Metropolis Mailbag: Death of Superman anniversary special?
nblumengarten asked:
Have you seen the Death of Superman creative teams are coming back for the 30th Anniversary with each team getting their own story?
Just saw this and obviously I think this is far beyond TOTALLY RAD™. New stories by the original teams (AND set in the original continuity, based on Pa Kent being bald and stodgy in the preview art, LIKE HE’S SUPPOSED TO BE) is the right way to celebrate this. For anyone not aware, the new stories are:
“The Life of Superman” by Jurgens/Breeding which I think is their first published work together in decades?! I saw they did a sketch together recently and THAT was exciting enough for me, so this is huge. It’s about young Jon finding out about that one time his dad died, which understandably freaks him out a bit.
“Standing Guard” by Stern/Guice. Again, I think these two haven’t worked together since the ‘90s! In fact, I was pretty sure Stern was retired, so it’s cool to see him back and even cooler with Guice (whose style has evolved a lot since his Action days). It’s about the Superman/Doomsday fight told from the Guardians’ perspective, featuring the return of the Guardian Bike!
“Time” by Simonson/Bogdanove, who have continued teaming up here and there over the years (including the 2011 DC Retroactive issue we covered recently) but there’s no such thing as too much Simonson/Bogdanove. This one’s about the Doomsday fight from the perspective of mild-mannered steel worker John Henry Irons, closing an important gap in the continuity.
“Above and Beyond” by Ordway/Grummett/Hazlewood, which promises to be the most emotionally devastating story since it’s about Ma and Pa watching their son getting pummeled to death on live TV while going through his old photo albums. Grummett recently returned to Superman on a Superman & Lois tie-in comic, but it’s AWESOME to see Ordway and Hazlewood back. The only downside is that they probably won’t include Bibbo in this story since it’s set in Smallville, but who knows.
Even colorist Glenn Whitmore is back! The only ones missing are inkers Denis Rodier and Dennis Janke (what does DC have against Den(n)ises?) and editor Mike Carlin pulling the strings from behind the scenes, unless he’s so behind the scenes that the press release didn’t mention him. Obviously, we are duty bound to talk more about this comic when it comes out and gripe about any tiny continuity mistakes we might find. Stoked!