Month: July 2010

CLASSIC SUPERMAN ADS FOR 07/16/2010

In an effort to read more comics for the pure enjoyment of reading comics and not as research or prep for one of the many podcasts I either host, co-host or appear on I dug out my runs of L.E.G.I.O.N. and what has become known as the Five Years Later Legion of Super-Heroes to go through.  I read the Legion of Super-Heroes series about 13 years ago but a lot of the details are now lost to my memory and after reading the L.E.G.I.O.N. ’90 Annual for From Crisis to Crisis this week I decided it was time to give that series a go.  The two books are connected, so it seemed like a good reading project to take on.

So I was reading these for pleasure rather than “work”, right?

Then how is it I find a few bits of business from the first few issues of L.E.G.I.O.N. to post about here?

It’s a conspiracy, I tells ya!  A conspiracy!

In any event, because L.E.G.I.O.N. first saw the light of comic book day in 1989 there were ads inside of it for the Superman: Exile arc that went through Superman and Adventures of Superman in late 1988/early 1989.  I was actually really excited to see these and scanned them into the old computer for your viewing pleasure.

First up is the first Exile ad that let the reading audience know that there were big doings over in the Superman titles.

Continue reading CLASSIC SUPERMAN ADS FOR 07/16/2010

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 59: ANNUALS 1990

Episode 59: The 1990 Superman Related Annuals

Welcome to the fifty-ninth episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.

Part index. Part commentary. Part history lesson. All podcast.

Last week the guys recorded an extra long episode. This week they go in the opposite direction for reasons explained at the end of the episode. Before that, though, Jeff and Mike look at the two Superman related annuals from 1990. The first is Adventures of Superman Annual #2, which guest stars the L.E.G.I.O.N. and, despite having a rather abrupt ending, was a good, old fashioned super-hero team-up complete with a couple of really solid fight scenes. This story continues in L.E.G.I.O.N. ’90 Annual #1 where Vril Dox, Jr. finally faces off against his father…Brainiac! The problem is that the younger Dox wants to kill his old man and the Man of Steel isn’t having any of that. After that the boys read some e-mails until they had to unexpectedly stop. Thankfully there was enough material recorded to make a full sized episode and the boys promise that there will be more e-mails next time.

Check out the scans below the cut!

Continue reading FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 59: ANNUALS 1990

YOUTUBE TUESDAY FOR 07/13/2010

Welcome to YouTube Tuesday where I choose from an assortment of Superman related clips from YouTube and share them with y’all.

This week I thought I would wind the clock back to 2006 and remember a time when Superman Returns was something Superman fans were looking forward to and not something that brings up the venom and bile.  First up is the teaser trailer.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5DMCd7hv1w

I vividly remember seeing this trailer and getting very, very excited.  The Marlon Brando narration was very cool and what I saw of Superman made me very happy.  What I liked most of all about this trailer was the shot of the people of Metropolis looking up into the sky.  I had never seen that in a big-budget Superman film before and it just made me a very happy Superman fan.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4IOoyrfi0s

The second trailer and the one that gave us more of a look at Superman in the film and once the Superman music kicked in I was all about this movie.  The excitement was there and we got to once again see certain shots of Superman that we had never seen on the big screen before.  The two clips that really got my attention back then were the shot where Superman is just flying over the crowd on the street and the shot where Superman spins around on his back and starts using his heat vision.  I remember thinking something like, “Damn, this thing is going to be good.”

Shortly before seeing the film I caught this international trailer and it is straight up my favorite of the lot.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y95dGOrXQQ

My reaction to this one was, “Holy crap!”  Seriously, there was so much awesome in this trailer it’s not even funny.  The choral music in the beginning, the action shots, especially Superman walking into the hail of gunfire.  Everything about this trailer made me think this was going to be a great Superman film and that last clip had me sixteen different kinds of happy.

He took a bullet to the eye.  I hate to repeat myself but that is just something we had never seen before.

As neat as it is to look back on these trailers I can’t help but feeling that we were kind of lied to.  Sure there was an emotional undercurrent to them that would lead you to believe that there was going to be some serious introspection on the part of Superman but at the same time the second two were action freaking packed with Superman doing all kinds of Superman type things.  I think this is why I was so disappointed in the movie.  I can’t place the blame of  feeling misled at the feet of Bryan Singer directly because I don’t know for sure that he cut these trailers together but man they really wanted us to think this was going to be a summer blockbuster and it turned out to be kind of an indie film version of Superman with a couple of great action pieces.

Very sad.

Here’s hoping the next one is a lot better and also here’s hoping they keep Routh because I really liked him in the role.

Tomorrow…more fun stuff from the vaults here at the Fortress.

More to follow…

THE DAILY PLANET FOR 07/09/2010

When I decided to bring back the Fortress as a daily Superman blog one of the ideas I had as far as content goes is scanning bits of business from my collection and sharing them with y’all.  On Wednesday of this week I posted a handful of covers from a Superman Family lot I had won on eBay, which I was sixteen different types of excited over.

As I was scanning the covers to those comics I noticed that about ten or so of them had Daily Planet pages on the back of them.  For those not in the know there was a point in the late seventies and early eighties where DC had what they called the  Daily Planet page, which was essentially a Bullpen Bulletin for DC and was usually quite cool.  The most interesting aspect of the Daily Planet pages on the back of these issues of Superman Family is that they are all Superman centric, which leads me to believe that they had different Daily Planet pages for different books based on the characters appearing in that book.  So every once in a while I post another scan of these pages complete with some commentary.

Click on the image to make it easier to see.  Commentary below the cut.

Continue reading THE DAILY PLANET FOR 07/09/2010

FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 58: JULY 1990

Episode 58: July 1990

Welcome to the fifty-eighth episode of From Crisis to Crisis: A Superman Podcast! This podcast has a simple premise; examine just about every Superman comic published between Man of Steel #1 in 1986 to Adventures of Superman #649 in 2006 in an informative and hopefully entertaining format.

Part index. Part commentary. Part history lesson. All podcast.

You might want to grab a cup of coffee and a snack this week, folks because Mike and Jeff sure had a lot to say in this week’s episode. This is rather appropriate when you consider that the books they discuss this week, all of which have the July 1990 cover date, are extra sized with eight additional pages each. In Superman #46 the Man of Steel faces off against an Oto shaman as Pete Ross is held hostage. Then in Adventures of Superman #468 we get the return of Hank Henshaw and a mopey Clark Kent. Finally, as far as the main books are concerned, there is Action Comics #655 where Lois gets into some trouble with a para-military group hiding out in a familiar habitat. The extras in each of these issues are quite cool. In the Superman issue we get Jimmy Olsen’s diary, in Adventures of Superman there’s the Man of Steel’s journal and in Action we get Ma Kent’s photo album.

But that’s not all! There’s also Superboy: The Comic Book #6, which is much better than the previous two issues. and features Superboy’s arch enemy Lex Luthor!  This is followed by Elsewhere in the DCU and the Elsewhere, Elsewhere segments. In between all of that there are major digressions; some on point, some not so much.

We have a few more scans this week.  The first is the Superman is Mad as Hell ad that was in the back of this month’s worth of books.  Mike really likes this ad.

More scans below the cut!

Continue reading FROM CRISIS TO CRISIS EPISODE 58: JULY 1990

ACQUISITIONS – 07/07/2010

While I have stopped buying the monthly Superman titles I haven’t stopped working on my Superman collection.  These posts are meant to show off those acquisitions.

About eight years ago I made a concerted effort to build up my Pre-Crisis Superman collection.  It was an era that I had never given much thought to or wanted to focus on but I figured if I was going to be a fan of the character I should try to learn as much as I could about all of his incarnations.  Of all of the titles that have been hard to find Superman Family has been one of the toughest.  I don’t know if the print runs were low or what but it’s hard to find them, hard to find them at a good price and hard to find them in good condition.  A week or so back I lucked into a lot on eBay that fit both the good price and the good condition criteria.  It was a 20 or so issue lot mainly in the 190’s and 200’s of the book.  I scanned all of the covers and over the course of a few posts I’ll share them here because some of are quite awesome.

Continue reading ACQUISITIONS – 07/07/2010

YOUTUBE TUESDAY RETURNS – 07/06/2010

YouTube Tuesday returns!

After giving it some thought I decided to bring back this segment because I thought YouTube Tuesday sounded a heck of a lot better than Fun Time Friday at the Fortress.

This blog…always a work in progress.

Today I present an episode of the New Adventures of Superman series produced by Filmation in the sixties.  I like this show.  I really do.  I think it captures the Superman of the Silver Age to near perfection.  The thing is that as much fun as that material is it can also be goofy as hell.  Case in point; The Pernicious Parasite.  Watch it and then join me below the cut for some commentary.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngev0vzxdF8&feature=related

Continue reading YOUTUBE TUESDAY RETURNS – 07/06/2010

AND WHO DISGUISED AS CLARK KENT – 07/05/2010

And Who Disguised As Clark Kent…

I mentioned in Thursday’s post that straw that finally broke the camel’s back as far as me dropping the Superman titles was the fact that we weren’t going to be seeing Clark Kent in the titles for at least another year. It’s kind of funny to me that THAT was what finally drove me away because of all of the other problems I’ve had with the books over the past four or so years but in a way it makes total sense given my feelings towards the character. So then the question is simple; why do I feel so strongly about Clark’s place in Superman’s world? What is it about the character that appeals to me?

It occurred to me some time back that my views of Clark Kent were formed in Superman II and Superman III. Sure I have nothing but love and affection for Superman: The Movie and it is the best of the film series, but the second and third films are where my opinions on Clark were first formed. In Superman II we get a Clark Kent that seemed more of a character than the first movie. Continue reading AND WHO DISGUISED AS CLARK KENT – 07/05/2010