Episode 175: Worlds Collide Part 1
Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-fifth 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.
One Man. Two Worlds. And The End Of All There Is…
This time out Mike and Jeff begin their look at a story that Mike was really looking forward to and Jeff was…not really looking forward to. Worlds Collide was a 14 part series that crossed over between three of the Superman related books and four of the books put out by Milestone Comics with one special right there in the middle. We have been seeing a mail carrier named Fred Bentson in some of the Superman books during the Battle For Metropolis. Fred finally takes center stage during this story and proves to be a threat of universal proportions. Mike kicks things off with a short history of Milestone Comics and a rundown of who the players from that universe are. Then the boys jump into the first part, which takes place in Superman: The Man of Steel #35. Not only do we see the beginnings of the story but also the death of a supporting character.
While they don’t get the full synopsis/review treatment the boys do go over the next five chapters of the story. The second part takes place in Hardware #17, where we meet (if you haven’t read his title before that is) Hardware and see how Fred’s powers are growing. Then in Superboy #6 the Kid fights the Parasite and gets drawn into the story. The teenage heroes team-up (sort of) in Icon #15 as Rocket (of Icon and Rocket fame) gets in on the action. Steel and Hardware meets for reals in Steel #6 while Superman is mistaken for a fictional character in the pages of Blood Syndicate #16. The danger kicks into high gear and the full synopsis treatment returns in the pages of Worlds #1 where Fred’s powers reach their zenith and he becomes the entity known as Rift!
During the course of the episode Jeff and Mike talked about the different covers to Worlds Collide #1. First there was the standard cover.
Then there was the Collector’s Edition which, like Superman: The Man of Steel #30 had some colorforms…er…vinyl clings action going for it. Like its predecessor this one came in a ploy bag.
When you took the comic out the cover was clear on both sides except for the cityscape of Metropolis and Dakota.
And it came with a selection of vinyl clings.
If you were like Michael then you made up your own cover with the clings.
Finally there was a Platinum Edition of the book. Mike assumes that this was some kind of retailer incentive. He was surprised to find this at his local comic shop a few years back and was happy that it was relatively inexpensive.
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Next time: The Fall of Metropolis continues in Superman #91, Adventures of Superman #514 and Action Comics #701!