#superman triangle years

[speedingbulletreviews]

Adventures Of Superman #522, is one of the all time best untold stories of The Triangle Era. Just excatley how did Metropolis get rebuilt after the Fall.

At the time I always thought it had something to do with Zero Hour shenanigans, but no it was fixed by...

well that's spoilers, and this book is worth the read.

This is has one of the all time best Daily Planet covers. It is perfectly drawn by Immonen.

This is a great one shot issue as we ramp up to our next Super event!

[cloislibrary]

The Place Between Sleep and Awake

Author: kcchameleon

Pairing: Lois/Clark (Smallville)

Publication Year: 2025

Genres: Angst, Drama, Romance

Word Count: <1k (Short Story)

Rating: T

Season/Era: Season 9, Metropolis Years, The Blur

Setting: Prime Universe, Canon Compliant

Other Important Characters/Relationships: N/A

Additional Tags: Blur Love Triangle, Lois Lane POV, Internal Conflict, Dreams, Post-Episode: "9x18 Charade"

Summary:

“Lois had dreamed about him for nearly as long as she could remember.”

[camifornilla]

A modern tragedy is that we’ve got a queer Super, a queer Wonder, and a queer Bat but none of them are from the same generation, which is incredibly homophobic of DC Comics if I do say so myself. Give the people SuperWonderBat, okay. It’ll make Everything better. It would be enriching

[sorenlionheart]

i am dangerously close to making my own interpretation of superman

[brokenengene]

rip my heart out {chapter three}

pairing: park jay x f reader. jake sim x f reader, yang jungwon x f reader

genre: zombie apocalypse au, slow burn romance, found family, action, dystopian

content warnings: intense themes, cursing/profanity, violence, weapon usage, dark themes, brief mention of past abuse, love triangles, angst, blood, injuries, death, kissing, sexual tension, suggestive content, smut in later chapters

chapter specific warning: lots of making out (oops), implied virginity loss (fade to black)

missed a chapter? click here :)

word count: 4.2k

soundtrack: if it's not with you - maggie lindemann

'Sparks'

October: One month before the outbreak

The school bell rings, and you clutch your backpack. Walking towards your next class period. You let out a sigh of dread. You don’t just hate biology. You’re not good at it either. For some reason, science just isn’t your strong suit. The staggering 'D' looks out of place on a report card filled with 'A's. 

“Alright, for our next unit, you’ll need to get into pairs. This course includes a lot of lab work, so choose wisely.” The teacher announces.

Perfect. Just what you want to hear. You sit nervously as the rest of the class giggles and gets into pairs. Ever since freshman year, you’ve always kind of been the odd one out. By this point, you’ve gotten used to it.

You fidget with your thumbs in your lap, and the sound of chatter from the classroom surrounds you. You’re snapped out of your trance by the sound of the door opening. A boy with large glasses and messy dark hair stumbles into the classroom. His arms are full of books. 

“Sorry, I’m late, Mrs.Dean. I won’t let it happen again!” He says as he takes the only open seat in the front, right next to you. You glance over at him, observing his frantic state. 

“Perfect timing! We have one student who is still looking for a partner. You’ll be working together for the rest of the unit.” Mrs. Dean says with a firm tone, leaving room for arguments as she gestures towards you.

 Embarrassed, you put your head on the desk. Hiding your face, wanting nothing more than for the day to come to an end. 

He looks at you with a soft smile. “Hey, guess we’re partners now? Are you excited about the new unit? I’ve been dying to get to this class. Cells, mutations, it’s all so fascinating, isn’t it?”

“Fascinating if it makes sense..I can’t even figure out the Punnett squares.” You say, pulling your face out of your elbows, looking up at your new partner with a weak laugh. 

“Oh yeah! Aren't you the girl who set off the fire alarm freshman year with your chemistry project?” He asks curiously.

“God, don’t remind me..” You say with a low groan as you open up your textbook, flipping to the correct unit page.

“Sorry, didn't mean to hit a nerve, Sparky..” He says innocently. Almost like he didn't realize the nickname made you hurt. If it were any of the popular kids calling you that name, you'd hate it. When it comes out of his mouth, it makes you feel completely different.

“Ah, Sparky, almost forgot about that,” you say with a soft, painful chuckle. You look him in the eyes, noticing his messy dark hair and large-framed glasses as he smiles back. “What's your-”

“Just call me Kent. Everyone does. You know, Glasses? Superman?” He swiftly interrupts you. Gesturing to his appearance. You have to admit, you do see it.

“Kent?” You ask, your expression softening as you feel his name fall from your lips.

“Yeah, it started back in middle school. The other kids were making fun of me, and it just kind of stuck.” He says with a weak laugh. 

You both diligently focus on your work until the bells ring. Mrs. Dean dismisses the class right on time. 

You let out a sigh of relief. Slamming your textbook shut and stuffing it into your backpack. You swing the bag over your shoulder as you start to walk down the crowded halls.

“Hey Sparks?” your new partner calls out as you shift through the crowded hallway. You stop in your tracks, turning to look at Kent pushing through the crowd.

He weaves in and out of the crowd until he finally reaches your side. You both step out of the way and lean against the lockers. He hands you a piece of paper with his phone number and real name scribbled on it with messy handwriting. 

You look up into his eyes, noticing just how big, round, and wide they are. Almost like you could see galaxies swimming behind the large frames of glass. 

“If you ever get stuck with the homework, don't hesitate to give me a call.”

You take the paper, a soft smile tugging at the corner of your lips. At the generous nature of his offer.

“Thanks, I appreciate it.” You say, your voice laced with affection. 

No one at school has ever looked at you that way. After years of being the weird, quiet girl who sometimes tries a little too hard, for the first time, you feel seen.

“See ya around Sparks.” He says his cheeks are flushing as he holds his textbooks closer to his chest. He turns to weave through the crowded halls, fighting to make sure he isn't late to two classes in one day.

November: 3 weeks before the outbreak:

“Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now 8:45, the library will be closing in just fifteen minutes, please make your final selections and don't hesitate to ask a librarian for assistance. Thank You! And have a good night.”

Tears swell in your eyes as you look at your laptop. Textbooks and notes are spread over the computer desk. Your eyes are tired from exhaustion and lack of sleep.

Your midterm final for biology is coming up, and you're trying so hard to prepare. You’ve tried everything, flash cards, computer games, anything to help you pass. 

Over the past few weeks of helping, you and Kent have become closer. Friends even. The good morning texts, the study sessions, the late-night calls. You can't help but find yourself wanting to see him more, wanting to know him more. There's a tension between you that both of you keep denying out of nerves. 

“Hey Sparks, let's just go ahead and call it quits for tonight. I don't want you burning out before midterms.” Kent says as he softly pats your back in an attempt to provide comfort.

The lights dim.

“Why do I feel like such an idiot…I don't know why you even try to help me. At this point, it's a lost cause.” You say, sniffling from the tears, as you turn to pack your textbook and laptop back into your bag.

“Sparks.. don't say things like that.” He says firmly, grabbing your wrist to stop you from violently shoving your laptop into your backpack in frustration. You pause, breath hitching at his touch. Your eyes drop down to his hand wrapped around your wrist before he softly laces his fingers with yours under the desk.

“You're not a lost cause, ok? I can’t stand to hear you talk about yourself like that.” He says his voice is a soft, shaky whisper. He reaches up with his free hand to gently wipe away your tears with his thumb.

His heart races as he pulls you closer, his breath hitching at the proximity. The corner of his lips tugs into a smirk of disbelief. He's so close to you right now, his eyes flick down to look at your lips. A gentle gasp for air escapes his lips before he subtly licks his own. 

“You're the only person who doesn't treat me like I'm a walking study guide,” He says, chuckling softly with the self-deprecating comment. He's still so close. His hand slides to cup your face. Gently brushing against your hair, around your ear.

“You are so intelligent, Sparks, I don't care if no one else can see it because I certainly can. You’re beautiful inside and out.”

He whispers against your lips. Your heart stops. There's only a few breaths of space between you two.

“I’ve been dying to kiss you, Sparks..”

He whispers, his voice barely audible at how soft and delicate it is. You squeeze his hand tightly as you take a deep breath, subtly giving him consent.

“Is that a yes?” He asks softly against your lips. Knowing this could change everything between you for better or for worse.

“It's a yes.."

He leans in, nervously capturing your lips with his own. You're breathless as he parts your soft lips with your own. You squeeze his hand tighter. Without words still telling him, you want this.

You start to get comfortable with the feeling. Warmth fills your chest as you taste the lingering peppermint from your shared latte. Your lips part with a soft gasp. He seizes the opportunity to taste you even more. 

He captures your lips again, harder, with a little bit of added suction. Only to release them, but not for long. His hand releases yours as it slides to grip your waist. He tits his head slightly, quickly diving in to taste more of you.

The cool material of his glasses presses against your cheek as he kisses you. 

“God, Sparks..” He whimpers breathlessly against your lips. The library is so quiet, you can hear the racing beat of his heart. His cheeks flushed a soft pink with arousal.

He looks into your eyes, his glasses slightly fogged from the heat of your breath combined. He leans in to kiss you again, laughing nervously as his glasses knock against your nose.

“Shit, sorry..” He whispers. His glasses crooked on his nose and fogging up again as your lips softly drag against his own shamelessly. You gently tug at his bottom lip before letting it go. 

You reach up, gently cupping his face before locking eyes with him. You hesitate before grabbing the edge of his glasses, slowly sliding them off his face, and gently laying them on the computer desk. 

“Sparks, keep kissing me.” He whimpers as you lean back in, claiming his lips with your own. His lips part in invitation, and you gladly accept. Softly letting your tongue meet his with a breathless moan.

“God, I'm so into you-” He whimpers as he starts to fall apart right in the middle of the cold, dark library.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the time is now 8:55, the library will be closing in just five minutes, please make your final selections and don't hesitate to ask a librarian for assistance. Thank You! And have a good night.”

You slow the kiss to a stop, breaking away nervously as you hear the announcement on the intercom. Your lips glistening and swollen as you look down at him. “I guess we should probably get going.”

You swiftly pack your things. The tension thickens between you as you exit the library. You cross your arms around your chest at the cold wind. You can see your breath in the air as you struggle to steady your still-racing heart. 

You walk by Kent's side as flurries of snow start to fall. The snow quickly picks up, sticking to your hair and clothes. The white flurries stick to the top of his dark hair like powdered sugar.

You continue to tread through the snow, and it only starts to fall quicker and quicker. The Christmas lights tied around the light poles are covered in a thin sheet of ice. You watch nervously as cars slip and slide on the now icy road. You reach a few more blocks until you turn onto the driveway of Kent's house. The neighborhood looks like a scene out of a Christmas movie. The only cars parked outside are yours and his. 

“Hey Sparks, this looks pretty bad out there. You should just crash at my place for the night. It'll be dangerous for you to drive home in all that mess.” 

You both tumble in the door, bringing snow and mud into the hall.  Both were wet from the melted snow. You both take off your coats and boots. Letting out a soft laugh as you follow him up the stairs into his bedroom. 

“Here you can wear some of my clothes, I’m sorry you got all wet.” He says as he shuffles through his dresser before pulling out a pair of loose sweatpants and an oversized shirt. You take it, swiftly stripping your wet clothes off and sliding into the warm, dry ones that smell fresh yet sweet. Just like Kent.

He steps into his bathroom to change, giving you a little bit of privacy. Once you're both changed, you take a look at the clock. “God, it's been such a long day..” You say as you plop down on his mattress with a soft thud. 

You turn to Kent, your cheeks flushed from the cold and the memories of the kiss. The feeling still lingers in your tongue. He chuckles as he joins you on the mattress, his front pressing softly against your back. His arms wrapped around you, holding you close in the cold.

“So about that kiss..” He whispers, his breath warm against your neck. His hand came to rest on your waist. 

“What about it?” You whisper back, leaning back into his embrace. The heat between your bodies only intensifies.

“I've never kissed anyone like that before, that was...intense.” He says his breath is shaky as his lips brush against the side of your neck. He presses a gentle kiss to the softness of your skin.

“I can't stop thinking about how it made me feel.” He whispers, his hands shaky as they gently run underneath your skirt, brushing against your skin just above the waistband of his borrowed sweatpants.

“Sparks, I've never done anything like this, if you couldn't tell already.” He says his voice is shaky as you roll over to face him. You both awkwardly shift into position. You lie breathless beneath him, your heart stopping its beat just at the way he's looking at you. The room is incredibly dark, the only light coming from a small lamp on his study desk in the corner of his room. 

You both sink into the covers as he uses his knee to open up your legs, making room for him to lie comfortably on top of you. His forearms straining as he cages you in, hands on either side of your face.

Your breath hitches as he takes off his glasses in preparation for what's to come, tossing them onto the nightstand before cupping your face with the same hand.

He kisses you again, like he’s searching for something more. His breathing gets heavier as you feel him starting to get more turned on from the intimate nature of the moment.

He pulls away to catch his breath, his lips lazily dragging down your throat. The room feels like it's on fire as he whispers huskily against your skin. 

“I’ve never had a girl in my bed before.. And I've never been more turned on in my life. I want more, so much more.” He softly moans as he slides one of his hands down the side of your body. Confessing things he never imagined he'd say out loud.

“There were so many nights when I thought about you.” His grip on your hip tightens, whimpering as he kisses your lips harder, it's messy, it's rough, and you can feel his control slipping by the second.

“Sparks, I’m nervous if I go too far, I’ll mess everything up.” his voice is shaky as his fingertips push the oversized shirt up more and more, revealing your skin to his heated gaze. You can barely breathe at his confession. You nod, helping him to lift your shirt up and over your head.

 He says as he sits up on his knees, stripping his shirt off his body before coming back down to rest on top of you. His hands hold your waist down as he kisses down the side of your neck. You let out soft moans at the warm feeling of his lips. “I have no idea what I’m doing..But I want to learn everything about how to make you fall apart.”

“You don't sound like an awkward virgin right now.” You say with a breathless chuckle. He gasps into your lips again. His heart felt like it could beat out of his chest any moment. He’s feeling everything, nervousness, anticipation, desire.. “God, I'm not going to last long, you'll see..”

“I don't care. This is my first time, too.” You whisper into his ear as his head rests in the crook of your neck. His heart beats with intensity as you feel his breath on your skin. “I have no idea what to do either..” 

“Then let's figure this out...just be patient with me Sparks..” He says deeply as he trails kisses down your body. Every move he makes is purely on instinct. His lips make you forget any thought that isn’t about him. His body, his sounds, his everything. 

“If you say yes, I’ll learn every inch of you from scratch. Damn it, I’m shaking already..” He mumbles with a nervous chuckle as he kisses across the expanse of your exposed skin. “I don’t care how messy this gets, please, Sparks..Tell me you want this as badly as I do.”

With a whisper of three letters, your whole world changes with a “yes.”

Late November: The day of the outbreak {Kent's POV}

I feel like I’m in heaven as her lips are on mine. I kiss her back, but it’s obvious she’s the one in charge. My hands slide to her waist, thumbs tracing the waistband of her pants before I slide up to rub comforting circles into her lower back. 

Things heat up quickly. She's not holding back anymore now that she’s my girlfriend. I feel her body pressing desperately against mine. A soft chuckle falls from my lips, yet still I’m breathless.

“Woah, Sparks, slow down..” I gasp, the nickname slipping from my tongue with ease. 

I can't hold back either. Reaching down the side of the passenger seat and reclining the chair all the way back.

 “Comfortable?” I say playfully against her swollen lips. 

She grins, kissing me like she’ll never see me again. Laughing as she tangles her fingertips into my dark hair. Every moment with her feels like I’m in heaven. I haven’t known her long, but I don’t know what I would do without her. 

“What the fuck” she curses, slowly pulling away from me with furrowed brows. 

The music coming from the radio fizzles out. I try to catch my breath as I watch my girlfriend smash the channel button. Visibly Frustrated that the moment was ruined.  

I look past my girlfriend, glancing briefly out the window. Is that smoke? Flames even? Did a car catch on fire? I sit up in the passenger seat. 

“Is something on fire?”

I look out the window and see smoke and flames for blocks. Cars drive off the road, and the sound of terror can be heard from every corner. I can smell the ash and soot already. And I know in my gut, this isn’t good. 

The voice of a terrified news anchor cuts through the noise. Their voice is quivering, like they’re trying to keep it together on the air. 

“Authorities have warned all civilians to stay sheltered in place. There is an unknown disease spreading violently. Do not come in contact with anyone who appears to be infected. The National Guard has been deployed to areas with the highest infection rates-“

That’s all I hear before the radio cuts to static. 

“I’ve got to go-“

I watch as Sparks jumps out of the car, adjusting her clothes as he sprints north towards the direction of her house. 

“Sparks!”

I yell back, but she’s too quick, already gone. 

I quickly grab my jacket and throw the car door open. The smoke makes my eyes water as the cold wind blows it into my face. I started to run after her. More and more smoke is getting caught in my lungs. I pull up my shirt to try and filter the air. 

The city is in ruin. I step over mutilated bodies as I run in the same direction as Sparks. I hear sirens and the sound of tanks as the National Guard marches into the city. There’s blood, so much blood. But all I can think about is her and if she’s ok. 

Something slams into me, then everything goes black. 

Sirens wail as I slowly open my eyes. My body was lying lifeless on the concrete. Blood trickles down my face from my skull. My vision is hazy, glasses broken and thrown away from the crash. I look to my left to see a broken car crashed into a light pole right next to me. 

Holy Shit. 

I can’t move. 

I try to sit up, but I physically can’t. My body feels like it’s being held down to earth with a magnet. I just want to get to Sparks. I need to know she’s alive, but I’m frozen in place. 

Silent tears start to fall down my face as I lie nearly lifeless on the concrete, completely paralyzed. As I realize that’s the last time I might not be able to reach her. I notice the concrete turning red, and I'm not sure if it's my blood or someone else's. 

The noise of walkie-talkies cuts through the sirens. 

“Over here! There’s a boy! He hasn’t been infected yet.” Yells one of the soldiers. 

The rustling sounds of boots come closer and closer. But I’m too broken to care. 

“He’s still breathing! Load him onto the stretcher. Take him to the hospital in the safe zone.” The soldier yells. 

And that’s the last thing I hear before I wake up in hell.

Present day: 5 years after the outbreak

Jungwon sits at his desk, as focused as he can be on his second day of no sleep.. The bright, fluorescent lights of the underground cellar flicker as his eyes scan over more files, more charts, more maps. 

A tall man with dark hair pushes the door open. His expression was annoyed as he saw Jungwon sitting at his desk, still sifting through documents. His eyes were tired, and his skin was pale. 

“Insulin, just as requested boss.” The tall man says as he throws a poorly wrapped box onto Jungwon's desk. Jungwon looks up at him from the top of his files. 

“Thank you, Riki. You’ll be compensated accordingly.” Jungwon says bluntly as he immediately goes back to his files.

Jungwon pushes his chair back. Stretching his arms and shoulders as he walks towards the large board in the middle of his office. He looks over the lab tests and maps. His handwriting scribbled over the papers in red ink.

“Did we make any progress when I was gone, boss?” Riki asks curiously as he leans against the doorframe. His arms and tall legs crossed as he watched Jungwon pace back and forth. 

“Yes? Maybe? Ugh the virus mutates so fast it’s damn near impossible to study it. I still can’t figure out..just.. FUCK-“ Jungwon yells as he tosses his files with rage. He lets his fingers tug at his hair with frustration. 

“3 years.. 3 years since I escaped that hellhole and I’ve found nothing..how many more people are going to have to die!” He says as he puts his face in his hands with frustration. 

“Hey boss, don’t be too hard on yourself, we’re really all just tryin’ our best out here..” Riki says, his brows furrowing as he watches Jungwon, usually calm, collected, and stoic, lose it right in front of him. 

“But it’s not good enough! She’s still out there, and the S.P.A.R.K project has barely made any progress!” Jungwon yells back as he paces back and forth, his eyes tired from the endless nights of studying, searching. 

“Why’d you even call it that anyway? What’s so special about it? You’ve got this look in your eyes every time it gets brought up.” Riki says calmly. His brows furrowed with confusion. 

“It’s stupid..” Jungwon says as he lets out a deep sigh, finally calming down from his frustrations. He runs another hand through his hair, adjusting his glasses as he looks back at Riki.

“Don’t care. I like stupid.” Riki says firmly as he closes the large metal door before coming to lean against Jungwon's cold desk. 

“Jungwon pulls open one of the drawers. Pulling out a torn Polaroid photo. The color is faded, and it’s been taped together over and over again.” Her..that’s Sparks. At least that’s what I called her. 

Riki’s expression is soft as he takes the Polaroid in his hands. Gently holding it, careful not to break it any more than it already has been. “She looks young-“

“She was almost seventeen. It was junior year of high-school and damn..I don’t know if I was just young and horny or seriously in love with her. Never got enough time to figure it out.” Jungwon watches as Riki’s eyes scan over the Polaroid. 

“If you named this whole project after her, I think you have your answer, “ Riki says as he glances at Jungwon again. Watching how his brows furrow with thought.

“Even if I did love her, I never got to tell her. I still remember it all. The last day I saw her. We had snuck off to make out in my car.” He says with a painful chuckle.

“And the world just happened to turn to hell that day. She was brave, braver than I. She ran straight home to save her family. And I haven’t seen her since.” 

There’s an uncomfortable silence between the two before Riki speaks up with a whisper.

“Think she’s still alive?”

“She has to be…I know she is..” Jungwon says as he stands up from his chair. Bending down to pick up all the files and paperwork, he shuffles through them again before looking back towards Riki.

“I’m gonna find her, Riki..I'm not dying until I get a chance to kiss her again.” Jungwon states with a firm tone. 

And he means every word. 

note: Chapter 3 is finished! I hope you guys like the flashback and the little twist at the end. There's more to come soon. I'm currently editing Chapter 4, it's got some smut, so be prepared for things to get spicy :) I'd love to hear your thoughts! If you like the story so far, just leave a comment and I'll add you to the taglist! I promise there will be zombies soon!

Stay Safe!

xoxo kate <#

If you missed it:

{chapter two- 'safe house'}

{chapter four -'i know why you ran'}

taglist: @kyunlov @yazmike @loverbyfate

[mamawasatesttube]

#okay everybody shut the fuck up WHO WAS GOING TO TELL ME SUPERMAN USED TO HAVE A MULLET?!?! (via @url-is-url)

oh yeah mullet supes was around for a few years - more precisely, that would be everything between "reign of the supermen" (1993) and "superman: the wedding album" (1996)!! his hair grew out while he was recuperating from being killed by doomsday + revived by the eradicator, and he didn't cut it until his and lois's wedding.

superman (1987) #98

"Just keep shootin' till he drops!"

"Okayyy..."

[aingeal98]

I haven't read any comics w Jay in them, but all I hear about it is that they're a bland nothing character made only so they can advertise Jon as queer. But since YOURE a fan of JayJon and one of the realest people on this site, i dont think that's v accurate (the bland part, at the very least) and I'm curious about what they're like :3 (also the panel they chose for the poll is not flattering at all T.T why does Jon look like that)

Awww thank you! I can't promise they're everyone's taste, and I understand people's hesitation due to the double whammy of Tom Taylor and Jon Kent, and initially when Jay was introduced I didn't have any interest in them at all. What got me intrigued was the ongoing Secret Six run, which is a book absolutely chock full of messy gay drama. And that got me to go back and deep dive into Jayjon.

The basic summary that I can give as propaganda is that Jay is a seventeen year old anarchist who successfully convinced Jon Kent to go along with his plan to overthrow a dictatorship. He's much more active a partner than a generic love interest, and in a lot of ways he's helping Jon define who he is outside of "Superman's son." Despite being created by Tom Taylor, the more comics Jay appears in the more it becomes clear that he's not a two dimensional sweet supportive love interest. That boy is a Hater. It's literally one of my favourite things about him.

(And also I think people saw Tom Taylor's name, Jon Kent as the protagonist, and Jay's pink hair and made a whole bunch of assumptions about him and Jayjon that lumped them in with Tim Drake and Bernard under the "DC doesn't care they're just throwing these heroes with random boring gay love interests" take. Which I disagree with especially when it comes to Jay tbh.)

But to understand my own personal love for jayjon, as someone who doesn't really care about male characters in general, you gotta understand the third part of this messy triangle: Nia Nal aka Dreamer. Spoilers for everything involving the three of them below.

Her backstory is written in Bad Dream: A Dreamer's Story but basically Nia is a half alien trans girl who grew up in a hidden alien sanctuary in America, until her powers manifested and she left and after some drama and tragedy, she became a hero. She shows up in Jon's Superman run to help Jon and Jay out because of future visions she had in her dreams. Why? Well now we get deep into Jay.

Jay Nakamura is a refugee from Gamorra, an Asian Island nation located in the Pacific. His mother used to be president of Gamorra, but when her successor was elected he turned the island into a dictatorship and began experimenting to create metahumans. Jay was tortured and experimented on, gaining the power to turn intangible. He fled and made his way to America, where he began running an underground news site attempting to expose the news mainstream media ignores, such as the Gamorran refugees. Jon during this run is struggling with the weight of being Superman and what kind of hero he wants to be, and decides to help Jay and the Gamorrans. They fall in love, kiss, and end up saving Gamorra with Nia's help. It's very Tom Taylor as in the ideas are interesting but he's limited to everyone getting an uncomplicated happy ending. Luckily, the characters aren't limited to his run. So instead of being a simple happy ending, things get a lot more complicated.

Then comes the one two whammy of Suicide Squad Dream Team and Absolute Power, which is a terrible comic for Amanda Waller but a great comic for Jon, Jay and Nia. Really enjoyable if you pretend Waller is possessed by an evil magic force the entire time. In Suicide Squad, Waller assembles a team in order to infiltrate Gamorra and take control. She blackmails Nia into being a part of the team first by threatening to expose her hometown of aliens to all of America, and later on by holding the life of her family hostage so that she does Waller's bidding. This leads to Nia using her powers to get the Suicide Squad into Gamorra, where they then assassinate the president.

... Aka Jay's mom.

Nia does end up flipping sides and helping Jon in Absolute Power after he's possessed by Braniac, but despite that Jay still despises her, and understandably so! Jon is caught in the middle between this girl he likes who he knows is a good person, and the boyfriend he loves who understandably hates her. And on top of that his fear of his powers being used to harm others came true and he is NOT coping well after his first time being possessed. And also Nia seems to be crushing on him.

So we come to Secret Six, which three issues in is just gay drama from top to bottom. You've got Deadshot and Catman for old man yaoi, Jon Jay and Nia all forced to work together and full of messy emotions, and Black Alice who was also part of the team who killed Jay's mom but is far less openly remorseful compared to Nia.

And thanks to all that, I've grown very fond of Jon/Jay/Nia. Trans girl who's OK with killing certain assholes vs Anarchist gay guy from a discriminated minority vs Jon Kent liberal flirting with leftism while also dealing with superpowered trauma. It's a powder keg and an entertaining one!

Bonus reading list by bobbinalong on twitter. And bonus extra fun panels.

^^ Guy who is definitely doing OK and his boyfriend who definitely does not feel personally responsible for calming him down

They're very gen z and the Tom Taylor does shine through at first but I still enjoyed them a lot. Secret Six is one of the current ongoings I'm loving and need more of. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but definitely mine!

[secretidentie]

My Superbat prompts

I've been reading superbat since forever and I finally got a tumblr account so I thought I could ask some writers to use these.

Clark kent is at the manor to interview Bruce Wayne when Dr Freeze attacks and they're basically snowed in. Bruce trying to hide secrets and Clark getting the chance to write the story of the year in the form of an I depth exposé from inside the home of billionaire blah, blah, blah... Chaos and fluff.

Bruce is in a love triangle with superman and Clark Kent. Clark assumes Bruce knows he's one person. Bruce decides to solve this by brooding and going on a series of dates with them both until he decides who's his perfect match. (you decide if Clark knows Bruce is batman but think both versions are hilarious)

Bruce Wayne has to go undercover as a carnival worker in a small town on batman business. After the Daily Planet is bought out by corrupt government officials, Clark quits and goes back home to Smallville. He feels like he's changed and isn't as fulfilled by the simple life, not to mention how much harder it is to keep being superman. He doesn't even feel useful on the farm and can't find a job he enjoys to make some money of his own and leave the house. He starts visiting the fair to take his mind of things and meeting this handsome carnival worker who he definitely would have recognized in a small town like this.

LexCorp frames Wayne enterprises for some shady dealings putting the company under investigation which might even lead to it filing for bankruptcy. While Fox and others fix this, Bruce, as the face of the company, is advised to lay low and leave Gotham for a bit. He decides to get an apartment in the cheap side of Metropolis, since all his assets are frozen and he only has one working bank account. On top of that he has to deal with his hot new roommate (or neighbor depending on how you write it) who keeps leaving and coming back at the weirdest hours while also trying to keep tabs on Gotham and maybe getting himself a job in the mean time. (to be clear Clark is the roommate)

During an argument batman says he could easily do superman's job and superman says the same. So they swap cities for two weeks. First to call for backup looses. (feel free to add romance if you want but it's not compulsory)

Clark final gathers the courage to ask out batman but right before he does, green lantern starts flirting with batman too. Harvey dent is recently released from arkham and claims to be reformed and wanting to rekindle his well known public relationship with his collage sweetheart Bruce Wayne. This causes Oliver queen to also try to win his childhood best friend's heart. It's a very long week for Bruce. (all povs if possible. Also Bruce knows everyone's identities but no one knows his. This also doesn't have to end up superbat, choose your favorite ship. Make this love-pentagon as messy as you can)

These are just a few of my personal favorites. I have a lot more. Let me know if you want me to post them. If fics with these premise already exist let me know coz I would love to read them. You can make it as explicit as you want or make it for general audiences but for my sake please add fluff. If you use these prompts also make sure to tag me here or on AO3.

[fallloverfic]

Thoughts on To Be Hero X Episode 6: Two E-Souls

What an episode XD

I'm a bit worried about shipping anyone because my characters of interest seem to keep dying alkdjal Yes, Nice died (presumably) in Episode 1, but Wreck also maybe died later lakdjla Ah well, it's never stopped me before!!

They really pushed Shang Chao and Yang Cheng together this episode. Yes, there was lots of love triangle stuff, but surprisingly interesting moments of making Shang Chao matter a lot more to Yang Chang. I know the idea is to make Shang Chao's death more relevant for Yang Cheng, but still.

Just... this whole sequence with Rock setting them up, and it being framed as an awkward date. Shang Chao having interest in Yang Cheng... I love it. I love all of it. Even if he could have alternate reasons for it like money (maybe), building up his own hero business, platonic friendship, or even just because Xia Qing likes Yang Cheng, this is still so adorable.

I still love E-Soul's secretary(?) and his pink outfit. Looking fly, sir.

I think the episode handles the identity fraud thing in odd way, but eh. I think another point should be made how 1) there are many actors pretending to be E-Soul, and even contests for who can be the best, which E-Soul seems to support, so by certain standards, this is fine and allowed, and 2) it would be kind of complicated to make people stop believing in Yang Cheng, which is kind of what Shang Chao is saying. Identity fraud is an individual choice, not a mass movement of people convinced you're someone else.

I didn't think about it last episode, but this arc is giving me Death of Superman vibes.

Yes, Yang Cheng using his new powers to... electrocute children. I imagine it's just static shock (another great DC Comics character), but... well... It's good to remember that electric shocks can kill and tasers can be very dangerous, even if they're meant to just knock people out, which even on its own is dangerous for a variety of reasons. Even static can be bad. If nothing else, it can burn and paralyze.

There's something really tragic about E-Soul going from this person who fought actual villains (maybe) to... selling action figures of himself. A lot of celebrities do it, obviously, it's just framed in a really kind of sad way? Like ah yes, we're holding a press conference to announce the limited edition statues of myself.

I'm just saying, Yang Cheng doesn't wear the gloves all the time. He could have had it off while Shang Chao worked on it. He didn't. This was a choice. I notice that right hand Shang Chao. I NOTICE IT!!!!

It's also really lovely how hard Shang Chao and Xia Qing are supporting Yang Cheng. Shang Chao is putting a lot of effort into it, not just from a money and convincing his father angle, but also clearly through his technical expertise.

They're just so cute. "It comes from each person that supports, trusts, and loves you." INDEED. THAT LAST ONE THOUGH. Followed almost immediately by putting his hand on Yang Cheng's shoulder.

He believes so hard in Mr. Hero.

I love when Shang Chao is driving the car towards the ongoing crime, and Shang Chao is also talking animatedly into a walkie talkie and Xia Qing is tightly holding onto her seatbelt, looking reasonably concerned about the distracted driver. She deserves better. Poor woman.

I have a weakness for speedsters: I've been a Cyborg 009 fangirl for years. Yang Cheng and E-Soul are not 1:1 with Joe, but there's just a little in the scenes where Yang Cheng races off. His determination and conflict feel similar, too and I actually think they're similar in age.

I also think we hear Yang Cheng's theme/E-Soul's theme(?) in this scene. It sounds nice! If anyone has a link to it, I'll add it to the post.

The whole Yang Cheng fight scene was really cool. Babe doing great!!

I know a lot of us suspected that Shang Chao was the true villain behind everything, and who knows, maybe he really is all along or something, but I like to think he's innocent, he just wants to support Yang Cheng. And that support is really adorable. Taking photos, planning events... It's just really cute. I do, however, wonder why he at no point hires a lawyer. I'm glad he thought up the petition, and it's great his father (maybe Mr. Shand?) managed to get Enlighter, but a lawyer would also have been nice, too :D I mean unless pink dude was a lawyer, E-Soul didn't seem to have one at the mediation either, even with all his money and connections, so I don't know...

It was nice to see Enlighter again. And he's kind of random, but fun! Also, although he's not a lawyer, he does the semi-accurate thing by casting doubt onto the evidence: they can't prove it was Yang Cheng, and it's very unlikely it was him. They can't prove Yang Cheng is guilty. That's likely how a case would have been handled. Though it wouldn't have worked out in this specific fashion. The goal of the defense isn't to find who committed the crime, it's to show how weak the evidence/the case against the defendant is.

They're just so cute, they end me. Every time Yang Cheng feels doubt, Shang Chao is there being like hey :3 Yes, I know Shang Chao asked Xia Qing out. I'm not into the ship, but I support anyone going for an OT3 thing here. Still, I'm rooting for my guys.

And then, alas, the bullet they were previewing... hits Shang Chao. This show sure does have it out for characters associated with the color yellow (Nice, Wreck, Moon, Shang Chao). I think it's interesting he was playing with the helmet when it happened, maybe to tease the theories about him becoming E-Soul or something. And obviously it's to accidentally make the gunman think he's Yang Cheng.

Sad days, sad days. But hey, maybe he's fine (that's not really what a gunshot to the head looks like, so maybe it was a graze, plus, it hit him through the helmet, which might have been armored to some degree, even if it didn't fully stop the bullet)! We'll see next episode, I suppose. (Though the preview for Episode 7 seems to show Yang Cheng and Xia Qing attending a funeral, even though we had a fake-out funeral before with Moon). And who hired the assassin? Pink dude? E-Soul? The fear villain? Someone else? Was it just a rabid fan of the original E-Soul or Yang Cheng? We'll have to see. It definitely seems to make sense why that portal E-Soul (presumably Yang Cheng) was attacking older E-Soul in the character trailer.

Again, I really like how they're using 3D animation in this series and swapping between art styles. It's a lot of fun. But every time they do the 2D, it makes me really wish that was the primary way they were doing the series... It's so much nicer looking...

Overall, it was a great episode. Looking forward to Episode 7! (And if you need some Shang Chao/Yang Cheng comfort, here you go)

More thoughts:

Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3, Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6 (You are here), Episode 7, Episode 8, Episode 9, Episode 10, Episode 11, Episode 12, Episode 13, Episode 14, Episode 15

[speedingbulletreviews]

Superman #99 is a personal favorite, and I will argue an underrated classic.

Granted, it's not part of some bigger crossover and the villain Arclight is not the memorable, although he does come back.

Also Dan Jurgens really seems to be struggling with his dialogue this issue.

it also has one of my biggest pet peeves in Superman, and that is not having Jimmy get the respect he deserves as a photo journalist who's pictures have repeatedly graced the front page of The Daily Planet.

Despite all of that it has absolutely stunning layouts by Gil Kane! Kane is a master comic book artist and one of my personal favorite Superman artists, just go and hunt down his Action Comics from the 80s! Kane is absolutely at the top of his game this issue and Rubinstein's Inks are perfect. However what really works for Kane here, is the perfect colors by Glenn Whitmore they give the pages a extra punch.

if you haven't yet give this issue a try, its more the worth the cover price!

[sarksarkos]

Super-Friends '59: The Lois Lane Extended Universe

I remember when Discourse happened in Season 1 of My Adventures With Superman, and my partner was like "THIS Lois/Clark is "toxic"? Clearly you've never read a Silver Age comic." This is Superman's Girl Friend Lois Lane #7. Welcome to the Gutters.

That's right, it's another fleeting Lois Lane/Lana Lang crossover. Once again, Lois refuses to take a hint that her man is clearly not interested in her and makes the like of being Superman's "girlfriend..."

Ugh, I'm sorry. These comics do Lois Lane so dirty. A lot of the time she's portrayed as such a stalker that she drives Superman to extreme behavior just to get her out of his hair.

In fairness, she is being depicted as a brave and clever investigative journalist who will go to great lengths to expose corruption. But so often she's also written as a damsel in distress or an emotional burden for Superman, and not a capable person in her own right.

While as children, Lois and Lana's only common ground was their mutual ladyhateboners for Superboy, when they meet as adults they are a lot more chill with each other. Lana has come to Metropolis looking for work, but crashed out so badly she lost all her money and became homeless. She was too proud to go to Superman for help, but Lois refuses to leave her. She takes Lana in, lets her stay in her apartment, and even gets her set up with a job at the Daily Planet.

They spend the night talking about their pasts with Superboy, and knowing what kind of comics these are, I expected there to be jealousy between the two. Instead, Lois is the perfect host to Lana, and their respective crushes on Superboy only bring them closer together. It's genuinely sweet to see them bonding like this.

Naturally, it doesn't last. Once Superman makes a ring for Lois to match the one he gave to Lana, Lana starts making the moves on Superman. At first Lois is willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it gets more and more blatant until she catches them making out in their apartment. This gets her mad enough to throw away her ring, which is what the whole dang thing was about.

It turns out that whatever the ring was made of was violently explosive, and Lois was in danger as long as she was wearing it. Really feels like this comic could have been an email. The three of them all make up and Superman does his best to keep this toxic love triangle upright. That note could refer to at least four women in Superman's life, one of whom is a mermaid and another is his cousin.

We meet a few members of Lois Lane's family around this time. In Jimmy Olsen #36, we're introduced to her younger sister, Lucy Lane, who works as an airline stewardess. Jimmy Olsen falls for her, and tries to charm her by dressing up in a bunch of silly costumes and acting like a big shot. We don't really see in Lucy's head but I like to imagine she sees right through this and is just having fun with it. Jimmy and Lucy have a much better relationship than Clark and Lois.

Meanwhile, in Lois Lane #13, we meet the Lane parents, Sam and Ella Lane. In more modern comics, Sam Lane is a US Army general, and the Lanes are military brats. In the Silver Age, the Lanes were just a carbon copy of the Kents. They really only had one character archetype and kept stamping it out whenever there was a blank space in the narrative.

Also in Jimmy Olsen #36, we get the story of how Jimmy and Superman first met. I expected this would just be a workplace comedy where Jimmy helps Superman out of a snag, but it turned out to be absolute silver age nonsense.

On his very first day in Metropolis, Jimmy answers a classified ad for an assistant with a time machine. Having no sense of self preservation, Jimmy steps into the time bubble and is shot back into the fourth dimension. The first flight of the ship was meant to go back some 20 years, but he winds up back on pre-explosion Krypton.

Jimmy is such a krypto-weeb that he can fluently speak the language and immediately ingratiates himself with Jor-El and Lara. He gets a job as baby Kal-El's babysitter and helps save the precocious little boy from Kryptonian security agents trying to silence Jor-El. It's interesting to see how even when Krypton was unironically presented as a science utopia, they still have their thugs around willing to beat up scientists and kidnap babies.

Because whenever you time travel you always wind up at the most historically significant events, Jimmy is there right on the very day that Krypton goes asplody. He makes it back to his timeship but when he returns to the present he has no memory of anything that happened, because of the dumb rules of time travel.

Superman does remember, because of the dumb rules of superpowers, and as soon as Jimmy arrives back in the present, Superman flies in, slaps a signal watch on him, and declares that they will be best friends. This is... honestly, I've read slash fiction that started the same way. Jimmy is lucky that Superman didn't slap a collar on him and start calling him his pet human.

...I have to go write something completely unrelated and not at all horny. Until next time!

[donut-rambles]

Tagged by @onewingedsparrow Thanks for tagging me!!

(Also I saw Halo the Ghosts of Onyx on your list!!! I love that one so much. One of the very very few books that nearly made me cry at the end)

Six Books I want to read this year (I’m gonna count comic series, dont judge me)

Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (i started this one last week, read 2 of the 7 volumes and it’s absolute fire so far)

The American Story: The Beginnings by Tim Barton and David Barton

Serial Burn by Lynette Eason

Superman The Triangle Era Omnibus (1300 pages of good ol’ 1990s Superman yo)

Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody

Reformed by H.L. Burke

tagging @dearlittlefandom-stalker @taleweaver-ramblings

[popculturebuffet]

Supermay II: The Death of Superman Review

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to Supermay II: The Sequel You Knew Was Coming. In addition to my look at both times superman smashed the klan, i've got another double feature ready to go courtsey of Brotoman.exe, who sponsored the looks at what's so funny about truth justice and the american way and it's adaptation Superman Vs the Elite. Once again we're looking at a dtva movie and it's source this time The Death of Superman and it's first film adaptation Superman: Doomsday. Next year i'll look at the Death and Return duology of films and the first apperances of the substitute supermen.

For now we're looking at one of the biggest comic book stories of all time. A massive event in and outside the comics, making national news, making a nation mourn and showing people WHY superman was important. And it all started with what was intended to be a throwaway joke.

Backing up a bit, Death came about in the 90's, during Superman's "triangle era", the era right after John Byrne left. Instead of each book having it's own storyline, all three books and an eventual fourth would pass the stories and subplots along from writer to writer. To facilitate this an annual summit was held where the writers hashed out the ideas, fought to the last man standing, or compromised to plan out the years titles.

The writers at the time were:

Jerry Ordway, writer and artist for the Adventures of Superman (Originally just superman before a new title was launched with that name post crisis) He took over after wolfman left and also co created infinity inc and post superman succesfully revivied Captain Marvel (Aka Shazam, Aka the Captain), after the poor guy spent most of post crisis in limbo.

Roger Stern, writer for Action Comics. Stern had been one of marvel's best writers, writing acclaimed runs on Spider-Man, Avengers and Dr Strange, writing "Who Can Stop the Juggernaught?" for the former, and "Under Siege" for the latter. He left following scraps with editorial.

Dan Jurgens, writer and artist for Superman. Creator of Booster Gold who did excellent work on that series and got rewarded with superman. Left a massive impact on the franchise and returns to it frequently, writing action comics during rebirth and doing a death of superman anniversary mini series recently.

Louise Simonson, writer of Superman: The Man of Steel. Another marvel vet who left after Jim Shooter honked them off, Louise Simonson was the editor on X-Men for years, and later jumped into writing. She wrote the excellent X-Factor and a decent run on new mutants, the former shaping just who apocalypse is and most of his personality and turning the book from a half hearted spinoff into a proper one.

The books were doing well creatively but were hit in sales. This was at the peak of the dark age of comics and anti heroes were selling while Superman was seen as passe. This was far from the first or last time superman had hit a slump but the writers found ways to keep intrest up: They built up Lois and Clark's relationship, cumilating with a moment decades in the making: he told her he was superman. He later proposed and things seemed to be moving towards a wedding.

The writers had everything planned.. then corprate synergy hit.

Yup once again this has always been a thing. In this case the show Lois and Clark was doing gangbusters and the execs wanted DC to wait to do the wedding around the same time as the show. Which meant the WHOLE YEAR had to be scrapped and started over and they needed something to replace it FAST.

So with things tense Jerry Ordway did what he always did at these meetings: he made a joke. He suggested they kill superman. What normally got a laugh or I assume a "shut up jerry"... instead hit silence. With sales low and a story needed.. everyone genuinely considered. As Louise Simonson was quoted in an article I cannot find

"Death show[s] just how much that character means – to his friends, family, enemies, to the whole world!" Carlin agreed. The world was taking supes for granted.. so he'd show them what the world was like without him. Ordway was in shock.. even more so when DC agreed. They got the blessing of co-creator Jerry Siegel and were off to the races using an idea Dan Jurgens had had of a giant hulking monster tearing his way to metropolis. And thus the Death of Superman was born, streching across all 4 books AND Justice League america which superman was headlining.

The book itself got massive press coverage, massive numbers and successfully got the public to care again. It's a titanic story one that changed superman and comics forever, still holds up after all this time, and holds up on a re read. Let me show you why under the cut

I rarely mention how i'm reading a story but in this case I wanted to spotlight my trade I got at Vintage Stock years ago, the same one I used as the cover photo for this article. I bring it up because comic collections were a bit sparser then: They happened but it was usually reserved for either long out of print titles or big events. So for this to not only get a trade but one aimed at the christmas season was a BIG deal and I have no doubt it's massive sales number, it's still the #1 selling graphic novel of all time, helped influence publishers to start doing more collections again.

I'll be using scans from the recollored 2013 trade as it's what I could find, so with that off we go

We begin with the teasers leading up to the storyline: a mysterious figure clad only in a green jumpsuit pounding the walls of it's prison, each time making more and more of a dent, as it does destroying part of it's gloves to reveal a spiked fist. Each kraang, kraang hitting till...

We'll get back to this ominous harbinger of doom later as for the bulk of the rest of the issue we have some unrelated wacky nonsense to deal with. I'm not one to take the side door i'll come up front and knock: I have not read a ton of this era of superman. It hasn't been collected especailly well till very recently so i've only read pieces: the death and return trilogy, some of superboy's solo, some of Superman's time leading the justice league (More on that later), and the crossover right before this panic in the sky. So i'm going mostly by what i can look up so if I miss something, apologizes in advance.

In this case what I had to look up are the villians of our first issue as while i've read this story twice before.. I still had no idea who the fuck these guys were

These are the underworlders. Their a mix of castoffs from genetic research lab and mad science factory Project Cadamus and aliens left over from an attack by Braniac using Warworld, a giant murder planet created by the despotic Mongul.

They've decided to , what else, take over the city and are hyjacking the power grid to do it. They've also recurited the various unhomed folks who live down there to help. I will be summarizing this as much as possible as it's not really important... though bafflingly it was adapted into the video game adaptation for some reason.

Look i'm sympathetic to a lot of lesser known characters as in the right hands they can become something amazing. I mean Peeper went from "that guy who sure did existed' to a memorable if brief part of al ewings sword run with just a few panels

But these bozos are a mishmash of various plot points all strung together that distract heavily from the story.

Keith, a young boy whose neglectful mother was taken by the undeworlders is terrified of them.. but realizes they might be lying and goes for help. As Lois reads a note at the planet warning superman to check bellow , charlie skulks around the tunnels. I like how lois handles the note. She goes to investigate because.. she's lois but leaves clark a note on his computer... just as the also rans cut the power, meaning Clark dosen't see it and only knows she left something. Which is bad as while Lois lane can fucking roundhouse kick.. she kicks a man with the consistcey of a brick wall who takes her prisoner.. and jokes that the boss "dosen't take hostages". We get a true gut punch as Keith reflects on what this means

This whole time the poor boy has been hoping he could make his mother love him.. and she's gone.

Thankfully the desperate boy has a good idea; he picked up some glow in the dark paint earlier and in one of the best sequences of the issue, paints a glow in the dark s on the ground desperate to get Superman's attention. I love the shot of the poor boy praying.. and Superman arriving hugging him, making sure Charlie is okay. The rest of this story is passable at best.. but I do love Charlie and this moment and the one above. He's such a great character and I can't remember if he did more after this but I hope so.

As you'd expect Superman.. easily cleans out. He even makes a guy eat a grenade. I mean he's invunerable but still tha'ts fucking awesome. He gets into a spot of trouble here or there.. but it's easy. Why the writers choose to wrap this issue up in doomsday's first proper apperance I don't know. But the day is saved and turns out lois is alive: charlie, one of the unhomed men living down there, was the man who sent the note and helped bust things open and convinced their leader, some pink dude, to let him take her to be executed.. then didn't. Charlie is left in charge and is named the daily planet's new underworld corrispondent and there's foreshadowing to some other threat the less murdery citzens of the undeworld chasing in the tunnels.

Now you may be wondering: Where was Doomsday during all this? Well during this story I was trying to get through to get to the actual meat, Doomsday was intercut. He took a bird in his hand.. then squashed it, did a reverse optimus prime on some deer and generally showed it's a remorsless creepy monsters who laughs at the death it causes. It's nice ominus setup.. this creature slowly approaching, no remorse, no soul just death .. and it ends the issue easily punching a truck and laughing at the explosion it causes. Another Trucker calls the state troopers for help.. and thankfully the proper authorites pick it up: The Justice League America.. or Justice League International if your nasty.

I'm so excited to talk about these guys. So a brief recap for those less familiar with them: The Justice League International were the first justice league after crisis on infinite earths. With most of the big 7 unavaliable for various reasons, writers Keith Giffen and JM Demattis and artist Kevin MacGuire went in a diffrent direction: Make it a sitcom. Don't completely ignore drama or danger, but have the characters banter off each other, using lesser known heroes who could use the bump. It's one of my faviorite teams ever.

But all great things must come to an end and this run ended just before.. but the team lived on and both the JLI (aka the Justice League America ) and the Justice League Europe second team were rebooted, each given a new leader and a new direction. The JLE got Hal Jordan pre-parallax and a pedophile for a writer and JLA got Superman and Dan Jurgens. He added one of superman's own supporting characters and a newcomer and gave the book a more standard superhero direction but without sacrifcing the humor entirely or the characters that'd been build up. The results from what i've read are pretty good: Not as great as what came before but a solid redirection for the team that builds off the past and creates something neat.

Superman stepping up was signifigant as up to this point post crisis superman had stayed out of teams. But after the whole warworld fiasco , he realized he needed the rest of the community and when the jli was slowly reforming, gladly backed them. So it makes perfect sense for them to show up here.. and get railed out by Doomsday, though thanfkullyt his was LONG before the trend of killing off minor characters for drama was a thing so everyone surivives and their all treated with respect.. they just won't be enough.

So our team at the time was

Blue Beetle (Ted Kord): One of my faviorite characters. A gadgeteer genius in a bug costume usually with a quip and some fear for his life, but he'll press on anyway. Drives the Bug, a cool as hell giant beetle flying car thing that became the league's mode of transport.

Booster Gold: Ted's best friend and a shiftless man from the future who stole some shit, headed to the past and wanted to become a superhero to recover his old glory. This didn't quite pan out, but he did grow as a person. He still never met a zany scheme he didn't like, but he will do the right thing when it matters.

Fire: A bombshell with fire powers who was part of the Global Guardians.. the team the JLI made defunct. Woops. She quickly decided to apply for the League instead, got in and remained a part of it since. She's one of the leagues more powerful members and her firey flirtatious personality is backed by skill and a care for her bestie.

Ice: Said bestie. The more naive, kind and sweet yin to Fire's yang, with ice powers to match. She's the heart of the team and was with Guy Gardner for a while till he broke up with her because he was jealous she had a crush on Superman. Or she broke up with him. Still don't know the specifics I just know Guy was butthurt

Green Lantern Guy Gardner: Captain Butthurt. The man Batman once punched into the face. The man who mooned batman. The man who got into a fight with a normal cat and lost. The man who thinks a bowlcut is styling. Guy is a green lantern giving him tons of power.. but is also a macho, arrogant, jingoistic, sexist asshole, the team douche. Like Booster and Fire he's far more versatile than he gets credit for.. but unlike them he really does suck a bunch and apparently picked a fight with superman. You know Supes just saying "i'm in a commited relationship" could've.. ended all this. Maybe. You'll see this guy in all his douchey glory in July.

Maxima: One of two new additions to the league. Maxima was a longtime superman supporting character post-crisis, the queen of a distant warrior race who wanted to fuck superman and make him her king. Many a reader would agree but superman both didn't like her warlike ways and you know.. was in a relationship. Which was wiser not to bring up this time as Maxima would try and break lois right in half. Like a kit kat bar. She reluctantly agrees to join the team. She has super strength, flight and telepathy.

Bloodwynd: The odd man out. He was introduced at the refounding of this new iteration of the league saving their asses. He is.. a lot to explain. At the time no one knew who he was but his ass saving got him a slot. I'll go ahead and spoil the mystery that is built up here with Beetle even figuring it out: Bloodwynd is the martian manhunter.. brainwashed byt he spirit of a racist who became a demon who trapped the real bloodwynd in their own crystal. A bunch of slaves used magic to kill their master, as they should and passed the crystal down and the latest BLoodwynd got the short end of the stick. It's a lot of not so wacky nonsense we don't get into and has a lot of less than stellar implications. Point is Bloodwynd is botht he martian manhutner and a real guy.

They start the next issue rescuing people from the aftermath of Doomsday's rampage: the freeway's covered in fire and our heroes have no idea just WHAT could've caused this just that they need to find it. Ice is bummed.. because she's missing tv

I mean even if it's because Superman's being interviewed... focus Tora. As the team banter in the bug, Beetle suggest bloodwynd use his vauge psychic powers to locate Doomsday.. as a sneaky way of gauging them so he can figure out who the guy is. Unfortunatley Maxima agrees to help. I bring this up partly because Beetle's search to find out who Bloodwynd is, aka who I just told you it is, plays a part later and partly because it's a nice contrast to the last issue: like last issue it loops in a plot that's not really tied to the main story.. but unlike that it feels more organic. Beetle isn't punching some guy that will have anyone tuning in just for the story going

You get enough from his thought bubbles to get what's going on and Maxima's search yields important info: She's found Doomsday.. and he's hate and bloodlust personafied, quickly proven by the man choking out a deer that happened to be curious. Man the one dear in history that isn't scared shitless by a stranger and you killed it you monster!

While that attrocity goes on Cat intreviews Superman. It's done in a neat way, as the top panel of each page while the other 4 deal with the league. Cat Grant was a reporter at the planet and is now a talk show host for some reason. She also dated Clark breifly early post crisis and would later return to the planet. She's become a staple of superman usually as the office alpha bitch, sometimes with a heart of gold sometimes not and sometimes played by miranda running her own company.

In this case she's inbetween.. not totally callous at this point but still downplaying the JLI, claming Superman's return has given them new strength and other ways of basically saying they sucked until he got there. Superman, being superman, disagrees, correctly countering that no they were good heroes and good people long before he got there. Also guy was there. He also apparently fought Guy recently, i'm betting it was Guy's fault, but refuses to disparage him. Bet it felt good punching him. Man if Diana hasn't punched him she should. Complete the set.

The League is having bigger problems though.. Doomsday spots the bug and throws a fucking tree through it, a nice casual display of strength.. and some cunning. While Doomsday is guided almost entirely by impulse it shows WHY he's so hard to put down: He dosen't know where he's going, but once he has a target he can destroy it. He lives only to destroy.

The League thankfully escape with Guy hitting on his ex Ice because of course and Booster being the one to catch Beetle.. because of course so Doomsday resumes smashing cars while Superman fields questions from students, about if they party and what not. He says they all have their own intrests , a way to dodge the question really and that guy gardner "has.. intresting ways to spend his free time"

A kid also wonders if superman fired Guy from being a green lantern. This had me wondering as... I never thought about that. I hadn't last time I read it as I forgot this was BEFORE Emerald Twilight, when all but one green lantern was left standing. Why DID he loose his ring.

Well this being guy the story is hilarious as it is petty and stupid. Hal wanted his position as Lantern of this sector back and wasn't willing to share so Guy challenged him to a fight for it. To his credit guy willingly retired when he unsuprisingly lost. This brief brush with dignity lasted all of 5 minutes as he quickly wanted powers again and conned lobo into going to Quard, the anti matter universe to get Sinestro's ring. Sinestro was dead at the time. He got better. When he found out they didn't have it he headed to oa, graverobbed sinestro and was back in buisness. Crimes against your former foes do pay off!

Back to the plot and more Guy as he does his thing: Rushing headlong into the fight without any backup, ignoring blue beetle's advice and in this case getting wrecked horribly by Doomsday. What I like about this is normally this would be guy either just getting beat up for comedy or being his usual self. Here... it shows just how dead serious things are as before Guy can even conjure anything Doomsday grabs him at super speed by the face and SLAMS him into the ground. Guy goes from his usual self to scared shitless. Fire does her best to contain doomsday, horrified as while she may not like guy.. damn if this wasn't bad. But nothing she does stops the thing. Bloodwind also tries using the power of the spirits or something something and ... gets knocked though refinery bursting it into flames.

Beetle goes to get him... and finds out who he is.. and in true fashion for Ted's life Doomsday shows up RIGHT after that to beat the poor guy into a coma. That isn't a joke. Ted is in a coma after this getting his face slammed into some metal and weakly begging for someone to save him. It's hard to read: not only do I love ted and hate seeing him like this it's just.. brutal. The guy is the last one who should've been alone with doomsday and is lucky he lived through this. Oh and to make it worse when Maxima and BLoodwynd try to catch him.. Doomsday grabs bloodwynd and hits maxima with him, leaving ted to hit the ground HARD, Ice unsure he's alive.. and booster PISSSSSSEEEEED. No one kills his dubiously hetero life mate and gets away with it.

He hits him with everything he's got and once again it does nothing. It's a common theme in the issue.. but it works. This league isn't the a-list, but their all still damn powerful: a green lantern, two elementals, two people as strong as superman, a himbo from the future and my boy. And NONE OF them can do anything.

Booster is slapped so hard his flight ring, some tech from beyond his time that allows him to fly, cannot stablize.

Thankfully help arrives. While all this was happening superman rushed off to help.. and the final panel is the stories converging, superman catching Booster who proclaims "It's like Doomsday is here!" And he killed a deer

We get a great character moment as the next issue begins: Ice worries ted.. is gonna die. Maxima's response? It was a good warriors death good for him. Ice has to beg her to stop fighting for a second and go save him. It seemingly goes against her honor.. but she acknowledges ice and ted have helped her, so it's only honorable and goes to get Ted to a hospital before his bones pop out.

This leaves Tora in a bad place: She has to go find doomsday alone. And what's worse she's picked up his pattern: He just bulldozes through in a straight line..and is heading right towards a housing development.

At the house he's going to be turning into a warzone, some douchey kid with long hair skates up glad for the weekend. He berates his mom for not having enough snacks, calls superman lame and is somehow not struck down by god for his hubris. Instead Ice crashes through his window and Doomsday ghoulishly follows.. and longhair berates superman for taking a punch. Superman takes another.. that sends him through several houses before doomsday barges into theirs, punching Ice and laughing about it, and that's terrible then preparing to murder jay's deformed clones mother and his baby sister before superman steps in bellowing no. I get the sense gen x runoff here was a jab at their readers but can't imagine the writers would be that petty.

So the team, newly reunited decides fuck it. Time to make their powers combine with a big showy RAINNNNBOWWWW BEAAAMMM. They both fail to summon captain planet.. and do ANYTHING to doomsday. They ripped his suit a bit revealing his now iconic 90's as hell jagged appearence. Most villians this edgelord don't really work for me, trying way too hard. You have to work hard to have spikes work.. and they do here. Doomsday works being a jagged grey spike man.. because of what he is. An engine of distruction. An unstoppable force. A damn literal monster.

Booster quips without his suit he's as "powerful as pee wee herman" he wishes. Even in death he is stronger and wiser than any of us could've ever dared dream. But Booster still can't do anything.. including run as Doomsday is a cruel bastard. It's a clear trait: from crushing the bird to the deer to ice, he will beat on an opponent till he thinks it's dead or he gets bored and moves on to something more intresting to hit. He gleefully laughs as he slams boosters whole ass body into a car door and beats the despairing hero over, and over and over again.

We also get one hell of a cliffhanger after Doomsday takes out Bloodwynd. He decides to leave having had his fun and left the rest of the league a broken mess.... and his attack on bloodwynd sets nirvanasuperfan69@live.com's house on fire. An explosion leaves fire, who was helping her, knocked out, ice ko'd, and no one to save them except superman... whose chasing after doomsday who can leap tall building in a single bound. And superman... makes the last choice you'd expect..

It's a powerful scene.... because Jurgens art does a good job. You can see above just how much PAIN this is causing. That this is the last thing Clark would EVER want to do. The last thing he can. It's the worst thing he can think of: Someone needs him.. and he can't help them. It's superman's vow to save everyone he can put to it's test: he should save a child calling for help, screaming and begging.. but he can't. And as much as I clown on the hairpile the comic does a good job reminding us: this is still a kid. no matter how much of an ass he was being.. at the end of the day he's a scared child BEGGING for superman to save him.

The opening to the next part is grim: To Booster's credit, and something to show next time he's written off by another fan or a writer as "Just some idiot"... he TRIES to get up, tries to keep going as this kid needs him.. but his body has been through a car door and a giant grey monsters fists. The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised. Superman catches doomsday above.. but to his horror, having hoped one of the leaguers could help. .he can't. And proving who he is .. Superman plans to go back down. It shows that while he can TRY to put dozens of lives or another.. ti's just not who he is. he tried ratoinalizing it tried not doing it.. but he can't ignore someone in pain.

Superman realizes that Doomsday can't fly though so he piledrives him into a lake and HOPES it'll hold long enough. He does , with an assit from bloodwynd, save the day and hairbag is releived. With that.. superman's alone. Paramedics have gotten to everyone else and while Guy can urge superman to murder the bastard.. it's all he can do. The league is spent, bloodwynd peaces out to avoid being seen by paramedics.

Now this does lead to an issue I have with the storyline: Where the hell is everyone else? It might be explained in funeral for a friend but i'm baffled NO ONE comes in to try and fight this monster as i'ts broadcast on the news. I get he's out in the midwest at this point, he's not to metropolis YET, my neck of the woods.. but Green Lantern can fly, The Flash can run, Wonder Woman can also fly at a decent clip, and the justice league europe still exists. I don't buy that NONE of the heroes fast enough to get here just sat it out and it feels weird.

Out of universe.. I get why. It's to not crowd it. They used who they had in office and most of those heroes would've also gotten banged up and unlike the league, it'd be harder to thread into their own books. It's a hard ask. It still baffles me on JLE as while not a superman book.. Oberon, the league's man in the chair, could've still called them for backup. And bruce.. well bruce had his own issues

Where Power Girl is I have no idea.. but it's clear there's simply no one strong enough at the time to do anything to doomsday alone except the Man of Steel.

What's next is mostly one long fight as Superman finds Doomsday sprining up from the abyss to attack a helicopter and while Superman saves the people he can't do much. The two end up in a small town and as the sheriff calls for civil defense the whole place gets destroyed: buildings are shatterd, cars are gone and superman is using his FULL strength. Superman is always holding back trying not to kill.. but for once in his life Guy was right.

I'm not someone whose for superheroes killing: If there's another way, you should not kill the person. Simple as that. You start killing because it's easy or the justice system is fucked, it just gets easier. But... i'm also not one to clutch my pearls if they do it for the right reason. The world is complicated.. you can save every life you can but sometimes... someone is just going to keep going and killing till they can't be stopped. Invincible did a great job both in the comics and this season of showing that, that sometimes you HAVE to do the hard thinga nd it dosen't make you a monster. It's doing it because it's easy or because you can that does.

Superman dosen't WANT to do this.. but doomsday can't be reasoned with. He likely can't be contained as he broke out of his own hole in the ground, and he bodied the entire justice league. He will keep killing till there's nothing left. He does his best and Maxima arrives to help.. but it may not be enough.

So back in Metropolis Lois storms into a tv taping jimmy's doing for his show turtle boy, a nice nod to the silver age. He's needed at his main job as you know , Doomsday and all that. The two watch on tv and prepare for doom to come to metropolis

Someone else watches.. Lex Luthor

This.. is gonna take a lot of explaning and boy oh boy have I been looking forward to this. There's a lot of things i've had to look up for this storylines, a lot of things I was unaware of and had to edcuate myself on. But this one.. was genuinely fun. Ladies and Gentlemen I present

Yup.. this all happened. And in the dark and edgy 90's no less. Not an imaginary story, not an imaginary tale and it was never retconned out pre-flashpoint. It may or may not still be canon, we genuinely do not know but man is it a trip.

Okay so post crisis it was decided Kryptonite was radioactive, and it wasn't good. In a clever twist.. Lex got cancer, something the DCAU adapted and where I first saw this storyline play out. It did not have an australian clone son. A shame.

Luthor did what he always does: a complicated scheme. He faked his own death in the andes, had his brain put into a younger body and returned to metropolis as his own bastard son, Lex Luthor II. The new him was hairer, muscled and presumibly has a MASSIVE wang. While the younger and muscular part is understandable I do love that lex had to give himself not only a giant luxrious mane of hair but a full beard and extra arm hair, something he already had but wanted more dammit! It's so gloriously petty.

As for supergirl at the time she wasn't superman's cousin but an alien blob from a pocket universe that followed him home. She was a blank, wanting to find her place in the world and on returning.. found lex who seduced her with.. no effort. Him saying love in the european sense.. was mistaken for a confesion and he was like "fuck yeah I can finally fuck superman".

Lex tells Supergirl not to go help, as she did recently and he was cross about it because lex does not know how to treat a woman or he wouldn't need a genetically engineered ding dong and millions of dollars to get women.

The fight continues but Maxima and Supes are tripped up by their diffrences. Maxima cares not one iota of a shit for collateral and tosses Doomsday into a super market. This argument distracts the two just long enough for Doomsday to turn around and turn the tide. Maxima is strong as superman.. but sloppy, yanking out a light pole and causing a massvie explosion due to all the other stuff they've busted up. Maxima is out and Superman is knocked out, woken up by the Guardian.

The Guardian is a tad complicated: he was a wartime creation of Jack Kirby, a blue hero with a shield and Kirby's second after a certain other guy who punched hitler. He was brought back later when Kirby went to dc again and created the fourth world, this time a clone of the original. This backstory stuck post crisis , with the DNA Project he worked at becoming Cadmus, with the only adjustment being that Jim was shot the second he found out about the clones and each of the clones not lasting long.

This one finds supes and wonders if all this destruction was REALLY necessary. I mean it's only a mindless engine of destruction. Superman decides he must do this alone. Because he can't certainly call other people who are powerful and know what the hell they are doing, that'd make sense. Wonder Woman had scabies that week I guess.

Next issue and after talking with Guardian a bit, who at least wishes he could've been there sooner to get tossed around like a ragdoll, Superman tracks Doomsday, thinking about his opponent. He likens him to a tornado, a force of destruction and wishes he knew where he came from. The team didn't come up with an origin at the time, figuring it wasn't important.. and they were right. While I don't mind his later backstory as the ultimate weapon or some such, Doomsday as is.. works. He's a force of nature that comes out of nowhere, the rare time that works as WHY he is isn't important: he's a mindless monster who attacks anything in front of him then stumbles around till he finds another thing to hit. Superman has to save a poor guy whose car is sent flying.

This puts him behind as Doomsday finds his way to lex mart! Lex Mart, come for the australian clone of yourself, stay for the 40 cakes. Doomsday wrecks it till he watches a promo on tv

Dammit hulk hogan once again the blood of the innocent is on your hands!

I do love this gag... it's both unesettling given where it's send the war machine.. but also a nice bit of comedy. It's something I do like about this writer's room: They aren't afraid to inject some silliness into things: Clone Lex Luthors, Hulk Hogan inspirsing death machines to kill, flying cars, weird shots at pee wee herman. IT adds some levity to this pretty grim storyline without undercutting the tension.

Superman interupts Doomsday's stories to fight him once again, crashing through Lexmart.. and then noticing to his horror as he spots choppers.. specifically the Daily Planet's flying newsroom.. which sadly is not the globe fitted with jet rockets so it can go catch scoops. Though if any of the current superman writers are reading this, that idea is free. I completely give it to you and dc comics and will sign whatever. Just make it canon. Same goes for the writers of my adventures with superman. Give Jimmy another pile of money to burn. Make my stupid wishes reality!

We get another interlude with Aussie Lex, letting off a bloody hell before insiting supergirl stay at home dammit. "This is a healthy stable relationship that won't end in you trying to kill me for cloning you!". His real reason is he thinks Superman will win because he always does. Only this time.. it'll come at a cost.

For now Lois and Jimmy look on grimly, the fight bellow not exactly fun to watch as it's clear Superman is struggling and never has like this. And when Doomsday starts changing metropolis, Clark realized that the huckster has gotten him all riled up and throws the fucker into a mountain to try and get him away. This seemingly lands him in nowhere.. but the mountain is a facade. This is Cadmus' main base.

Superman is horrified to realize he plunged Doomsday into Cadamus' hidden ewok villiage which is thankfully uninhabitaed and they brawl through the trees as they collapse.

Superman barley gets out and rendevous with Guardian who was summoned.. only for both to get knocked out as doomsday escapes. Even having a thousand ewok homes collapsed on him did nothing. He's headed right for Metropolis. Doomsday is here!

Beggining our penultimate chapter, doomsday snaps a construction workers neck as Superman arrives to save the rest of them, and I like how the art makes him look tired. He's trying but while it's clear he will not stop.. there's a question of what he can do to stop any of this.

If this has all sounded like one long fight scene.. it absolutely is. The arc easily boils down to "The justice league then just superman tries to fight doomsday but barely slows him down, rinse and repeat". It could get reptitive.. but it isn't. The sheer amount of damage poured on could get tedious but instead just emphasises how BADLY outclassed Superman is. At this point Doomsday's been hit by the justice league repeatedly, hit by them with everything, hit by superman repeatedly, been caught in an explosion, piledriven into an ocean, a moutnain and an ewok villiage, and punched a lot. And the only thing that's been hurt.. is his outfit. Meanwhile superman keeps going.. but every panel shows off just how tired he is. The damage hasn't sunk into his body visably.. but you can see just how much he's straining.

The damage does start to sink in here though as superman's cape and costume start to tear. He's lagging.. but he does not let up. He can't... people need him. So he keeps going .. even as his horrified parents watch back home, Martha horrified this is being billed as entertainment. Jonathan however gets it: not everyone understands that Superman.. can actually be hurt and as clark bleeds for the first and sadly not the last time, it's clear he's desperate, trying to grab on as Doomsday ends up underground and kills one of the jobbers from earlier and fly him up into the air.. only for him to grip a gass line.

The massive explosion FINALLY gets Lex's seal for Supergirl to go into action.. though naturally he's also playing this off as being superman's fault

Matrix gives a now bleeding from the stomach superman a second to recover.. but only a second as he smacks her into silly putty

Matrix is down quick to the point I forgot what she even did when getting pictures for the review. It's once again a possible weakness that's instead a strength: with all the build up it was assumed Matrix would easily swoop in and turn the tide, help out or at least give Clark some rooom to breathe. Instead she's down in less than a minute.

Superman's other allies try to help: his science friend Professor Hamilton, Hamilton's waitress girlfriend and Hamitlon's friend, roomate, bar owner, #1 superman fan, superman's pal and the best superman supporting character Bibbo ready a canon that at least knocks doomsday a little.. but he controled falls onto their building.

As superman shields Keith, who lookie there did come back, another superman supporting character tries her hand: Maggie Sawyer, dc's first openly gay character that i'm aware of, head of the metroplis pd and badass and her cop partner and best friend Dan Turpin, who was modeled after jack kirby for superman the animated series. The two try to open fire.. but even with super guns it does nothing.

The issue ends with some guys in jetpacks firing at superman and Doomsday as Superman swears to stop him

Thus we've reached the Climax. The final battle.. and the final sacrifce. A neat trick Dan Jurgens came up with is a sort of internal count down: each issue has had progressively fewer panels, cumilating in an issue of all splash pages, something he'd wanted to do for a while but edtiorial wasn't sure he could pull off. Given how striking this issue is, he more than proved them wrong.

The fight continues as Doomsday hoists superman over him and throws him into helicopters, with superman saving Lois and Jimmy's.. and Lois begging him to go get help. He can't though: The JLA are gone, he dosen't have time for more. Again Wonder Woman or someone probably should've seen this on the news but I get superman not getting help. I may of taken a jab at him.. but he dosen't have time. Every second he's not showing up to fight doomsday is a person dead. And now he's in a HEAVILY populated city surronded by things to break.

The rest is the conclusion to the wrong brutal battle they've been having, superman angry as he's ever been refusing to let him hurt his city or his friends anymore, saving Lois and Jimmy from a close call as he bleeds more and more, his costume more and more ripped as the two fight. It's an intense, powerful fight, one of the best in superhero comics.

Doomsday hurts clark with his bone claws... and FINALLY gives our hero the weakness he was looking for. He realizes that if doomsdays spikes are bones their part of his skeleton and puts all his strength into hurting those.. and FINALLY hurts him. It's a cathartic moment: finally.. superman has a chance to win.

With Doomsday finally vunerable and not much left Superman gives EVERYTHING he has to one last hit, as does his opponent.. and both go down. But it's too late... Superman's last words are making sure doomsday is gone

But he dosen't.. he collapses .. dead. Superman is no more. And that's where we end our story.

The Death of Superman is excellent. Shocking I know, but it manages to make what's essentially one long fight scen work: Every life lost makes superman mroe determined, every false finish makes Doomsday look stronger and the powerhouse final issue makes every last blow hit. Does superman beat doomsday a bit fast? yeah. But the sheer weight of the fight, how it takes EVERYTHING superman, supergirl, the league, his allies, EVERYONE has to even get to the point superman can sacrifce himself shows the weight.

It's a story that showcases why Superman matters; he's a hero who will save people no matter what, who will push himself beyond his limits to keep going against the impossible, who will die to protect us.. all because it's the right thing. Even when confronted with a bunch of lives over a few.. he still chooses the few. In death, the teams here showed just why superman mattered, why his death hit. He gave everything to save the world one last time and he did.

Of course it wasn't the last time, I mean he has two ongoing series going right now. It wouldn't even be the last time he died. But those are stories for another day. For now it's safe to say Death earns it's place as one of Superman's most iconic, impactful and excellent stories. Thanks for reading. Check out my patreon and substack to help support this blog and remember, i'm pulling for you, we're all in this together.

[mamawasatesttube]

hello! Sorry to bother you. My friend somewhat recently introduced me to one of your fics and I've got to say your writing is phenomenal! :) Truthfully, I had never read anything DC before but I fell in love with the way you portrayed the characters (especially Kon) in all your fics! I've been wanting to get into the actual comics, would you say your fics are a good intro to the comics, or is it not worth reading them because of how different the comics are, when it's your version of the character I love? You dont have to have an answer, I know I'm not wording it very well. If there's any tips for someone who hasn't read any comics before who's wanting to get into them I would really appreciate it! I did see the recs you have on your pinned post and am planning on trying to get my hands on those! Thank you so much for introducing me to these characters, I hope Ill love them as much in the source material!

thank you!

as for the question, oh man. please read the comics! everything i write is a love letter to them. 90s superfam comics save me i love you so much 90s superfam comics !!!! my writing is very heavily inspired by what i read. a lot of people in this fandom love to shit on comics and that makes me so sad. i Love comics. i wish more people in fan spaces were actually fans of them!!! because they are so fun and there is so much to discuss and enjoy!!! everything i write is 100% comic canon-inspired (well, specifically postcrisis era for the most part, bc i don't really like current comics, but the 1987-2011 ones i've read... yeah <3).

my favorites are like... of course superboy (1994), which is kind of a dumpster fire at times but it is my beloved dumpster fire (i could go into a lot more detail on how much i have to say about this comic. it has so many layers. it's infuriating sometimes. it tells such a story of exploitation without seeming to realize just how heavy it is at times while seemingly fully aware at others and aughghghh god theres so much to sink my teeth into. karl kesel i NEED to pick your brain). i also really love steel '94 and wonder woman '87 and all of triangle era superman, which i know is a HUGE rec and probably very intimidating to start off with sdkjfhs but it's dear to me!

as far as tips for new readers go... honestly, i still don't consider myself a huge authority! i started reading comics in summer 2022 so it's only been about 3 years for me. i guess i would say: in my opinion, people build up "getting into comics" as a huge and insurmountably difficult thing to do, and then intimidate themselves out of it. sure, it's more involved than just picking up a standalone novel or watching a standalone movie, but there aren't so many hard and fast rules that you have to start here or there or read this or that first.

like, for example, if you asked my personal opinion as to whether to read young justice '98 to get a good read on kon's character, i would say no, his solo run gives you much more insights as to his character than the group comic that focuses a lot more on the characters who don't also have solos. but if you just said hey, yj98 looks fun, and then jumped in and read yj98 first anyway, that's fine too! there is no hard and fast rule or anything.

the first comic i ever read was superboy '94. i didn't know what the hell was going on for the first few issues or why it kept telling me to go read other comics because i was still figuring out how crossovers work. eventually i was like oh wait i should go read reign of the supermen before i finish this book and things will make more sense. but like, i still jumped in at a point most people will say does not make much sense to start at dslkfjdslk and i ended up fine and also having a good time!

so i guess what i'm trying to say is: there is no wrong way to read comics. you really do just kinda go "hey that looks cool" and start reading. and if things really don't make sense you can either google it, ask someone who has read more comics than you, or just go "ok fuck it i guess superman's blue now sure i'll just roll with that" and plow onwards anyway! there is no wrong way to do it. you just start reading and then read what interests you!

[pop-culture-wastoid]

Because Superman is currently in theaters (highly recommend, by the way), I've picked back up reading Triangle Era Superman. I was struck by how the 90s Superman Family was devoted to two things: Being just as, if not more, voluminous than it's pre-Crisis counterpart and having Superman being the absolute last surviving Kryptonian. Above we see (counterclockwise from Superman's left):

Supergirl, who in this era was not Kal's cousin but a Protoplasmic Matrix from a pocket dimension. While she had the standard flying brick power set, she also had the ability to shapeshift, turn herself invisible/inaudible, and was telekinetic. No vision powers though. Her name was Matrix, or Mae for short.

Superboy! If you first encountered this Boy of Steel in the last twenty years or so, you probably know he's a clone...but not of the people you're thinking. See, from his creation in 1993 up to a big retcon in 2003, he was written as a purely human clone of corrupt Project Cadmus administrator Paul Westfield. He simulated the Man of Steel's powers through "Tactile Telekinesis", which he could also use to make complex objects fly dramatically apart. Sometimes simulated Superman's vision powers with technological aid, but didn't have them natively. Also, he had no name other than "Superboy".

The Eradicator, who is the most Kryptonian of the bunch. At the time of this issue (Adventures of Superman #531, January 1996), he was a Kryptonian computer's artificial body merged with the memories/personality of STAR Labs scientist Dr. David Connor. Again, standard flying brick power set but with hand-based energy blast powers rather than vision powers.

Alpha Centurion, AKA Marcus Aelius, a Roman Centurion from nearly 2000 years in the past. He was selected by Emperor Hadrian to study under an alien race but the vagaries of intergalactic travel meant that ten years for him was nearly two millennia on Earth. He wears alien armor that grants him the standard flying brick power set plus the ability to create energy constructs (mainly shields). He just didn't really catch on nor did he ever wear the S, but I think he's neat and wanted to include him.

Steel, AKA John Henry Irons, a brilliant human whose high-tech armor allows him to perform Superman-esque feats. Pretty much the only person pictured other than Superman to continue appearing largely unchanged into the present day.

So what I've gathered from this list is that Heat/X-Ray/Telescopic Vision are what makes a Kryptonian - although Supergirl gained Flame Vision during her Earth-Born Angel era shortly after this.

I admit, all of these origins are so much more complicated than "They're Kryptonian" but I have a soft spot for them due to growing up with them. Everyone's favorite comic is the one they read when they were ten and all that. The creatives had to get pretty out there to expand the SuperFam without using Kryptonians, and I kinda like Superman having a found family of similarly-powered humans from a narrative perspective.

[ao3feed-superbat]

Could It Be Easy This One Time

read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/HndG1BS by the_oncoming_stormageddon On Clark’s birthday, Batman kisses him. It’s the kind of thing that probably would’ve made Clark’s year, if not for the fact that he’s in a committed relationship with Bruce Wayne. Title taken from "The Alcott" by the National Words: 2797, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Series: Part 17 of alfie's superbat oneshots Fandoms: Batman - All Media Types, Superman - All Media Types Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Clark Kent, Bruce Wayne Relationships: Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne Additional Tags: Humor, Angst with a Happy Ending, two-person love triangle, Established Relationship, Identity Reveal, Secret Identity, Emotional Infidelity, Banter read it on AO3 at https://ift.tt/HndG1BS