Tuesday, March 05, 2013

Superman comics from LSCC


I managed to pick up a lot of issues that are the first part of two, or three.  Since they were all pretty good I now want to hunt out the remaining issues.  My method of picking Superman comics was whether I liked the cover or not, who wrote and drew it, and if it had characters in that I liked.  I did pretty well because I enjoyed all of them.

Superman - Silver Banshee (part 1 of 2)
I'd never even heard of this before, but the cover is fab, very pulpy, and it features the Silver Banshee, so I bought it.  It's a Halloween issue and the inside art is appropriately spooky and gothic.  I'd love to track down the second part.  It will make go with my other Halloween specials, to be read every October 31st (or thereabouts).

EDIT - Just found the second issue on ebay.  Hooray!

Superman - Strength (part 1 of 3)
A guy blows smoke in Superman's face.  Lois continues her investigative journalism whilst on holiday (a hot dog vendor is shortchanging every other customer) and Superman ends the issue trapped in a portal.  His head is in a goldfish bowl and his body (up to his neck) is floating in a room where the portal originated.  Interspersed with this is a look back at Clark's early years.  I would like to get issues 2 and 3, but not at the current ebay prices of a fiver per issue.  No siree.

Superman 651 - Up, Up and Away part 3
This is the comic in the bottom row of the picture, with the mostly white cover.  It's by Kurt Busiek.  Of course it's good. It's a One Year Later book and Clark doens't have his powers back yet.  Instead Hawkgirl and Green Lantern (Hal) are looking after Metropolis.  The Prankster is causing mayhem and Lex Luthor is stockpiling Kryptonite.  That won't end well.

Superman 661
I'm fairly certain I've already got this one.  Ah well.  It's about Khyrana, cursed by Zeus to suffer incredible pain unless she has the touch of a man, constantly.  He cursed her because she refused to have sex with him, so the curse is about humiliation as much as about pain.  Wonder Woman is as involved in this book as Superman, but even she can't get Khyrana to see sense.  Lois spends a lot of the issue teasing Clark about eyeing up Diana.
On a frivilous note, every time I see this cover I think it's an Insect Queen story.  I shall have to compare an Insect Queen cover with this one and work out why that is.

Superman 660
It's a Prankster issue, told from his point of view, as a showman.  I bought it because it's by Kurt Busiek.  I enjoyed it.

Superman 202
I bought this because the cover has pretty colours on it and Michael Turner drew it*.  I do like Turner's art.  Unfortunately I do not care much for the story and I certainly don't understand what's going on.

Superman Confidential 6
I bought this one because it's by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, and they are always a winning pair.  Metropolis is underwater and everyone has been turned into a mermaid or merman.  i don't know why, but the story is so delightful I don't need to know why.  It ends with 'to be continued' so I hope that means continued in Superman Confidential 7 because I've just bought that off ebay.

Superman Confidential 7 1**
This is done by Darwynn Cooke and Tim Sale so as you can imagine has that 1950s/1960s feel to it.  It's ok.  I don't really like Cooke and Sale that much but thought I'd try this out.  It establishes Clark, Lois and Jimmy as uncorruptible journalists and has Superman exploring his powers.

That's it for this post.  More reviews coming later in the week.

*EDIT - I thought Turner drew it.  Turns out I'm unobservant and he only did the cover
** I typed 7 instead of 1.  They look similar and I'm a fool.

2 comments:

j.d. said...

Superman 202 isn't actually drawn by Turner, but by Talent Caldwell, a man from his studio that was discovered by Turner. I made the same mistake myself! Turner co-wrote it and did do the cover though.

And you have Superman Confidential 7 as being done by Cooke/Sale, do you mean 5? 7 does finish Palmiotti/Gray I believe. The Cooke/Sale run was plagued by delays, so there six part story was 1-5 and then wrapped up in 11.

Saranga said...

Hi J.D. I actually meant Superman Confidential 1 for the Cooke/Sale issue. Will go amend that now.

RE Superman 202: I must have looked at the cover credits and assumed that Turner did all of it!

Thanks for letting me know about those :)