Superman Through the Ages! Forum

The purpose of this thread is to discuss the tales contain within Showcase Superman.

I am on page 247, BTW so I haven't read everything yet, I have a long way to go, since this book is 560 pages of pure Superman fun!

Since I finished all the tales that was printed in the Man of Tomorrow Archive, the 1st new tale for me was "The Man no Prison Could Hold!" was was written by the great Bill Finger (more famous for the guy who really created Batman but rarely gets any credit, and wrote many of Batman greatest tales) but he was also a great Superman writer as well. The artwork was done by the great Wayne Boring, one of the true giants among Superman artists with inks by Stan Kaye who uses great brush work.
This is really a detective story as you also get to see Superman in his super sleuth role. Bill Finger is in top form here as he gets unbelievability creative with the used of Superman's powers. Indeed this story more than any other really shows how cool his powers and how smart Superman really is, compared to the current comics of the last few years where all Superman does is punch and shoot heat rays and that's it. Really, when I finish this story, I realize that very few writers could come up with so many creative uses for Superman powers back then and even more so now.

Curse you, Super Monkey! I just got as an early Christmas present the GREEN LANTERN Showcase instead of the Superman one, and with a description like that, I have to shell out some bucks and get it myself NOW.  :D

"Bill Finger, eh? SOLD!"

Many writers and artists tend to be classified into "Superman people" and "Batman people," with Curt Swan in the former category and Jim Aparo in the latter, for instance. This ignores how much interchange of talent existed between those two superheroes, and how versatile some of the writing talent that writes both can be.

Finger does a great job on that story, and I believe he has some more contributions here as well.

I'm a bit further in, myself...I think the last tale I read was "The Oldest Man in Metropolis."  I have to say on the whole the second half of the book...what will be in the MOT Archive Vol 2 and beyond...has been more fun than the stuff from MOT Vol.1.  You can sense the creative staff really starting to find their footing as things go along.

I'm constantly surprised by how much I enjoy Wayne Boring's work from this period, considering how much I hated his stuff growing up.  Maybe you have to be older to "get" him.  I think it helps that he's inked by Stan Kaye, who gives a smooth polish to things compared to some of Boring's stuff from 1966 and on, which I still think is gruesome.

Julian, you won't regret going with the Green Lantern Showcase.  I ordered it along with Superman based entirely on that cheap introductory price and I honestly did not have high hopes for it.  Much as I loved Hal Jordan from my Bronze Age childhood, the few SA tales I've gotten in various Super-Spectaculars, digests and so on always seemed inane and dull to me.  But I figured at a mere 10 bucks (actually 7 at Tales of Wonder) , how wrong could I go with 500 pages of Gil Kane art?

I have to say, though, the GL book has been a revelation to me.  Not only is the art beautiful, but the stories are fantastic.  Sure there are some clunkers, but overall I'm just in awe that one guy -- John Broome -- could turn out so many great, imaginative concepts and build such a complex, fascinating mythology of the Corps, the Guardians, Sinestro, etc.  Compared to the Silver Age Superman mythos, which evolved in fits and starts with all kinds of wrong turns and detours, Green Lantern's universe comes together in a neat, tidy and logical fashion, each new layer building on the last and never -- so far -- contradicting itself.  This is "continuity" done right.  

I also have to agree with a poster on another board who said black and white is, ultimately, the way to go with reprints.  The linework on these old comics is often wonderful, and gaudy colors just obscure that fact.  And the coloring and printing process was so primitive and slapdash in those days, everything that happened to the art after the inking just hurt it, anyway.

The week before GL and Supes arrived, I got Essential Fantastic Four Vol 4...for a total of 1500 pages of classic comics!  I'm knee-deep in classic comics and, as Max Smart would say, loving it!

Really looking forward to Superman Family.  And, believe it or not, House of Mystery!

Perhaps it's just the current political times, but I really enjoyed Otto Binder's "Superman in the White House".

Bruce Campbell is the spitting image for (The Menace Of) Metallo.

Another of Finger's stories, "The Eye Of Metropolis", just plain rocks!

I asked for Showcase Superman and Green Lantern for Christmas, to put in my classroom...or, after I read it. I don't trust my 6th graders with my archive editions, but Showcase is cheap enough for kids to read...which is the point in the first place.

It troubles me that comics arent' available to kids anymore. If it weren't for stuff that WB puts out, like the Krypto cartoon, would kids even know who Superman was anymore?

Well, not in EVERY case. For some of Kirby's stuff, black and white doesn't quite work; color is Kirby's friend, and their removal takes something away from Kirby's art.

Then again, you are right, some artists are just better in black and white.  I've never seen Alex Toth in black and white, but I'd bet a year's salary he's another that would look astonishing that way. Ditto for Max Raboy; he's got this sort of George Perez thing going on where he inks in a combination of a million little lines, alternating with lots of blacks. I'm very, very thankful to this website for "The MAN who STOLE the SUN!" because it shows Curt Swan in black and white. Curt Swan is another artist that really benefits from B&W, because you start to notice how clean and correct his lines and inks are.

Oh yeah, John Broome is absolutely amazing. He created one of my personal favorite heroes: Captain Comet, and he wrote tons of the best Flash stories. He and Gardner F. Fox are two of the greatest geniuses of them all.

Wonderful.

For YEARS, I have heard lies about the pre-Crisis DC. Stupid, uninteresting, continuityless stories.
Now the truth is here, in those excellent volumes. Thank you, DC.

Do you remember when comics were for all ages and they sold a lot? No? Well, discover that age with the SHOWCASE tpbs!

Julian - get your B&W Toth on at:
http://tothfans.dynu.com/

I like Kirby in black and white too.  And not just because I have a Fantastic Four page by him.  Kirby's pencils were tight and consequently his use of blacks and other inking effects (all those patented Kirby elements like his depictions of raw, sizzling power, radiation, lines of force, etc) are very effective without color.  Ditto the Simon and Kirby stuff --very moody art with lots of shadow and thick lines.  Plus Kirby's Sky Masters newspaper strip was done for B&W and looks great!

And Sky Masters was inked by Wally Wood - no less! You really can spot in the machinery - oh so EC! :twisted:

I agree completely, Nightwing. I was surprised by how ahead of their time the GL stories were. And like you said, they all fit together perfectly. The Green Lantern mythos has such a rich history and there's just so much one can do with the concept.