Looking towards Action Comics Annual 10

[RAman]

I don't know if there's a thread about Action Comics Annual no. 10, but I wanted to know what your thoughts were based on the cover.

http://www.dccomics.com/comics/?cm=6607

If this cover is truly a representation of Supes' future, then I guess we'll have to look forward to different forms of kryptonite again, among other things. I'm interested to see what all of these storylines will mean for the Man of Steel.

[J. Robb]

I like the retro cover. Looks like it will be re-writing old Superman stories for the latest version.

Again.

[Jack Zodiac]

Blue Sun? Bizarro? Nifty.

This book looks great. The cover alone is amazing. The text is exactly how it used to be back in the Seventies, with the big, bold, eye-catching font. "Who is Clark Kent's Big Brother?"

Can't wait to read it.

[davids]

Us Humans!

[dupersuper]

We've already had multicoloured kryptonite ever since the latest Supergirl landed

[Person Man]

I thought the blue sun gave Superman some kind of reduced powers in the silver age?

[Jack Zodiac]

I honestly don't recall any blue sun adventures from the Silver Age. And that is Bizarro in that panel, right? Was Bizarro's cube planet near a blue sun?

[karasu]

Yayyyyyy they're rehashing more stories that they read when they were 6! This proves that the Superman books are at the forefront of creativity!! Go remakes Go.

I hope I'm alive when Superman hits the public domain.

[Jack Zodiac]

Yay, they're rehashing stories that sold when Superman was popular and comics weren't inaccessible to new readers.

[J. Robb]

Yay, they're rehashing stories that sold when Superman was popular and comics weren't inaccessible to new readers.

I'd say a big reason those stories were popular was because they introduced new ideas and concepts all the time. Like Mort Weisinger said, "I would bring out a new element every six months to keep the enraptured kids who were our audience involved."

Now we get old stories re-written or old characters re-introduced every six months.

[Jack Zodiac]

They were new to the people reading them then. Not a whole lot of he same people who were reading Superman thirty years ago are still reading it today. And at this point, rehashing old, fun ideas beats the hell out of some of the new, crappy ideas we've seen in the past decade. I'll take retro over crap any day.

[karasu]

Yay, they're rehashing stories that sold when Superman was popular and comics weren't inaccessible to new readers.

The problem with comics being 'accessible to new readers' - in this form - is that it shits on the rest of us who have been reading for years. Superman was popular back then because it was an ignorant time (censorship) and the stories were written for nine year olds(more censorship) who got off on Superman having a new power every other month. That crap doesn't hold up today. There comes a time when you have to grow up and put aside your lamentations for the days of old. Instead of moving forward, the books are perpetually moving backwards. The thought of cheering that makes me sick. If you think a rainbow of kryptonite or yet another story about a clone of superman/an evil superman/a kryptonian/a kryptonian like species or any other relic from the silver age is going to 'save' Superman, you're deluded.

Twenty years from now I bet these blasted books will be retelling the electropowered Superman stories. "Superman Red and Blue...yet again!!" :rolleyes:

[Jack Zodiac]

I'm deluded, then. But at least I'm reading a Superman I'll enjoy. Even if I have to read it again in twenty years.

[J. Robb]

I'd say the last real expanding of the Superman "mythos" was the Death/Return story, which introduced Doomsday, the clone Superboy, Steel, the Cyborg, etc. That was also the last time the Superman books were big sellers. Most of the past decade has been nostalgia-obsessed with lousy sales.

If I were a DC editor, that's something I would think about.

[Jack Zodiac]

It's been at least half and half. For every new Supergirl and modern version of something like, say, Superman-Red and Superman-Blue, there's been a President Luthor and a Darkseid willing to help out the Earth. And the "Death" story was a huge seller because of its obvious novelty. The resulting "Funeral" and "Reign" stories sold because of their believed collectibility. There's been plenty of new, fresh crap in the Superman books, but they've slowly declined in sales.

I'd blame that more on not putting any worthwhile talent on the books.