Random Thoughts On... Adventures of Superman (Black and White Era)

Well, I’m at the end of Superman Month. This month has been okay for the most part. It had its highs as well as some lows. At least I was able to get most of what I wanted to do done.  I would’ve ended off the month with my last post, but I didn’t get to finish watching the rest of this show’s second season until today. What is it, you may ask? Why it is … (finds announcer’s voice)… The Adventures of Superman!

So, I haven’t watched too many Superman related things before the 70’s. In fact, I don’t know where I first heard about this show. It could have been on the Superman documentary that was released around the time Superman Returns was being made. I’m not sure. All I know is that I hadn’t seen any of this show until about a couple of months ago. When the DC Universe app finally popped up, it was one of the first shows I added to my watch list. So far, I’ve only seen the first two seasons of the show which are the black-and-white seasons. So, I’m pretty much going to give my thoughts on these two for now.

Favorites - 10 Favorite Superman Movies

Well, I’m at the end of the month, and I gotta admit I’m kinda beat. There were a couple of other things I wanted to talk about, but most of those will have to wait. I’ve needed to get some house work done. Also, I’ve had some personal stuff draining me a bit. I’m fine, but I’ll get better and do better too.

Anyway, since I finally got caught up on the recent Superman animated movies, I wanted to do a different list. I wanted to list off my favorite Superman movies, and I’m not stopping at live-action either. While Superman doesn’t have as many movies as that Dark Knight guy, there are at least 10 out there I can throw on a list. They may also involve that Dark Knight guy, but considering the villains in those movies are mostly Superman villains, they apply. This isn’t going to be in any order, but I’ll list some major favorites off in the beginning. First, I might as well mention a couple that didn’t make it. Whether they’re honorable is a matter for debate:

• Superman Returns – Yeah, it’s up here and you pretty much know why. While the cast (except for Kate Bosworth) was nice and that plane sequence was awesome, this was a subpar entry. The story homaged Superman: the Movie way too much. Also, it made some changes to Superman that felt kinda weird. Even Superman’s reason for leaving Earth in it was weird. Add that fact that it felt like it didn’t know what it wanted to be. Tying it to the Donnerverse wasn’t the best move.
• Superman 4: The Quest for Peace – Speaking of the Donnerverse, we have its worst entry. Yeah, some could say that Superman 3 is just as bad, but I can at least find some good things in that movie. Not so here. Yes, Christopher Reeve and Gene Hackman are in good form here. Also, the concept of Superman facing nuclear proliferation was good. Unfortunately, this was a Cannon Films production. The effects were lazy, the story had problems, and quite a bit got cut out of the film.
• Superman: Doomsday – I had to add DC’s first official animated movie to the list. While the movie did house some nice visuals, had an okay story, and a fine cast, it was just okay. The fact that’s a really loose adaptation doesn’t help matters. Also, what they replaced with that story wasn’t really up to snuff. By the way, what was up with Superman’s face??? Those lines… why? At least we finally got a better adaptation of that story years later.

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite

Next up for the month is a return to the 90’s. I could probably say that the early 90’s were good for the Man of Steel. I’d probably say that the post-Crisis in general was pretty good. Yeah, you’d get some bad stuff here and there, but you get that in every era. Superman was powerful but not too overpowered, he got on with Lois, and he had a nice supporting cast of characters.

I was looking for a small arc to do, and I stumbled upon this story. “Krisis of the Krimson Kryptonite” was released during November of 1990. It crossed over into the three books at the time: Superman #49-50, Adventures of Superman #472, and Action Comics #659. It was especially a momentous occasion since something major happened in Superman #50. The writers were Jerry Ordway, Dan Jurgens, and Roger Stern. On pencils, you mainly had Ordway, Jurgens, and Bob McLeod (of the clan McLeod). On Superman #50, you had other pencillers enter the fray like Curt Swan, John Byrne, and Kerry Gammill. So, what happens when Superman loses his powers and gets engaged? Oh yeah… that happens here.

Tales from the $3.99 Bin! - Superman: The Final Days of Superman

Next up for the month is trip to the 2010’s. These years have been weird to the Man of Steel, haven’t they? His origin’s been revamped at least twice in the comics, he’s had his identity outed, he’s shacked up with “Amazonian Hotness”, and he died… again. Yes, that actually happened. Right before DC Rebirth started, it was decided to put the New 52 Superman “out to pasture.” In other words, the dude gotta go since we got this older, wiser, more-Supermany Superman over here to use now. While I wasn’t the biggest fan of what was done with Superman in the New 52, I gotta say that I was a little sad to see him go. Then I read Peter Tomasi’s and Dan Jurgens’ run on the Superbooks and I kinda forgot about that dude.

“The Final Days of Superman” crossed over all the Superman related books except for Supergirl (Action Comics #51-52, Superman #51-52, Batman/Superman #31-32, and Superman/Wonder Woman #28-29). Peter J. Tomasi was brought into write this 8-issue crossover. As for the artists, they varied a lot. We had dudes like Mikel Janin, Ed Benes, Jorge Jimenez, Doug Manhke, Paul Pelletier, and Dale Eaglesham on pencils. I’ll just list the inkers below since this going to take a while. So, what happens when someone decides tries to mix “The Sandman Saga” with All-Star Superman?

Movie Talk - The Death of Superman/Reign of the Supermen

Next up for the month is a return to DC’s Animated Movie Universe. While I’ve seen a few of them like the Batman ones and a couple of the Justice League ones, they haven’t been on my radar much. I don’t know if it’s the changes to the animation or the fact that they were heavily inspired by the New 52. While I did like that era of comics, it wasn’t all good. One thing that definitely piqued my interest was that they were going to do the Death and Return of Superman once again. Now, DC had tried this before, but Superman: Doomsday was just okay as a whole. It would’ve been nice if it felt like a true adaptation, though.

The WB released The Death of Superman in 2018 and it’s sequel, Reign of the Supermen, in 2019. The voice cast is more or less the same it’s been for this DC animated universe. We got Jerry O’Connell as Superman, Rosario Dawson as Wonder Woman, Jason O’Mara as Batman, and Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern.  There are some new voices too. Lois Lane is voiced by Rebecca Romijn, Jerry O’Connell’s wife. Lex Luthor is voiced by Rainn Wilson, Superboy is voiced by Cameron Mohonagan (Joker from Gotham), Steel (John Henry Irons) is voiced by Cress Williams (Black Lightning), and Patrick Fabian is Hank Henshaw.

Trade Tales! - Superman: Godfall

Next up for the month, I decided to skip ahead to the 2000’s. I’ll get to the 90’s later. The early 2000’s is one era I really haven’t gotten to yet. Heck, I haven’t even re-read the Death/Return stuff yet. There’s always something else to do and read. Other than some things like Greg Rucka’s run, For Tomorrow,  and Birthright, this era is mostly a blank. So, I decided to jump right into this one with Joe Kelley’s last stint with Superman. Joe Kelley had been writing Superman since 2000. He was the one who wrote Action Comics #775 which featured one of the best Superman stories.

Since Kelley was leaving, he wanted to go out with style. He teamed up with Aspen Comics  which was headed by the late Michael Turner. Basically, Kelley wanted to see Clark on a bike like he was Kanenda from Akira… seems cool, don’t it? The arc, “Godfall,”  was contained in Action Comics #812-813, Adventures of Superman #625-626, and Superman #202-203.  Kelley and Turner handled the story. Talent Caldwell, who’s known for his work on Fantom, did the pencils. Jason Gorder did the inks. Peter Steigerwald and a couple of others handled the colors. Turner also did the awesome covers.

TV Talk - Krypton

Next up for the month is a bit of a review on the now-cancelled show, Krypton.  It aired from 2018 to 2019. When I first heard that Syfy (formerly known as the Sci-fi Channel) was going to make a Krypton show, I have to say that I wasn’t that interested. It was mostly because I didn’t have Syfy at the time. At least I was thinking that it was finally time that Syfy started to air sci-fi shows again. Let’s all forget the fact that NBC thought the channel should be a place for the WWF… more like WTF on that decision.

When I heard that David S. Goyer and Geoff Johns were involved, I got a little interested. Since Goyer was involved, I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to tie into the DCEU or not. I know some fans on Twitter were happy and then saddened when it was revealed that the show wasn’t mentioning the movies. I think that worked out in the end, though I don’t know if that was even going to happen. The only stars I knew of were Colin Salmon (who looks like the peeved version of my uncle Andre), Ann Ongbono (Wonder Woman). Everyone else is a blank to me, but for some reason, I thought I saw Zoe Kravitz in the trailer. I then realized it was someone else (Georgina Campbell).

When the show was put on DC Universe, I made plans to watch it there. I only watched the first episode and then got sidetracked with other things. When I realized that the first season was being marathoned on Syfy, I DVR’d the whole season and was able to watch it and the second season there. So, what happened on this possibly (fingers crossed) short-lived show?

Tales from the 50 Cent Bin! - Superman: The Secret Years

Next up for the month is a trip to the 80’s… sort of. We’re still in the Bronze Age, but this story came out right as Crisis on Infinite Earths was ramping up. I guess one could consider this a farewell to a certain pre-Crisis feature of the Superman mythos: Superboy. Superman’s early adventures were still a thing even in the 80’s. Either he was getting into trouble in Smallville or hanging out with the Legion of Superheroes. I don’t know if there were any that talked about his college exploits. I know that there’s was a back up in Superman called “Superman: The In-Between Years.” Then, there’s this four issue story.

Superman: The Secret Years ran from February 1985 to May 1985. Bob Rozakis, the writer of the other college Superman backups, wrote this story. On pencils, we got Curt Swan, the face of Superman throughout the Bronze Age. On inks, we got Kurt Schaffenberger. Schaffenberger used to do inks for Superboy stories. Then, we got the covers drawn by Frank Miller… yeah, that Frank Miller! So, what happened during Clark Kent’s last years in college? Ohyeah, here’s a little mood music… 

Trade Tales! - Superman: Kryptonite Nevermore

Well, it’s another September… so that means I get to gush on the Man of Steel himself. This month, I’m pretty much going back to basics this time. There’s no certain theme this time around. I think I’ve played those out anyway. The plan is to look at a story from each decade and some non-comic material as well. So, I might as well start off with the first (?) time DC tried to revamp Superman in a modern age!

In early 1970’s, comics were changing and trying to be more modern. That era became what’s known as “The Bronze Age.” Marvel was doing more thing with their characters.  DC was also trying to revamp their heroes a bit. Batman got thrown back into his dark, pulpy roots. Green Arrow and Hal Jordan were doing their “Hard-Travelin’ Heroes” gig. I think Wonder Woman had something going on too, but I’m not sure. Then, we get to Superman, who at this point, is pretty much “God in a Cape.”

The Superman books got new editors and they decided to get rid of a lot of the Silver Age goofiness that was around in the 60’s. Julius Schwartz, the editor of Superman, got Dennis O’Neil to come in and write Superman for this new era. Basically, the idea was to bring those god-like powers down a bit and revamp him. He didn’t stay long on the book, though, and his issues of Superman (#233-238, #240-242) became known as “The Sandman Saga.” The issues were then put into a collection called Kryptonite Nevermore. Assisting O’Neil was Curt Swan and Murphy Anderson on the art. Artist Neal Adams did the covers to these issues.