So What Are you Reading?: Generations

[KRAD]

I just got a royalty check for "Night of the Vulture." $3.66.

Not bad for a story I wrote back during the Clinton Administration.

Um, I didn't even conceive Tales of the Dominion War until some time after President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, so unless you wrote that story for the hell of it and had it sitting around for a couple years before sending it to me for that anthology that was published in summer 2004, it isn't quite that old.....

 

[Greg Cox]

Um, I didn't even conceive Tales of the Dominion War until some time after President George W. Bush took office in January 2001, so unless you wrote that story for the hell of it and had it sitting around for a couple years before sending it to me for that anthology that was published in summer 2004, it isn't quite that old.....

Oops. I knew I should've looked up the dates first.

However, that story was an excised chapter from my Q trilogy, which I reworked for the Dominion War book, so it had been sitting around for a couple of years.

 

[Christopher]

Although, as I said, I expect The Fallen Star to be better, because Gray is really good.

I just finished Star Wars: The High Republic: The Fallen Star, and it was pretty well-written, but I am very surprised at how dark this series went, with disaster after disaster, the villains basically being unstoppable, and a surprising number of main characters dying in the climactic book. I was expecting "Star Trek in the Star Wars universe," but this is so much grimmer than that. It's about setting up an optimistic, idealistic era of the Republic in order to systematically tear it down.

Also, it ends with the big threat set up at the end of the second adult novel and followed through in the comics still being unresolved, even unidentified unless you've read a side miniseries in the comics. I'm really not a fan of the way these books are structured, with plot and character threads bouncing haphazardly between different book lines, and characters set up in one book not getting followed through anywhere, or getting picked up in a book that pretty much reverses what happened with them in the previous book. And the integration of plot and character threads isn't as smooth as it could be. That side miniseries I mentioned has its last issue taking place during the events of The Fallen Star and the concluding arc of the Phase 1 comics, but it's never mentioned in either of them even though its characters are on the same station at the same time. Yes, the authors contrived to have communications cut off so different stories could follow different characters independently, but the novel asserts that no ships from outside have been able to get in and evacuate anyone at a point that must be after the ship from the miniseries has already gotten in and evacuated a bunch of people. And there's at least one other ship outside the station that would've noticed them, but there's no mention of them. And when TFS mentions the Jedi's previous experience with the mystery threat, it only mentions the one from the second adult novel and omits the comics characters' encounters with them, aside from a vague passing mention later on. These books (comics included) needed more editorial attention to keep them aligned.

I have yet to read the third YA novel, which apparently is set during the same events but far away. Also a couple of comics that apparently should be read last. Then that'll be it for Phase 1 unless I want to go back and read the few junior novels Hoopla has. At this point, I'm lukewarm about continuing on to Phase 2, though apparently it's still in the early stages.

 

[youngtrek]

End of 2022 reading mini-reviews blitz time! I read all of the following comic book trade paperbacks (and one original graphic novel) over the past two weeks (getting me to making my GoodReads 2022 Reading Challenge of 35 books (plus one) read in 2022)...

"Fantastic Four: Full Circle" by Alex Ross (writer and artist), Alex Ross with Josh Johnson (colorists), Ariana Maher (letterer) (Abrams ComicArts in conjunction with Marvel Comics, 2022) Original graphic novel. Thoughts: Awesome. One of the best comics I've read all year. Alex Ross is famous for his usual "Norman Rockwell-esque" photo-realistic painting style that he's been using since 1994 ("Marvels" four-issue mini-series). This, however, is Ross's first major experiment with an entirely different art style, one more of a traditional line-art style (with clear nod to that of classic Jack Kirby Fantastic Four) combined with fantastic (pun intended) pop art style coloring. The story is adequate (a call back to a classic FF Stan Lee and Jack Kirby issue from the 1960s) but Ross has the four main characters down perfect in terms of their mannerisms, dialogue, and visual depictions. This is so far only available in hardcover from Abrams ComicArts (under license from Marvel Comics). Highly recommended. I gave this five out of five stars on GoodReads.

And now, seven "Six Million Dollar Man" and "Bionic Woman" tie-in comic books reprint collections published from 2014 to 2021 (six by Dynamite Entertainment, the then license holder to publish Six Mill and Bionic Woman comic books, and one by IDW, the then license holding comic book publisher making G.I. Joe comic books). Dynamite started publishing tie-ins to the Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman with three series all based on an unfilmed Kevin Smith Six Million Dollar Man movie script that would have been a complete reboot of the characters (these comics were "The Bionic Man" (2011-2013), "The Bionic Woman" (2012-2013), and "The Bionic Man vs. The Bionic Woman" (2013)). I skipped over these for the time being at least as I wanted to read all of the Dynamite series tying into the actual 1970s television series versions of the characters. (All but the first one listed below were checked out from the Tampa-Hillsborough County Public Library. The "Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six" (and "Fantastic Four: Full Circle"), I own copies of.

"The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six" by James Kuhoric (writer), Juan Antonio Ramirez and David T. Cabrera (artists), Fran Gamboa (colorist), Joshua Cozine (letterer), Alex Ross (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2014; originally released in single issue format as "The Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six" #1-6 (March 2014 to September 2014). Thoughts: This mini-series is cool on so many levels yet at the same time left me a bit disappointed. It's a good story and has decent art, and has *loads* of cool call backs to the 1970s television series. It brings back a lot of the familiar characters (Jaime Sommers, Barney Hiller the "Seven Million Dollar Man") and even introduces the characters of Oliver Spencer (Steve's government boss in the very first "Six Million Dollar Man" pilot movie played by Darren McGavin, replaced without any explanation by Richard Anderson's Oscar Goldman when it went to series) and "Maskatron" (the robot villain toy only existing prior to this as a Kenner action figure). It is an interesting story but has *too* much going on in it (Maskatron, Barney Hiller, Oliver Spencer, aliens infiltrating a NASA installation, etc.) The story literally switches from being primarily about Maskatron to the aliens story partway through (and the aliens seem way too out there for a series supposedly picking up from where the "Six Million Dollar Man" televison series left off. Also, Steve Austin and Jaime Sommers often speak and act out of character here (as they do in several other of the Dynamite series below), and Jaime especially is drawn in a very "young, generic pretty blonde woman" fashion (delivering karate kicks and hanging all over Steve Austin when they first meet up again after over a year apart, which does reflect how the two characters could no longer team up the last year of their respective tv series because "Bionic Woman" moved to a rival television network from "Six Mill". Most disappointing (not the fault of the author necessarily but he had to have known it would be a possibility) is that this mini-series set up *three* teasers "epilogues" for significant stories he wished to follow in subsequent mini-series (one involving a newly built Venus "Death Probe"), only to have Dynamite choose for their subsequent Six Million Dollar Man minis to have nothing to do with this one (see below). Still, it was a good/interesting overall package even with these criticisms (and the Alex Ross painted covers are wonderful, spot on renditions, as usual for Ross, of Lee Majors, Lindsay Wagner, Richard Anderson, etc. I gave this three out of five stars on GoodReads.

"The Bionic Woman: Season Four" by Brandon Jerwa (writer), David T. Cabrera (artist), Sandra Molina (colorist), Joshua Cozine (letterer), Sean Chen (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2016; originally released in single issue format as "The Bionic Woman: Season Four" #1-4 (September 2014 to December 2014). Thoughts: This "Bionic Woman: Season Four" is completely separate/unrelated to the previously released "Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six" (which is pretty much how all of Dynamite's Six Mill and Bionic Woman minis are, completely separate and self-contained). This mini-series has decent art (much better covers, though) and a likewise interesting story as Jaime is drawn into a mystery involving a hidden and unknown city with a mysterious cult like leader that turns out to (spoilers) be made up entirely of robots. When Jaime tries to escape, she realizes they are much further away from sunny southern California than she first realized. Again, an okay story but the repeated use of robots or other cyborgs (as in both "Six Mill: Season Six" and "Six Mill: Fall of Man" as well as here in this one) makes these first three Dynamite series a bit too "way out there" to be taken seriously as supposed continuations of the two for-the-most-part action/adventure-with-occasional-touches-of-sci-fi 1970s television series. I gave this three out of five stars on GoodReads.

"The Six Million Dollar Man: Fall of Man" by Van Jensen (writer), Ron Salas (artist), Mike Atiyeh and Caitlin McCarthy (colorists), Taylor Esposito (letterer), Ron Salas (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2016; originally released in single issue format as "The Six Million Dollar Man: Fall of Man" #1-5 (July 2016 to November 2016). Thoughts: Completely ignores story in "Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six" (released prior to this one). I bit of a darker, more "adult" story dealing with an enemy trying to convince Steve Austin that Oscar Goldman and the OSI have secret plans to create an army of bionic soldiers, causing Steve to go rogue. Also, Steve starts hearing an unknown "voice in his head" spurring him on to normally uncharacteristic actions. Barney Hiller appears here (again, completely ignoring what happened to him in "Six Million Dollar Man: Season Six". The art is good for the story being told but, again, is a bit too "out there" for a "Six Million Dollar Man" story. I gave this three out of five stars on GoodReads.

"Wonder Woman '77 Meets The Bionic Woman" by Andy Mangels (writer), Judit Tondora (artist), Michael Bartolo, Stuart Chaifetz, Roland Pilcz (colorists), Tom Orzechowski, Lois Buhalis, Katherine S. Renta (letterer), Cat Staggs (original primary covers artist), Alex Ross (variant original cover and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment in conjunction with DC Comics, 2017; originally released in single issue format as "Wonder Woman '77 Meets The Bionic Woman" #1-6 (December 2016 to September 2017). Thoughts: Without a doubt, the best of the seven Six Million Dollar Man and Bionic Woman comics trade paperbacks I read this week. Andy Mangels is a recognized Wonder Woman expert and also is really good with the Bionic Woman characters and does a great job of tying this story into what has already happened on both the 1970s "Wonder Woman" and "Bionic Woman" television series. Lots of familiar characters from both shows (Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman's mother and fellow Amazons, Drusilla/Wonder Girl, Oscar Goldman, Rudy Wells, Max the bionic dog, the Fembots and their creator, several enemy robot makers from earlier "Wonder Woman" episodes, etc.). If anything, there may be a bit *too* much in the way of cramming in as many robots related villains from the previous two tv series as Mangels does (I even started to lose track of who some of them were) but it's okay because it's still just such a fun overall experience, this series. The artist is the best (Judit Tondora) is the best of all of the Dynamites mini-series in terms of getting actor resemblances (the drawings looking like the actual actors). And Mangels knows exactly what fans would want to see: Diana doing her "magic spin" to change to Wonder Woman, Diana in her blue scuba diving outfit, Diana and Jaime in the invisible jet, Paradise Island and the Amazons, flashbacks to Jaime's origin with Steve Austin (and addressing how both characters have important relationships with men named Steve!), Diana vs. fembots, Diana being outmaneuvered at a critical moment to prevent her usual way of escaping injury from gun fire, etc. I've heard one peson describe this as primarily a Wonder Woman story guest-starring Jaime Sommers (rather than an equal "team-up"), which is probably a valid observation. But it's still a lot of fun. I gave this four out of five stars on GoodReads.

"G.I. Joe A Real American Hero vs. The Six Million Dollar Man" by Ryan Ferrier (writer), S.L. Gallant (artist (penciller)), Brian Shearer (inker), James Brown (colorists), Robbie Robbins (letterer), John Cassiday (collection cover artist) (IDW Publishing in conjunction with Dynamite Entertainment (G.I. Joe comic book license owner being Hasbro, IDW the publisher then licensed by Hasbro to publisher G.I. Joe comic books), 2018; originally released in single issue format as "G.I. Joe A Real American Hero vs. The Six Million Dollar Man: Fall of Man" #1-4 (February 2018 to May 2018). Thoughts: I haven't read a G.I. Joe comic book in probably twenty years. However, I found that I really enjoyed this mini-series as primarily a G.I. Joe story/adventure guest-starring Steve Austin (a Steve Austin brainwashed to be a tool of Cobra!). That being the set-up, it works well. There is lots of action and the G.I. Joe characters are handled well, from what I can tell. This is *not* a particularly authentic-to-his-own-source-material Steve Austin, but in this case that's okay as right from the start thanks to the art style and the story it's clear that this is a "G.I. Joe universe version" of Steve Austin. I gave this four out of five stars on GoodReads.

"The Six Million Dollar Man: In Japan" by Christopher Hastings (writer), David Hahn (artist), Roshan Kurichiyanil (colorist), Arian Maher (letterer), Michael Walsh (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2020; originally released in single issue format as "The Six Million Dollar Man" #1-5 (March 2019 to July 2019). Thoughts: Okay, this is probably one of the more polarizing Dynamite Six Million Dollar Man mini-series because it's clearly an attempt at a completely separate "reboot" version of the character (the mini-series when it initially came out in the monthly single issue format was simply titled "The Six Million Dollar Man"; they added the "In Japan" for the trade paperback), one more cartoony in the art style and humorous in the way the character is depicted. He's a bit Steve Austin and a bit Inspector Gadget. (He *clearly* has much more of his body replaced by cybernetic parts than just the one arm, one eye, and two legs that the tv Steve Austin did.) Since the writer and artist made it quite clear what sort of story this was going to be right from the outset, though, I was able to enjoy it for what it was, a fun different take on the character (as if for a possible spin-off cartoon series). I gave this three out of five stars on GoodReads.

"Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" by Cameron DeOrdio (writer), Soo Lee (artist), Addison Duke (colorist), Crank! and Tom Napolitano (letterers), Cat Staggs (original primary covers and collection cover artist) (Dynamite Entertainment, 2021; originally released in single issue format as "Charlie's Angels vs. The Bionic Woman" #1-4 (2019-2019 (couldn't find the original months). Thoughts: I have to say that I was disappointed with the execution of this one. Supposedly taking place in 1983 (after the ends of both the "Bionic Woman" and "Charlie's Angels" tv series), what could have been a very interesting story (especially as depicted on the *covers* of the individual issues, which depicted very close likenesses of Lindsay Wagner and the three "Charlie's Angel" actresses, Jaclyn Smith, Cheryl Ladd, and Tanya Roberts) is sabotaged by both not bad but a poorly matched artist to this type of material (Soo Lee's art here is what I would call very "manga-esque", although I admit that I am not very knowledgeable about manga and some might disagree with that assessment; regardless, I found that Lee drew the three "Charlie's Angel's" ladies pretty much identical to each other with only their hair color as distinguishing characteristics). The other big fault I found here was that Jaime for the first part of the story acts very out of character, and that the Oscar Goldman shown here is *clearly* not the same character as portrayed by Richard Anderson on the tv series. He is drawn differently, he is shown sparring with Jaime in hand-to-hand fight training several times (something I could never see Anderson's Oscar doing), and (spoilers) is written in such a way to give me the same feeling I did at the end of the first "Mission Impossible" movie with Tom Cruise in regards to the use of the Jim Phelps character there (that's all I'll say about that for fear of going too much away). Again, I think Soo's art is nice in a general sort of way but not a very good match for a licensed tie-in comic book like this one. Oh, yeah, and not only do the three "Charlie's Angels" characters look alike here we also get pretty much zero character time with any of them except for a bit with Kelly Garrett (Jaclyn Smith's character). We don't get any back story of them aside from a bit of the opening narration from the tv show ("Once upon a time, there were three little girls who went to the police academy...") And, of course, the requisite "Hello Charlie" meetings with Bosley and Charlie (over the desk loudspeaker) at the office. I gave this two out of five stars on GoodReads.

— David Young

 

[Christopher]

It brings back a lot of the familiar characters (Jaime Sommers, Barney Hiller the "Seven Million Dollar Man")

Originally known as Barney Miller, then changed once the sitcom of that name came out. And played by Monte Markham, who was Martin Caidin's preferred choice to play Steve Austin.

and even introduces the characters of Oliver Spencer (Steve's government boss in the very first "Six Million Dollar Man" pilot movie played by Darren McGavin, replaced without any explanation by Richard Anderson's Oscar Goldman when it went to series)

Or rather, in the second and third pilot movies, which Glen Larson produced and which tried to be James Bond pastiches. The character was named Oscar Goldman in the original novel, but the pilot movie changed it for some reason, and the subsequent movies changed it back. They also retcon Oscar into Spencer's place as the man who gave Steve his bionics (as he did in the novel). He was initially portrayed like Spencer, an adversarial, morally ambiguous boss who saw Steve as little more than government property, but Richard Anderson was just so endearing in the role that the series rewrote him as Steve's stalwart "pal."

So I'm curious what role Spencer played in the comics, since the show rewrote its own history in a way that Spencer wouldn't really fit into. (Or indeed the events of the pilot movie altogether, since Steve was retconned from civilian to colonel, and Barbara Anderson's character was replaced by a different character in "The Seven Million Dollar Man"'s rewritten version of Steve's origin story.)

and "Maskatron" (the robot villain toy only existing prior to this as a Kenner action figure).

I always thought of Maskatron (which I never owned, but saw in toy catalogues and commercials) as a representation of the recurring "robut" impostors Henry Jones's character built, and of course the Fembots in TBW.

Again, an okay story but the repeated use of robots or other cyborgs (as in both "Six Mill: Season Six" and "Six Mill: Fall of Man" as well as here in this one) makes these first three Dynamite series a bit too "way out there" to be taken seriously as supposed continuations of the two for-the-most-part action/adventure-with-occasional-touches-of-sci-fi 1970s television series.

I think "occasional touches" is understating it, though I see what you mean. They were a mix of more conventional action or spy stories with more high-concept SF stuff like psychics and aliens and Bigfoot and HAL-knockoff doomsday computers. Although I think TBW was lighter on the sci-fi episodes than 6M$M was.

Comics like these need to try to strike a balance -- on the one hand, they aspire to feel like faithful continuations, but on the other, they can take advantage of the medium to do bigger, more elaborate stories than could've been done with the shows' budget and technology. It can be easy to go too far in one direction or the other.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Mel Brooks, All About Me. After reading a miniature hardcover (printed by letterpress, on handmade paper, and hand-bound) of Pearl Buck's short story, "On Christmas Day in the Morning." Literally the first of her writings I've read. Perhaps not the last.

***** 18 1/2 hours later *****

I'm now about halfway through a very long chapter that covers his early collaborations with Sid Cesar, from when they first met through the entire run of Your Show of Shows. (Cesar would appear in at least two Mel Brooks movies.)

 

[Reanok]

What the Cat dragged in Miranda James

 

[indianatrekker26]

I started up The Expanse Book 1: Leviathan Wakes. I'm really enjoying it so far. I think i hit a star trek and star wars reading burn out. So I was really interested in starting something new in scifi reading. I'm having a hard time putting this book down.

 

[USS Firefly]

I started up The Expanse Book 1: Leviathan Wakes. I'm really enjoying it so far. I think i hit a star trek and star wars reading burn out. So I was really interested in starting something new in scifi reading. I'm having a hard time putting this book down.

I am little bit jealous, I wish I could read those books for the first time again

 

[Reanok]

Pros and cons by Amanda Flower

 

[USS Firefly]

The Dresden files: Changes by Jim Butcher

 

[indianatrekker26]

I am little bit jealous, I wish I could read those books for the first time again

i can understand that one. The authors really get me with both character perspectives. The jumping back and forth between the Miller and Holden plots really hooks me.

 

[John Clark]

Started on Harm's Way by David Mack earlier.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Down to the last chapter of All About Me. Filled with all sorts of things I never knew about Mel Brooks.

 

[youngtrek]

Read today: "The Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special" (November 2022) by various creators (see below), published by DC Comics.

The actual 1992 "Death of Superman" story remains a pivotal moment in comics publishing regardless of one's personal feelings as to the quality of the story itself. Due to various factors that I don't really feel like going into here, the mainstream news media latched onto the news that DC was "killing off" Superman and next thing you know oodles of non comic book reading people were pouring into comic book shops buying up copies of "Superman" #75 (cover dated January 1993, released on November 19, 1992) because, not being regular comic book readers, many of them believed that Superman would stay dead and not be brought back (which he was less than a year later) and that it would one day be worth lots of money (which was pretty much impossible because DC printed reportedly over six million copies to keep up with the demand).

The "Death of Superman" was also a creative key point in DC publishing history as it was at a high point to many Superman readers, all four of the monthly Superman comic book titles ("Superman", "Adventures of Superman", "Superman: The Man of Steel", and "Action Comics"; later including a quarterly "Superman: The Man of Tomorrow" title, as well) continuing one into the other every week as if all one big single weekly Superman title. Some didn't care for this approach as each title's creative team was very much restricted from telling their own individual stories under this approach, but at the same time many did really like these "triangle number years" (referring to the small triangle numbers put on the covers to indicate the suggested reading order) because it resulted in, as a I already mentioned, a new continuing Superman story each and every week.

"The Death of Superman" also resulted in two even better (in my opinion) follow up story arcs, "Funeral for a Friend" (a.k.a., "World Without a Superman" for later reprints), which detailed the DC superheroes and general world reactions to the loss of Superman, and "Reign of the Supermen", which introduced four new Superman stand-ins (including John Henry Irons "Steel", who is in this special, and a new "Superboy" clone who would much later play a key role in one of the biggest DC events of the mid 2000s, "Infinite Crisis" (2005-2006), and, for better or for worse would start of chain of subsequent "big character events" (or "stunts", if you prefer) trying to repeat the Death of Superman's commercial success, such as the "breaking" of the Batman ("Knightfall" (1993-1994)) and the fall and replacement of Hal Jordan as Green Lantern ("Emerald Twilight" (1994)).

Okay, enough preamble. As I said at the top, this is the "Death of Superman 30th Anniversary Special". It has a #1 on the cover and in the inside indicia (small print publishing information section) but it is almost certainly a one-shot (no further issues planned). It's only date inside or out is copyright 2022. It's official release date was November 8, 2022, which, if it had a cover date matching the other DC comic books released that week would have been January 2023 (just as with the original Death of Superman "Superman" #75 issue).

As is the custom these days, it was released with a "main cover" illustration (by Dan Jurgens and Brett Breeding) and many "variant cover" editions by other artists (ones by Jim Lee, Ivan Reis and Danny Miki, Dan Mora, Francesco Mattina, and Rafael Sarmento; I choose to buy the Rafael Sarmento variant cover).

This special is essentially the comic book equivalent of a short story collection, as it is not one long single story but is instead one 41 page lead story ("The Life of Superman") followed by three other shorter stories ("Above and Beyond", "Standing Ground", and "Time", all ten pages long), interspersed with single page pin-ups by various artists (Clay Mann and Tomeu Morey, Lee Weeks, Walter Simonson and Laura Martin, Fabio Moon, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gabriel Rodriguez, Jamal Campbell, Carmine Di Giandomenico, and Cully Hamner).

"The Life of Superman" is by Dan Jurgens (story and pencils), Brett Breeding (inks), Brad Anderson (colors), and John Workman (lettering) (the same creative team as was on the "Superman" montly title at the time the Death of Superman story happened). It, like the special itself, takes place in the now current DC continuity on the anniversary of Superman's death while fighting Doomsday. The story focuses on Superman and Lois Lane's son, Jon*--a character that I'm not at all familiar with as I haven't read a new in-continuity Superman comic book in probably ten years or more; but, then again, I haven't read hardly *any* new comic books in that time frame, not out of disinterest, just out of me taking a ten year hiatus away from the hobby while other things were going on my life--discovering for the first time in school the story of how his father "died" years ago, and the arrival of a very Doomsday looking "monster" suddenly showing up in Metropolis on this anniversary day, one that Superman immediately has to confront. (* It amuses me that an indexer at the Grand Comics Database website has added this note for this story: "Story is set in the past when Jon Kent is still a boy attending school, but several years after the "death" of Superman during the first encounter with Doomsday". That I obviously have missed quite a bit because this story doesn't even take place in the current DC "present" but in the "past" because Jon is only a boy here. I obviously am waaay behind what's going on these days.)

I like the plot here and also very much the art. Dan Jurgens was always one of my favorite Superman artists of the post John Byrne run era. My only hesitation in really liking this story a lot is Jurgens dialogue. It is excessively wordy and exposition-driven for much of the story (especially the parts where Lois is explaining to Jon what Doomsday was and what happened when his father had to fight Doomsday the first time). I understand that Jurgens was trying to frame this story as a remembrance of that now 30 year old story and to also explain it to today's younger readers who were not old enough to have read the original release (or any of the many reprint editions DC has released over the decades since then), but it come across as very clunky. And a lot of his little bits of character dialogue with the characters talking to each other seems rather dated, too. I don't know if he was emulating his writing style back then or if that's just how he still writes dialogue, but this story would have benefited from a separate dialogue writer, I believe. Still, it was a good story overall (if very conveniently wrapped up in the end, the key piece to defeating the monster being an item Lois discovers in... well, I don't want to spoil it.)

"Above and Beyond" is by Jerry Ordway (writer), Tom Grummett (pencils), Doug Hazlewood (inks), Glenn Whitmore (colors), and Rob Leigh (lettering) (the creative time back from the 1990s "Adventures of Superman" monthly title). This ten-page story is entirely on Superman's Earth parents, Jonathan and Martha Kent, in real time at the same time as Superman is fighting Doomsday the first time, at home in Smallville fretting over what they are watching on the television about what's happening in Metropolis. They decide they must break away from the coverage for awhile because it is too stressful for them and begin to reminisce about some of the other dangerous circumstances their son had been in up to that point and how he repeatedly was willing to sacrifice himself for the well being of others. A nice little story. Again, overly expositional (as is the entire point of the story, so hard to avoid here) that at times comes across as unnatural/forced. And Grummett, another favorite Superman artist of mine from the 1990s, is just okay here (some of his Superman figure work doesn't look quite as good as it did back then, although I don't know if that is him or his inker, Hazlewood; their Ma and Pa Kent are fine). In the end, the least memorable story in this special (but, again, not a bad story by any means).

"Standing Guard" is by Roger Stern (writer), Butch Guice (pencils and inks), Glenn Whitmore (colors), and Rob Leigh (lettering) (the writer-penciler team from the 1990s "Action Comics" run, although back then Guice was usually inked by Denis Rodier). This is my favorite story in this special. It follows the character of the Guardian (the 1990s clone of Jim Harper who was a product--and security head at--the secret Cadmus Project. I'm not even going to try to explain all of that here.) He is shown meeting up with Superman at least twice on that fateful day during Superman's cross country battle with Doomsday, who was relentlessly marching towards to Metropolis, wrecking death and destruction along the way. In the second scene, Guardian himself briefly sees the power of Doomsday which briefly knocks both him and Superman out. When he catches up with the battle again in Metropolis, it's too late. It's all over and both are dead. Everything is top notch in this short story, the plotting, the dialogue, and especially the art by Guice. This is perhaps the first artist to successfully depict well the extent of the injuries the normally "invulnerable" Superman was taking from Doomsday. His Superman looks genuinely beat up in the scenes he shares with Guardian. Truthfully, it is this story along with the Jurgens-Breeding lead in that I would recommend fans to buy this special for.

Lastly, "Time" is by Louise Simonson (writer), Jon Bogdanove (pencils and inks), Glenn Whitmore (colors), and Rob Leigh (lettering) (the writer-penciler team from the 1990s "Superman: The Man of Steel" run, although back then Bogdanove was usually inked by Dennis Janke and some other inkers). This is another "in between scenes" (like with the Ma and Pa Kent story) of what John Henry Irons (later dubbed Steel) was doing that day, fitting in between scenes depicted in the "Superman: Man of Steel" story introducing him back then. As depicted in the previous story, John Henry Irons had been saved (or so I seem to recall) by Superman some how and on the day Doomsday arrived Irons was buried in his collapsed building during the battle. He dug himself out and immediately went to try to help Superman. This new story picks up with him trying to get to the battle but repeatedly having to help others also impacted by the catastrophe along the way. Like with Guardian, he arrives too late to help Superman. A nice character piece on Steel (and it's nice to see Jon Bogdanove's art again after all these years), but like the Ma and Pa Kent story is in the end not very memorable.

Overall, this is a decent collection of stories, so I gave it an overall three out of five stars on GoodReads. I would recommend it to anyone who is old enough to have read the original 1992 "Death of Superman" story and enjoyed it (or, at the very least, didn't hate it), and who, like me, were regular Superman readers throughout that time period as it does bring back some nice, nostalgic memories of looking forward to each week's new issue of whichever Superman title was coming out that week.

—David Young

 

[KRAD]

Minor correction: Simonson & Bogdanove were the creative team on Man of Steel, not Action Comics.

 

[youngtrek]

Minor correction: Simonson & Bogdanove were the creative team on Man of Steel, not Action Comics.

Thank you! A copy/paste/rewrite-a-few-words where I obviously missed something. Fixed.

—David Young

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Finished the Mel Brooks memoir.

Re-reading Jean Lorrah's The Vulcan Academy Murders. I'll note that it does come from the "Klingons fart in airlocks" era, and at times the JL's prose can be a tad awkward, especially compared with that of the current ST novelists, but it does hold up well.

Reading it because of the "bath and body products" thread.

 

[Doctorossi]

it does come from the "Klingons fart in airlocks" era

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

It's something David Gerrold said, in one of his two nonfiction ST books (I forget which one).

It's a more colorful way of saying the book is from back when Klingons were one-dimensional stock baddies.