THE IMAGINARY STORIES OF SUPERMAN

A Full-Length Remembrance! 

Part One: In the Beginning, There Was Krypton 

"This is an Imaginary Story. Aren't they all?" 

So wrote Alan Moore to kick off "Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?", an amazing tale that marked no less than the end of Superman's Silver Age as well as the final adventure of  the Man of - but wait! We've got a decade or so of Imaginary Stories to discuss first. 

For the uninitiated and/or just plain foggy of mind, Imaginary Stories (IS's) were a staple of the Superman family of comic books throughout the 1960s. And to those who might ask, as Alan Moore suggests, if "Imaginary" is not a bit of a redundant label for any story in which Superman appears: not if you're editor Mort Weisinger and his stable of writers, locking yourselves into an ever-expanding but nonetheless unbending continuity. The "Imaginary" moniker was a way for a writer to explore a tantalizing, unlikely, or simply silly story concept that could not play out in the "real" life of a hero who'd irrevocably lost his home planet, was implicitly sworn to celibacy, and never made a friend or an enemy who wouldn't love to soar spandexed through the air, same as him. 

Most fans from back in the day have a favorite IS, while a vocal minority professes its dislike of the overall concept. But no matter, the IS's were undeniably a key component of the story of Superman and his associates throughout the 1960s and beyond. Imagine that era without them, and you lose a considerable amount of color and a whole lot of fun. 

Comprehensive lists and analysis of IS’s are elusive (see Resources below), but some Supe scholars cite "Superman's Other Life", comprising all of Superman #132 in 1959, as the genesis of the genre. Interestingly, this story does not strictly meet the IS specs, which included at least two (but more likely four or five) disclaimers that the depicted events “may or may not ever happen". Instead, writer Edmund Hamilton frames a "what if" scenario - Krypton avoiding destruction and our hero’s subsequent life thereon - within a real-time session on a scenario-spinning super computer in the Fortress of Solitude. The Univac predicts that Kal-el would have enjoyed a younger brother, Zal, before losing all of his family in an accident as a young adult. As Supe, Batman, and Robin (don't ask) watch the monitor, they see Kal’s mentor, a space control officer, become the accidental super-hero Futuro. Fate is not to be denied, even in computer projections, and a visiting Earthling named Lois Lane sweeps Futuro off his feet. Before he and Lois leave for married life on Earth, Futuro transfers his powers to Kal, whose costume for his role as Superman on Krypton is amazingly close to the one we all know and love. It's a barn-burner of a story, one of the first full-length "novels" of the Superman family of titles, and an impressive launching pad for a creative concept that produced a sizeable catalog of tales that were variously great, fluffy, and paint by numbers.

The first official Imaginary Story featuring Superman would appear to have been "Mr. and Mrs. Clark (Superman) Kent" as told in Lois Lane #19 in 1960. Even though the title editor felt you needed a little reminder of Clark Kent's alter ego, I bet you can still guess the identity of Mrs. Clark Kent. Yes, it's that famous triangle of Lois, Clark, and Supe gone marital, but with very little bliss. Poor Lois faithfully keeps her spouse's hero status a secret, while fielding a string of slights and putdowns from friends and neighbors regarding husband Clark's milquetoast tendencies. The story’s opening narrative conveys a near giddiness in announcing that what we are about to read is, indeed, "only the first of many such tales which could very well happen in the future... but perhaps never will!" One can almost hear editor Weisinger, his responsibility being ten or more Supe-related stories a month, thinking "Goldmine!"  

Let me now say that as a young reader, I loved almost all of these stories. I found them enjoyable, creative, and - in their ability to break down the thematic structure of Superman's life (if only for eight pages) - very exciting. Part Two of this article spotlights a handful of favorites, plus one Imaginary Story too famous to ignore. 

Resources: I've been on and off the web for a few years looking for a full listing of Imaginary Stories, and finally found this as I was finishing this article. It "may or may not" be complete, but there are certainly more stories here than I can remember, plus a couple of intriguing entries from Superman’s very early years. Scroll down the page to Imaginary Stories at http://www.dcuguide.com/chronology.php?name=hypertime 

Part Two: Red, Blue, and Dead 

I'm not hard to figure when it comes to favorite Imaginary Stories - I went for the blockbusters. The tales below are all faves, save for one. 

"The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue", Superman #162, 1963. Chided by the tiny Kandorians for his failure to eliminate crime and disease and - oh, yes - return Kandor to normal size, Superman undergoes a risky experiment to broaden his mental capabilities and work that to-do list. The expansion instead splits him into two identical Supes, each with all the requisite powers and an enhanced super-intellect to boot. For ever after, it’s all good: problems global and personal are solved, including Lana and Lois each getting a Supe, with the latter couple retiring to New Krypton, built by the now life-sized Kandorians. The lack of tension in this utopian yarn by Leo Dorfman is often cited as a fault, but the future SNAG (Sensitive New Age Guy) in me found this to be a highly satisfying comic book experience. (Trivia Alert: while a strong appeal of this tale is the uplifting art of Curt Swan and George Klein, Weisinger nonetheless had Lois Lane regular Kurt Schaffenberger re-draw the faces of Lois and Lana for their scenes in the last chapter. This despite Swan's ability to draw soulful renditions of those characters, as seen in his Lois in the first page of the story.)

"The Fantastic Story of Superman's Sons", Superman #166, 1964. Though Superman's wife is never identified in this tale, she IS human, and the twin sons they produce are an unmatched set: one with dad's powers, the other earthbound like mom. That the mortal brother might have a slight self-esteem problem is an obvious thematic choice, but one that's given thoughtful and compelling development in this book-length telling.

Similarly, readers will likely guess what it takes for young Kal II to prove himself, but getting there - including a sojourn in Kandor and a time-visit to Granddaddy Jor-el - is a lot of fun. Another Swan/Klein treasure, scripted by sci-fi veteran Edmund Hamilton, who tells a story both sweet and adventuresome. 

"The Super Family from Krypton", Superboy #95, 1962. Jor-el and Lara escape in a conveniently enlarged rocket with their infant son. The space immigrants are befriended by the Kents but sensationalized in the press, thanks to a hot-headed reporter named Perry White. An extended stay on Earth looks dicey until Jor-el, in addition to a few Superman-style rescues, begins shaking his super-Einstein groove thing. Whenever there's a problem (usually mythos-related), he's there with a fix: Kandor, Luthor's hair, Kryptonite, even legs for Lori Lemaris! Eventually, the el family does go house hunting in outer space, but not before handing off  Kal's Superboy duties - by way of a super-powered formula - to the Kent's adopted son, an Earthling named Clark.

 This yarn is a sentimental fave, but a re-reading reveals how intentionally Superboy was designed for younger fans. The writing is simplistic, and each turn of events earns a narrative re-cap ("Ironic, eh readers? In this story, Lex Luthor DOES have hair and LIKES Superboy!"). One also finds interesting foreshadowing of the later "Superman Red and Blue", what with more than one super-powered hero on the scene and Jor-el's mental capability to solve most every problem. 

"The Death of Superman", Superman #149, 1961; perhaps the most famous IS. Having gone to great lengths to trick The Man of Steel (and the reader) into believing he's reformed, Luthor lures Superman to a concentrated Kryptonite radiator and kills him. An impressive array of super-heroes and world and interplanetary leaders file before Superman's body in state. Supergirl, still unknown to the public at the time, captures Luthor and takes him to trial in Kandor, where he's sentenced to eternity in the Phantom Zone. Many folks cite this as their all-time favorite IS. I don't like it, for the obvious reason that Superman dies, but also because he's tricked and murdered; there's nothing resembling a fair fight to the finish.  It was a powerful and important story of the era - written by none other than Jerry Siegel - but when I was trying to reassemble a run of '60s Superman comics a few years ago, I put this one off till the end.  

The above represent a small sampling of the stories and ideas that appeared beneath the IS banner. Left  undiscussed are Jimmy Olsen marrying Supergirl, Clark Kent and Bruce Wayne growing up as brothers, Jimmy and Lucy Lane's son marrying Superman and Lois Lane's daughter (ulp - first cousins?!), Lois as a Super-Maid from Krypton, Lex Luthor variously as Clark's brother, Kal-el's father, and Lois' husband, and Superman's serial marriages - all in one telling - to Lois, Lana, and Lori. 

Events of the later 1960s slowed the IS output to a trickle before they effectively disappeared. For one thing, DC lost me as a reader. This was not particularly significant on its face, but as a representation of comic fans old and new who, like me, were gravitating to the Marvel Comics line, it was a big deal. Seeking lost ground, DC began to emulate Marvel's multi-issue sagas. As Craig Shutt notes in his intro to DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories, the format left little room for narrative-busting IS's and wacky, DC-style one-offs (bad news for Jimmy Olsen as Were-Wolf fans).

By 1971, Julius Schultz had succeeded Mort Weisinger, and he quickly leaned into re-vamping DC's heaviest hitter. According to Shutt, the former Flash editor had not much cared for the IS concept, and he certainly had plenty of non-imaginary issues on the stove, what with neutralizing Kryptonite and making over Clark as a tele-journalist.  

And so the great stable of Imaginary Stories became largely a thing of DC's fabled past. Julie Schultz could well have been considered the genre's executioner, had he not green-lighted what I consider the greatest Imaginary Story of all time. 

Resources: The stories listed above, excepting Superboy’s and including Lois Lane’s from Part One, can be found in the trade paperback DC's Greatest Imaginary Stories. The volume also includes a few sort-of-IS's of several other super-heroes.  "The Amazing Story of Superman-Red and Superman-Blue" and "The Death of Superman" have been reprinted often; both appear in the enjoyable sampler The Greatest Superman Stories Ever Told, another of DC's many compilations. And a complete scan of "Red and Blue" is at http://supermanthrutheages.com/tales2/redblue/ 

Part Three: Whatever Happened to The Silver Age? 

In 1986, Julius Schwartz retired from DC. Concurrent with the departure of the man who'd been a presence at the company for some forty years and Superman’s editor since 1971 was the arrival of John Byrne. The writer/artist was charged with no less than a total re-boot of Superman: the character would be re-created on a blank slate, with no obligation on Byrne's part to acknowledge any portion of the Man of Steel's history or continuity, both of which reached linearly - if somewhat tenuously - back to Superman's first appearance in 1938. 

So it was that Schwartz - at the end of his tenure as steward of the comics’ greatest super-hero - faced both a challenge and an opportunity that were unique in Superman's 48 year run: to bring an incredibly huge body of work to a fitting close. The result was a nearly 50 page epic entitled "Whatever Happened to The Man of Tomorrow?",  presented in two parts in the September '86 issues of Superman and Action (the Superman comic, #423, became the last issue of the series that is now called Superman Volume 1). Set ten years in "the future", the story relates Lois Lane's first hand account of Superman's disappearance and presumed death a decade earlier.

Here I should say that I did not follow Superman comics in the 1970s and '80s. In recent years, I've read a reprint here and there, but there are elements of that era I couldn't understand if I wanted to - most notably the rationale behind and execution of the "Crisis on Infinite Earths" stories. So while I'd noted the trade paperback reprint of  “Whatever Happened” during my bookstore Superman scoutings back around the turn of the millennium, I initially considered the 1986 copyright warning enough that this story was not for a Supe fan from the 1960s. 

Wrong, very wrong! Here are the Daily Planet's classic "staff of four", plus Lana, Krypto, Supergirl, the Legion of Super-Heroes, and members of the JLA. Causing vastly more trouble than usual are Luthor, Brainiac, Bizarro, the Legion of Super Villains, and - for truly vintage fans - even Toyman and Prankster. A '60s pedigree is perfect for this epic.  

And while the large cast list might remind you of a Fantastic Four wedding, have no doubt: this IS an epic tale, deftly spun by Alan Moore with art by Curt Swan. There are heroic deaths - quite a few - and heartfelt pathos. There are surprising plot twists and satisfying resolutions. There are subtly dropped clues that will send you back through the story again. I will not spoil it for you - you would rightly hate me. The paperback edition is still available, and if you've read this far, for six bucks you should definitely pick it up. I pulled my copy to review for this column, and I re-read every word. The story is a true gift to fans like us.

Now - about the "Imaginary" status: Moore states on page one that "This is an Imaginary Story". Then he adds "Aren't they all?" Andrew Helfer, Schultz's successor in the editor's chair, points out in the forward to the paperback edition that directly following the original publication of this tale, ALL the Superman stories of the past would become "Imaginary"; Byrne's re-boot would implicitly make it so. The events in “Whatever Happened”, this would seem to suggest, are as “real” as the reader cares to make them.  

So where does that leave a "pre-boot" fan like me? Did the Superman I loved as a boy really come to career's end in a battle royale at the Fortress of Solitude, summer of '86? 

Well, the Libra in me loves indecision. But I hope you'll decide for yourself. Maybe all the Superman stories ARE imaginary, but few are this good!

Resources and addenda: The trade paperback of "Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?" lists for $5.95, but is now officially out of print. Check your local comic shop as well as ebay (a copy is going cheap at this writing). Amazon currently has a selection of new & used, but they're pricey. You can also find the story in its original comic book incarnation, via Superman #423 and Action #583, at reasonable prices on ebay. For the background information in Part Three of this article, I've borrowed liberally from the paperback edition’s forward, written by Paul Kupperberg. Many thanks to Bruce Dettman for his on-going inspiration by example, and for his gentle but persistent badgering of me to write this article! 

September 2007

Book Review

The Krypton Companion

Edited by Michael Eury

TwoMorrows Publishing, 2006

Reviewed by Alfred Walker

How can I say an unkind word about this book? Honestly, where else could a guy like me go for information like this? Men of Tomorrow by Gerard Jones, you say, and I say, yes, but that book put me to sleep early every night. Eddie Zeno's wonderful biography of Curt Swan and Mark Voger's similar tome on Kurt Schaffenberger, you reply, and I note, yes, those are good books to have, but you're still talking only two of several Silver Age Superman artists. Older, out-of-print fanzines, you retort, where a few of the Krypton Companion interviews first appeared some years back, to which I query: Got any? 

The joy in this book virtually jumps off the pages. It's the literary equivalent of a kaleidoscope, with each piece of colored glass an attempt to shine a light on the minds of the editors, artists, and writers who nurtured Superman from the dawn of the Silver Age to the end of that fabled continuity in the the mid 1980s. There are lon-ng profiles of Mort Weisinger, Edmund Hamilton, and Curt Swan, along with similarly lengthy interviews with Al Plastino, Jim Shooter, and Cary Bates. And tag each of those preceding phrases with "and many more". There are art samples (somewhat sadly, reproduced in b&w) from just about every artist of the era, with some fun rarities you've probably never seen. There are timelines for all the Superman-related titles from 1958 through 1986. And there is a chapter length roundtable finale with sixteen Superman creatives (Mark Waid, John Byrne, Alex Ross, etc.) which, though I frankly haven't read every word of, I do know how it ends ("What is your Silver Age Superman guilty pleasure?"). 

So what's not to like here? Well—how 'bout the font? This is the first book ever for which I've had to get up out of bed and find my glasses. You say, c'mon Alfred, you're not forty anymore, and I say that's my point: who IS?!? At least half the folks to whom this book appeals would appreciate just a little larger type, and maybe not so many gray backgrounds. Then there's the organization: there sort of isn't any. There are chapters with sub-headings labeled 1958-1964, 1965-1970, etc., but the material contained within does not necessarily coincide with those periods. And there just isn't much thematic glue. It's really a lot like a binder I keep (and I know some of you have similar creations) of Superman articles I've found and printed off the internet over the last eight or ten years. I love my binder! But if I were going to publish it as a book, I think I'd feel compelled to bring some kind of unity to all the pieces and parts. 

Do these perceived shortcomings prevent my recommending this volume to you without reservation or qualification? Great Scott, not! The price is too cheap and life's too short. I'm sure the noted book reviewer Abraham Lincoln would once again agree: people who like this sort of thing will find this to be the sort of thing they like! 

September 2007

O Brother, Who Art Thou?

(or The Spurious Super-Sibs)

by Alfred Walker

First, the dirty laundry: DC Comics recycled stories. The pair of tales we're about to discuss features the same concept, the same key plot device, and even some identical narrative and dialog. I'm no expert on how often this happened, but in searching the net for images of our featured covers, I practically tripped over another pair of shared stories. The impetus for re-using a reasonably good story concept was likely the very reason Superman's editor rarely if ever got busted for it: reader turnover. DC's real-life version of Perry White, Mort Weisinger, figured he had any given kid's attention for about 5 years (dead on in my case); why not dust off a yarn from the previous decade?

So here we are with two tales of young men who each seem to be Kal-el's big brother. They share identical evidence, which also serves as our evidence that someone pulled 1953's "Superman's Big Brother" (Superman #80) as a source for 1961's "Superboy's Big Brother" (Superboy #89). In both tellings, Clark's super-senses detect an unearthly rocket on a crash course with his adopted planet. Superman/boy intercepts the craft, ensuring a soft if fiery touchdown, duly noted by our hero as reminiscent of his own Earth landing. An unconscious, perfectly human-looking alien is found inside, along with a star chart inscribed with (ulp!) Jor-el's handwriting! Supe's surprise is compounded by the text of his dad's notes, which indicate that the map is to serve as a navigational aid for this trip to Earth by... his son!

And there you have it: the arguably thin strip of evidence Superman and Superboy each uses to conclude that the big, amnesiac guy in spandex snoozing in the rocket - Halk Kar in the earlier tale, Mon-el in the later - is his brother. 

Fortunately for this article, the stories' similarities, for the most part, end there as well. And comparing the differences is at least as fun as noting DC's in-house plagiarism. Rule #1: don't get hung up on continuity. In Superman's world, most of the Fifties are to the Sixties as apples are to Applejacks. Our earlier story here is very pre-Silver Age, so we get nowhere wondering why Superman doesn't recall the "big brother" experience recounted in the Superboy tale.

What we can note with interest are the different personalities displayed by Superman and his teenaged earlier self. Superman is unfailingly deferential to the man he believes is his older sib. As Halk Kar's powers slowly wane, Supe secretly covers the big guy's blue-trunked butt in one super-deed after another, even though ol' Halk is a bit of a blowhard whom we may not mind getting a little comeuppance.  

In contrast, Superboy presents as a narrow-thinking jerk. When the holes in his "he's my brother from Krypton" construct start to appear, Superboy suspects Mon-el of a plot to deceive him. This is apparently an easier route for the Boy of Steel than stepping back to recall that he himself connected the dots on the El family theory. Instead, he sets out to bust Mon-el's chops, and comes within a minute or two of poisoning the guy to death.

Because he's unwittingly put Mon-el at death's door, Superboy must whisk through the last page or so of the story tapping every bit of his super-teenaged ingenuity. At the comparable point in his own tale, Superman has no such dilemma to solve and is allowed the space to show a good deal of affection toward Halk, along with the bittersweet sorrow that comes with the discovery of his "brother's" true identity and Halk's need to return to his own world. Superman has played a supporting role in this tale in more ways than one, but we leave the story impressed with his loneliness and longing.

Superboy, on the other hand, escapes his yarn without a proper apology to Mon-el, making only a hasty promise to find a cure for the cosmic lead poisoning he induced in the poor fellow - this as he banishes Mon-el to the Phantom Zone in the story's final panel!  Indeed, much like Mon-el's luck, the tale seems to just run out.  Quite an ignominious start for a character who went on to become a Silver Age staple, albeit in the 30th century when Brainiac 5 finally heals and frees the guy (hey - what's an extra thousand years in the Phantom Zone? It's not like you have to shave everyday or anything...).

While an idyllic relationship between lost brothers is the theme implied on Superboy #89's cover (mild-to-grossly misleading covers were '60s standard issue), the Boy of Steel's impulsive, immature, perhaps even hormonal behavior is the constant through this tale. He even excuses himself from a school history quiz to zip back to ancient Egypt where he fact-checks one of his answers, a departure from Clark's oft-noted practice of missing a few questions to hide his super-intellect. Behavioral traits play a strong role in the Superman story, too. Like his TV counterpart, the comic book Supe of the '50s was largely earthbound, his authors sometimes struggling to find suitable challenges for the Man of Tomorrow. Watching diligently over a blustery big “brother” who doesn't realize his powers are on the ebb is a rather neat and novel vehicle for Superman to take through this tale.

“Superman’s Big Brother” was first published before my time, but I found it - and you can, too - in Superman in the Fifties, a nice compilation in trade paperback from DC. Of course I do remember Mon-el, whose story you can read at http://superman.ws/tales2/mon-el/1 The first time I saw that great Curt Swan cover, I was just as excited as Superboy!

In honor of everybody's big and little brothers, especially "Superman's Brother" Fred Crane, and in memory of my big brother, William Walker, 1943 - 2007.

BASEMENT BONUS!

In the future, no one will need a comb.

May 2007

Good Years--Great Story

By Alfred Walker 

By Alfred Walker 

"The Girl Who Didn't Believe in Superman" is posted here at the Fortress site.

The list of comic book/TV stories is here on The Adventures Continue site.

by Alfred Walker

There are some great resources for Curt Swan on the web. To note a couple: Who Drew Superman, at http://www.supermanartists.comics.org/superart/superart.html has examples from multiple artists, including details on who inked for whom. There's a nice look back by Mr. Swan himself at http://theages.superman.ws/swan.php  Eddie Zeno's bio mentioned above, pictured below, and featuring some wonderful color collages (much nicer than the ones in this article, which I assembled myself) is available at Amazon, in comic shops, etc.