Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman: Final Post and Reflection

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #594
(art by Mike Wieringo & Lary Stucker)

What makes a good run?

This is the question I'm trying to answer, but I think it requires us to step back and ask another question first: What makes a run?

People always talk about "runs" in comics, but I think we're talking about a couple different things.

1. When a single creator or creative team defines a character or title from beginning to end. Good examples of this would be Neil Gaiman on The Sandman, Matt Wagner/Steven T. Seagle and Guy Davis on Sandman Mystery Theatre, James Robinson and Tony Harris/Peter Snjejbjerg on Starman, Roy Thomas on All-Star Squadron, Walter Simonson on Orion. Though most of those titles had existences outside of those creators, there are versions of those titles entirely defined by those creators. There was a Sandman vol. 1 and a Sandman before Neil Gaiman, but every issue of Sandman vol. 2 was written by him. The character of Orion existed before Walter Simonson, but the comic book called Orion was primarily his work as writer and artist. 

2. When a creator or creative team takes over a character or title, but that character/title extends beyond that creator. Here I'm thinking things like Geoff Johns's The Flash vol. 2 #164-225, George Pérez's Wonder Woman vol. 2 #1-62, Paul Cornell's Action Comics vol. 1 #890-904, Judd Winick's Green Arrow vol. 3 #26-75/Green Arrow and Black Canary #1-14. There were 163 issues of The Flash vol. 2 before Geoff Johns and another 22 after him; Geoff Johns was just there for a time.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #596
(art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

But you can identify another way of looking at a "run":

A. The telling of a discrete story with a beginning, middle, and end. Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos's Alias, for example.

B. When a writer is just in charge of a character/title for a while. There's no "climax" to the run-- it's just a series of stories. Mark Waid's The Brave and the Bold, or Gail Simone's Birds of Prey. This doesn't mean that there are no arc elements, just that there's not One Big Story being told.

Of course, there's certainly a midpoint between type A and type B. Cameron Stewart and Brendan Fletcher's Batgirl vol. 4 #35-52 is a good example of this, as it (as I recall) tells three discrete stories, but each one leads into the next. Or there's the Mark Waid and Barry Kitson run on Legion of Super-Heroes, which tells two over-arching stories.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #600
(art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

So these two typologies overlap. I could draw you a chart with four quadrants if I wanted, but I'll just make a list of examples:

• 1A. Single Title, Single Story: Gaiman's Sandman; Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Gaydos's Alias; Tom King and Gabriel Hernandez Walta's The Vision
• 2A. Partial Title, Single Story: Brian Azzarello and Jim Lee's Superman; Don McGregor and P. Craig Russell's Killraven
• 1B. Single Title, No Overarch: Matt Wagner's Sandman Mystery Theatre; Paul Cornell's Captain Britain and MI13
• 2B. Partial Title, No Overarch: Paul Cornell's Action Comics; Gail Simone's Birds of Prey; G. Willow Wilson's Ms. Marvel; Walter Simonson's Thor

Okay, why do I bring all this up? Because I think comic fans and comic critics tend to prioritize type-1 runs and type-A runs. Obviously a type-1A is the best: a single creative vision, no extraneous stuff you have to disregard (imagine if there was a Sandman vol. 2 #76 by John Ostrander!), a a beginning, middle, and an end. It's hugely satisfying to read and discuss-- comics at its best. Type-2A and -1B runs aren't quite as good, but they're still very good. You either get a complete creative vision or a complete story.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #602
(art by Pete Woods & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

In the era of the collected edition, the type-1A is king. You can get a nice set of Sandman volumes, an Alias Omnibus, and a complete Vision hardcover. 2A doesn't do too badly. Azzarello and Lee's Superman fit nicely into two trades. Both type-B variants fare less well. DC has fizzled out doing a run of SMT collected editions twice now; you can get all of Paul Cornell's Action Comics in trade, but I doubt there will ever be an omnibus.

But then type-2B runs languish at the bottom of what we appreciate. This is, perhaps, silly on the face of it. People love Simone's Birds of Prey and Wilson's Ms. Marvel. But I think it casts its effect on the way you read it. It's a little tough to get into Birds of Prey because these characters have some not-quite-explicated history. The whole run kind of fizzles out without a climax if you leave when Simone does. On the other hand, if you keep going, Tony Bedard takes over, and he maintains some stuff, but up-ends the status quo in other ways.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #610
(art by Derec Aucoin)

And Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman is probably more type-2B than most 2Bs! There's no one big story here; in fact, Casey's run was often in service to other people's stories. In the 35 issues of his run, eight were part of crossovers with other Super titles, not to mention that there were two other fill-ins, and one issue wrapped up the previous writer's story arc. That's almost a third! What was left was not telling one big story; the closest the run got to that was #612-16, just five issues. 

And Adventures of Superman had a long history before and after Casey wrote it. (His run was #588-623; Adventures of Superman ran from #424 to 649, plus before and after that, it was just called Superman vol. 1, which ran from #1 to 423 and 650 to 714. He's just a drop in the bucket!) His run begins by trying up someone else's, as I said, and the early parts of the run in particular are very dependent on you knowing what Superman had been up to in Action Comics, Superman, and The Man of Steel. He's happily married to Lois, he's on a break, they're together; he's happily employed, he's fired from the Daily Planet, now he's not.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #612
(art by Derec Aucoin)

It just doesn't satisfy as a cohesive unit. I wanted it to. I felt like there's a really good story to be told about Superman's growing uncomfortable with the amount of power he possesses and what he does with it... but this, to be honest, isn't it. It's jumpy, it's not always in focus, and the thread doesn't come to a climax so much as a stop.

But is this fair? Am I judging a type-2B run by the standards of a type-1A? Why should the best comic book runs be ones where a single creator tells a single story? Isn't that just the imposition of a certain kind of storytelling that came into vogue in the late 1980s? Comics didn't do that for fifty years prior. Maybe I should be judging Casey's run by what it was actually trying to do (telling interesting individual Superman stories focusing on his power while weaving in and out of Big Events), not what I wanted it to do.

Type 1 isn't better than type 2; type A isn't better than type B. They're just different ways of writing comic books, with their strengths and weaknesses.

I think what bothers me, though, is that the part of this type-2B run with the most potential to take off was often the most frustrating. The set of stories where Superman is a pacifist didn't work for me! Casey sets out a great challenge for himself: to tell Superman stories where he can't win through force. Yet the ways he does win often seem as arbitrary as the fact that he's always the strongest guy around. Many of the run's later issues invoke great ideas, but fail to climax satisfactorily (e.g., #603-05, 614-16, 617-18, 619-20, 621-22). I love of a lot of the premises here, but too often Superman doesn't do anything that feel brave or clever, and instead he wins just because. Plus, I really wish there had been a story that tested his pacifism. (Ending Battle is kind of this, but it felt hollow, and it actually comes before he's a pacifist!)

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #619
(art by Derec Aucoin)

Indeed, if I list the individual issues I liked the most, most of them, though not all, come from early in the run (e.g., #590, 594, 596, 599, 600, 608, 610). I feel like Casey did some of his best work when he was constrained by the overall plan of all the Super titles. Maybe because he couldn't tell complete stories based on external conflicts (as those ran across the Super titles), so he had to settle for stories based on internal conflicts purely (as those he could handle in a single issue on its own). Or maybe he just wasn't that good coming up with Superman plots on his own, but as part of a group doing it, he was just fine.

I don't know. This makes it seem like I really didn't like the run, and while I did groan my way through both Return to Krypton stories and The Harvest and big chunks of Our Worlds at War, most of my problems with those stories can't be laid at Casey's feet.

When he was writing, I was enjoying what I was reading more often than not. Casey himself has a good grasp on Superman as a person, and on the sense of humor and playfulness a good Superman story should engender. It reminded me of All-Star Superman in that regard, without being quite so on the nose about it. And both Casey's main artistic collaborators, Mike Wieringo and Derec Aucoin, were great in very different ways. I always like me some José Marzan, Jr., and it was nice to see early Pete Woods. And even if the story doesn't lead to a satisfying climax, there's a great continuity of theme: the stuff that will come into the open with Superman's pacifism in #616 is clearly layered at least as far back as #590, over two years earlier.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #623
(art by Derec Aucoin)

This was solid Superman stuff on the whole.

I guess I just feel like I was promised spectacular, and this isn't it. I think I went in thinking I was getting a type-1A run (even though obviously I couldn't be!) or perhaps a type-2A, and that's why a type-2B was doomed to disappoint me. If you read Casey's Adventures of Superman, judge it on its own terms as much as you are able.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

I link to my usual reading guide above. A couple thoughts on it now that I'm done:

• Reading the Super title events that included Casey's Adventures (e.g., Return to Krypton, Our Worlds at War) was the right move even when I didn't enjoy them.
• The Superman/Batman story Casey wrote in 2009-10 (The Big Noise) is utterly terrible and utterly skippable, but it you are going to read it, definitely read it where it seems to go chronologically (S/B #64 after Adventures #588; S/B #68-71 between Adventures #596 and 597). If you read it in publication order, it would be a very dismal way to go out. Chronologically, it just reads like another mediocre Super titles crossover.
• Jay Faerber's fill-in (#607) was worth it.
• The Joe Kelly stuff I added in (Lost Hearts, The Harvest, Hungry Ghost) mostly wasn't worth it, and it contradicts what Casey was doing in Adventures. I probably should have saved it for, say, a Traci Thirteen-focused read, if I had to read it at all.

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #621-23: Superfiction, Part 3

"The Mack Minute" / "Mighty Bubbles" / "Bittersweet"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #621-23 (Dec. 2003–Feb. 2004)

Writer: Joe Casey
Art:  Derec Aucoin
Colors: Tanya & Richard Horie
Associate Editor: Lysa Hawkins
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Joe Casey's run on Adventures of Superman comes to an end with three final issues. The first two (#621-22) make up one story. All the children in Metropolis five and under turn into insects at the same time that Supeman has to contend with an attitudinal new vigilante in Metropolis, the Minuteman (because he defeats bad guys in under sixty seconds). These things turned out to be linked (the fact that the Minuteman is the mail cart guy at the Daily Planet is just a gigantic coincidence, though): the Minuteman is training for the arrival of the Anti-Angelica, insect creatures from another dimension. The Anti-Angelica cannot breed in their home dimension, so after they get married, they travel to another dimension and, as they say, "we can become parents. We borrow... and we breed..."

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #621

To be honest, it doesn't really work. It might be the very weakest of all the non-crossover stories by Joe Casey. First, there's the big coincidence of the mail guy being the Minuteman, and then once the Anti-Angelica show up, what Superman does is kind of lame. He accidentally gets sucked into the Anti-Angelica honeymoon suite, where he does (very easily) free the kids, and then accidentally gets sent by the Minuteman to the Anti-Angelica dimension. There, he talks to them for a minute, and then just... goes back home, trading places with the Minuteman, who is sealed in the Anti-Angelica dimension. Like, he doesn't even do anything, and I don't really get what the point of it all is supposed to be. No one does anything clever or particularly inspirational, we don't learn anything about Superman or his beliefs, despite some banal ruminations on the final page. I don't know that any of the post–Ending Battle stories worked for me 100%, but this one worked least of all.

The final issue of Casey's run is "Bittersweet" (#623)... and it's bittersweet. (Unlike every other non-crossover story in his run, it actually has been collected in English before, in a 75th-anniversay collection of standalones with the unwieldy title of Superman: The Man of Steel: Believe; I think it was meant to tie into the Man of Steel film.) In this issue, Clark and Lois go flying together while they have A Talk. Their sometimes rocky marriage has been a consistent but also inconsistent background element of Casey's run: they have endured multiple separations but also reaffirmed their love for each other.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #623

Here, they talk about their relationship, but occasionally pause as Superman narrates an old adventure for Lois, so we get a series of synopses, ranging from one to three pages each, of exciting adventures that happened elsewhere. A lot of them have a whiff of bullshit about them: these are the wacky kinds of adventures Superman would have in the Silver Age, not the more "realistic" ones of the post-Crisis era. For example: Superman helping Santa when all the reindeer are sick with a viral infection, someone remote controlling a ghost quarterback, Superman up against the entire (mind-controlled) JLA, the Earth turning into a single-cell organism, and so on. I've seen this kind of thing done well elsewhere-- I feel like this a trope of final issues, though now of course I can't think of any examples-- but I don't feel like these ones entirely work. They're all... too easy? too boring? too distant? I dunno. I know I've seen this kind of montage/snippet adventure done well, and I expected something more interesting here.

What does work is the conversation between Lois and Clark. Clark acknowledges that "We haven't seen much of each other..." because he's been so busy, and in a particularly neat bit, they reflect on the beginning of their relationship sitting atop the house of Friedrich Nietzsche, whose writings gave Lois the name "Superman" when she first reported on him. She acknowledges how that shows her uncertainty about him; Clark's rejoinder that "They called his philosophy 'realism'... which is probably the furthest thing from describing me..." feels a little bit like a metatextual jab at those who want to downplay the character's more fantastic elements. Lois acknowledges that their marriage will never be typical: "I get selfish, too... having to share you with the rest of the world, but I know how important you are... what you mean to people..." It's a good portrayal of the Lois/Clark relationship and its complications; it's great being married to Superman, but it will never be easy.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #623

The last few pages of the comic intercuts panels of ordinary people doing good, but with the Superman symbol prominent in some way: a fireman wearing a Superman t-shirt beneath his jacket, an EMT wearing a Superman cap in the cold, a doctor with a Superman tattoo on his arm... It's a decent pay-off of some of the stuff set up in #610 about Superman's relationship to ordinary people. Even if he's off in space instead of helping the "little guy," he still helps ordinary people through the virtue of the example he sets, helping us help each other.

It ends with an affirmation of Lois and Clark's marriage as Superman flies off into the sunset. The issue as a whole might be a little rocky, but its closing moments certainly nail it.

That's my last issue... but I'm not done! Come back next week for my overall reflections on the entire Joe Casey Adventures of Superman experience!

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #617-20: Superfiction, Part 2

"Rather, Rinse, Repeat" / "Four on the Floor, Break Stuff" / "Prestidigitation Nation" / "Martyr Party People"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #617-20 (Aug.-Nov. 2003)

Writer: Joe Casey
Artists: Charlie Adlard and Derec Aucoin
Colors: Tanya & Rich Horie
Assoc. Editors: Tom Palmer jr and Lysa Hawkins
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Now that Superman is an avowed pacifist (except when punching General Zod, I guess) Casey can't write a series of issues of where big bad guys punch their way into Metropolis, and Superman has to punch them back out again (not that he ever really did, anyway). So the last few issues of Casey's run on Adventures of Superman have to be more inventive in the kind of threats they pose, so that Superman can be more inventive in the kind of solutions he comes up with. (Good thing, I suppose, that Doomsday didn't pop by to menace the city during this phase.)

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #618 (art by Charlie Adlard)

This chunk of Superfiction consists of two two-issue stories. The first one (#617-18) is about two encyclopedia salespeople who come to Metropolis, hawking the Encyclopedia Universal. Their previous attempts to get people to buy it haven't gone well; we get a montage of flashbacks of them traveling around the world, talking to different leaders. Then, more flashbacks of them traveling even further afield, which poke fun at DC Comics itself: the Guardians on Oa ("What year is this...?" moans one), the ruling council of Thanagar ("Which reality is this...?"), and the Legion of Super-Heroes ("What is this? Some sort of delinquent youth center...?"). Their attempt to sell it to Perry White renders him comatose, so Superman tackles them, only to fall afoul of their nigh-omnipotent powers himself... and realize that they're a guise for his old foe Mxyzptlk.

Wait, what? I have no idea how Superman put that together. Like, okay, they've got lots of powers and like to be annoying... but surely if you're a superhero, that's the kind of person you meet on the regular? If there was some kind of other clue, I missed it completely.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #618 (art by Charlie Adlard)

The sibling salespeople fight back by removing Earth's gravity, so we get some high-concept sci-fi as Superman needs to figure out a way to hold the Earth together while he takes care of the villains; with the help of the Atom and the JLA, he places a miniature white dwarf star in the Earth's core! So that's cool.

But that's eighteen pages of the second issue; in the last three pages, he just buys a set of encyclopedias after all, Mxyzptlk makes a speech about how they're going to be more evil these days ("you'll know what we're capable of. [...] No more games. No more saying our name backwards to get rid of us. We're in the mood to be a real super-villain... and next time, we won't hit the reset button."), and then that's it, it's over. I mean, it's slightly clever action, but it's still one big action sequence, and one that's heavily dependent on made-up super-science. The first issue sets them up as fun villains with a weird plan, but once it's revealed that they're not really salespeople, just Mxyzptlk in disguise, it all kind of fizzles out.

It's fun enough, though, like I said. There's a sub-plot about a S.T.A.R. Labs spaceship in Earth orbit; it's staffed by people who Charlie Adlard draws with uniforms like the Imperial Navy's in Star Wars for some reason. (In a brief aside in #617, they help Superman defeat "the ghost of a dead parallel Earth [...] invad[ing] our galaxy!") There's also a bit in #618 where it's finally explained where the Persuader got his powers from in #610:

DOLORIS: I know! Let's do a ret-con!
DALE: Oh, excellent! [...] What should we do...? So many inconsistencies to choose from...! [...] Does the name "Cole Parker" ring a bell? He was a social anarchist who attacked the Daily Planet and got thrown into Stryker's Island... while he was inside, he hooked up with a mysterious stranger who used his powers to transform Parker into the Persuader. Who was that mysterious stranger...?
DOLORIS: Don't tell me, he was us...?
DALE: He is now. Kinda wraps thing up neat and tidy, eh?

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #620
(art by Derec Aucoin)

I admire the sheer brazenness of it. One imagines Casey had plans for the mysterious stranger, but decided to never follow them up, and tied off the dangling thread with the most lampshaded of retcons!

The other two issues are about a new candidate for president, set to oppose Luthor in the upcoming election. He's known only as "the Candidate," his campaign promises are vague: "We can achieve." Later he says, "America is ready for change! Well, guess what, America...? I am change!" Reading in 2019, it's impossible not to see something of Obama's 2008 "hope and change" in him and some of Trump's 2016 populist rhetoric as well. Coastal elite Lois Lane sniffs about how people tailgate at the Candidate's rallies. The Candidate-- like Obama and Trump after him-- shows disdain for the press, preferring to speak directly to the people. He's the big hero who will single-handedly save America. But of course, Casey was just extrapolating from what was already happening in 2003: "Show biz politics. Perfect for modern voters. They don't have to think..."

The Candidate won't give interviews; when Lois and Clark bicker over who should get the assignment to obtain one, Perry White gives it to both of them: "You two engage in the strangest foreplay..." What follows is pretty fun, as the two compete; Clark promises no superpowers, but is hampered by his need to keep flying over the world taking care of random crises. Lois, in the meanwhile, dons a catsuit to do some infiltration. Previously in Casey's run, the status quo of Lois and Clark has been in flux. Not because of his writing, but because of what was happening in the other titles: for a while they were separated as Lois traveled the world; later, Clark was suspended from the Daily Planet. But here they are, together, and both reporters, and it's great stuff, showing their competitive streak, and their love for each other. Derec Aucoin is great at this stuff by now; their love comes through even in their body language.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #619
(art by Derec Aucoin)

While Superman is distracted by a "cannibal planet" that eats the sun's heat, dooming the Earth, an alien assassin attacks the Candidate, only for Lois to intervene and save him. The Candidate is not pleased: "...martyrdom is the final act of political legend, social action through social trauma... The object of government is to prey on the ignorance of the masses... They want it simple...heroes who will die for them...and now it's all gone...who'd vote for me now...?" It's a weird ending to a weird issue, almost an anticlimax, but I enjoyed it anyway.

I think there must have been some kind of directive from editorial that even if Superman was a pacifist, there had to be some big action anyway, because every issue here has a big sequence, even if it's not plot-related. #617 has the dead parallel Earth, like I said; #618 the dwarf star business; #619 has a few panels where we see Superman in Cairo defeating Osiris, god of the dead, because "Superman is the personification of life"; and in #620, there's Superman's big fight with the cannibal planet (though we eventually learn the alien bounty hunter brought it in as a distraction!). These are usually careful to maintain Superman's pacifism, so he's never punching these enemies to death, but I guess you can't sell a Superman comic where people just talk it out.

I would like to see Casey try to write one, though.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #612-16: Superfiction, Part 1

"Authorized" / "Valentine's Day Sale" / "Truths Told in Super-Secret" / "The Living Double of a Single Fiction" / "Three Camera Shoot"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #612-16 (Mar.-July 2003)

Writer: Joe Casey
Layouts: Derec Aucoin
Finishes: Derec Aucoin, Jose Marzan, and John Stanisci
Colors: Tanya & Richard Horie
Associate Editor: Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Back in my kick-off post for this sequence, I claimed that Joe Casey's run on Adventures had never really been collected. I later discovered that wasn't true: issues #610 and 612-23 were collected in two volumes under the umbrella title Superman: Superfiction in 2012... albeit only in French. So that's neat, but as a result, I'll be using "Superfiction" as my own umbrella title for the final set of issues of the Casey run.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #612
(art by Derec Aucoin)

With the exception of #613, #612-16 make up one large storyline. (Fun fact: Action Comics #801 takes place between Adventures #613 and 614, but as it is part of a five-part storyline itself, I'll be covering it there next week, slightly out of chronological order.) This storyline begins with "Authorized" (#612) where Clark goes to meet Ben Conrad, a Nebraskan journalist who inspired his own reporting. Conrad has retired from journalism to write a novel called Champion of the Oppressed, about a superhero who fights for ordinary people. Only, it turns out, this superhero has somehow come to life and is flying around wreaking havoc.

"Champion of the Oppressed" was, of course, the title of the original Superman story in Action Comics #1, and Ben Conrad's superhero is a riff on that original Superman, both visually and narratively; Adventures #612 recreates several beats of that original story, as the faux-Superman frees a woman from death row. As has been building in recent Adventures stories, there's an explicit critique of the direction of the 2000s Superman here; Ben Conrad says, "I'll tell ya... the more I researched Superman, the more I felt... I don't know. He's a bit too civilized, isn't he...? All that power... and look at how he uses it... wrestling with aliens and taking meetings on the moon doesn't exactly speak to the common man. He's just a bit detached for me."

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #612
(art by Derec Aucoin)

It's a neat story. I like the riffs on Action #1, still one of the best, most vital Superman stories, and I like how artist Derec Aucoin and colorists Tanya & Rich Horie depict the visual clash between the two different Supermen. As he fades away, the "Champion" tells the real Superman, "Just... don't let these ideals... be forgotten... it's up to you... all of you... to keep up the fight..."; Superman says, "What you represent... is not inconsequential." It's a sad scene, well done. The story hints at something bigger, though, a group of mysterious black-and-white people called "the Hollow Men" incapacitating superheroes.

In "Truths Told in Super-Secret" (#614), Superman discovers a city of super-people hidden in a tesseract in Ohio, isolated since 1955, and still believing in the virtues of the Golden Age of Superheroes. But as he does, so do the Hollow Men, moving on from neutralizing the Ray and the Elongated Man, to attack a whole city of superheroes. "The Living Double of a Single Fiction" and "Three Camera Shoot" (#615-16) chronicle Superman's fight against these beings, who turn out to be from Ben Conrad's first novel. Superman defeats them in mental battle, giving Ben a chance to rewrite the ending of the story so that the Hollow Men neutralize themselves.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #616
(art by Derec Aucoin)

I found it anticlimactic. It's full of good concepts, but it feels like the story doesn't do much with them. Heroville is cool... but Superman discovers that it exists, gets an explanation, and that's it. The Hollow Men are neat, but the final conflict with them more peters out than anything else; Superman just acts very determined, and that does it. I think Casey is going for thematic depth here, with the Hollow Men as homogeneity against the color of Superman and his friends... but what does that mean? I'm not sure.

And, obviously, you can't tease me with just a couple panels of Elongated Man. DC's greatest detective deserves more than that!

#616 does contain a big moment that Casey's been building toward since at least #608, and surely earlier: Superman's declaration that he's a pacifist. I'm not sure what I think of it. It's an interesting reaction to the violence of the Champion: if he won't use violence to impose his ideals, he won't use violence at all. It promises some interesting storytelling to come: what kind of stories do you tell about a pacifist Superman? Interestingly, in-story, it's not a big moment-- it's a tossed-off comment by Superman while strategizing how to defeat the Hollow Men. (And it's massively belied by the actions Superman will undertake in the subsequent The Harvest storyline in Action Comics.)

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #613
(art by Derec Aucoin & Jose Marzan & John Stanisci)

The other story, "Valentine's Day Sale" (#613), is a cute Lois adventure where she discovers Flunky Flashman is marketing Superman's image and takes him down without Superman's help. I like Aucoin's art on this title in general, but felt this story called for a lighter touch than he could provide-- and besides, the way he draws Lois in this one is a tad skeevy. There are some nice callbacks to Superman: The Movie, though one wonders why there isn't a comics version of Superman and Lois's first date this story could riff on instead.

ACCESS AN INDEX OF ALL POSTS IN THIS SERIES HERE

Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #610: "Small Perceptions"

"Small Perceptions"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #610 (Jan. 2003)

Writer: Joe Casey
Art: Derec Aucoin
Colors: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert
Associate Editor: Tom Palmer Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Here we are in the last-ever one-issue gap between Super titles crossovers of Joe Casey's run, because we're almost to the last Super titles crossover of his run. Between Ending Battle and Lost Hearts, we get "Small Perceptions," a story about what Superman means to the common man, foregrounding a theme that's run throughout Casey's run.

Lex Luthor has created a "Cosmic Defense Initiative," an alliance with other nations against space (to prevent something like another Imperiex War from happening); Clark has been laid off from the Daily Planet, I guess because of something that happened in one of the other Super titles; Perry has hired him anyway to go undercover in a mine to find proof that there's illegal mining going, mining that can be linked back to Luthor.

The story focuses on the day-to-day of Clark's time undercover at the mine. Superman comes up though; one of Clark's co-workers says of Luthor's CDI, "at least he's lookin' out for regular Americans... [...] ...you know a guy like Superman ain't here to look after guys like us. He's too busy fightin' giant robots and other freaks in dumb outfits to come around dives like this... guess he thinks he's got his priorities." There are obvious parallels between Luthor and President Trump; one of the less obvious and more prescient ones is how Luthor is seen as being more in touch with the needs of ordinary Americans than the "coastal elites" despite that Luthor himself is one of those elites! The man goes on to complain that Superman's violence probably hurts as many ordinary people as it protects. It's not explicitly referenced, but in the wake of Ending Battle, this critique stings. Superman didn't prevent anything in that story; all that violence wouldn't have happened without him. It causes some clearly genuine soul-searching on Clark/Superman's part.

The cover means that you won't be surprised when there's a cave-in. Clark saves his co-worker, the same one from before-- but that co-worker saves most of the miners himself. This then inspires Superman to look at some of his outstanding mail; he flies to Guatemala to comfort a kid who wrote him about his mother dying, and who has just died when he arrives: "<Did you know... I'm an orphan, too? But I'm not alone... I was never alone... the entire human planet took me in as her own. The human race became my family.>" He comforts the kid, but as Superman flies away, it's the superhero who thanks the orphan.

Derec Aucoin pencils and inks; I think as his collaboration with Casey has gone on (he first worked on #590, and became the title's regular artist with #608), the styles of the writing and the art have increasingly converged. In #599, I felt Aucoin was a little too dark, but I didn't feel that here, I think because Aucoin has lightened and Casey's standalone issues have gotten weightier. Aucoin works on all but three remaining issues of Adventures.

It's a quiet issue; the espionage stuff is beside the point and never resolved. If Clark busts open a conspiracy, we don't see it here. Instead, we can see that something is changing inside him. In issue #616, we'll learn he's made a big decision; I think in retrospect, this is the moment where he actually makes it. I enjoyed it when I originally read it, but felt like it kind of fizzled out; on rereading it to write out this review, having finished out Casey's run, I can see better how it plays its role in the whole trajectory of Superman's changing ethos, and it's much more enjoyable as a result.

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Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #608-09: Ending Battle

Ending Battle: "Morning Twilight" / "Dawn's Early Light" / "In the Dark of the Noon Day Sun" / "The Thirteenth Hour" / "After School Special" / "Rush Hour" / "Nightfall" / "The Last Supervillain"

Action Comics vol. 1 #795-96, The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #608-09, Superman vol. 2 #186-87, Superman: The Man of Steel #130-31 (Nov.-Dec. 2002)

Writers: Geoff Johns, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, and Joe Kelly
Pencils: Pascual Ferry, Derec Aucoin, Brandon Badeaux, and Duncan Rouleau
Inks: Cam Smith, Derec Aucoin, Mark Morales, Marlo Alquiza, and Mark Farmer
Colors: Tanya & Rich Horie, Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert, and Moose Baumann
Letters: Richard Starkings and Ken Lopez 
Associate Editor: Tom Palmer jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Ending Battle is the second-last of the Joe Casey-era Super titles crossovers, and arguably one of the more successful. Unlike the two Return to Krypton stories, it bounces through each of the four Super titles twice; unlike Our Worlds at War, it doesn't sprawl too much, but stays contained. There's still a lot of action, arguably too much, but the story also has a decent focus on character, and has clearly been designed so that the overwhelming amount of action is, in many ways, the point of it all.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #608
(script by Joe Casey, art by Derec Aucoin)

The story is a sequel to "What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, & the American Way?" (Action Comics #775), a satire on The Authority that thankfully I read many years ago. Manchester Black, after his role in Prelude to War! and All-Out War!, is back for revenge on Superman, but what he wants is nothing so mundane as Superman's death. Rather, Black wants to demonstrate that Superman is as prone to violent solutions as he is, and to push Superman to his limit. So, Black uses his mind control powers to make Superman's life-- or rather Clark Kent's-- hell. The first couple issues are just an onslaught of supervillains attacking key people in Clark's life, which keeps Superman busy to the point of exhaustion, and also lets him know that someone knows his secret identity. (That Black is behind it all isn't made clear until about halfway through the story.)

So Superman must protect Pete and Lana at the White House, then his parents (who have un-died at some point since Casualties of War!), then his high-school football coach, his dentist, his journalism professor, his local librarian, his optometrist, Jimmy Olsen, the Daily Planet office, and John Henry and Natasha Irons. Some of this works better than others. A lot of the supervillains are, quite frankly, C- and D-grade material. I guess that's kind of by design (I doubt Manchester Black could control an A-grade villain, and the A-grades he does control are saved for the climax of the conflict), but I'm not terribly into reading a whole issue where Superman fights a guy whose power is, apparently, "chains." Joe Casey handles it best in part 2 (Adventures #608), and Mark Schultz does a decent job of it in part 3 (Man of Steel #130). As one comes after another after another, we get a bunch of vignettes that amuse (the ridiculous of the villains in part 2 especially) but also raise the tension and demonstrate why Superman is Superman (he really does think everyone matters).

from Superman: The Man of Steel #130
(script by Mark Schultz, art by Brandon Badeaux & Mark Morales)

Each of those two writers also layers in details that make their issues sing a little bit more, make sure that they do more than play their part in the ongoing storyline. Casey parallels the action with a politician on the morning talk show circuit complaining that superheroes do more harm than good; I don't always like this kind of thing, but here it's thematically appropriate. Has Superman's insistence on facing Manchester Black his way just caused more problems in the long run? Schultz has the nice detail of Lois and Clark having a contingency plan for Clark's secret identity being compromised; like in his installment of Prelude to War!, Lois shines with her human determination in face of superhuman threat.

I also enjoyed the confrontation with Lex Luthor in Joe Kelly's part 4 (Action #795). Most of the villains don't know why they're attacking these people, they just are, but Luthor does know... and so therefore refuses to make use of the knowledge: "I was given the information -- [...] Your identity was given to me. On a platter. A mysterious file. A naive employee. No witnesses -- [...] I didn't look a gift horse in the mouth... but I have not done this. I refuse to be a pawn." As has been consistent throughout this era of Superman, putting Lex into a position of power has allowed for an exploration of some of the interesting aspects of his character.

from Action Comics vol. 1 #795
(script by Joe Kelly, art by Duncan Rouleau & Marlo Alquiza)

After a promising first seven-sixteenths, though, I found the storyline went downhill. Superman fighting the Elite again wasn't very interesting (I don't think the Elite are very interesting in and of themselves, only as tools of Manchester Black, and he's only interesting as an embodiment of the anti-Superman philosophy of The Authority), and then Metropolis has been taken over by Mongul, Bizarro, et al. I think it's only the third time since Joe Casey came on board that Metropolis has been hit by a massive disaster... but three massive disasters in less than two years of comics makes for an overused trope. Casey does manage to do something interesting with it all in part 6 (Adventures #609), but it feels like it's in spite of the actual storyline. There's some focus on the politician guy again, which I liked, and once again Casey delves into Superman's thoughts about the massive violence he's able to deploy whenever he wants to. But the actual plot is just another big throwdown.

The whole thing comes down to a battle between Superman and Manchester Black, where Superman thinks Lois Lane is dead, and Black mentally abuses Lois, either revealing or creating-- I wasn't sure-- memories of her abuse at the hands of her father. This seemed unnecessarily dark to me, and the whole conclusion (Action #796) doesn't quite come off. What Ending Battle wanted to be was Superman pushed to his limit, and he still doesn't snap... but you never feel like Superman actually would snap. All of these terrible things have happened to him in one awful day, but he just kind of shrugs it all off and does the right thing. Which, fair do, Superman should always do the right thing... but in life doing the right thing is rarely easy. Here's it's almost flippant how Superman is like, "You murdered my wife but I will take the moral high ground."

from Action Comics vol. 1 #796
(script by Joe Kelly, art by Duncan Rouleau & Marlo Alquiza)

I'm not sure how I would do it differently. I don't want to read a "dark Superman" story. But if you do all of this to Superman and can't make it seem like he could snap but doesn't, then really, I don't think you should have done the story in the first place. I liked Manchester Black and the Elite in "What's So Funny about Truth, Justice, & the American Way?", but they seem like a set of characters molded for one story and one purpose, and not flexible enough to keep reusing. The more they turn up, the less they seem like whatever they were originally supposed to do.

All that said, the story is one of the better of the Super title crossovers, which I guess is damning with faint praise. It has length enough to fit its scope, but doesn't sprawl; the emotional throughline is more thought out and thought through than in Return to Krypton, Our Worlds at War, or Return to Krypton II. Only Lost Hearts (still to come) was better, but on the whole, I feel like it was a format the writers and editors of this era never really worked out to its best.

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Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #606: Return to Krypton II

Return to Krypton II: "Rising Son" / "Culture Shock" / "Blood and Heresy" / "Dream's End"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #606 (Sept. 2002)
Superman: Return to Krypton (2004), reprinting Action Comics vol. 1 #793, Superman vol. 2 #184, Superman: The Man of Steel #128 (Sept. 2002) 

Writers: Geoff Johns, Joe Casey, Mark Schultz, and Joe Kelly
Pencils: Pascual Ferry, Duncan Rouleau, and Karl Kerschl
Inks: Cam Smith, Marlo Alquiza, and Karl Kerschl
Colors: Tanya & Rich Horie, Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert, and Moose Baumann
Letters: Ken Lopez
Assistant Editor: Tom Palmer jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

I had mixed feelings about the original Return to Krypton; my feelings about its sequel are more straightforwardly negative. It seems to me that both of these storylines threw away a potentially emotionally powerful premise in favor of a combination of empty action sequences and unnecessarily complicated continuity "fixes."

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #606
(script by Joe Casey, art by Duncan Rouleau & Marlo Alquiza)

In this story, the Jor-El of the Phantom Zone duplicate of Krypton manages to travel from the Zone into the real world, seeking Superman's help in pushing back against a tide of fundamentalist Kryptonian zealots who don't like Jor-El's new enlightened age. Honestly, for a supposed utopia, Krypton seems like a giant shithole, perpetually on the verge of complete social collapse at the drop of a hat. They ally themselves with General Zod's lackies against the zealots, trying to save Jor-El's wife and baby Kal-El before it's too late. It just all seems like pointless action sequences.

Then in the end, we finally get an explanation for this Krypton. I thought when reading the original Return to Krypton that all this was intended to retcon away John Byrne's Man of Steel vision of a sterile Krypton; that story claimed Jor-El presented a lie of a sterile Krypton to Kal-El so that he wouldn't feel so sad about his dead homeworld. This story rewrites that, so that we learn that after the Imperiex War (I think), Brainiac 13 time-travelled to pre-destruction Krypton (which really was the sterile world John Bryne showed us) and tried to kill Jor-El to stop Superman from being born. He failed, but made off with Jor-El's diaries and the Eradicator Matrix (I guess this is related to one-time Superman villain "the Eradicator," a.k.a. the Cyborg Superman, but I don't know enough to know), which he used in concert to make a fake Krypton as a trap for Superman. Only since Jor-El was a weirdo, his diaries recorded not the actuality of Krypton, but his dreamed, ideal Krypton. So this Krypton is a real place, a planet in the Phantom Zone, but it is not the real Krypton. Phew.

from Action Comics vol. 1 #793
(script by Joe Kelly, art by Pascual Ferry & Cam Smith)

It's not an explanation that convinces. Why would Jor-El dream up a Krypton where the government is a fascist dictatorship that suppresses dissent with lethal force, and where psychotic fundamentalists lurk in every corner? Like, dream up an actual utopia, dude!

And why did Return II even need to retcon the retcon? This was published in Sept. 2002; exactly one year later, Superman: Birthright would begin publication, removing Byrne inventions like the birthing matrix from continuity just as the first Return seemed like it was going to. By the time Return II came out, editor Eddie Berganza had to have known those changes were coming, so I just don't even get why this story-- which retcons the retcon of a retcon-- even exists.

And if you subtract the continuity jiggery-pokery, there's nothing here worth discussing. None of the five Super title crossovers published during Joe Casey's run on Adventures were exactly great, but Return to Krypton II is definitely the worst of them.

I did like that Krypto was in it, I guess, but Superman is not always a good dog-owner.

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Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #601-05: Cult of Persuasion / Mirror, Mirror

Cult of Persuasion / "Baby Talk" / "Mirror, Mirror" / "Syndication"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #601-05 (Apr.-Aug. 2002)

Writer: Joe Casey
Guest Pencillers: Pete Woods, Carlos Meglia, Sanford Greene, and Paco Herrera
Inkers: José Marzan, Jr., Carlos Meglia, Walden Wong, and Carlos Cuevas
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colors: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert
Assistant Editor: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Super Editor: Eddie Berganza 

Before we get to the next Super titles crossover, Return to Krypton II, we have two multi-issue Adventures of Superman storylines from Joe Casey: Cult of Persuasion (#601-02) and Mirror, Mirror (#603-05). Cult of Persuasion picks up from a prologue in #598, as a laid-off power plant worker has taken up the mantle of the Persuader, one of the long-time members of the Fatal Five, enemies of the Legion of Super-Heroes. Parker, the new Persuader, has some superpowers thanks to a mysterious benefactor who wasn't really adequately explained, and uses to raise an army and go after Superman and the Daily Planet.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #601
(art by Pete Woods & José Marzan, Jr.)

The first part is mostly set-up: Superman is in action for only a tiny bit of it, a short sequence where he saves a space shuttle from a collision with a satellite. Instead, we have a lot of Clark Kent, as he investigates Parker's escape from prison, complete with a return appearance by the impressionable clerk Lois wooed secrets out of back during Prelude to War! (#593). It's nice and likeable stuff, actually; I like seeing Clark doing some investigation and journalism. The second part, on the other hand, is one big action sequence, but again, I liked it. I mean, I wouldn't put it in my top ten or twenty Superman stories, certainly, but Casey has nicely settled into the title at this point (#600 was his one-year anniversary), and knows how to write an engaging action sequence. There's a lot of emphasis on Superman's thinking during the fight, as he strategizes against a surprisingly powerful opponent, and that keeps it interesting, as opposed to what some of the other Super title writers do, and just have him punching villains again and again.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #602
(art by Pete Woods & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

There's also a subplot about Clark and Lois. Back in #600 we saw that she had been traveling the world with her mother to get space from him, but Superman could still keep tabs on her from anywhere; in part one she calls and leaves a message asking for space. Part two has an epilogue set two weeks after the main story, by time which she has returned, but they're still not certain how things will go between them. I liked it when Lois laid out what she wanted: "Our life together-- it's got that fairy tale thing going for it. Sometimes I'd get caught up in it. One thing mom taught me... [...] real life isn't a fairy tale. And I don't want to live that way anymore. I want a real life. And that means dealing with the bad as well as the good." Only I'm not entirely certain what that means on a practical basis, and I suspect I might never know, as most of the Lois/Clark developments seem to happen in the other Super titles, and Casey's writing just reflects the status quo changes that some other writer(s) is making.

Pete Woods fills in on just these two issues as penciller. He seems to be imitating the departed Mike Wieringo to an extent, because it's not quite his familiar style from later comics of his I've read, but he has always been a good, solid artist, with clear storytelling and good emotional expression. It would have been nice to see him step in regularly, but I'm happy with Derec Aucoin (who will take over soon with #608).

(Incidentally, Clark tells Lois that the Daily Planet "office got trashed once or twice while you were gone...", fortuitously lining up with the events of The Big Noise.)

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #604 (art by Carlos Meglia,
Sanford Greene & Walden Wong, and Paco Herrera & Carlos Cuevas)

However, I was less into Mirror, Mirror. It's a sequel to Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely's JLA: Earth 2, which I've never read. A super-baby materializes in Metropolis, and Superman has to contain its unintentional destructive power. Soon Ultraman, Superwoman, and Owlman (the antimatter universe's Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman) all turn up to argue over it. The story goes round and round in circles as the characters argue and fight, fight and argue, and never really had a hook that got me interested. Carlos Meglia's art was often unclear (when he was actually drawing it; there were a lot of extra artists), and in the end, there was a surprising amount of technobabble. A surprising dud from Casey at this point.

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Joe Casey's Adventures of Superman #597-600: President Luthor and Other Celebrations

"Rubber Crutch" / "Cult of Persuasion (prologue)" / "Borba za Zhivuchest" / "A Lex" / "The Dailies 2002"

The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #597-600 (Dec. 2001–Mar. 2002)

Writer: Joe Casey
Pencillers: Derec Aucoin, Mike Wieringo, and Mauricet 
Inkers: Derec Aucoin and Jose Marzan, Jr.
Colors: Rob Ro & Alex Bleyaert and Tanya & Rich Horie
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Comic Strips: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale, Mark Schultz & Dave Gibbons, and Joe Kelly & Carlos Meglia
Assistant Editor: Tom Palmer, Jr.
Editor: Eddie Berganza 

In early 2002, the Super titles changed their approach. Though there would still be stories that spanned all four series, they would be less frequent. (I think there are just three more during Joe Casey's time on Adventures of Superman.) Issues #596-605 therefore make up our first stretch of any length of issues just by Joe Casey (though #597 is a tie-in to a Batman event, Joker: Last Laugh), allowing his own writerly voice to begin to emerge; today I'll be dealing with the first half of that run.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #599
(art by Derec Aucoin)

In the better issues, Casey seems interested in probing the limits of Superman's power. Not in terms of finding bigger physical threats, but in terms of figuring out what he can't do or what he doesn't want to do. The two best issues are therefore "Borba za Zhivuchest" (#599) and "A Lex" (#600). The former opens with a sinking Russian nuclear submarine; Superman flies in and saves it so fast that no one even sees him. Some time later, he follows up with the captain of the submarine, Gussev, a man whose job might be sailor, but whose identity is farmer. Thanks to a bit of heroism he pulled during the disaster, Gussev is now dying. Of course, Clark Kent empathizes with a man who thinks that a farm is the best place on Earth.

I think it's probably not very surprising how things play out, but it is touching. Superman admits to Gussev that he is from a farm in Kansas: "it's the place where I have always found peace... it is where my family lives... that land is my heart as well..." The captain talks about being a farmer shaped his worldview: "We work the land... it becomes a part of us. And so... we see the Earth as a whole... we don't see borders..." Superman can't save this man's life, but he is able to do a couple things for him as he dies. I like it when Superman stories emphasize that being Superman isn't just about fighting bad guys, but about helping little guys in all sorts of ways. My preferred Superman is the one who can take a day out to keep a man company as he passes away.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #600
(art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

I also really enjoyed "A Lex." President Luthor goes missing, and Vice President Pete Ross asks Superman for help. Superman, of course, doesn't want Luthor to be president... but Pete says that Luthor really cares about America. Superman knows that the right thing for the country is to bring him back. Or does he? Casey rotates between Superman searching for Luthor, Clark visiting Lois to discuss his doubts, and a mysterious new criminal leading the downtrodden of Metropolis in an uprising against corporatism.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #600
(art by Mike Wieringo & Jose Marzan, Jr.)

I like that it shows Superman as someone who struggles with doing the right thing... not in that Superman wouldn't do the right thing, but in that it's not always clear what the right thing is. I also like how the story ends; the new criminal is Luthor, of course, wearing a toupee and without his memory. Superman saves him, partially thanks to Talia al Ghul, who's running LexCorp while Luthor is president; she gives Luthor his daughter, shocking him back to normal. (Lena is an infant here, but last time I saw her, in Our Worlds at War, she was a Brainiac-enhanced adult; I guess this is one of those things you just gotta roll with in comics.) At the end of the story, we find out that Luthor liked being a sewer-dwelling supervillain: "I almost had it... I was free...! Wealth... political power... nothing can match the intoxication of... that freedom... Why couldn't you just leave me alone...?!" We're just about a year away from Public Enemies, where Luthor ditches the presidency to wreak havoc in a battllesuit. I didn't like that turn in that storyline when I read it back in the day, but we're clearly setting it up here.

There's also some references to the Ricard Donner Superman films; this kind of thing can be overdone, but here it was a nice touch, reminding you of what another kind of Luthor could be at a time where Luthor had been a "respectable businessman" for almost two decades of publication.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #597
(art by Derec Aucoin)

On the other hand, Casey is weaker when he attempts straight action stories. In "Rubber Crutch" (#597), Luthor is infected by Joker venom and goes mad (remember when beginning your re-election campaign only one year into your term was a sign of madness?); Superman has to stop him from destroying the Earth with nuclear launch codes. There's some okay political jokes, but it's all pretty perfunctory otherwise.

Issue #598 is the prologue to Cult of Persuasion, a storyline that will appear in #601-02. I found it confusing and undramatic. Apparently removing the futuristic Brainiac 13 technology from Metropolis increases the use of automation? Seems counter-intuitive. It's not really clear to me why a group of disgruntled workers decide to pattern themselves after a member of the Legion of Super-Heroes's Fatal Five, even if footage of Superman fighting with them is replayed on television. Hopefully the full storyline is better.

from The Adventures of Superman vol. 1 #600
(art by J. G. Jones)

In addition to all of this, Adventures #600 has some backmatter in honor of its milestone status. (Note that the title being celebrated here was actually just called Superman from issues #1 to #423; in January 1987, it was retitled The Adventures of Superman so that DC could have a new Superman #1 but not lose the numbering of the original title.) There's a page of three "comic strips," the conceit being we're reading a single daily installment of three different newspaper comics: The Daily Planet, Super-Commander Kent—In the 7th Millennium!, and The Most Bizarro Case of All. They're cute glimpses of what could be-- I want to read an actual story where Harley Quinn goes undercover at the Planet and Jimmy Olsen falls for her-- and worth it for the art. Work by Dave Gibbons and Tim Sale is always appreciated!

Finally, #600 contains a set of pin-ups covering key moments in Superman's life. Pin-ups often feel like padding to me, and this is a below-average set, alas, but there are still some nice ones. J. H. Williams & Mick Gray's and John Cassaday's were the two best.

Issues #598 and 600, by the way, mark the last work of regular penciller Mike Wieringo on the title. I don't think I ever said much about his work in this reviews, but I liked it. He was at his best when Casey was writing Superman as heroic and/or uplifting. On the other hand, I don't think he was always suited for Casey's take on the darker sides of the character. Just within this stretch, for example, I thought he was a good fit for #600, but I would have put him on #599 as well, instead of Derec Aucoin, whose sensibilities seem better suited elsewhere.

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