Superman & Batman: Generations II: "2019: Father to the Man"

[superboyprime]

"When I was a kid I loved the extended families of the lead characters. I was there for the introduction of Supergirl, Batmite, Bat-Hound, Batwoman, Batgirl (the first one) and a passel of others. The notion that these additional characters de-uniqued the originals did not occur to me. The curious -- and sad -- element, is watching DC trying to have it both ways, with grim-n-gritty versions of these once kid-friendly characters. I totally loved Krypto. That's why I did the best I could to break your hearts in GENERATIONS!" - John Byrne









The Ultra-Humanite kidnaps young Bruce Wayne:

Comments

[stubbleupdate]

I am delighted to read two contradictory statements on de-uniquing from Byrne.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

I just hope that means he can simply see both sides of an issue.

[captainbellman]

The design overall is nice, but it seems rather silly that Batman's cloak covers the top half of his chest emblem. Makes the negative white space look like two olympic swimmers.

[thosefew]

I want more pictures of superhero secondary characters shooting supervillains. All I know of his Pa Kent here, and Alfred killing Joker.

[scorntx]

Batman: Earth One has Alfred shooting the Penguin with a shotgun.

And Ultimate Spider-Man had Aunt May shooting Electro.

[wizardru]

I realize this is an 'imaginary story' set in it's own continuity that draws heavily from the Golden and Silver ages, but....YE GODS this is some serious fanboy wankery going on right here. I get what he's going for here, but this feels weird...it's like he's retconning his own Elseworld limited series. That seems really odd to me. I mean, this whole series feels like an elaborate fanfic (which is fine, btw), but this is just next-level stuff.

[icon_uk]

Indeed, the Flying Fox bit is a nod to an old Silver Age story of Earth One, which had a teenage Bruce Wayne visiting Smallville (With his parents, who should by rights have been dead for years) and enrolling in Smallville High, he meets up with Clark Kent, and and during the course of the story adopts the Flying Fox identity to assist Superboy, with IIRC Lana Lang's help.

[starwolf_oakley]

That was referenced in a "What of the Silver Age never ended" story in ADVENTURES OF SUPERMAN #560

[scorntx]

This whole story is so ludicrously Silver Age... all it's missing is someone's head being messed with for no real reason.

And the whole thing with the Waynes... hrrn...
Not a big fan of the idea.
Shouldn't "over-do" an origin.

The Waynes stroll down an alley and get shot. Bruce is sufficiently traumatised to become Batman.
Them learning about their death ahead of time and still going to their deaths... not saying it cheapens it, but... feels a little like it's overdoing it, kind of.
(Gilding the lily, I guess?)

[pyrrhocorax]

Deliberately orphaning your child and leaving him with PTSD and many, many other issues in order to have him become a guardian of your city is very messed up. Why not...stay alive and train him to be Batman anyway?

[bradygirl_12]

^

This.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

Would he be as effective a Batman then? Stuff like that is why they probably figured best to play it safe, I guess knowing things ultimately turned out for the best for him and the world.

[philippos42]

Well, this makes no sense at all.

But then, i'm of the school of thought that Thomas and Martha Wayne's charitable careers were worth more to the city than decades-later Batman would be.