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Post by rberman on Feb 21, 2019 7:47:17 GMT -5
This is a reference to the Silver Age when the 'Luthor Lairs' Luthor had scattered throughout Metropolis contained entrances adorned with statues of his heroes.  But Hitler? Another thing that leaves me cold. And what exactly do these people have in common (except being "evil" according to some Americanocentric parochial point of view)...? Or Eurocentric perhaps; Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan were bywords for "invading marauders" in Europe for centuries before Kidd and Capone were born. |
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Post by zaku on Feb 21, 2019 10:01:19 GMT -5
And what exactly do these people have in common (except being "evil" according to some Americanocentric parochial point of view)...? Or Eurocentric perhaps; Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan were bywords for "invading marauders" in Europe for centuries before Kidd and Capone were born. I believe that now in schools they teach a more objective view of history. I studied this subject in the 80s and even then I remember that they were not portrayed as villains. And even with Captain Kidd it seems that his piratical reputation is quite unjust. The only objectively bad person in the gallery (as far as moral categories can be objective) is Al Capone. Perhaps. So, what the heck Lex??? |
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Post by rberman on Feb 22, 2019 5:52:55 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #8 “Us Do Opposite” (August 2007) The Story: Zibarro, the only rational Bizarro, and El-Roj, the Bizarro version of Jor-El, want to build a rocket so that Superman can escape Bizarro World and its cubical red sun. Using reverse psychology, they convince the inhabitants of Bizarro World to assist them. Lois Lane visits Dr. Quintum on the moon and learns about Superman’s impending demise. Quintum also says that something “disturbing” is “hiding in the sun.” This really is an all-star comic book. My Two Cents: This whole issue is the long version of a short joke: Adult Superman rockets away from a doomed planet. It’s fine as a punchline, but not as the obvious focal point of an entire issue. This reinforces my impression that this issue should have been combined with the previous one.  There’s a somewhat meta moment in which Superman and Zibarro recap the plot of the last issue by saying “I already explained…” This seems deliberately clumsy as a wink at Silver Age exposition, since it's unlikely that the series is picking up many new readers at this point. There’s a good bit of filler: At one point Superman meets the “Unjustice League” which consists of Bizarro versions of familiar heroes. They don’t do much to further the plot. Then there’s a whole page given over to the Bizarros singing their garbled version of “The Star Spangled Banner.”  Zibarro is lonely, the only smart man on a dumb planet, and a writer to boot, who shyly shows Superman his work. Is Zibarro another Morrison avatar? I’m reminded of how Morrison used Magneto in the “Planet X” arc of New X-Men as the voice of his own frustration with the uneducated masses of readers. There’s also a telling moment in which Superman gets too used to speaking in dumb Bizarro talk so that he can be understood, and Zibarro rebukes him. Message: Smart people are tempted to use dumb speech to communicate with the world full of morons, but they should just use their usual elevated speech, even if it means they’ll be misunderstood.    Dr. Quintum calls Bizarro world “A gulf o’ glamour, gey grim.” This is a quotation from “Nemeton: An Experimental Poem” by Norman Shaw, a contemporary Scottish writer and painter. This section of the poem in full says “Amethyst avenue ’twixt twa warlds under the full moon’s ladder . . . Gulf o’ glamour gey grim . . . Infinities of despair. Unholy mountain climb; necks craning ag- hast at the tower that stretches to the far-away, bringing it close so close” The notion of being stuck “twixt twa (two) worlds” is a favorite Morrison theme. One commentator said of Shaw’s Nemeton: “At the heart of this book is a rumination on nature and the spiritual. Shaw belongs in the long lineage of researchers into the otherworld or dreamworld of the Scottish Highlands.” Sounds a lot like Unwhen from Seven Soldiers. So yeah, very Morrisonian themes.  Also on the level of theme: This issue represents the descent to the underworld, an essential step on the classic Hero’s Journey. Morrison was self-consciously following the format articulated by Joseph Campbell. But if Superman is Orpheus, he declines to rescue Eurydice (Zibarro) this time.
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 22, 2019 10:08:49 GMT -5
Or Eurocentric perhaps; Atilla the Hun and Genghis Khan were bywords for "invading marauders" in Europe for centuries before Kidd and Capone were born. I believe that now in schools they teach a more objective view of history. I studied this subject in the 80s and even then I remember that they were not portrayed as villains. And even with Captain Kidd it seems that his piratical reputation is quite unjust. The only objectively bad person in the gallery (as far as moral categories can be objective) is Al Capone. Perhaps. So, what the heck Lex??? I have to imagine that the placement of Capone there was due to the popularity of the television series The Untouchables. He was a popular enough figure that DC even had Superman travel back in time during that period to infiltrate his gang. Not sure about the others. Maybe the statues just came with the lair. |
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Post by rberman on Feb 23, 2019 8:40:42 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #9 “Curse of the Replacement Supermen” (December 2007) The Story: When Superman returns to Earth, he discovers that the gravitational field of Bizarro World caused his brief visit there to consume two months of Earth time. In that interim, two new super-people have taken up the mantle of “Earth’s champions.” They are Lilo and Bar-El, lost Kryptonian astronauts. The haughty pair have remodeled the Fortress of Solitude and plan to rule Earth as “New Krypton.” Might makes right, they say. This naturally leads to a super-quarrel, which leads to a massive crack in the moon. But before things get too out of hand, it becomes apparent that the two Kryptonians were exposed to a cloud of Kryptonite somewhere out in space at some unspecified time, and it chooses this moment to take them from anti-hero to zero in about five minutes. Superman is obliged to exile them to the Phantom Zone to save their lives, until he can find a cure for their Kryptonite poisoning.  My Two Cents: It’s another pastiche episode, mixing (1) a “Kryptonian criminals” story, (2) an out-of-nowhere Kryptonite-ex-machina solution, and (3) the Phantom Zone conclusion of the original Mon-El story. It’s also another look at “Supermen who are not Superman,” in the form of these haughty Kryptonians.   Morrison, ever attentive to sartorial style, suggests that Superman’s “trunks over pants” is actually the height of Kryptonian fashion, a style that Jimmy Olsen eagerly adopts to silly effect.  There’s a nice double-entendre when the two Kryptonians come to the Daily Planet building. They’re talking about Superman hiding himself in disguise among mortals, but this panel also comes right after a seen in which Steve Lombard was shown to be hiding his bald head under a toupee.  One odd detail: When Superman rockets back to Earth from the Bizarro World, he crashes near an old-time circus tent. This is quite anachronistic for 2007, so obviously it’s intentional, but I have no idea what its significance is. 
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Post by Deleted on Feb 23, 2019 13:50:34 GMT -5
Morrison, ever attentive to sartorial style, suggests that Superman’s “trunks over pants” is actually the height of Kryptonian fashion, a style that Jimmy Olsen eagerly adopts to silly effect. One odd detail: When Superman rockets back to Earth from the Bizarro World, he crashes near an old-time circus tent. This is quite anachronistic for 2007, so obviously it’s intentional, but I have no idea what its significance is. These two scenes may be related. The circus tent may be a nod to Superman's costume being similar to what circus strong men wore back in the 30's. |
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Post by chadwilliam on Feb 23, 2019 23:50:17 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #9 “Curse of the Replacement Supermen” (December 2007)The Story: When Superman returns to Earth, he discovers that the gravitational field of Bizarro World caused his brief visit there to consume two months of Earth time. In that interim, two new super-people have taken up the mantle of “Earth’s champions.” They are Lilo and Bar-El, lost Kryptonian astronauts. The haughty pair have remodeled the Fortress of Solitude and plan to rule Earth as “New Krypton.” Might makes right, they say. This naturally leads to a super-quarrel, which leads to a massive crack in the moon. But before things get too out of hand, it becomes apparent that the two Kryptonians were exposed to a cloud of Kryptonite somewhere out in space at some unspecified time, and it chooses this moment to take them from anti-hero to zero in about five minutes. Superman is obliged to exile them to the Phantom Zone to save their lives, until he can find a cure for their Kryptonite poisoning. My Two Cents: It’s another pastiche episode, mixing (1) a “Kryptonian criminals” story, (2) an out-of-nowhere Kryptonite-ex-machina solution, and (3) the Phantom Zone conclusion of the original Mon-El story. It’s also another look at “Supermen who are not Superman,” in the form of these haughty Kryptonians. There’s a nice double-entendre when the two Kryptonians come to the Daily Planet building. They’re talking about Superman hiding himself in disguise among mortals, but this panel also comes right after a seen in which Steve Lombard was shown to be hiding his bald head under a toupee. There's a very subtle moment early on in this issue where Bar-El comments upon Lilo's eyes. "Lilo. When did your eyes become green? They seem more dazzling than ever." It comes across as a romantic throwaway line, but by issue's end, you realise that Morrison was hinting at the kryptonite poisoning which had befallen them. It's really nicely hidden in plain sight. And I've got to say - I LOVE Steve Lombard in this series. It's been suggested that Superman's presence in the world acts as a sort of deterrent to the average person's ability to achieve their greatest potential, but with Lombard, you get the sense that if goofy Clark Kent weren't around to pull pranks on, Lombard's natural heroic self - he did leap to everyone's rescue during the Bizarro invasion and will later leap to Clark's aid when he collapses in issue 11 - would shine through. Instead, he's like some mythical being cursed to forever try and one up the most powerful man in the universe and fated to always wonder where things went so spectacularly wrong for him. I think this version of the character would make an appearance in the regular titles around this time, but unfortunately those issues were written by Geoff Johns so Lombard came across as a perverted old creep rather than harmless, lovable goof. There's also something about Morrison and Quitely's Clark Kent which reminds me of...  Not sure if it was an influence or not, but it's hard not to think of one without the other. |
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Post by zaku on Feb 24, 2019 3:32:28 GMT -5
And I've got to say - I LOVE Steve Lombard in this series. It's been suggested that Superman's presence in the world acts as a sort of deterrent to the average person's ability to achieve their greatest potential, but with Lombard, you get the sense that if goofy Clark Kent weren't around to pull pranks on, Lombard's natural heroic self - he did leap to everyone's rescue during the Bizarro invasion and will later leap to Clark's aid when he collapses in issue 11 - would shine through. Instead, he's like some mythical being cursed to forever try and one up the most powerful man in the universe and fated to always wonder where things went so spectacularly wrong for him. I think this version of the character would make an appearance in the regular titles around this time, but unfortunately those issues were written by Geoff Johns so Lombard came across as a perverted old creep rather than harmless, lovable goof. As you know, recently I have read some 80's pre-crisis Superman comics and I have a visceral hatred for this character. While I appreciate what Morrison did with him, his original version is detestable on multiple level. As an adult, seeing someone in a corporate environment pulling pranks on a timid coworker who apparently will never fight back or complain is simply infuriating. You are paid to work, not to be a clown. Really, what he was doing is close to mobbing. As a kid, what is exactly the message here? You can defend yourself from bullies only if you are Superman? If someone pull a prank on you, give him a concussion?  As a reader, seeing the supposedly noblest hero on earth engaging in some kind of prank-arms race is frustrating. These are the ways one of the most intelligent man on earth should react: - Simply, confront him, explaining that no one is laughing at his pranks, some of which are also dangerous to others.
- if this don't work, report him to HR because a person like this can create a toxic workplace
- Just endure his pranks. You are Superman. You can survive inside a nova. So you can survive to a water bucket. If you have chosen the facade of an amoeba unable to react, well, live with the consequences of this choice. And really, what is the rationale behind this choice? "Oh, Clark has grown a spine, this means that... HE'S SUPERMAN!!!". Come on....
The worst thing you can do is pulling pranks back, because it's absolutely USELESS. And his colleagues are equally infuriating. They see someone mistreating a co-worker who apparently can't react and they do absolutely NOTHING, except some unconvincing mild criticism like "Oh Steve, sometimes you are so childish...". I'm probably more sensitive than others to these subjects, but these are things that I simply can not tolerate. Recently, I faced a colleague who was pulling a little too heavy pranks to another colleague who was too shy to react. I explained to him that if he did not stop, I would report him to HR. I didn't put glue on his chair or buckets of water over the door, as these comics seem to suggest that this is the best way to behave in similar situations... I didn't read the issues written by Geoff Johns with him, but if the author makes clear that he's a negative character, well, good. ETA: And, by the way, his pranks weren't of "let-the-prankster-and-the-pranked-have-a-laugh-together" variety. They were of the "how-I-can-umiliate-this-person-in-the-worst-way-possible?" type.  This character was the textbook definition of "toxic masculinity". |
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Post by rberman on Feb 24, 2019 8:19:55 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #10 “Neverending” (May 2008) The Story: This issue is a blur of vignettes. Superman stops a runaway train. Superman takes a bus full of pediatric cancer patients on a sightseeing tour. Superman saves a suicidal jumper. Superman rescues Lois from a giant robot. “It’s barely a story,” says Lois. Superman visits Lex Luthor and appeals to him to use his brainpower for good, but Lex just spits on the transparent wall separating them.  Superman and Dr. Quintum collaborate to move Kandor to the moon, where it can grow beyond the confines of its original bottle, and the Kandorian scientists in turn cure the kids with cancer. But they can’t cure Superman. My Two Cents: I was waiting for a Kandor story, but this one is briefer than I expected. Morrison loves "worlds within worlds," and the go-to example in the Superman mythos is of course the bottle city of Kandor, now free to expand into a whole civilization sprawling across the Martian surface. Superman tells Quintum that bottle Kandor has gravity eight times that of Earth, a nod to old references to Krypton having very high gravity. But Mars doesn’t have such high gravity; in fact, it’s much smaller than Earth, so the Kandorians will be super-powered there and can presumably fly all about the cosmos too.  Superman himself chooses to spend precious moments creating and then gazing upon a new tiny universe, the infant universe of Qwewq. As he told Lois in issue #2, he is now super-creative. And what do creative people do if not create universes? As in “The World” from New X-Men and The Spectre's world in JLA and the garbage pit in The Filth, time zips by at an incredibly accelerated rate in this mini-world, its civilization recapitulating that of Earth so precisely that we can see Earth-Q Nietzsche at his desk penning “Also Sprach Zarathustra.”   Finally, we see Earth-Q’s Joe Shuster drawing Superman. Earth-Q is our Earth, created by the Superman of a “higher” dimension, and Shuster was not inventing Superman so much as discovering him through unconscious awareness of higher dimensions. This is a favorite Morrison theme, most notably explored in Flex Mentallo. Earth-Q is within the Infant Universe of Qwewq, as seen in Morrison’s JLA, JLA Classified, and Seven Soldiers events. We previously saw Qwewq when Superman gave Lois a tour of his trophy room back in issue #2. Superman says here that he created Qwewq so he could study “a world without Superman.” So the punchline is that a world without Superman will invent one. And it’s a causal loop, with Superman inventing the world upon which Shuster (and presumably Grant Morrison too) invent the story of Superman doing things like inventing Qwewq.   Superman also gazes into the world within himself, reading his own genetic code and giving the results to Dr. Quintum to develop future generations of Kryptonian/human hybrids. Quintum comments that previous attempts to clone Superman all turned into Bizarros.   This will be important in future stories such as Morrison’s Multiversity: The Just, which features teen Superman clone Kon-El.  This issue also has a cameo from the Superman Emergency Squad, a team of Kandorians who wear tiny Superman suits and help out Superman when it’s dramatically appropriate. It would be nice to see a whole story developed from concepts like this rather than just stray panels; in some ways this series is like Side 2 of The Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album, full of unfinished song fragments.  
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Post by rberman on Feb 25, 2019 10:45:15 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #11 “Red Sun Day” (July 2008) The Story: The “cocktail” Lex Luthor was preparing last issue was a potion that has given him Superman-level powers for 24 hours. After the electric chair powers him up, he breaks out of prison and prepares his next move. His ally Solaris the Tyrant Sun emerges from our sun, turning its light red, and Superman starts losing his power.  Superman has prepared for this moment, though he feels his powers waning and his death looming. He dons a new white super-suit with a yellow sun emblem, which is protection from Solaris, a sentimental gesture to his father’s attire and a nod at the series’ title all at the same time. With the help of the baby Sun Eater, his army of decoy Super-robots, and one final mighty punch, Superman quells the Tyrant Sun’s threat.  Donning his Clark Kent disguise, he races to the Daily Planet to complete his “Superman is Dead” article. He slumps over at his keyboard just as Luthor busts in through the wall, looking for a confrontation. Out in the street, Nasthalthia Luthor threatens Jimmy and Lois from the cockpit of a giant tank. They offer to write an article about her if she lets them live; she admits that print media (like comic books?) can still be cool sometimes.  My Two Cents: Solaris, the Tyrant Sun, was a major character in Morrison's event DC One Million... and nowhere else. As such, his appearance here doesn’t pay off for readers (including me) who hadn’t already read that series before this one. Morrison was trying to build his own DC continuity, but this time around it’s at the expense of telling the best possible story in the moment.  Luthor says that only he could have invented a potion to give a human Superman’s powers for 24 hours. We snicker, knowing that Superman himself already did this back in issue #2-3. But then again, Superman had a whole lab to work with, while Luthor had only the common ingredients found inside his prison, so I guess he’s still the smarter one. Superman Robot #7 confesses that its malfunction in issue #2 was the result of a dormant program installed by Luthor. This is how Luthor gained access to Superman’s genetic material to make the super-serum.
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Post by mikelmidnight on Feb 25, 2019 13:05:43 GMT -5
My Two Cents: It’s another pastiche episode, mixing (1) a “Kryptonian criminals” story, (2) an out-of-nowhere Kryptonite-ex-machina solution, and (3) the Phantom Zone conclusion of the original Mon-El story. It’s also another look at “Supermen who are not Superman,” in the form of these haughty Kryptonians. I appreciated the fact that in every scene between Superman and the other two Kryptonians, he is trying to connect with or help them. I loved that "Kryptonian overpants"! Now we know what they're called! |
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Post by rberman on Feb 25, 2019 13:10:56 GMT -5
My Two Cents: Morrison, ever attentive to sartorial style, suggests that Superman’s “trunks over pants” is actually the height of Kryptonian fashion, a style that Jimmy Olsen eagerly adopts to silly effect. I loved that "Kryptonian overpants"! Now we know what they're called! I didn't mention the part where Quintum explains Jimmy Olsen's Flamebird costume as Kandorian formal wear, which seems unlikely given that Olsen used the costume for crime-fighting in Kandor.  |
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Post by berkley on Feb 25, 2019 18:15:00 GMT -5
I think Morrison's love for "Superman", the superhero comics character, leads him badly astray here - because the comics character might almost be said to be the antithesis of Nietzsche's concept: the comic book Superman is really a super-ape, in the sense that he is largely defined by exaggerated physical attributes such as "super-strength". Yes, I understand that fans would claim that he is equally defined by his moral superiority but I think this kind of sanctimoniousness (or, if you insist, Christ-like self-sacrifice) is far from what Nietzsche had in mind with his Superman. |
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Post by rberman on Feb 26, 2019 8:10:11 GMT -5
And I've got to say - I LOVE Steve Lombard in this series. It's been suggested that Superman's presence in the world acts as a sort of deterrent to the average person's ability to achieve their greatest potential, but with Lombard, you get the sense that if goofy Clark Kent weren't around to pull pranks on, Lombard's natural heroic self - he did leap to everyone's rescue during the Bizarro invasion and will later leap to Clark's aid when he collapses in issue 11 - would shine through. Instead, he's like some mythical being cursed to forever try and one up the most powerful man in the universe and fated to always wonder where things went so spectacularly wrong for him. I think this version of the character would make an appearance in the regular titles around this time, but unfortunately those issues were written by Geoff Johns so Lombard came across as a perverted old creep rather than harmless, lovable goof. Here's Lombard's brief moment of moral clarity in issue #12:  |
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Post by rberman on Feb 26, 2019 9:57:49 GMT -5
All-Star Superman #12 “Superman In Excelsis” (October 2008) The Story: Dying Superman has a dream. He’s an adult on Krypton, talking to his father. Kal has a choice: remain dead “within the field of living, fluid consciousness” or return to life to fight Luthor. He returns to life and shoots Luthor with a gravity gun he had prepared for this occasion. Not only does the 20x gravity effect slow Luthor down, but it also makes time speed up 20x, so that his 24 hours of super-powers elapses unexpectedly quickly.  His cells bursting with solar energyand turning to pure information, Superman flies into the sun to repair the damage done by Solaris the Tyrant Sun. This is similar to the apotheosis experienced by Wally Sage at the conclusion of Flex Mentallo, exploding in a burst of light and information that creates a world's worth of heroes in an instant.   A year later, Lois is still waiting for Superman’s return, while Dr. Quintum prepares to use the material entrusted to him to bring about a line of fertile Kryptonian/human hybrids to bring about the future Superman seen in DC One Million.
 My Two Cents: Superman’s relativity-based response to Luthor was quite clever. Well done, Morrison. It may have been based on a similar scene from Denny O’Neil in a 1970 issue of Justice League of America, in which an alien threat causes time to pass rapidly for Hourman so that he loses his strength unexpectedly early.  Jor-El’s speech to his son hits hard on the Morrisonian theme of expanded consciousness. The basic concept here seems very much like what happened to Phoenix at the end of Morrison’s New X-Men run, and the “field of living, fluid consciousness” sounds like the “White Hot Room” of the pre-life and after-life. Superman’s most important labor was aspirational, providing a role model that others will attain eventually so that in the grand scheme of themes, he will no longer be alone.    Jore-El’s explanation of the afterlife as a heaven or hell that we build for ourselves is essentially the same thing that Etrigan told Swamp Thing during the latter’s descent into Hell to rescue Abby Cable in Alan Moore’s Swamp Thing Annual #2, 1985:  Lex is upset at how the Daily Planet’s articles were instrumental in putting him in prison. “Writing that affects the real world.” If that isn’t a Morrison theme, what is? Luthor is Animal Man, come to confront the writers who created his life’s circumstances.  Then Lex gives a very Morrisonian speech about how pure thought is the fundamental force of the universe sought by the Grand Unified Field Theory. You guessed it; Lex has taken a disorienting drug which has expanded his consciousness and helped him to see the structure beneath reality. Morrisonian indeed. This is similar to the fate that befell Prometheus in Morrison's JLA. See also the defeat of Chronos in Morrison's JLA and the defeat of Libra during his original Bronze Age appearance. the theme of Icarus keeps repeating in all these stories, the quest for knowledge and power leading to ruin.  I am not certain what to make of Superman entering the sun. The premise of this series is that Superman is about to die, and right up to the last few pages of this issue, that seems to be what’s coming. But then when Superman enters the sun to repair it, the image is of him pulling a giant lever connected to strange gears. Is this the heaven that he has built to inhabit after he dies? This image below is driving me nuts because I know it’s homaging a famous piece of labor-themed Art Deco which I can’t recall or locate. 
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