On the other hand, Swan was better than most of the other artists at being able to draw "regular" folks with believable expressions and positions.

Well, we know there was something shady about Curt's involvement with the Post-Crisis office. While I've speculated on most of the details, we know that an agent was involved, and we can be reasonably sure that Carlin wasn't giving him the work by choice. I think it says something when the Superman Office has a "Curt Swan" month, and not a word is said about it in the letter columns within, nor in the months following.

Superman #61 (November 1991)



"Time and Time Again Again!"

Script: Dan Jurgens
Pencils: Dan Jurgens (layouts); Brett Breeding (finishes)
Inks: Brett Breeding (finishes)
Colors: Glenn Whitmore
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: C-

If Dan Jurgens has seemed a little overworked as of late, writing and penciling each issue of Superman while also (co?)plotting and penciling Armageddon 2001 and its last minute rewrite, this cover may be the ultimate testament to that idea. Truly, this is one of my least favorite covers in my entire collection. It's not just the awkward pose on the Linear Woman, the weird/dead expression, nor the unfortunate sheen effect right on her crotch. It truly irks me that Jurgens clearly penciled the Linear Woman first, with no regard for what the background would be. Why else would she be standing, feet flat against a non-existent surface, in the middle of a time vortex?

Maybe it's not the worst cover ever. I'm just still spoiled by Kerry Gammill's outstanding covers for this office and amazed that something this poor got Carlin's stamp of approval at a time in which fans are fleeing DC left and right for the more image-oriented approach of Marvel and, well, image. Marvel would never put out a cover like this in 1991 unless it was foil embossed or came in a polybag.


Honestly, the interior story isn't all that much better. Whereas some have criticized this era of Superman stories for being too all over the place, tracing A, B, and C plots across titles, this issue has a decidedly singular focus: what are the ethics of time travel?

Now, let me be clear, I don't mind talking heads in comicdom. Icctrombone will be the first to criticize me for loving the dialogue-heavy Cerebus stories, and the Silver Surfer Fireside graphic novel, which is pages upon pages of discussion about right and wrong, is one of my favorite comic works of all time. But not only do we spend eight of these twenty two pages watching Superman, Waverider, and the Linear Men argue out their opposing ideologies about time manipulation; the whole thing is also vapid. If you're going to spend an entire issue exploring such a thing, do it with depth and heavy consideration, but so little of what is said here in this story even makes sense.

The entire argument boils down pretty much to this:



Change the future, and there are unintended consequences, including babies that will never be born and lives that will never be lived.

Okay, fair enough. But, wait; No it isn't.

So, according to the Linear Men, there is only one timeline? Go back in time, change things, and the future you came from never happened? Well then how did you exist in the first place, allowing you to go back and change things? Even if you can explain that part, this next revelation throws the whole thing out the window:



Okay, if there are alternate realities, then where was the crime? All those babies WERE born in some alternate timeline. In fact, what the heck does it matter if Waverider goes back to change the past if every possible future happens concurrently anyway?

Clearly, Jurgens hasn't given this enough thought, so while he may think he was being clever with the big revelation that the leader of the Linear Men is an alternate version of Waverider:



the whole thing just reeks of stupid.



Minor Details:

1. Ironically, this was far more of an epilogue to Armageddon 2001 than Action Comics #670 proved to be, but that one had the logo on the cover and everything.

2. The Linear Woman (last seen in Superman #59) is named Liri Lee.

3. First appearance of Hunter (a Linear Man) and an alternate version of Waverider/Matt Ryder who leads the Linear Men.

4. I have no idea what the Metal Men were doing in this issue. They took up primary focus for a few pages, cleaning up the wreckage of STAR Labs, and were then forgotten. Why?

5. Wait, what? The Linear Men can stop time??



Look, I understand how they could stop time for one or two people by removing them from the timestream (see Superman #59, once again), but stopping time for everyone...everywhere? That seems...dumb.

6. Once again, no one except for Louise Simonson seems to believe that anyone at STAR Labs ground zero is wearing radiation suits or expecting any kind of radioactive equipment to be found in the wreckage. We literally saw Emil Hamilton in a radiation suit at the site just last issue and now here he is again, wearing plainclothes:



7. Apparently, the future glimpsed in Armageddon 2001 #1 is still on the table:






Just a big mess of an issue that we probably didn't need. I guess, with two sets of time travelers lurking around the Superman Office, a meeting between the two was inevitable, but this wasn't much of a Superman story, and it wasn't very good either.

Where are the Linear Men when you need them?! God knows modern DC continuity could use their help...

Yeah, it was Captain Atom and Monarch bouncing around time in Alien Agenda, and Waverider popped back up in the sequel to that - Inferno. Neither were that great from what I remember...

When I read them, I was still too young to believe a comic event could be done as a money grab, nor that anyone allowed to touch a DC or Marvel comic was anything but the best and bringing anything but the best to the table.

And I still found these spin-offs to be utter bullsh*t.