SUPPORTERS ONLY: Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #3 (1994)

Superman: The Man of Steel Annual #3 (1994)

It's been a while since we've had a Patreon-only post, so here are four in a row! The theme for DC's 1994 annuals was "Elseworlds," and since our blog is strictly devoted to in-continuity tales, that means we won't be covering them there... but I still wanna talk about them, dammit, so here we are! First up is this new take on a classic Byrne/Mignola tale, by Priest/M.D. Bright...

A common theme in many Superman Elseworlds is that "Superman" only shows up after the middle of the story, and when he does, he's often not particularly Superman-ish. This annual makes up for that by making the first part of the story about an old, crazy, clearly The Dark Knight Returns-inspired Batman who apparently acts as a one-man resistance force against the Kryptonians who have conquered the Earth. He's arguably cooler than DKR Batman in one aspect: this one's got a jetpack.