I definitely had that Maxx issue, can't remember a thing about it, but I loved that series from the start and I definitely remember that issue of Wizard being a part of my Maxx collection.

Yeah, but I think those cases are rare. I don't like creators being reined in, but there are some creators who are better at illustration than writing and when given full control of a property may not know what to do with it. That's why I think a creator owned project with a single writer/illustrator that was good enough to generate a following in the first place is probably best left alone.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of deadlines. Or multi title universes. Dave Sim did something monumental, sure. But I'm still not a sticlker for a regular comic like that. If a comic comes out annually, semiannually, that's fine with me. Some of my favorite comics have deadline complaints in the letters section. One of them being Love And Rockets, to which Gary Groth gave a fantastic reply I had reposted on CBR a few times in the past. It was during the Death Of Speedy/Human Diastrophism era, where Groth basically says comics that focus on deadlines don't give a whit about art and the complaining readers will thank him for not demanding the Bros turn something in when it's time rather than when it's done. He said years from now we would be looking at that series as a high watermark of comics as an art form. He was right. I'm of the opinion that even if Youngblood and all of Liefeld's creations came out on time as promised, none of them would be remembered as high watermarks of the art form.

I understand the business necessities of deadlines, I just don't think they make a better comic.

Restarting from scratch, regardless of past DP appearances (ala Hawkman after Crisis), adding several remarkably stupid characters, etc.  If he'd had a co-creator, or an editor with a backbone, he might have been dissuaded from some of his poor decisions in this series.

Obviously I have no first hand knowledge, but at the time it was touted as his idea.

Wizard: Superman Tribute Edition




For the second time now, while you (and I) can say what you want to say about the regular Wizard publication, they have demonstrated the ability to pour their hearts and souls into their special edition projects. From in-depth interviews with legends Curt Swan, Albin Schwartz, and Elliot S Maggin, to comprehensive explorations of his film presence, artistic evolution, presence as a pop culture icon, his enemies and supporting cast, and his Post-Crisis reboot (and they manage to avoid overly hyping John Byrne's contributions), to lower-brow but tremendously fun articles like a list of his most ridiculous moments, the top ten perks of being a Superman, and a CBIQuiz, not to mention the obligatory ten page interview with Orway, Jurgens, and Carlin about the upcoming Reign of The Supermen story arc, this book is filled to the brim with fantastic celebrations of all things Superman. Interestingly enough, the one thing that really doesn't get discussed anywhere in this book is the actual death of Superman. Instead (and I really appreciate this), they discuss the original Atom Age version of that story: a true classic.

My personal favorite part of this issue was the discussion of a forgotten 1942 alternate origin of Superman published by Random House with contributions from Joe Shuster. The major differences in this version (beyond the names of Ma and Pa Kent) are Superman using his powers in secret with no public presence, and Clark first meeting Perry White years earlier and being disappointed when he doesn't remember him when he goes looking for a job at the Planet. Both ideas were incorporated into the Post-Crisis Superman, with Clark operating in secret for the first several years of his career (Man of Steel), and Perry meeting Lois years earlier and not remembering her when she comes looking for a job at the Planet (World of Metropolis).

I also really enjoyed both talents interviewed for this book who worked under Weisinger maligning him as a stubborn, cantankerous bully. I had no idea he used to torment Jerry Siegel of all people about his work on Superman!

The only real disappointment in this issue was the breakdown of Superman's powers which, clocking in at a measly three pages, is hardly comprehensive.

Interesting tidbit: While DC usually gets a very bad reputation for how it treats its older talent, we learn in Swan's interview that they've still got him on contract and are providing him with full health insurance, even though he had been unable to pencil more than two pages a week for them when he came back on staff in the 1980s and, at the time of this story, was producing nothing for them at all. Amazingly enough, he complains about this treatment in the article, expecting to be given more to do and airing his grievance publicly here, even though he could no longer produce quickly enough to be on a monthly title.


So, in the end, I'm left only wondering WHY. Why flipflop from completely ignoring and then insulting the death of Superman event to building an entire special around it and claiming "This catastrophe has touched more people's lives than any single event in the comics medium," especially as DC's sales had already slumped back to their pre-Death of Superman levels by this point? The wind clearly wasn't blowing in DC's direction anymore by the time of this publication. It's true that Wizard is always hopelessly at least four months behind comic news and trends, so they might just be that late to the party. However, the interview at the center of this special was originally slated for Wizard #19 (at which point it was postponed, initially to be published in the next issue), and the decision to turn it into a full special was only announced last month in Wizard #20. So it would seem that Wizard was fully aware of where the market was at the time that they made this decision.

I've asked many times in watching Wizard completely ignore DC whether it was purposefully attempting to manipulate the comic book market away from the company, but now I wonder the reverse. DC was now at its lowest sales point ever (15% of market share) and in very real danger of going belly up. Clearly, even the momentary bump triggered by the Death of Superman wasn't enough to change that course. Maybe, regardless of what they thought of DC's current output, Wizard wanted to help change that, and thus, while this is definitely a quality publication, it's also a feature length commercial to keep reading the entire Reign of the Supermen event. Heck, the very first page of the magazine is a full page ad for Adventures of Superman #500. And the Superman titles price guide at the back -- prompting for readers to start collecting DC for its investment potential as well.

And it worked. The sales show that absolutely no new readers stuck around for the Funeral For a Friend storyline that followed Superman's death, but Reign of the Supermen will be a major seller, prompting DC to try the same thing with Batman, first paralyzing and replacing him, and then milking it into two more major story arcs after.

After years of taking the spotlight away from DC, Wizard has finally given it back.