Ah, I see.

Well, 2025 is two years away. Is DC planning another Crisis event to mark 40 years since COIE? I hope not…

I was never a big reader of the war books back in the day (I have since read quite a few of them mostly via Showcase Presents volumes) but now I’m thinking that they never really showed any action on the Eastern Front.

Not much, no, largely because their stars were mostly American soldiers, who would not have been on the Russian Front.  At the same time, I suspect Kanigher and other writers might not have been as up on events on that front, compared to Europe of the South Pacific.

I do recall reading a story that I THINK was in a DC war comic, set at the Russian front, with a pair of German soldiers, who are freezing, one has gloves, the other doesn't.  They are bickering about it, then a pilot, who was shot down comes across them and shelters with them.  He is wearing insulated flight coveralls and gloves and boots.  One of the two soldiers kills the other than either tries to kill the pilot and he shoots him or ends up before a firing squad.

I think.

It's probably been 40 years since I read that story.  It might have been in a Charlton comic, but I read way more DC war comics and Sgt Fury than Fightin' Army and Fightin' Marines, in those days.  Plus, I seem to recall more of the DC style than the usual Charlton suspects (other than Sam Glanzman,who did work for both).

Garth Ennis Enemy Ace 2-part series, set in WW2, has Hans Von Hammer recruited to rejoin the Luftwaffe and his squadron flies on the Eastern Front.  At one point he is shot down over Stalingrad or another besieged city and witness evidence of what the Germans were doing to the populace.  Early in the series he berates the Nazis, to a friend, but he convinces him that flying is his first love and they need pilots for the Eastern Front.  After he is shot down, Von Hammer is determined to surrender to the Americans or British, though he destroys his squadron's Me-262s, when Sgt Rock and Easy Company come to capture their airfield.  I still don't buy the premise of persuading Von Hammer to fly, whatsoever, for a Nazi-controlled Luftwaffe; but, other than that contrivance, it's a damn good series.

Christian Alamy and Chris Weston did the first issue and Russ Heath did art on the second.

They might have had a story or two as a back up or in one of the anthologies.

When folks refer to "Byrne's Superman reboot" or discuss whether Byrne's reboot made the right choices, I feel compelled to point out that Byrne deserves little of the blame and/or credit. By the time he came aboard the Superman titles, the reboot was already almost completely planned out. Credit/blame goes to Frank Miller, Steve Gerber, Andy Helfer, and Marv Wolfman. If anything, Byrne seemed to resist their choices and worked hard to bring back all the ridiculous Silver Age shenanigans the reboot had sought to remove.

As for whether or not Superboy should have been included, I happen to love classic Superboy, but what I love most about it is its wholesomeness and sense of stability. In a world of fear and chaos, wholesomeness and stability are pure escapist fantasy. In the 1980s, though, America had a strong illusion/delusion of both wholesomeness and stability. Thus, the escapist fantasies of the period ran in the opposite direction, involving dark anti-heroes and grim deconstruction.

Superboy was wrong for the 1980s, but man could we use him now!

I grew up largely in the 80's, including a number of my elementary school years and most of high school.

It wasn't so much an illusion/delusion, the aftermath of the Viet Nam war and equal rights activities that had created so much turbulence all through the 70's had given way to new found optimism. But "innocence" was still quite lost, this was not a reversion to the Ike years by any means. There was an edge to life back then underlying the seemingly shinier times of the decade. I certainly felt it, we were all being raised by boomers who were facing the realities of a world very different from their parents and I think carried a perpetual tension of a time gone by that they had largely revolted against, but never quite found full stability thereafter.

Nuclear tensions were slightly tamer, but still ever present. While my classes did not have shelter in places drills or things of that nature, Russia was always in the back of our minds. There's a reason why movies like WarGames were still so relevant back then, sure we were enterained by it on one hand, but it also touched on a very real lack of stability that haunted us in the background.

We were also the first generation fully raised in the aftermath of the civil rights revolution, and again coming out of the storming times of the 70's, many of us I think never had a reference period in our life when this was not an important topic. The upbeat tone this in some ways took on in the 80's was again not that we believed we had reached stability or that we had delusions regarding the issues that still existed, but rather an approach that we could continue to change the world with a marked positivity.

Also, the Big 80's may have seemed like one big party, but I would not remotely say we considered ourselves terribly wholesome. Our "coming of age" teen movies present a somewhat fair depiction of the MTV generation. We were a rather naughty bunch despite our more clean cut appearances. And our parents during that time were certainly no better.

(I already said that "EVERYTHING IS IN CONTINUITY NOW. EVERTYTHING". ? )

Which is why we got him.. thanks Tomasi! I don't think I could ever get sick of the Super Sons.