Superman 80th Anniversary Thread

[The Joker]

Happy 85 for the big guy!

[The Joker]

[thecolorsblend]

I loved that character. In his original incarnation, when Kesel and Grummett were the pointmen for that version of Superboy, he was a very interesting character. A bit of Han Solo, a bit of Maverick, a bit of Superman, a bit of Spider-Man, very interesting character.

I've never seen a character fall apart so badly so quickly.

And the nadir of the character came when Geoff Johns decided that Superboy was a genetic cocktail of Superman and Lex Luthor. Who in his right mind would combine Superman's DNA with Lex Luthor's DNA? And that ridiculous "Kon-El" moniker...

But to start with, the idea of Superman's clone trying to live up to the legend of his "father" and maybe not always succeeding... I just always thought that idea had tons of dramatic potential. And most of it ultimately got squandered.

What a waste.

I love that poster tho. Silly haircut and all, those were Superboy's glory days.

Side note. Am I the only one who's absolutely in love with Tom Grummett's art? He's one of the few DC artists who could draw ANYBODY. Dan Jurgens drew a phenomenal Superman but I never thought much of his Flash. Jon Bogdanove drew a great Superman but his Batman was ultimately nothing to write home about. But Grummett drew Superman, Superboy, the Teen Titans, Robin, various Batman characters, all or most of the Justice League during the Panic In The Sky storyline and ALL of those characters look awesome.

Grummett has my vote for most underrated DC artist.

[The Joker]

Excellent post!

I agree that Superboy, during the Post-Crisis era, definitely was an engaging character, and came across as something "new and different" for early/mid '90's Gen X/Millennial readers. Further cementing the idea that the Superman line of books at that time, was very much differentiated from what was put forth during the Pre-Crisis era. Despite the still lingering perception of what the public had.

Honestly, I haven't read that many Superboy comics, but would you say he's a character that was handled fairly well until the DNA deal with Johns, or was he mishandled before then?

[The Joker]

I'll just place this here.

FLASHBACK 1997

Wizard Magazine's assessment on how Pre-Crisis JLA members vs their Post-Crisis counterparts would go down.

[thecolorsblend]

I... don't disagree with very much of that. It is true that Bronze Age Superman would make short work of Post-Crisis Superman. The depowering thing was a key feature of Byrne's revamp. Byrne's Superman would put up a fight. But he'd lose.

The Flash thing tho MIGHT be a different story. If the showdown is 1977 Barry vs. 1997 Wally, yeah, it goes to Wally. Probably. But if it's 1977 Barry vs. 1987 Wally, I don't think Barry would break a sweat taking Wally out.

I always thought 1997 Batman would defeat 1977 Batman simply because Pre-Crisis Batman was shown more often to use John Wayne fisticuffs to win the day. I don't recall Batman have a major martial arts background until some time in the Eighties. It might even be a Post-Crisis thing. I would defer to SN on this tho. But I think the martial arts aspect alone would put Post-Crisis Batman ahead of Pre-Crisis Batman.

[The Joker]

[thecolorsblend]

This is me being picky. But that's not Ordway's Superman. That comes from the cover of Superman v2 #48 by Kerry Gammill.

The interiors were by Curt Swan, of course. At the time, Swan was doing a fair amount of Super stuff. Superman #48 is the tip of the iceberg when it comes to that. This was how I became introduced to his work, in fact.

But anyway, the cover itself is a Kerry Gammill joint.

In my opinion, it's a crying shame that Kerry Gammill didn't do more Superman stuff. Because his version of Superman had majesty, power and just plain awesomeness.

[The Joker]

From the May 31st 1942 Superman newspaper strip.

[The Joker]

Walt Simonson's Silver Age/Bronze Age/Pre-Crisis/Earth-One Superman.

(yeah he had a number of monikers)