Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?: Part 1 of 2

[lordultimus]

Comments

[alicemacher]

So many tearjerker moments in this part and the next... "Everything, him go dark... Hello, Superman. Hello." "You... you grew up beautiful, Kara." "Right now, Supergirl... Supergirl is in the past." It's like comics Oscar bait... and it works, damn it. *sniffle*

It was an unusual choice to have Luthor completely robbed of his agency for pretty much the entire story. I imagine Moore felt that Lex's personality normally looms so large that he could easily drown out the other characters.

[mazway_75]

The "you know what radio waves look like" scene is so damn awesome.

[lego_joker]

I think I'll be the odd man out here and say... I don't really like this story that much. Individual parts ("Hello, Superman. Hello.") work like gangbusters, but the overall product tries to cram so damn much into so limited a space I can barely give a damn about most of it. It's like, "Hi Pete! Bye Pete! Hi Jimmy! Bye Jimmy! Hi Lana! Bye Lana!"

But maybe I'm just letting my general apathy toward the Legion of Super-Heroes cloud my judgment (it's reasonable clouding though, dammit! How am I supposed to find suspense in any Superman story when the Legion confirms that life and legend alike still flourish in the 31st century?).

I remain impressed by Moore's choice of Big Bad, though. IIRC, up until that point no other writer had played him even remotely seriously as an antagonist.

[laughing_tree]

Incidentally, Grant Morrison hates that final page because, in his opinion, "Superman doesn't cry."

[bradygirl_12]

This whole thing's a heartbreaker. Poor Clark! And time travel sure can hurt. :(

[tcampbell1000]

Five thoughts I haven't seen yet on this story.

As far as I'm aware, this was the only time Curt Swan worked with George Perez, which is kind of a shame because they complement each other wonderfully. Traditionalists probably preferred getting Murphy Anderson for the second part, but as a Perez fan who also grew up with the Swan stories, I find this art close to my platonic ideal.

One part of the story that gets relatively little attention is Perry and Alice's marital strife, which had been a long-running plot in the Cary Bates stories that Bates, to be honest, either didn't seem to know how to resolve or didn't want to resolve. Moore's treatment of it is a bit cursory, granted, but it works pretty well within the larger tableau.

Although it's sometimes presented as doing so, the story doesn't get anywhere close to featuring Superman's ENTIRE rogues' gallery, even if you leave out the enemies who appeared only once. Terra-Man and the Parasite get written out before the story begins and Mongul, a memorable figure in another Moore Super-story, doesn't even rate a mention. (Zod and his fellow Phantom Zone villains get a one-panel cameo.) Even Moore recognized there was only so much that 46 pages could hold.

Todd Klein, probably the most widely recognized letterer in the business today, lettered both parts of this story. He is best known for his work on Sandman, and here and there (especially on the first page) you can see the flair he'd bring to that work when the occasion called for it. His relationship with Moore's work would continue with Supreme and the entire America's Best Comics line, as well as a special "Alphabets of Desire" print.

"Whatever Happened To" stories were a semi-regular feature in DC Comics Presents for a couple of years. They featured relatively obscure characters by the standards of the day. The title still carries a lot of meaning without this reference, but contemporary Superman fans would appreciate the twist on this old format, which along with the rest of the front page implies a future where even Superman's memory is starting to fade a bit.

[bradygirl_12]

I like Lois' observation of Superman flying so fast, his red-and-blue merges into violet.