Month: September 2014

Welcome to another installment of Who’s Who Classic, a regular feature here at the Fortress where every Monday (for the most part…with exceptions) I will present an entry from the original series of Who’s Who comics that DC published between 1984 and 1988.  Superman was well represented in those series and I wanted to share the entries with you just in case you have never seen them.  Today’s entry is The Prankster (Post-Crisis)!

(originally published in Who’s Who Update ’88 #3 (October 1988)

Remember that you can click on the art to make it larger.

(Collected Editions is a listing of the various trade paperbacks, hardcovers, omnibuses, etc. that are in my Superman collection.  The goal is to not only inventory my collection of trades, hardcovers, etc. but also to display said collection and produce something resembling a resource for other Superman readers, collectors and fans.)

Nuts and Bolts

• Released on June 7, 2006
• Original Price $19.99
• 416 pages
• Cover by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding

Contents

• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book One – No Title
• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book Two – No Title
• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book Three – No Title
• Communion from Doomsday Annual #1
• Birth from Superman: The Doomsday Wars #1
• Life from Superman: The Doomsday Wars #2
• Death from Superman: The Doomsday Wars #3
• The Doomsday Protocol from Adventures of Superman #594
• Doomsday Rex from Superman (Vol. 2) #175

Notes

• The cover this collection was re-purposed from the house ad for Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey.  The promo poster of that ad was double sided.  On one side was this image and on the other was the cover to Action Comics #700.
• It’s an awesome image.
• This is a very interesting collection.  First, this was put out in 2006 and DC was, at the time, establishing its Post Infinite Crisis world.  It seemed odd to me at the time that they would put out all of this material in one omnibus.
• On the other hand collected editions play by different rules.  While the collected editions of the new stories were the big focus DC seemed to be willing to put out collections like this that would sell to a different market.
• And to be fair, Doomsday was featured in one of DC’s biggest comics of all time.  Bane was cool but the news barely covered, if at all, Batman’s back being broken while Superman’s death made headlines around the world.
• The next curious thing about this omnibus is that it is made up of two other stories that have their own trade paperbacks.  Both Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey and Superman: The Doomsday Wars both received their own collected editions.  This wasn’t the first or last time DC (or any other publisher for that matter) would do this sort of thing but I think it’s kind of cool that they were willing to include those series in this Doomsday Mix Tape even though you could get the individual stories elsewhere.
• Another curious aspect is that Doomsday Annual #1 was included.  I mean it wasn’t curious in terms of it detailing Doomsday’s early “adventures” because those fit right into this omnibus.  I was just surprised anyone remembered that this came out.
• Fun note: there was some connective tissue in the form of a text page before this chapter to explain who the characters were and all that jazz.
• Curiosity #4 was including The Doomsday Protocol from Adventures of Superman #594.  Again, it makes sense that you would include it if you wanted to cover all of the Post Death Doomsday’s appearances but it was part of the Our Worlds At War event, so there’s some context there that you just wouldn’t get unless you knew what that story was all about.  It works well enough on its own but the inclusion is still odd.  Sure there was a text page explaining where this story fit in but still…odd.
• Speaking of odd…
• The final curious thing about this omnibus.  Doomsday Rex from Superman #175.  This issue was part of the Joker’s Last Laugh event  While there was a text page explaining all of that it’s still a little strange that they would include this story.  On the other hand it makes perfect sense.  This was the 100 issue mark from the death of Superman so what better way to commemorate this event than a rematch?
• Well, 102 issue really, counting the zero and one million issues from 1994 and 1998 respectively.
• To be fair this is a fun issue.  Loeb dealt with the crossover aspect the best way he could for someone that didn’t want to deal with the whole Joker thing; the Joker appears for a page or two right at the beginning and then is gone.
• This is a great collection.  While Doomsday may have had diminishing returns over the years I think this omnibus is a solid look at what happened to him after the Death of Superman and is a good read.  Plus for $20 this book is a bargain.

(Collected Editions is a listing of the various trade paperbacks, hardcovers, omnibuses, etc. that are in my Superman collection.  The goal is to not only inventory my collection of trades, hardcovers, etc. but also to display said collection and produce something resembling a resource for other Superman readers, collectors and fans.)

Nuts and Bolts

• Released on August 8, 1995
• Original Price $14.95
• 160 Pages
• Cover by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding

Contents

• Introduction by Dan Jurgens
• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book One – No Title
• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book Two – No Title
• Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey Book Three – No Title

Notes

• This trade has a pretty no frills cover.  That’s not a negative criticism, just an observation.  Doomsday seems pretty confident that he’s won whatever conflict he’s just taken part in while Superman seems to be flying up behind him to prove that he’s wrong.  I can’t say that I love this cover but I don’t hate it either.
• The introduction by Dan Jurgens details the history of Doomsday’s creation.  It’s a pretty interesting read.  There are also some sketches from Doomsday’s development that have since been reprinted elsewhere but for many readers at the time the book came out it was the first time they saw them.
• I have said it before and I will say it again; introductions should be mandatory for collected editions.
• This story was huge when it first came out as three prestige format books in the spring of 1994.  The Superman books were seeing a good deal of success coming out of the Death and Return saga and we hadn’t gotten to the saturation point just yet.
• Not only did this story feature the re-match between Superman and Doomsday but we finally learn Doomsday’s origin.
• For the record I liked the origin then and I still do today.  It was well crafted and linked Superman and Doomsday in a way that some might think obvious or silly but I thought was brilliant.
• This story also features the return of Hank Henshaw, the Cyborg.  Jurgens redesigned the character into a look I was never really hot on but like the cover to this collection I didn’t hate it.
• Part of me thinks that this story should have been the end to both Doomsday and the Cyborg as they were created and evolved (respectively) for a specific purpose and once they served that purpose there wasn’t much for them to do.
• It’s not that the later stories told with these characters were bad.  I just think we got diminishing returns with both characters.
• I was surprised that it took a year for this trade to come out.  Considering how quickly the Doomsday, Funeral For a Friend and Reign of the Supermen trades came out it seemed like this one would be fast tracked as well.  Then again it was a different era for collected editions so it might not be that surprising at all.

Normally this is where you be reading about what Who’s Who Classic is and which character I am posting the entry for and all that jazz but that’s not happening this time.  This time I am posting a Who’s Who entry that might have…wait…back up…scratch that…like this…SHOULD have been.

While it is a horrible misuse of the word “tragedy” it is a tragedy that in the original run of Who’s Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe the Earth-One version of Superman never got an entry.  It’s one of those things that sticks in the collective craw of Superman and Who’s Who fans.  I happen to be one of them.  I realize that DC wanted to push the new Superman that was finishing up his new origin around the time the twenty-second issue of Who’s Who hit the stands so I really can’t hold too much of a grudge.  And to be fair the cover was awesome.

(Image courtesy of me downloading it from Shag’s Firestorm Fan site and re-uploading it here because hot linking is for suckers.)

Thankfully fandom steps in and fills the gap once again.  Xum Yukinori put together an Earth-1 Superman Who’s Who entry and it…is…awesome.

I honestly think that the entry speaks for itself, so there isn’t a whole lot I can add to it.  The mixing of several different sources and the addition of the events of Whatever Happened To The Man of Tomorrow combined with the gorgeous Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (praise be his name) art work and the little details (like the fading yellow dots) makes for something that looks authentic.  It almost make you want them to reprint the original Who’s Who and sneak this in though I have read where some people have put it into their digital copy of the book.

So thank you, Xum, because this put a big ol’ smile on my face.

If you would like to hear a fun discussion about this entry and all of the other entries in Who’s Who #22 be sure to check out the 22nd episode of Who’s Who: The Definitive Podcast of the DC Universe, which you can find by clicking on this link.  It’s a fantastic show and I was lucky to be on this particular episode for a bit to talk about the Superman entries.  Many, many thanks to Rob Kelly and the Irredeemable Shag for having me on and for putting out a show that has become my monthly reaffirmation of how much of a DC Comics guy I am.