Customer Reviews

Superman: Past and Future

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It appears that Amazon has SUPERMAN CHRONICLES VOLUME 6 and SUPERMAN: PAST AND FUTURE linking to a single page of reviews. This review is for the latter book.

SUPERMAN: PAST AND FUTURE collects time-travel stories from various pre-Crisis Superman titles, and unfortunately, the majority of them serve to show just how bad those titles could be. For the most part, the stories featured here are uninspired adventures containing slapdash plots, ridiculous circumstance, and the occasional unfathomable conclusion. Superboy tries to prevent the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, Jimmy Olsen meets Adolf Hitler, Lois Lane flirts with Superman's father Jor-El - even as lighthearted fare, I couldn't stomach these stories. The so-called classic "Superman Under the Red Sun" left me scratching my head, and the epic "Superman of 2965" didn't make much of an impression. The '70s stories penned by Elliot S. Maggin were a step in the right direction, but they couldn't save the collection as a whole. This isn't a condemnation of the pre-Crisis Superman, as I've read many of those stories that are quite good. It's just that when a themed collection consists of material like this, it doesn't do anything for me.

First class is all I can say. It's wonderful to see how the character developed and the storylines improved as time went on. When I was a kid in England I grew up with the art of (mainly) John Sikela and Wayne Boring. The whole series is a joy, and I can't wait for volume 7, but I guess I'll have to!

Volume 6 of the Superman Chronicles reprints Action Comics #37-40, Superman #10-11, and World's Finest Comics #2-3.
While still sticking to simple crimes against gangsters and crooked businessmen, the art begins to take shape in the form of the familiar look that Superman was known for in the 1940's...

Superman trapped under the red sun of a future Earth! The Superman of Tomorrow! Lois Lane on Krypton! And...General Jimmy Von Olsen of the Third Reich? These are among the stories included in this collection in which either Superman (and related characters) travel through time or in which the stories are set in the future. This volume includes stories written by Superman creator Jerry Siegel, science-fiction writer Edmond Hamilton, and Elliot S! Maggin with art by such notables as Wayne Boring and the great Curt Swan. Originally produced between the 1940s and the 1980s, many of these stories have previously been reprinted , but there are several that are appearing in a collection for the very first time. Found in this collection are:

"The Impossible Mission" from Superboy #85 (1960), written by Siegel, with art by George Papp. Superboy travels back to 1865 in the hopes of preventing Lincoln's assassination. In this story, time travel is shown by Superboy smashing through calendar pages with the year written on them.

"Autograph Please" from Superman #48 (1947), created by Siegel and John Sikela. This charming tale has Superman helping a wheelchair-bound boy win an autograph contest by getting the signatures of historical figures. And yes, the story hints that he did get John Hancock's John Hancock. This story is notable for being the first one in which Superman travels through time under his own power.

"Rip Van Superman" from Superman #107 (1956), written by Batman cocreator Bill Finger with art by Boring and Stan Kaye. After being exposed to radiation, Superman goes into a coma and doesn't wake up for 1,000 years. In 2056, he finds a world in which everyone has superpowers and robots do all the work. But there are still bad guys (and don't worry, Superman gets back to his own time).

"Superman Under the Red Sun," originally from Action Comics #300 (1963) and by Hamilton and Al Plastino, is perhaps the best-known story in this collection and was the "cover picture" for the recent Showcase Presents Superman Vol. 4.While fighting the alien Superman Revenge Squad, the Man of Steel is trapped a million years into the future, a time when Earth's sun has turned red. He finds himself powerless on a world populated only by weird creatures and, oddly enough, androids based on his friends and foes (and again, it's not much of a spoiler to say that he gets back home).

"Jimmy's D-Day Adventure" from Superman's Pal, Jimmy Olsen #86 (1965) is a great example of Silver Age silliness. Leo Dorfman, Curt Swan, and George Klein tell of how Jimmy finds some footage of Hitler standing with a man who looked just like him and, wanting to get to the bottom of things, gets a "time bomb" from his friend Professor Potter and travels back to 1944. Circumstances lead him to pretend to be "Private Von Olsen," who has the ability to predict the future. He continues to do so (only predicting defeats of course; Jimmy's no traitor) and gets several promotions, until he meets Hitler, who makes him a general. But Jimmy being Jimmy and this being the Silver Age, he's about to get into even more trouble.

That same year, Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane #59 told of "Lois Lane's Romance with Jor-El" in a story by Hamilton and Kurt Schaffenberger. Finding a way in which Krypton could have been saved, Lois goes to Professor Potter, who has upgraded from time bombs to actual time machines (still, it's better than how Batman used hypnosis for time traveling). She visits Krypton, where she gives the information to Superman's future father, Jor-El. But when she gets ready to return to Earth to "tell Superman the happy news"--somehow not realizing that if Krypton doesn't explode there won't be a Superman--she finds that the time machine is not working. Now stuck on Krypton, Lois figures that if she "can't marry the son, how about the father?" and sets her sights on stealing the still-single Jor-El from his future wife, Lara. Ah, the Silver Age.

Four stories by Hamilton, Swan, and inker George Klein recount the adventures of Superman XX, the Superman of 2965. These stories, which appeared in Superman #181 (1965), Action Comics #338-339 (1966), and World's Finest #166 (1967), do not involve time travel but instead star Superman's descendent, who is carrying on the family tradition. As Klar Ken T5477, he is a reporter for the Daily Interplanetary News,which has its own version of Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, and Perry White, though the latter is a computer. This Superman is just as powerful as his ancestor, but his weakness is sea water instead of Kryptonite. His main foe in these stories is the evil Muto, and in the World's Finest story, he teams up with a future Batman to fight the "deadly duo" of Muto and the descendent of the Joker. While these stories take place 1,000 years in the future, the people are not like those in "Rip Van Superman" and there is no indication that there is a Legion of Super-Heroes. The latter omission is odd, considering that many of the people involved in these stories also worked on the Legion's adventures.

"Costume, Costume--Who's Got the Costume," by Maggin and Swan with inking by Bob Oksner, also takes place "1,000 years in the future," but this time the differences are explained. This story from Superman #295 (1976) was from the period in which Julius Schwartz was editing the Superman titles and Clark Kent was a television newscaster along with writing for the Daily Planet. The mysterious "Father Time" sends Superman into a strange future where primitive humans live in a ruined Metropolis. The future bears a strong resemblance to the one shown in Jack Kirby's comic Kamandi,in which intelligent mutated animals rule the world.

Also from the same year and creative team (with additional writing by Cary Bates) was "Superman 2001" from the 300th issue of Superman. This was an "imaginary story"--a predecessor of DC's later "Elseworlds" tales--in which the infant Superman arrived "today" and was an adult in the "far off" year of 2001. It is always fun to see how past writers predicted the future, especially when those "future dates" are already in our past. The story predicts that in 1990 a woman will be president and supersonic planes will take off from floating seaports and that in 2001 there will be 3D television and a "super-city" stretching from Boston to Washington D.C. However, they did accurately predict that technology would allow there to be a 24-hour news network.

The final story, "The Last Secret Identity," from 1983'sDC Comics Presents Annual #2 (by Maggin, Keith Pollard, and Mike DcCarlo), features Kristen Wells, a history teacher at Columbia University in the year 2862 who travels back in time to discover the secret identity of the mysterious Superwoman. While this is Wells' first appearance in a comic book, she previously appeared in Elliot S! Magin's 1981 original Superman novel Miracle Monday.

There are a number of time-travel stories left out of this volume, including when Jimmy Olsen was the "Red-Headed Beatle of 1,000 B.C." and the Superman 2020 stories of the early 1980s. But this is a great collection of stories that are appropriate for any age. As the Showcase books are reprinted in black and white, it is good to see these stories in color for a reasonable price. "Superman Under the Red Sun" is better for letting the readers actually see a red sun.

-- David Serchay

The full color Chronicles series are a nice balance between the high end hardcover Archive editions and the budget conscious black and white Showcase series. In the case of the old Superman comics I don't love them enough to spring for the full Archive edition and they aren't available in Showcase so this is the only other option. In volume six we get all the Superman stories from spring of 1941 to fall of 1941 when America was just gearing up for WW II. The Man of Steel has yet to acquire the ability to fly and hasn't shown the level of godlike strength he displays in later decades but has already acquired his super speed, x-ray vision and telescopic vision. Mostly he deals with small time criminals and saboteurs as in the second story where he takes care of a con artist who'se swindling women out of money by promising to make them movie stars or singers. It's amusing to see Superman spying on such a small time thug and since he isn't yet able to hover in the air Superman holds onto the top of a door frame to stay out of the crooks line of sight. I mean this is SUPERMAN and he's spending his time sneaking around listening in on the conversations of petty criminals. One of his tricks he uses when trying to keep track of a criminal driving down the road is to slip under and hold onto the bottom of their car which seems unlikely for the barrel-chested Man of Tomorrow.

The penciling is crude and basic, the colors are flat and devoid of shading, the background are bland often featuring a single solid color and the inking is very heavy giving the art a muddy dated look. Even the artwork of the legendary Wayne Boring, who arguably drew the most iconic Superman ever in later years, looks rushed and disappointing. Most of the art is done by Leo Nowak with Fred Ray doing all but one of the covers. My suspicion is that Boring and Nowak were working under very tight deadlines because I know they are capable of much better as they demonstrate in later years. A bigger problem is that after creating this unique character Jerry Siegel, who is credited with writing all the stories in this collection, just didn't know what to do with him. The stories are essentially 1940's serials except with an invincible protagonist removing any suspense. These are the kind of stories you could read today then in a year read them again with little to no memory of having read them the first time. Regarding Lois Lane, all Superman ends up doing is standing in the way of natural selection which should have removed her from the gene pool a hundred times over. She's all bravado and no brains. Over and over again she's either caught snooping or walks right up to the criminals and announces she has evidence on them at which point she is kidnapped for the sole purpose of having Superman rescue her. Superman's early popularity was likely due to his novelty not the strength of the stories because they are rather forgettable. This volume contains but one recognizable villain that being a single story featuring Luthor.

So now that I've ripped the material apart let me say that I plan on getting the next volume. From a historical perspective these are interesting and over time the stories and art will improve up until the 1950's and 1960's when the Superman stories reached a level of fun and whimsy that no other era has ever captured. I enjoy the classic thick as a brick look of Superman and the comic book covers, all of which are included here, are always a delight,. Even the two dimensionality of the characters has a sort of retro charm to it. Hilariously Nowak drew nearly every single villain with a pencil thin moustache. These stories lay the groundwork for future tales but I think you'd have to be a *ahem* super fan to find the art or stories in these comics anything more than mediocre.

What can I say, I love Superman. I can't say nothing negative even if there is something negative to say. I reas all Superman stories whether they are good or not and some do suck. However, this early stories demonstrate how Superman should be. In some of these stories some criminals died and Superman din't care, or he hurt some real bad and didn't care.