and their grief over losing their son. I loved how it focused on how Lois wanted to be there for them, but felt like she wasn't, and that the Kent's were having the same thoughts. That they wanted to be there for Lois to comfort and help her but that they felt they didn't do enough. It really showed what wonderful people they are.
Lew meanwhile did a lot of whining about how he wanted to be the one to kill Superman. I really can not fucking deal with his entitled fucking assholery and being a fucking three year old.
There's also a plot about Cadmus, and uh. Stealing Superman's body? I don't know. Stuff happened. Lois was being awesome for a lot of that though, and I basically love Lois Lane a lot. If that hasn't been made clear yet. Seriously, I just want to write her name and draw lots of hearts around it. She is my favorite.
Anyway, moving on to the final story of the three.
ALL THE SUPERMEN!
Okay, here is when it's actually a little bit disappointing to know what happens later on. Because well... You spend a lot of time shouting: "DO NOT TRUST THE CYBORG SUPERMAN!" and have to make sure the shouting is only in your head and not out loud. The only thing I did not now in fact was who the hell the fourth Superman was. I knew Superboy, obviously (he is my precious baby), I knew Steel from 52, I, as I said, knew what the cyborg Superman would do, but I could not remember reading anything about the sunglasses wearing jerkass superman. You'd think someone would have mentioned him at some point, but nope (at least nothing I could remember).
I really enjoyed this story though.
I liked seeing tiny super-"don't call me superboy"-boy being well 90's superboy. I had missed him and his massive ego, but also seeing his insecurities, and having other characters point them out and superboy actually listening. Also I have gone completely around and have ended up loving his clothes. Yeah, they are ridiculous but they are so him, and I love his hair style. He's just my precious baby boy and one of those characters who just inspire this massive protective instinct in me.
I loved Steel, gods did I love Steel. Not because he's the only character not trying to pretend to be Superman, but because he is the character who perfectly embodies Superman's ideals because those are the right things to do. He wants to help, and he wants to correct something that is inadvertently his fault (sure he developed weapons in the first place, but it's not really his fault that they got stolen) He's also amazingly bad ass and human. I liked him in 52, but here, wow, he is awesome. Definitely my favorite character to come out of this little experiment (superboy was already my favorite, don't need to count him).
The jerkass Superman and the actual evil superman were interesting to read about. The first one is a jerk, but that just means you don't believe he's superman (which is true), and yeah it's not very subtle how they are trying to make us think that he's going to become evil, but whatever. It's really interesting seeing the cyborg superman, and the tiny clues that are there of his turn later on. There's a bit in particular in the white house after he's saved the president where he is using the computers (here's were I really had to stop myself from going "Oh my god you idiots! Don't let him near the computers!"- out loud), and we get a bunch of panels showing different things, the two I zeroed in on were the panel with the green lantern symbol and the panel with Coast City (foreshadowing!).
Speaking of Coast City though... As emotional as Superman's death is, he's Superman. He's always going to come back in the end, because well, Superman. The destruction of Coast City though. This is probably the darkest and most horrible moment in these three stories. I had to sort of take a short break after reading it, because it's just so devastatingly sad. There were so many people in that city, and all of them were killed. A whole city destroyed and everyone, everyone was killed. I can't quite put into words what it made me feel, the opposite from what I wish comics were which is bright, joyful and filled with hope.
I also discovered that when I read Hal Jordan's fall from grace, I had read the Green Lantern issue included in this collection. It sorta made more sense now? I mean, I knew Coast City had been destroyed that was obvious, but I had a better grasp on who the characters involved all were this time around. Seeing as how the destruction of the city affected me it was very satisfying to see Jordan taking out his anger on those responsible.
I got a tiny bit ahead of myself there, so lets go back a bit and talk about Superman's return.
It is kind of obvious that it's Superman in that robot suit walking towards metropolis. Or maybe that't just because I know Supes will be back. IDK. It really was a great moment though, the reveal that Superman is back and alive. Even knowing it would happen you're just filled with so much happiness. ... And then you start giggling because what the hell is he wearing and why is his hair so long? It gets kind of worse when he starts picking up fucking weapons. Gods, he just looked so silly.
Anyway, to wrap this up because it's long enough as it is. It ends with Lois and Clark kissing, and really, can there be anything better than that? (Wally West and Linda Park kissing? Yes, but not relevant) Happy endings all around, sort of... It ends happily for Lois and Clark anyway. Next time I read a Superman story I am skipping forwards straight to their wedding (I have no Superman stories I've planned to read at this point, but I probably will. Eventually. I really love Lois and Clark as a pairing. An d I love Lois).
Things I have not talked about:
* Lex Luthor and Supergirls creepy, weird, super manipulative on Lex's part,'relationship'(?????)
* Supergirl (wasn't she killed in crisis on infinite earths and not returned until the Superman/Batman book in the 2000's??? Who is this??? Why can she shapeshift??? So many questions)
* Guy Gardner's appearances (Guy... Guy... Guy... The 90's were not kind to you)
* Lois pointing out explicitly that she has never gotten herself into any situation she can't save herself from after Perry telling her that "this time Superman won't come in at the last second to save her. It was an awesome come back from Lois. Except, pretty much every situation Lois ends up in through these three stories ends with her being saved by someone. Disappointing.
* The ugly asshole who started hitting on Lois like two weeks after Clark Kent disappeared. What the fuck dude?
* The dude who owned a bar who saved a puppy and named it Krypto. Who was this dude? I have no idea.
* That weird issue with Jonathan Kent after he had a heart attack and there's a lot of weird stuff happening. I am still not sure I didn't dream that one.
So, in the end, what can I say about these three stories... I really liked them. Taken as a whole, all three of them together, I enjoyed them. As much as I do want happy funny stories with lots of bright colors and hope, I also like stories with drama and a bit of angst, and it certainly had that. It also had hope though, hope in Steel embracing Superman's ideals and working to not become the new Superman but to still continue his work in honor of him. Hope in Superboy who despite his brashness, and his ego, and attitude at times, still has so much potential. It introduced great characters. It had interesting plot elements, did it drag it out a bit at times? Yes, it did, but not so much that I completely lost interest. It wasn't a whole year of Superman being dead, nor was it several months of grief, it was also about trying to move on.
I actually have no idea what fans in general though of it at the time, nor what they think now. But in the end all I'm gonna say outside of the cut is that I really liked these stories as a whole rather than three separate stories.
It's entirely possible that I started writing this post last week, and made it two paragraphs into the behind the cut stuff before taking a break for a week. For no real reason, just that I couldn't muster up the energy to finish this. That's the explanation for why I didn't bring up everything (that and I didn't want it to get too long), I don't remember all the details, and also I don't have the energy to talk about every single thing.
No idea what my next post will be. It'll be a surprise.