THE NATIONAL WHISPER

This is probably one of my favorite bits of advertising/merchandising from the Death and Return of Superman.

The National Whisper was a newspaper/tabloid that, for lack of a better way of describing it, served as the DC Universe’s answer to the National Enquirer.  It was a mainstay in the Post Crisis era and used mostly for comedic effect, such as when Lex Luthor supposedly died.  The Whisper was referenced in other versions of Superman as well, such as Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Apparently someone in marketing (or maybe it was someone on the creative side of things, I am not sure) thought it would be fun to put out an edition of the National Whisper that would serve to promote the then upcoming Reign of the Supermen storyline.

Do I have scans of that?

Why yes, yes I do.

That was the front page.  Here is the back.

Inside the paper, which was a free giveaway sent to comic shops if my memory isn’t failing me, the joking stop and the pimping starts.

I hope you’ll excuse my crude Photoshopping of the middle pages.  I know they don’t line up exactly, but I wanted to give you an idea of what the two page spread looked like.  Here are the two pages broken up for better viewing of the characters.

So there you have it.  Superman is alive and this paper has proof as well as advertisements for a really cool storyline.  What more could anyone ask?

More to follow…