Bumping this because it scares me that the thread would go kapoof if not actively used.

In keeping with the whole, "keep this thread active" line of thought, I'm going to ask a very basic mythology question. Someone should probably answer it for me if I'm ever going to post in here again; as im just starting to get into the mythology, it's a major newbie thing lol Pre and Post crisis; what's the deal?

I'd recommend reading this thread. There have been some good explanations of Crisis.

Anybody preparing for the new creative teams? The Azzarillo/Lee book got a preview in Wizard...looks good if you're into that. Chuck Austen makes me want to toss cookies.

I'm looking forward to the new teams. The Turner/Kelly/Caldwell arc "Godfall" looks pretty good in the meantime.

In "The Adventures of Superman" #624, Jimmy Olsen is talking to a bald-headed girl called Lena. (She looks a lot like TYOGL actually.) The last time I saw Lena Luthor, it was only about four years ago and she was a baby, and Lex pretty much wasn't letting her out of his sight. I'm assuming something happened with this in the "Metropolis" limited series? Is that Lena Luthor? If so, what happened?

The Lena in the Metropolis maxiseries is the original sentience of the B13 Tech that transformed Metropolis. This sentience had a template based on baby Lena Luthor (sold by her father in exchange for the B13 Tech - but Superman managed to retrieve the baby alive... long story). Anyway, the Tech thought it was Lena and constructed a body for itself to experience real world life. Jimmy Olsen befriended this new Lena, and he helped her through some difficulties when she learned she was not the real Lena Luthor. A timestorm destroyed the far-future B13 Tech in Metropolis, but the Lena construct escaped intact. Chuck Austen who wrote the maxiseries is going to continue to use this Jimmy Olsen (and probably Lena, too) in his upcoming run in Action Comics in April, 2004.

Thanks searose! That clears up a lot!

Isn't that almost the same thing that happened with one of the recent versions of Supergirl?

So I picked up the Superman: Our Worlds At War trade paperback at the huge Indigo in Toronto today.....well, where do I start. First of all, of every issue involved in the crossover, I can think of only about 2-3 that really stand out as memorable in my mind. They are...

* the issues with Young Justice
* Hippolyta's sacrifice
* the 'letters from the front' from Superboy, Guardian, and the Fortress robots regarding Krypto

So those are exempted from criticism. Otherwise, the rest of the series was a huge disappointment. Too much action, not enough storytelling. I mean, some MAJOR story developments took place in this arc (Lois' father died, Impulse died, Doomsday was killed, Steel is now uber-powerful, etc.) and they were all glossed over in favour of the next two-panels-per-page fight sequence. Jeph Loeb's technique of interspersing the speeches from Lincoln, FDR, etc. got really old really quickly. Imperiex was little more than a Galactus ripoff anyway, so not even the re-inclusion of Brainiac could save this one.

Yeah, I wasn't crazy about the whole Worlds At War thing either. A few highlights, moments here and there in all the muddle.

I also liked the JSA issue, and the finale with Superman pulling out all the stops and saving baby Lena Luthor after Lex had dealt her away.

Try the Elseworld story, Superman: Red Son. The trade paperback version came out last week. Very nicely done. It's a story that asks What If Superman had landed in Russia instead of America?

OWAW: Feh. I hate it when I'm reading comics that get shoved into a giant crossover. "Hey! Giantoid battle going on!" "Hey! Don't give a shit!" Seriously, I wanted to read Young Justice & Superboy in peace. And thanks to the crossover, I had to pick up Dezago's shitty Impulse issue.

Red Son: I had the fortune of picking up a few issues cheap. Fun stuff. Batman with a Russian fluffy hat on cracks me up.

Heheh, speaking of the hat, Lantern, there's a cool sketchbook of designs in the back of the trade paperback -- including that one -- and there's a written notation by Dave Johnson -- "I took a lot of crap from friends about this hat. But I still like the design. Russia is a cold place. Why can't Batman wear a warm hat?" :) I

I kinda liked OWAW. Red Son rocks, but are y'all reading Superman: Secret Identity? Now that's some good shit. Busiek and Immonen (who I think is the best Superman artist since Curt Swan) are crafting one hell of a mini-series. It's about a guy in the 'real world' named Clark Kent who discovers he has super powers.

ok, why do I have a teeny, tiny gay crush on Superboy? I should never have read that Superboy/Captain Marvel fanfic...

Pardon my ignorance, but does this news from the Smallville Ledger have anything to do with the comics?

I don't recognize any of the names from the show.

Blatant newbie question, but is there anyone who can explain the whole Supergirl thing to me? Or point me to a website that would get me up to speed? I tried to look her up online awhile back and all I got was that she died in the Crisis. But then, I read a couple of recent Batman/Superman crossover issues, and found out that, apparently, she isn't dead. So I'm confused. Who is this Supergirl? Where did she come from? Is she a resurrection of the old Supergirl or a different character entirely? Help.

Foxoa, check out these 2 links:

Supergirl
Legend of Supergirl

Or Here:

The World Of Supergirl

ETA: Oh, nevermind, you're talking about one of the latter incarnations, but I'll leave the link there for fun.

I hear they're going to re-introduce the Supergirl From Krypton soon in the pages of Superman/Batman.

Yay! Thank you, LauraB and Trevacious Guy.

ETA: Oh, I get it. The Supergirl I stumbled on is Cir-El, Clark and Lois's future daughter. But really she's Brainiac? Or Brainiac's mother? Something like that. So now they're going to introduce the real Supergirl. Anyway, I can't wait for Supergirl from Krypton.

Supergirl's beginning to rival Hawkman and Power Girl for most confusing origin/incarnation/etc. at DC. I don't get that stuff at all.

Just announced: "Birthright" is now canon, and an official re-boot of Superman in the comics.

Was peeking in the latest Superissue yesterday, and I saw Chuck Austen's backup preview. I almost threw up. No way should a hack like that touch Kingdom Come and anything related to it, including Gog. I cannot be alone on this.

Oh, and I did pick up Superman/Thundercats. I wish I hadn't. Feh.

You aren't. I wasn't pleased at all with that.

How does Chuck Austen continue to not only get work but be so damn popular? And when will he be replaced on Avengers? I miss my Avengers... :(

If Austen's a hack, he's certainly welcome to mess with (I guess we're spoiler spacing it now) Kingdom Come, which I loathed. Anyways, I guess it was getting on time for a reboot; I just don't like Waid's overly traditionalist (read: old-school fanboy) ways and glib dialogue.

In response to Foxoa's message. Not sure if it is a spoiler, but just in case:

Wait a second. I thought Braniac was the being that also escaped Krypton before the planet died. That means that guy was around before Kal-El and Cir-El. How can she be his mother? Plus, I thought Brainiac was a robot-like creature. I dunno. I am confused. Any clarification you guys can offer would be fantastic.

SuperMon...haven't been following the books, but I'm thinking that you're thinking of the animated continuity.

That bit was posted up in the spoilers thread (exactly like that, cut mid sentance and all) I'm not sure if it belongs here, but I didn't think it went in the spoilers thread. Was that honestly in a comic? lol It's got me laughing so hard I figured I had to come here and beg for more info.

Brainiac in the comics (as in the JL animated series) is an Evil Computer. In the comics, previous canon had Brainiac being responsible for Krypton's demise, then Brainiac later reappeared as a villain for Superman on Earth.

Very convoluted continuity. Brainiac, being a computer, has different versions of itself, and it's constantly trying to upgrade.

Brainiac 13 was defeated by Superman, who sent it to the beginning of time (or something). To save itself, it downgraded a version to Brainiac 12 but couldn't emerge on a too-primitive Earth. So Brainiac 12 was using nano-robots to control people in the B13 Metropolis while trying to find a body for a host. The future timeline Brainiac 12 had sent back that Cir-El with its template encoded in her - because Superman wouldn't be suspicious of his 'daughter' being a Trojan Horse (she wasn't his actual daughter, though). Long story short, Cir-El was sarcastically referred to by Brainiac as his mother, and the corpse of future Lois Lane was to be the host body. Superman #200 in one fell swoop erased all of this plot, along with Cir-El.

It was the biggest mess in comics I've seen in a long while. Thankfully, that's all in the buried past.

I have a question about a season 1 episode. I'm sure this has been mentioned before, but the thread only goes back so far.

In "Stray," Lex mentions a younger brother, Julian. I can't find anything online that says this is canon. Is it, or was it totally made up for the show? What about Lucas?

abyssinia wonders

I'm no comics expert but I think Julian and Lucas were specifically brought in for SV, they weren't part of the original mythos. IIRC, the only relations Lex had and mentioned in the comics were his parents, his daughter and countless wives. And of course, the son he and Supes sired. Hee.

Pardon my Off-topic i-tude, but you all seem very informed about Superman's backstory, so I am wondering. Are there other colors of Kryptonite? And do they have interesting powers that could be fun on Smallville? I heard about one that gives Super powers to humans.

You're in luck...I got a copy of WHO'S WHO lying around. This one goes from Krona to the Losers...and Kryptonite is listed. These are all pre-Crisis, by the way.

Green: weakens and kills Kryptonians.

Red: Wild card...does weird shit to Superman, like make him larger, taking away his strength, or give him an ant's head. Krypto got changed into a cow and caused the Chicago Fire, Another time, the male dog got turned into a Collie bitch. Okay, moving on...

Blue: weakens and kills Bizarros.

Anti-Kryptonite: weakens and kills non-powered Kryptonians.

X-Kryptonite: gives temporary powers to Earthlings.

White: weakens and kills plant life.

Gold: robs Kryptonians of their powers permantly.

Jewel: Used by Phantom Zone criminals to increase mental powers.

In the SV continuity, the use of green and red K works great for me. Green fucks Clark up, Red fucks with his head. No L/C bullshit where the powers get amped, or Lois gets the juice after being hit by a Red K beam from Shelly Fuckin' Long.

ETA: Maybe it doesn't make Clark into a badass, but rather it amplifies Clark's emotional need. The first time, he was defying his father's wishes not to get a ring. One spark of rebellion + Red K = Leather!Clark. Maybe they'll be a Red K encounter which ends up with all the cows limping.

Eh, in some ways I prefer the L&C/comics version just because I find Red!Clark really annoying.

Re: Birthright, up until (and including) the April issue. Obvious big giant dancing spoilers named Ted. (The name 'Ted' isn't a spoiler. It's just the name of one. Ah, semantics.)

A bit on Lex, here, who actually still seems to be 'Lex' and not 'Luthor'. (Well, the dude dancing and singing around the imaginary Superman-dissection is more Luthor than Lex. Isn't it odd how we differentiate?) Anyhow. Giant Green Glowing Rock of S-Ness? Call in Clark Kent? Fun innuendo, and I'm wondering if at least that much is taken out of the show. I mean, SV Lex is on the road to being completely batshit insane, but he does seem to put together the pieces once every few episodes. And then forget them. And then learn them again. And then blah. I haven't been able to read all of Young Luthor in Smallville, which annoys me, because I really am curious how they're revamping the Lex character. Part of this is nice and Pre-Crisis - he's friends with Superman as a boy, la di da, science, etc. That fits into the Smallville tie also, which is bringing in some new readers and has to make at least a dent in continuity. Lex knew Clark as a kid, except not as Superman-boy. (Have they explained his hair-loss yet?) But a lot of it's new. Obviously a revamped Lex-knew-Clark has to include more than 'Wee Lexie was a scientist and Wee Clarkie saved him'. Martha's already been shown expressing distaste of her son's (past) friendship with a Luthor, as Bo has been on Smallville. The Lex-as-a-9th-grader is a little odd. Plausible, but odd. I'm wondering how the cobbling-together of various continuities (and new plot points) is going to leave Lex as a developed character.

Now that I've exhausted all of my coherency, any thoughts?

This is a longshot and kind of offtopic, so I apologize, but I was perusing Carlos Bernard's website (Tony on 24) at http://www.carlosbernard.com and under his theater credits, the play Superman: World Savior or Hermaphrodite from Hell was listed. I looked it up on google but couldn't find anything on it. Anyone know anything about this intriguingly titled play? Is there any comics basis for the "Hermaphrodite from Hell" tag?

While watching Chloe play Truth Serum: The Home Game, I was reminded of a story I saw recapped a while back. Sadly, the images are gone, but I still think it's relevant to tonight's episode.

If anyone lives near Orange, California, there's a revival of the silly 1966 Broadway Musical version of Superman going on at the Maverick Theater.

It's been a week, so I'll announce it now: last week at Fan Fest, I got the Puffy Hat Batman sketch from Dave Johnson. I think that's the biggest request for him...I saw him do one other for somebody in front of me.

I don't have many Superman-related sketches in my book...I got Superman and Superboy from write Joe Kelly, and an awesome Fairchild-as-Supergirl from Lee Bermajo.

ETA: It's a Russian hat. The story in Superman: Red Son took place in a world where Kal-El landed in the Soviet Union instead of the USA. Batman was the son of a slain government worker (or something), and he wore a Russian hat designed into his familiar cowl.

Scares me shit. Seems fun, though.


I'm not a comics enthusiast so the highlighted term above could be a lingo I'm clueless about. But my curiousity gets the better of me. At the risk of sounding like an ignoramus, I've got to ask, this Dave Johnson actually sketched for you Batman in a puffy hat? Like a Russian winter hat or something?

About this whole Lex thing in the old comics? Didn't Clark set up Lex in some chem lab so that he could indulge his mad scientist thing, and that's where Lex lost his hair, in an accident? Could be wrong, but childhood memories seem pretty strong....

OK, what's the "Crisis," for the uninitiated? Thanks!

The Crisis on Infinite Earths

Thanks, Khnum! Flash is dead? Damn!

Yes, Barry Allen is dead, but The Flash lives on. His former sidekick, Wally West (Kid Flash), donned the costume in honor of Barry and carried on as The Flash.

Scott, you may want to read the FAQ. Double-posts aren't allowed - but you can just as easily add on a sentence or two to your original post.

But, yes, Pre-Crisis Lex saved Superboy from a giant chunk of Kryptonite (I'm talking massive boulder-sized thing, there), then lead him into his FanBoy Warehouse. Superboy takes all the scrap metal ("This is where Superboy landed!" "This is a metal rod that Superboy bent with his ass!" "This plaque is made out of Superboy's leftover breakfast!") and smooshed it into a giant, state-of-the-art science facility. Speaking as a fellow fan-dork, I can't imagine why Lex wasn't pissed off the kid ruined all his collectibles. Anyhow, much rejoicing, "Let's be bestestest friends forever", and Lex gets to work. He spills some chemicals, Superboy notices (because he keeps tabs on his bestestest friend, of course), and swoops in to save him from the resulting explosion - which makes Lex lose all of his work, and his hair. Lex throws a hissyfit and turns evil. Very dignified.

Man, I love that story. It's like the best Greek myths, but sillier.

Peeked into Action Comics today...Teen Titans AND Gog. What kept me from buying it? Chuck Austen. He has little clue how to write Superman. I swear, he tells Gog that he's so yesterday. Yes...Superman quoted Hillary Duff. Shoot me. Please shoot me.

Anybody here read Red Son? Really interesting Elseworlds/What if. Superman lands in Soviet Russia, instead of Kansas. He fights for truth, justice, and the Communist way.

Curious if anyone else had read it. And the reactions.

Right now, I'm hyped on all of the Superman titiles out. I didn't really get where Superman is going right now because Azerrello, hope I spelled his name right, is not the sort of guy you find on a title like this. I did enjoy Lee's art as usual. Chuck Austen is a writer that I know little about, I'm still getting use to his writing on X-Men, but I think that he is getting alot of work. Let's just hope they don't make this guy the Chuck Dixon of the comic world. I also want to see what he plans on doing with Lana Lang in Action Comics as well;from what I heard it sounds like he is going to write her as a homewrecker.

Here is an interesting article from TIME dated May 17:The Problem with Superman

Thanks, riqrak for the article. Time was dead on with that information concerning the Man of Steel. What worries me is that Superman is going to become to watered down. What they seem to be trying to do is simply do what John Byrne did almost 20 years ago, and that is put the emphasis on the "man' instead of the "super" which always seems to be the way that the modern version is usually played out.

I never could get into the "god" type of heroes like Thor or for that matter Wonder Woman. They always seemed to be hard to write for and I really am glad that the writers want to make him more about the alien who tries to be human. Hopefully the reload of the Supeman titles will be successful and having Jim Lee on one of the books is really going to help.

I still think that while America isn't what it once was, that doesn't mean that the ideals once held should be shot down because of the contreverial issues that seem to jade and compound and flat out insult the "American Dream." Nevertheless I'm going to stick it out with Superman and hope that the first and number one hero of the modern era will not be pushed over for The Punisher as the ideal American hero.

Maybe but Lana won't be presented in a negative light. In interviews Austen has stated his dislike of Lois who he calls the classic "golddigger" and his preference for Lana who he believes has always loved "Clark" the man and not "Superman" (Austen believes Lois to be the opposite). It will be interesting to see how much DC lets him get away with, I know in the past storylines by big name writers were deep sixed because breaking up the Clark/Lois marriage was off-limits by TPTB.