A few days ago I posted some images from the edition of Previews (the ordering guide for Diamond Distribution) that had the solicitation information for Superman/Doomsday Hunter/Prey. As luck would have it that same issue had the solicits for Action Comics #700 as well, so I scanned those bad boys and thought it would be fun to share them here. Again, many thanks to Bob Fisher of Superman Forever Radio for giving his copy to me.
Action Comics #700 was a huge deal for me personally. I had been there a few years before for Action #600 and while I did not collect Action Comics Weekly as it was coming out (my main source of books at the time was the newsstand and none of the ones in my area carried it) I still felt like I was there for something important. Judging by the material I found in Previews DC felt the same way. Towards the beginning of the issue there was a brief interview with Mike Carlin about the issue.
I like the last answer Mike gave there. That was funny.
Like Hunter/Prey there was a full page ad for Action #700. It was in black and white but looks amazing.
For those interested here is a previously posted version of the house ad in full color.
I love the disaster movie poster feel this cover had. It was also released to comic shops as part of a two sided promotional poster. One side was this and the other was for, appropriately enough, Hunter/Prey. I had a copy of that with the Action #700 side out hanging on my wall right now thanks to Alan Leach, Jr. If you were curious what the other side looked like here it is.
Anyway, back to the action…or Action #700 to make a terrible pun.
As The Battle For Metropolis was a story about Lex Luthor unleashing sixteen different kinds of hell on Metropolis and was an exit (albeit a temporary one) for the character there was a two page section looking back on Superman’s battles with his arch-enemy.
Finally there are the solicitations for the Superman titles that came out that particular month. I put them in release order culminating in the larger solicit for Action #700. I also included the solicit for the issue of Superboy that tied into the main story.
There were a few other solicitations of note in this issue of Previews. DC had recently revamped the Green Lantern title with Kyle Rayner stepping into the role. As this was a time when DC still considered Superman their premiere hero the Man of Steel guest starred early in Kyle’s run, which makes sense considering who the villain of the issue was..
Superboy did some guest starring of his own this month as well. DC had launched a series featuring the new incarnation of the Ray and since he was a teenage hero and Superboy was a teenage hero it made sense for the two to meet up.
Notice the cover credit for this issue of The Ray. Despite being known as a Marvel guy these days Joe Quesada drew the mini-series that introduced that iteration of the Ray as well as the Sword of Azreal mini-series that introduced Jean-Paul Valley, the ersatz Batman from the Knightfall trilogy. I am working with the theory that Superboy was brought into The Ray to give that series a push, which is kind of cool when you think about it. Superman used to be the character DC would bring into a new series to bolster sales and welcome the character to the party. It was nice to see Superboy continuing that tradition.
If you are curious about the stories from these solicitations be sure to check out episodes 169 and 170 of From Crisis to Crisis. Jeff and I really liked this storyline and hopefully give it its due.