expatNERD

Tag: Death of Superman

  • DC Comics Presents

    Can you believe it? This week is Superman week! On Friday I will see James Gunn’s Superman and I really cannot wait. Thus, I continue my Superman recommendations and give you, what I think, are some of the best Superman comic book stories out there.

    I started with the Death of Superman, continued to Superman: Exile, and now I present you three issues within the DC Comics Presents line, featuring the first appearance of Mongul, created by none other than Jim Starlin.

    DC Comics Presents #’s 27, 28, 29, is a trilogy of sorts. For those that do not know, DC Comics Presents was, more or less, DC Comics’ answer to Marvel Comics’ Team-Up, which featured Spider-Man teaming up with another character in the Marvel Universe. Alternatively, DC Comics Presents had Superman teaming up with a character or characters within the DC Universe. This series was created to capitalize on the popularity of Superman after the successful movie adaptations, Superman The Movie and Superman II.

    And what a beautiful three issue series this was. Jim Starlin provided his beautiful art and gave us what he has always been best at: grand stories on a cosmic scale. Len Wein supplied the scripts and this was a true inspired team-up. #27 introduced Mongul and Warworld and we have a heart-wrenching battle between Supes and Martian the Manhunter. Issue #28 was an epic battle between Warworld, an entire weaponized planet, and Superboy and Supergirl. #29 wrapped it up, as Superman tested the limits of his powers as he chased Supergirl who was knocked on unconscious. He went up against the Spectre who told him he was breaking forbidden barriers and the entire issue summed up who Superman is and also gave us an insight into how powerful Sueprman was at the time. With Starlin’s art, these three issues are not only beautiful, but everything seems to explode off the page.

    Because of the significance of this being Mongul’s first appearance, these issues can be quite pricey if found on their own. #27 is usually the hard one to hunt down and I think it will run you at least 30 bucks, depending on the comic grade. But again, it’s worth it, especially if you are not familiar with any of the pre-Crisis Superman stuff.

    I hope you enjoyed these Superman recommendations! With the movie coming out this week, next week I will start giving you some Fantastic Four recs.

    Bis bald,

    Franka

  • The Death of Superman

    The Death of Superman

    With the new Superman movie pretty much around the corner, I thought I would do some Superman centric recommendations.

    First up, is what I consider to probably be one of the best Superman storylines of all time: The Death of Superman.

    This one gets overlooked because when we talk about the Death of Superman, we then talk about the insane hype around it, as well as the comic book crash that occurred shortly thereafter. But let that not deter you, because when you get into this thing, it is an incredible story that is absolutely action packed.

    And when you look inside, every artist, and I do mean EVERY artist was flexing hard. Jon Bogdanove, inked by Dennis Janke; Dan Jurgen, inked by Rick Burchett (on Justice League America) and inked by Brett Breeding (on Superman); Tom Grummett inked by Doug Hazlewood; Jackson Guice inked by Denis Rodier. The whole thing is incredibly beautiful.

    And even though it is a Superman centric title and probably the most famous Superman events of all time, the impact of this would not have been possible without the other super-heroes who make an apperance.

    Doomsday basically destroys Justice League International. In particular he absolutely pummels Guy Gardner, Booster Gold, and Blue Beetle. It was the latter that made my heart skip a beat when I read it for the first time.

    With Doomsday wiping out the Justice League, you know he was a threat. And each artist could depict those epic punches and hits that were thrown by Superman and Doomsday. Jurgens made the windows on the Daily Planet shatter in the concluding issue, Superman #75. And I always cry when I reach the last page. Seriously. Every. Single. Time. This thing brought everyone’s A-game and it still holds up.

    As of today you can find literally thousands of iterations of this. The best way of course is to collect all 8 issues that also crossed over in Justice League America at the time. But you can also find tons of collected versions in both trade paperback and hardcover format.

    Seriously, I love this epic event and so far, in my honest opinion, it has yet to be faithfully adopted into television, movie, or video form.

    Tschüss,

    Franka