Can anyone tell me of of the original Superman Red and Superman blue story ?

[CMBMOOL]

With Spider-girl about to go into her own "Superman Red and Superman Blue story line," I was wondering if anyone can tell me of the original Superman Red and Superman Blue story line, and I don't mean the imaginary tale ?

I mean just how did that happen to the Man of Steel and how did he reverse the effects ?

[Mat001]

Well, the Imaginary Story was the original one. The in-continuity story came later. That story goes like this. During "The Trial Of Superman", Clark is in outer space and comes across a being known as Talos, who has a bottled city called Kandor. This is one of many cities on distant worlds named after the fabled Kryptonian city, but filled with different aliens. Talos uses his magic to imprison people and then take possession of them, for his own sinister purposes. In "The Bottled City" Talos nearly succeeds in absorbing Superman, but is prevented by a Daxamite who stops Talos at the last second. The use of magic to phase shift people in and out of Kandor messes with Superman's DNA, resulting in his body being out of phase slightly. In "The Final Night" mini-series, the sun is blocked off and Clark loses his powers. When the sun is restored, his powers do not return due to the changes his body underwent. After getting married and a brief honeymoon, Clark attempts to regain his powers through various means. Ultimately, he is restored but is not quite the same as a few weeks later he begins to turn into an energy being. To contain his essence, a containment suit is built using Kryptonian technology and Lexcorp fabric. With new energy powers, Clark tries to make due with his new situation. Sometime later, the Cyborg-Superman and the Toyman team up to destroy Clark by attempting to separate his energy form, thereby killing him. But it didn't. Instead, two bits of energy survived and he was able to reform, only as two separate beings. Blue was Clark's clamer, more rational side. Red was his impulsive self. The two attempted to do twice the work of one, but it was causing a strain with Lois. The Dragon's Tooth, a trio of aincent artifacts are revealed to contain the Millenium Guard who control the Millenium Giants, which are to be awakened when the time is right. The power of the energy based Superman awoke them earlier and they tried to kill Clark before being tricked and put back in stasis, but it doesn't last and they soon awaken to learn of both Supermen. So they awaken the Giants, which are attacked by Earth's heroes thinking they're trying to save it. Instead, the Giants are trying to fix the Earth, but when the Giants are downed, the excess energy begins causing the Earth to meet the same fate as Krypton. To stop it, the Supermen agree to expend their energy to finish what the Giants started, though they face death in expending their energy form. However, because of a medallion that Jimmy obtained and was in possession of at the time which he gave to Red, allowed the last traces of the two Supermen to refuse back into one being. A being who was restored back to his Kryptonian form with all of his traditional powers restored.

[CMBMOOL]

Wow that was kind of complicated and weird to understand, but then again it was the 90s. :tongue:


Thanks you so much for the info.

[ConnorIsaac]

The only reason that we think of the primary colours of light as red, green and blue are that that's what our eyes see (all that cones and rods stuff). In reality there are an infinite number of shades. What we see as magenta (for example) might be a mixture of blue and red light or it might be pure magenta light - or some combination of colours which fall between blue and red on the spectrum.

[Mat001]

Wow that was kind of complicated and weird to understand, but then again it was the 90s. :tongue:


Thanks you so much for the info.

This was three years worth of story, which only started tying together as they went along. It should also be noted that while the creative teams were working hard, this was a point where it has been suggested that creative burnout set in. The teams had been working hard to try and top themselves since 1993, that it was becoming more and more difficult to do that, instead of just telling stories and not trying to outdo themselves. In the years since then, the creative teams on the Superman books have tried to avoid topping themselves and instead, just tell stories. The success/failure ratio varies.