Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?

Another comic book down. This time, it's not Batman, it's Superman. 

Growing up, the only comic books I ever collected/read was for The Death of Superman story arc. In a nutshell, it sucked. It was suppose to be another end story for the man of steel, and with a name that bold it got kids in the 90's very excited... but it was all a sham. What do I mean, sham? I'll let Max Landis (a very successful screenwriter of our generation) give the low-down on how DC fucked with its readers with this particular Superman story arc.

Now before this end-tale of Superman, DC made the book I have here, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow? Reading their introduction, in the mid-80's DC wanted to wrap up many of their superhero stories - they had introduced a plethora of similar heroes that existed in different dimensions and/or time periods. Shit was confusing. Heroes and villains would frequently cross over and interact, but all of this just made the entire DC universe immensely impossible to understand. So, the execs decided it was time to start with a clean slate, meaning we're going to end it all and reboot the franchise. To do that, they brought on one of the most famous writers of all time, Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, From Hell, The Killing Joke), and had him close this chapter on Superman.

It was OK. Nothing incredible, but interesting. (Frankly, from Moore I would have expected something better, but I take what I can get.) Basically, it's around a decade in the "future" since Superman was last seen. A reporter comes to the house of Lois Lane to do an interview on the disappearance of Superman all those years ago. The story arc occurs as one giant flashback. 

Now, what I like about this tale is that shit gets serious. People die, both villains and heroes, in rapid fire succession - and nobody comes back unlike what happens in the 90's with the DC's other attempt to end Superman. It's riveting. The big villain(s) - not unlike what I read in my previous post on Batman: The Dark Knight Strikes Again is the Luthor and Brainiac team-up. Only this time, Brainiac is a little machine that has mounted himself on Luthor's head and gets complete control over all his facilities. Them, along with a slew of other villains, attack Metropolis. Although Superman is able to a fair job at saving everyone, his alter-ego, Clark Kent, is revealed. With this out in the open, he takes everyone close to him (mostly people from his paper plus his Smallville high school crush, Lana Lang) to his Fortress of Solitude for protection. Next thing you know, Luthor/Brainiac sets up some forcefield that prevents the Justice League's interference as they mount an attack on the place. 

One thing. Let me just point out this one panel where the Justice League is trying to break down the forcefield. Would you look and Batman and Robin. They're whacking the barrier with fucking sticks! Seriously? One of comic's most brilliant hero's solution is to bang a stick against sophisticated, futuristic forcefield. Sorry. I know it's insignificant, but it's often the little shit that can really bother me. Plus it's Batman. He would know better. Anyways... Moving on!

Like I stated early. The story was alright. At least it ends with Superman's disappearance of which he'll never return from (at least not in this series). In this deluxe edition I got, there were two other Superman comics written by Moore that are independent from this story. One where Superman is poisoned by some alien life-form and is saved by Swamp Thing, and another where he's (sort-of) poisoned once again to be trapped in a mental stupor believing where Krypton was never destroyed allowing his villain to imprison him a perfect fantasy world. Both we're not that good. I'm honestly not even sure what they were included. Maybe because they're written by Moore. Seems like just page fillers though. 

In the end, even though parts were enjoyable, I'm going to say this is the worst thing I've read by Moore so far. To be fair, the bar is set high in comparison to his other work. The one thing that really creeped me out was the final panel.

Lois has finished her interview and is heading off to bed with her new husband. At first look I thought this guy is winking like he's about to boink her. SPOILER: They make it clear that he's suppose to be Superman in hiding. (They introduce their child who crushes a lump of coal into a diamond earlier in the page.) Still, it's creepy. Not the last image audiences want to see of Superman. Winking at them with a porn-style mustache. Yech...