Tag: Superman

Random Retrospective #16 – Infinite Crisis #5

When INFINITE CRISIS #5 turned up in my random list of back issues to chat about, I almost threw it back and selected something else. After all, I annotated the damn thing as part of the very first series of annotations I did way back in the mists of time (actually probably about 2006 or so.) However, the gods of randomness, whoever they may be, have decided that we’re taking a lower level look at this so here we go.

The issue starts with a pause in the story, a sort of catch your breath moment as heroes gather in church before girding their loins and heading out to battle the bad guys again. Meanwhile on a reconstituted Earth-2, Superman and Lois of the original Earth-2 find time to celebrate a little.

You just know his words are going to come back to haunt him.

Elsewhere, Batman is introduced by Booster Gold to the new Blue Beetle and Lex Luthor gives some help to an injured Superboy. Wonder Woman, fresh from the televised spectacle of her murdering Max Lord, is shocked to find civilians shunning or actively attacking her, though she gets help from a surprising source:

Back on Earth-2, Lois has died, driving Kal-L almost mad with grief, so much so that when Superman arrives and tries to help, Kal-L attacks him, blaming him for the death of his wife.

Diana Prince takes Wonder Woman over to Earth-2 and she, with Superman, convinces Kal-L to stop in his attack. Poor old Kal-L realises he’s been duped by Alex Luthor Jr and that this simulacrum of Earth-2 was never really his world.

Alex meanwhile fires up his tuning fork engine, powered by the captured heroes and villains that originally came from different Earths, and reproduces a multiverse for the first time since the original Crisis. Heroes disappear from Earth-1 and are sent to their respective new homes, while the Flash returns from the Speed Force having been unable to imprison the series super-villain . . .

I still think INFINITE CRISIS holds up as a sequel to the original; the build up to it, the interweaving storylines, the hints and sub-plots that you missed until you looked back, all added up to a bombastic charge through the DCU of the time that, for me, worked a treat.

Untold Tales #524 Superman vs Fighting American

I read the issue of FIGHTING AMERICAN that I took this image from and at no point did I see his side-kick named – was that just a running joke, that the poor kid didn’t get a name?

Random Retrospective #11 – Teen Titans #7

Continuing Geoff Johns’ run on TEEN TITANS after their first adventure/origin story, finds the members all dealing with their downtime away from Titans Tower, working out what they’re doing and where they’re going. Cyborg and Beast Boy (or is it Changeling now? I can never remember) are still at the Tower looking into the disappearance of Raven and Jericho – from memory, I think Jericho had gone bad at this point and used his body-hopping powers to make Deathstroke kill his long-time aide-de-camp Wintergreen.

Kid Flash – who recently read the entire contents of a library so that people would stop thinking he’s stupid – is coming to realise that knowing everything isn’t the same as being intelligent. Still doesn’t stop him taking out the Trickster, though.

Wonder Girl has her own issues, though getting into school is helped by Arrowette (and Secret) striking a deal with the principal.

And Superboy gets a visit from Superman who gifts him Krypto to help him focus and get to grips with pretending to be a regular boy in Smallville during the weeks. Has to be said, Superboy’s not really that interested at first.

The other members of the team get a spotlight, too, but topping and tailing the issue is Deathstroke at the grave of Wintergreen, planning his vengeance against the Titans, and enlisting his daughter Rose who will become the new Ravager.

I have fond memories of the Johns run on TEEN TITANS as it pulled together some of the members of the revered Wolfman/Perez line-up along with newer characters and it seemed to work. Johns always seemed to be able to give the sometimes sprawling cast enough room to move and enough of a voice for each of them.

Untold Tales #487 Supergirl and Superman

Sometimes you need family to get you out of a jam.