Tag Archives: Superman

Comic book odd: Everybody loves Lois Lane

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Lois_Lane_29 kissing

Holy Moly, Miss Lane!

Here’s another in our series of odd and inappropriate comic book moments.

This one is the cover of issue 29 of “Superman’s Girlfriend, Lois Lane,” from November 1961, and as you can see, Lois is locking lips with all of Superman’s one-time buds in the Justice League. Well, except for Wonder Woman. The world wasn’t ready for that.

The art is by Curt Swan, a classic “Superman” artist.

And what’s the story behind this cover?

According to the DC Comics Database:

Aliens capture Superman in a Kryptonite trap, and Lois Lane smuggles Red Kryptonite to him by kissing Aquaman, Batman, and Green Arrow with Red K-imprinted lipstick. The heroes smear the lipstick from their face to handkerchiefs, which Batman takes to Superman. The Man of Steel smears himself with the Red K, which makes him impervious to Kryptonite poisoning, and allows him to recover and defeat the aliens.

Well, that explains everything, huh?

Okay, which of the superheroes on the make came up with this convoluted plan?

Comic book ads: ‘Superman’ 80-page giant

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superman giant house ad

Those were the days, weren’t they?

80 pages of comic book action for 25 cents.

Even though the “giants” were mostly reprints – many from the Golden Age or early Silver Age – they were many times over our money’s worth.

Comic book odd: Super cousins, super made for each other?

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Action_Comics_289 supergirl

Back with our occasional look at odd moments in comic books.

It’s easy to forget how crazy much of DC’s Silver Age was. Batman was fighting space monsters, Lois Lane was scheming to discover Superman’s identity – and marry him – and Superman was constantly falling in love with mermaids and the like.

Or getting fixed up, like in Action Comics 289, which came out in June 1962.

In a plot that could be adapted as a Kate Hudson romantic comedy, Supergirl, worried about her cousin Superman’s loneliness, keeps trying to fix him up. Potential mates include Helen of Troy and members of the far-future Legion of Superheroes.

Ultimately, Supergirl finds a perfect match for her cousin. And what the hey – she looks just like a slightly-older Supergirl!

Some feverish dreaming going on there, among fans and in the DC editorial offices.

Essential geek library: The works of Les Daniels

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marvel_five_decades les daniels

I come to praise Les Daniels, not to bury him. But it turns out one of my favorite authors of comic book histories died and I didn’t even hear the sad news.

Daniels – who died in November 2011 at age 68 – is one of those authors to whose work I have returned again and again.

And no wonder. While he wrote fiction, his non-fiction work lines a shelf near by bedside.

In 1971, he wrote one of the early serious histories of comic books, “Comix: A History of the Comic Book in America.”  He followed this up with some of the most readable “official” histories of comic book publishers and characters in print, including “Marvel: Five Fabulous Decades of the World’s Greatest Comics” in 1991, “DC Comics: Sixty Years of the World’s Favorite Comic Book Heroes” in 1995, and what I consider his best modern-day work, a three-volume history of DC Comics’ Trinity, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

These  three”Complete History” volumes were published in the late 1990s and early 2000s and, in addition to his clear and concise writing, feature some of the best design in comic book histories to that day. These volumes include covers by Chip Kidd, a star of the book design world.

Daniels was also an author of historical fiction and historical fiction with a supernatural bent.

There’s so much online – and so much crap online – about comic books these days, Daniels’ work seems – and is -authoritative and comprehensive and first-rate by comparison.

RIP Mr. Daniels.

75th anniversary: Superman’s history in 2 minutes

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superman 75th anniversary film shot 1

Well, this is kind of wonderful.

To mark the ongoing celebration of Superman’s 75th anniversary – it was 1938 when Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster’s superhero debuted – the people at DC Comics got DC animated universe mastermind Bruce Timm and “Man of Steel” director Zach Snyder to collaborate on a two-minute history of the character.

The look of Superman changes throughout, from the original design of the Man of Steel to the Fleischer animated shorts to faithful cartoon renditions of live-action Supermen like George Reeves and Christopher Reeve.

Some of the great characters and storylines – Bizarro, the death of Superman – are here too, as are many of the great artists.

superman 75th anniversary film family

And this just makes me smile.

See the video here at Entertainment Weekly.

Wonder Woman done right

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wonder woman fan film close

It’s puzzling how Wonder Woman has eluded film and TV makers.

Of course, we can’t be sure what Joss Whedon would have done with his Wonder Woman movie that got spiked, but we’ve seen DC Comics, Warner Bros. and other filmmakers stumble more than once in their attempts to do a live-action Wonder Woman.

I’ve always said the DC Comics animated universe treatment of Wonder Woman in the “Justice League” series could serve as a ready blueprint for how to make a serious, ass-kicking live-action version of the Amazon warrior princess and her world.

wonder woman fan film medium

It looks like Rainfall Films has, in its two minute Wonder Woman short, opted for a “Man of Steel” treatment, which makes sense since that’s the way DC and Warner Bros. are headed. By adding Batman to the “Man of Steel” sequel, maybe they’re building to a movie featuring the DC trinity – those two plus Wonder Woman.

At any rate, the short film would serve nicely as a model for the big studio.

And you could do a lot worse than having Rileah Vanderbilt play the role in a full-length movie. She looks great in the short.

As more than a few people have said online: Okay. Go do this.

The movie revisionists: Everything you know is wrong

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man of steel big

Think you know the story of Superman?

Well, maybe not.

When “Man of Steel” comes out June 14,  director Zack Snyder might have a few surprises even for longtime fans of the man of … er, steel.

Most of us don’t know what to expect from “Man of Steel” yet, but it’s certain that a few elements of the Superman mythos will be tweaked at the very least.

That’s not surprising, because most filmmakers like to bring something new to their versions of familiar stories. That’s why “The Amazing Spider-Man” retold the origin of the webslinger only about a decade after we saw it before and tried to infuse new elements – chiefly a mystery about Peter’s parents – into it.

It’s not just superhero stories that get revamped. When director John Carpenter made “The Thing” in 1982, he made the “walking alien carrot” much less of the traditional monster familiar from 1951’s “The Thing from Another World.” the first adaptation of John Campbell’s story. Carpenter made the alien menace a much more paranoia-inducing shapeshifter.

By the way, spoilers ahead for some current movies if you haven’t seen them.

Some fans of the “Iron Man” comics were irritated when this summer’s “Iron Man 3” made huge changes to the character of the Mandarin, the longtime antagonist of Tony Stark.

iron man mandarin comics

The Mandarin went from an Asian menace armed with magic rings …

mandarin iron man 3

To a figurehead, a stalking horse played by a down-at-the-heels British actor.

Sometimes it’s more than changing characters. Sometimes it’s all about changing the background of sets of characters.

khan

The classic 1982 “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” was a sequel to an episode of the original series and emphasized the bad blood and shared history of Khan, the genetically superior warrior, and Jim Kirk.

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In this summer’s “Star Trek Into Darkness,” however, there was no history between Kirk and Khan. And I think the movie suffered for that.

With “Man of Steel,” the rumors have been flying about changes Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan might have made.

Does Superman’s Kryptonian birth father, Jor-El, live? Or are the clips of Russell Crowe talking to Henry Cavill just indicative of an amazingly lifelike hologram?

Is Zod (Michael Shannon) sprung from the Phantom Zone or does he arrive in a space ship? Sure looks like a Kryptonian ship in the background to me.

We won’t know the answers for a few days. But we can already guess about fairly interesting cosmetic changes to two longtime characters from the “Superman” stories.

perry white and jimmy olsen

Daily Planet editor Perry White and cub reporter/photographer Jimmy Olsen have been staples of the comics for a half-century.

jenny olsen rebecca buller laurence fishburne

Snyder, interestingly, cast Laurence Fishburne, an African-American actor, to play White, who has traditionally been, well, white. I love Fishburne and I think this is a big win.

But it’s less clear who’s playing Jimmy Olsen in the movie. In fact, it’s becoming more clear that Jimmy Olsen isn’t in the movie. Actress Rebecca Buller seems to be playing Jenny Olsen.

Jimmy_Olsen

Traditional Jimmy.

rebecca-buller-jenny-olsen

New Jenny.

I can live with that.

Hoping for the best from ‘Man of Steel’

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man of steel flying upward

Superman is a test that many movie- and TV-makers don’t quite pass.

Created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster and continually published and re-printed since Action Comics No. 1 hit the stands in early 1938 – 75 years ago – Superman and his alter ego, Clark Kent, make up one of the most recognizable characters in all of popular culture.

So it’s not a surprise that DC Comics and Warner Brothers – frustrated in their efforts to create a big-screen presence since “Superman Returns” missed the mark several years ago – are trying again with “Man of Steel,” due in theaters June 14.

I’m still not sold that director Zack Snyder has the character right. But I was a little more convinced after the trailer for “Man of Steel” released a few days ago.

man of steel vista

That’s mostly because the trailer, at least, emphasizes the “outsider” status of the character.

Make no mistake, and I’ve said it here before: Superman is not a brooding character like Batman. He’s not driven by nightmares. He’s not wracked by guilt. If Snyder’s “Man of Steel” is marked by those characteristics, the movie will fail.

But he is, for all his optimism and courage and innate knowledge of right and wrong, an outsider.

The trailer seems to acknowledge this, portraying a Kal-El/Clark/Superman who, as a young man, is uncertain about what he should do with his life and afraid of how he will seem to the world around him.

As he grows up, he appears to wander far away from Smallville, even though he continues to use his powers for good, rescuing men in a fiery accident.

The trailer shows us a Lois Lane (Amy Adams) who has been seeking this man of mystery (Henry Cavill), and it is in Lois’ words that the movie might find the best definition of the character.

“How do you find someone who has spent a lifetime covering his tracks?” Lois asks. “For some, he was a guardian angel. For others, a ghost. He never quite fit in.”

Yes.

Superman is, even while he is the champion of his adopted world, an outsider. He’s the last of his kind – well, for the most part – and the first of a new kind on Earth. He feels an obligation to his new home even as he mourns the home he never knew.

Tellingly, Lois asks Superman – still unnamed to the world at large – about the “S” on his chest, and Superman tells her that the symbol stands for “hope” on his world.

Playfully, Lois notes that on this planet, it’s an “S” and begins to suggest it should stand for Superman before she is interrupted.

The trailer seems to capture the world of Superman. We can hope so, at least.

(I still don’t get the kid in the backyard with a makeshift cape on his shoulders. If that’s young Clark, it doesn’t make sense. Who is he imitating? I’m more convinced now than earlier that the boy isn’t Clark, but is a young boy play-acting as Superman after the character becomes known to the world. If so, it will be a lump-in-your-throat moment.)

Looking forward, with hope, to June 14.